Holidays

We have been getting into the holiday spirit in Room 37!

Starting December 3rd (because the 1st was a weekend), the kids have been counting down the days until Christmas! Every day they glue a cotton ball onto Santa’s beard. His beard is already halfway filled!



We also turned ourselves into elves! The children completed Elf Applications and then created their costumes.



Today we read the book Santa’s Stuck. The children then showed Santa stuck in their chimney and wrote how they would get him out!
Next Friday is our party! I sent home a note asking for a $1 or $2 donation so I can purchase some goodies! (It’s easier for me to get a variety of things than end up with all the same things!) If can send in your donation by Wednesday, that would be great.
I also sent a note home asking for donations of clean, glass jars (that have a matching lid). I have a surprise for the kids and would love some help getting these jars! Send them in if you have them :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy this video from our class:

http://youtu.be/u0Ex5a83_Wk

Update!

Yikes! I haven’t updated in a while! Since my last post, we have had a lot of things happen! We had two students that moved and we had four new students join us! We welcomed Jayla, DJ, Daeton, and Joshua! We are so excited for them to be in our classroom!

[caption id="attachment_1280" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Joshua[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1279" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Daeton[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1278" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Jayla[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1277" align="aligncenter" width="640"] DJ[/caption]

This year we also started a new calendar that had a two week fall break. The kids came back after break and never missed a beat. I think they really benefited from having a break and they are working hard than ever!

Tomorrow is our first Family Night for this year. Every year we have a few family nights where all first graders are invited to bring their families back to school for some fun! This also gives you a chance to meet your child’s friends and their families. We hope to see you here in the cafeteria from 6-7pm. We also are giving away some prizes!

Finally, I have some exciting news! Today the class worked on building a puzzle that spelled out the news. See below!

Apple Day

Last week was a review week for reading, so we focused on apples! We learned all about the life cycle of an apple and also an apple tree. We made tissue paper trees to show the changes the apple trr goes through during each season. I forgot to take a picture of the students' trees but this is what they look like.

We also learned about the parts of an apple and even painted a picture of one!

Then on Friday the students brought in their own apple to eat! We had a variety of apples to show off!

[caption id="attachment_1260" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Red and Yellow Apples"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1261" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="One Red and Green Apple"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1262" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Red Apples"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1259" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Yellow Apples"][/caption]

The kids loved their apples!

[caption id="attachment_1266" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Juicy!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1265" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Yummy!"][/caption]

Patriot Day

This past Tuesday was Patriot Day, in rememberance of September 11th. As a class we read the book, The Man who Walked Between Two Towers. This is a really good book because it gives children some background knowledge about the Twin Towers and NYC. This is really important because as you know, your child was born after this terrible tragedy. We discussed in very simple terms why we remember this day and the servicemen and women that we give our respect to. We also made an American flag to wear during silent dismissal.

One sweet spot for Patriot Day was during recess when we got to the playground to find this little cutie:

This little kitten wanted to play with the first graders so badly! He ran towards the playground several times before I finally decided to catch him and take him to Mr. Coapstick. In case you don't know, I have two cats myself and love kittens! So I just couldn't leave it out in the wild! We kept it in our classroom (in a contained crate) until the end of the day. Mrs. States took him home and is currently looking for a home for him. Our class named him Boo because he is black and reminded them of Halloween!

Stations

This week we finially started doing reading stations!! The kids have been waiting so patiently to begin this time. It is always a favorite time of day every year because the kids get to work in small groups doing many different games or activities. A few of the stations we do are computer:

and vowel matching:

We also do many other stations like listening center, reading corner, magnetic words, spelling, and several others. I know they'll be just as excited when we start getting to add in math stations! Ask your child which stations they did today!

Student Storytelling

This week in reading we are working on our comprehension by sequencing stories that we read. Today we read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. The old lady swallowed a fly first and then she swallowed many other animals! How absurd! We used some picture clues and created our own mini versions of this story. Check out two of them below:

 

http://youtu.be/2Qcmj9eiikc

http://youtu.be/C4yLJomQbSg

 

Book Club

Today I sent home a flyer for the Scholastic Book Club! Every month I will send a flyer home like this. You can browse the flyer or online for books for your child at home. You can order online by clicking the Scholastic Book Club picture on the right hand side (using the class code GLNZD). You can also order using the flyer I sent home and turn it in with cash, check, or money order. Scholastic offers great books as well as freebies for our class! Let me know if you have any questions!

