Christmas Party

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  See you in January!

Thank you room moms for all your hard work.  We had a great time at the party!

Author's Visit

Douglas Florian came to visit today.  He is an author/illustrator from New York that has written more than 50 children's poetry books.  During his presentation he shared how he gets his ideas for writing, talked about the writing process and showed original artwork as well as a printer's proof.  In closing, Mr. Florian answered questions from the students. His writing includes:
                        *Insectiopedia
                        *Beast Feast
                        *UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems
                        *Poem Runs: Baseball Poems

    

Gingerbread Fun!

We started the day with a variety of traditional gingerbread activities...readers theater, graphing first bite of a cookie, and a science soaking experiment.  Then I decided to change things up a bit.  I divided the class into 4 groups.  Each group was given one book, either The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Bear or Gingerbread Friends and 1/4 of a large gingerbread house made of chart paper. Groups read, then completed a story web (character, setting, refrain and ending) on the paper. We shared the 4 webs,  rebuilt the gingerbread house and compared differences/similarities of each book.  We quickly noticed the main idea of each book was the same...the gingerbread needed to be caught.  So, students were asked to create a trap to catch their gingerbread, take a picture of it and blog!  Love it!  The students used cardboard, construction paper, string, ribbon, glue, tape, anything they could find!  Planning, creating, measuring, collaborating, adjusting...I just love watching creative minds at work!   

Gingerbread trap

Gingerbread trap

The Night Tree

Today I read The Night Tree by Eve Bunting.  This Christmas story is unlike many others.  In this story a family travels to Luke's Forest on Christmas Eve night in search of their perfect tree.  Once it's found, instead of cutting the tree down they decorate it, as they do each year, for all the animals in the forest. 
Because this story is so unique, I wanted the students to make predictions.  I read half the story and then asked them to predict/write how they thought the story would end. Once finished, I read the remainder of the story.

Students recorded their prediction on a 3 tiered tree (title, prediction, actual ending )

Guest Reader

I just love it when one of my students asks to read to the class.

Hour of Code

December 8th - 15th  is “Hour of Code” week.  This week is designed to create an interest in computer science for students K-12 as they learn coding (programming).  Hour of Code is supported by President Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. 











To promote coding I introduced 'Kodable'.  The objective is to put arrows in correct sequence so the 'fuzzy' will travel through the maze and eat the coins. Total engagement!  The students really enjoy this programming app and love to share their coding strategies.

Grinch Day!

The students were so excited when they arrived this morning... it's Grinch Day!  To start our busy day off I read the classic story, 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' by Dr. Suess followed by brainstorming adjectives to describe the Grinch.  Students used the app Educreations to explain how the character changed in the story and posted their thoughts to their blog.  Once posts were made it was time to make 'Grinch Kabobs'!  After making their Kabob students completed a brace map and wrote a 'how to'.   Oh, and of course they ate it!!  But wait, our day wasn't over. We also had a Grinchy math and word building activity,  mixed up some Grinch Dust to sprinkle on their lawn Christmas Eve and made a Grinch craft.

Our Class Tree

Busy decorating our class Christmas tree.

Book Fair

Students are busy shopping and writing out their wish list at the Scholastic Book Fair.

Christmas Programs

This week we had the opportunity to enjoy two programs.  Tuesday afternoon the GMS choirs and band performed and then Thursday morning we listened to our own DDD and choir!  Everyone had so much fun singing along with the music! 

Words Their Way

Each day we practice our 'WTW' sorts. 

Find and Fix

As part of our sight/spelling word practice, students created their own sentences and wrote them in the app Educreations.  Then they switched iPads with their teaching partner and became the 'teacher'.  Their job was to check for capitals, words not spelled correctly, punctuation etc.  Oh my goodness they did such a great job editing each others work.  I just love watching them teach/help each other with their learning!

Telling Time

We have been learning how to tell time to the hour and half hour this year.  Because we have had lots of practice using Judy Clocks, I decided to introduce a new Telling Time app.  This app reinforces as well as challenges them with this concept...and they like it too!!

Oh, no! Santa's Stuck!

After reading the book, Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Greene students partnered up to retell the story.  Next, they brainstormed different ways they would help Santa if he was stuck in their chimney and wrote out their plan.  They also created a 'Popplet' identifying things that get stuck and posted it on their blog. We sang a cute song, read the poem, Santa's Stuck in the Chimney and created a 'Santa's Stuck' craft! 

Needs and Wants

To see if the students really understand the concept of needs and wants I had them do an exit ticket for me.  I uploaded a wide variety of pictures and put them in my Dropbox account.  Their objective was to choose two pictures (1 need, 1 want)  from my Dropbox, upload them to their blog and create a post explaining if it was a need or want and why.  Be sure to read your child's blog to see what they had to say.

Incredible Melting Ice

For this activity, students were asked to predict how a variety of objects would be affected by heat.  To start off I divided the class into four groups and gave them a 'Jigsaw' paper with pictures of objects glued to the center.  Each group predicted and recorded what they thought would happen if heat was added to those objects.  After a few minutes we came back together as a class and shared our thinking.  Then we sang the Science Rock song, Changes.
Now it was time to explore!  Each group was given the challenge...Which group could melt their ice the fastest?  They were asked to brainstorm creative ways within their group and then a time keeper for each group was chosen.  Then the race was on!  Oh my goodness, what student engagement!!!
After about 4 minutes, we had a group winner.   Everyone came back together as a class to discuss the changes in matter that took place.  We also had a great discussion which involved additional notice/wonder questions. Now that everyone had a opportunity to participate in this great learning activity they have now become the experts on this subject, so...
Mrs. Walker, a first grade teacher in Houston sent an email asking my class for their help.   I projected her email on my whiteboard so they could all read it.  Once again they were up for another challenge and got right to work.  Without much guidance many of my students chose the app Educreations to show/explain their thinking to her students of how heat can change matter. They did an incredible job.  I am very proud of them and I had a GREAT formative assessment!

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

After having a week off for Thanksgiving, students had many connections to the story, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff.  This is a cute story of how taking a mouse to the movies leads to other things such as building a snowman, decorating the Christmas tree and listening to Christmas carols.  After hearing the story they shared their connections with partners and created a post on their blog.  Given the scale 0-5 they were ask to rate the story and explain why they gave it that score.  Results show our class enjoyed the story and they highly recommend it for others to read.

Special Visitor

We had a special visitor come and read to our class today!  Not only did she read to our class but she also brought the students a special treat!

Feathering Mrs. Lamb

Life on the Mayflower

We have been learning about life on the Mayflower and how difficult it was for the Pilgrims that first year.  To share their learning, each student wrote a book, designed a cover and downloaded each page to the app Doceri.  Then they recorded themselves as they read each page and uploaded the recorded book to their blog.  For one of our math activities students took a survey asking their peers if they would have wanted to travel on the Mayflower, recorded the responses using tallies, created a graph to match tally results and then wrote graphing questions for someone else in the class to answer.

Readers Theater

After reading and retelling the story, Turkey Trouble students were divided into groups and assigned character parts for the Readers Theater version of the story.  They were so excited and quickly got busy practicing their lines with their group.  After much practice each group performed for the class on Friday.  Everyone did a fantastic job working together. What a great way for each student to practice and perfect their fluency and speaking skills!  Can't wait until next month when we do another Readers Theater.  This time they will choose between The Gingerbread Man or
Polar Express.

What's My Number?

Reading Fluency

During D.E.A.R. time students picked one 'good fit' book from their book box to read into their iPad.  Afterwards they listened to their reading and completed a self-evaluation form.  On this form they rated their reading fluency and set one goal for themselves. Be sure to ask your child about their goal.

'How To' writing

In class we have been discussing 'How To' writing and the importance of specific word choice.  So to practice this skill students had opportunities to give step by step directions orally but now it was time to put in in writing!  For this activity I had available 3 sequential pictures showing how to draw a simple turkey.   As each student drew their turkey they wrote their directions.  Once completed students were partnered up to draw another turkey this time following ONLY their partners written directions. 

What does Thanksgiving mean to you?

Leaders in our Community

Whew!  We have been so busy learning about leaders in our community.  After reading a collection of books, we created a list of leaders in our school.  Each student decided who they would like to interview, formulated questions to ask and interviewed that leader using camera/record on the iPad.  Then each student took the information they learned and created a card using the app, 'Trading Card'.  Students also created a tree map reflecting leaders at home, school and in our community, wrote a thank you note to the leader they interviewed and also created a post on Kidblog about leaders! Oh, and the interviewee got a copy of their personal trading card!

Story Problems

Today Mrs. Walker's first grade class in Houston, Texas sent us story problems to answer.  The students read, solved and answered their problem using Kidblog.  In return we then sent Mrs. Walker's class problems to answer.  Working on story problems is extra fun when given the chance to create your own problem/questions for someone else to solve!

Veterans Day Celebration

Today we honored Veterans at our school wide assembly.  Thank you to all who served our country.

Math Slide

We are loving the app, Math Slide. Students are partnered up as they practice fact fluency as well as subitizing!  Let me tell you there is total engagement when Math Slide is being used!

Reading Response

Today I read, The Little Scarecrow Boy written by Margaret Wise Brown.  This story is about a little scarecrow boy who longs to accompany his father, old man scarecrow, to the cornfields to frighten the crows.  Instead he must remain home to grow and to practice the terrible facial expressions his father taught him. Students enjoyed this story because they easily made connections about times when they wanted to do something but because of their age and/or size, they just weren't ready.
For their reading response activity students recorded the problem and solution in the story.

Brace Map

A Brace Map is a Thinking Map that helps students understand the relationship between a whole and its parts.   This type of map can be challenging for the students to create independently,  so I decided their first attempt should be something they are familiar with...scarecrows.  I was so proud at how well they turned out. This activity helped them understand the concept of Brace Maps and how it can be used to better organize their thinking when writing.