First Day!

Well the first day has come and gone...and boy am I tired! Here is a quick rundown of what we did today (because I'm sure it might be too much to remember!):

First the students came in and found their desks. They had a few back to school pages to work on as their classmates came in. Then we went through the supplies! From the minute they walked in, they were ready to get them out! If you are in need of a supply list, go to the parent info tab above and click on supply list. I hope everyone can have their supplies in by Wednesday.

After the giant task of supplies, we practiced hallway and stairway procedures. Now that your child is on the lower level at CGE, they will be using the stairs a lot! We don't want any injuries, so we practiced safety! We also checked out the cafeteria to find our table.

When we came back from our quick tour, we read First Day Jitters. We talked about the different feelings that children and teachers might have on the first day and made a class chart. Then each student created a picture of their face showing their feelings on the first day. I forgot to take a picture of the chart we made - I'll try to add it later. Most of the children were happy and excited to begin first grade!

I then took a picture of each student because we use pictures for quite a few things and they always look so nice on the first day :) Then it was time for lunch! Boy were they hungry - even at 10:50! Recess came next and it was a hot one!

Next we got to meet Owen, the class tortoise. Owen was pretty outgoing and really seemed to like Vincent. He crawled towards him three times in a row!

We then went to specials class. There are only four special classes but we have five first grades, which means I divide up my class into four groups and they go with another class. I will be sending home the schedule Monday so you know where your child goes everyday.

We finished the day by making a short book about first grade! We also took a class picture. Look at all those smiling faces!

Have a great weekend and get lots of sleep for our busy week next week!

Preparing for August!

Well the end of summer is quickly approaching! Teachers head back to school on August 1st and students will begin another year on Friday, August 3rd. I am really excited to meet my new group and hope that you are ready for a fun year!

I have visited the classroom a couple times this week to get it straightened back out. I would take more pictures but it isn't clean enough for the world to see :) Here are a few sneak peeks:

I probably need one more day and I will have it ready for my new students! Tomorrow though, I am off to Chicago for a conference with a few of the other first grade teachers. Hope I learn some good stuff for this year! See you soon!

 

Kite Day

Last week we read the story The Kite: Days with Frog and Toad. To celebrate the last day before spring break (and to have a little fun), first grade had Kite Day at the end of Friday. Thursday night was full of rain and storms so I was afraid it might not happen. Friday however, was great weather! Many kids brought kites and I brought a few as well. We went outside and after I showed them quickly how to get their kite up and away, they were off! The wind wasn't too great; it kept coming in short spurts. Several kids got a few good runs in though! The first grade teachers quickly realized that there were too many of us out at once but it wasn't too bad. They all seemed to have lots of fun!

 

http://youtu.be/EraqAv-e0zs

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm a little late but better late than never :)

Last Tuesday was Valentine's Day and boy was it fun! One of the quotes from the end of the day went something like this: "This was the best party I've ever had!"

We started the day by making special Valentine's for our 6th grade reading buddies in Mr. Clouse's class. They were several steps involved and the kids listen great! Aren't these cute?!

We also decorated our bags to hold Valentine's from our friends. The kids also made a very special Valentine for their parents. I forgot to take pictures the rest of the day but here is apicture of what they look (somewhat) like:

We finished the day with our party! The class had fun cupcakes and fruit punch. They also passed their Valentine's out. We also danced a little to some Kidz Bop while reading the Valentine's cards. It was a really fun day!

100's Day!

Today was the 100th day of school! To celebrate, we did several fun activities! First the children brought in a collection of 100 items from home. Check out the video to see what they brought:

 

http://youtu.be/4-VosKKWHHQ

Then we created a list of 100 words!

We then made a poster made out of our hands! 100 of them!

Finally, we all made our own ladybugs with 100 dots!

We had a really fun and exciting day! We're now over halfway to second grade!

 

Water Habitats

Last week and this week we will be learning about water habitats and the plants and animals that live in them. Last week we learned about different wetland habitats like bogs, swamps, and marshes. This week we will be looking closer at ocean and aquarium habitats. Before we started, I asked the children to think of one animal that ilves in a water habitat. They had to label the animal, draw the animal, and write one sentence about which habitat they thought it lived in. Here are a couple examples: