Wild Thing

After listening to the story Wild Thing by Maurice Sendak we discussed the books story elements (setting, characters, problem, solution) and shared our connections.  Once everyone had a turn to share then it was time for a little creativity...design a 'Wild Thing'!

Recently in mathematics and science we have been learning about non-standard units of measurement as well as properties of matter.  So I decided to let students create their own 'Wild Thing' however it had to meet certain criteria....body parts had to be specific lengths and it had to have different properties (3 different colors, shapes and textures).  The students had so much fun creating their 'Wild Thing' but they aren't finished...tomorrow they get to write about it.  What a great learning time!

Counting Smarties

Practicing place value and graphing is always more fun when using Smarties!!
For this activity students made groups of tens and ones, took a picture and recorded it in the app Skitch.  Next, they were to create either a picture or bar graph to represent the colors of their Smarties. Once completed they had to write at least 2 things they learned from their graph.

Fire Safety Program

Tuesday morning the Grapevine Firefighters came to present their fire safety program to our student.
Be sure to ask your child about E.D.I.T.H. (Exit Drill In The Home).

Red Ribbon Week

We pledge to be drug free! 
During the week of October 28-November 1 our school will participate in Red Ribbon Week.  This week is designed to remind students the danger of drug usage.  Listed below are our dress-up days.
Monday-wear your Dove Shirt
Tuesday-wear sunglasses
Wednesday-wear mismatched shoes
Thursday-wear Texas Rangers shirt or any team jersey
Friday-wear red clothing and the Red Ribbon bracelet

Talk a Mile a Minute

The students enjoyed the formative assessment, 'Talk a Mile a Minute' for this science activity.  We have been learning about properties so I had the students use this assessment to show their understanding.  To begin I partnered students and had them face one another.  Then I projected a picture of an item on the white board.  The partner looking at the item would describe the object naming only it's properties while their partner facing the other direction would try to name it.

Guest Reader

On Thursday we had a guest reader!  Cody, a football player from Grapevine High School came to read,  'The Hallo-Weiner' by Dav Pilkey to our class.  Afterwards we had the opportunity to ask him questions about school and football.

Our First Skype Call of the Year!

On Thursday, we had our first Skype of the year with a first grade class in Ohio.  We are both reading, Marty McGuire for Global Read Aloud 2013.  After a brief introduction the students shared questions for each other to answer about the book.   We also spent a few minutes talking about each state and the differences

in weather temperature  (Ohio - 46 degress, Texas - 79 degress).  Hopefully we will be able to connect again with our new friends in Ohio!

Maps

This week in Social Studies we are learning about maps and globes.  To introduce this unit I decided to have the students take a Gallery Walk.  I individually glued a picture of one of the four maps onto a large sheet of butcher paper.  Students were asked to walk around and record what they noticed about each map.  Once completed, we shared them with the class.  Next, we listened to the story, 'As the Crow Flies' and watched Brain Pop Jr.  We learned about the Compass Rose, scale and key/legend.
Each student created a map of our classroom, which needed to include a Compass Rose and key.  They also posted on Kidblog explaining the similarities and differences between a map and a globe.

Punctuation Sort

Students had a great time today creating a Punctuation Sort for a class buddy!  First, everyone needed to write 8 different sentences, (4 telling and 4 asking).  Then they were partnered up and asked to sort each others sentences.

Creating, reading, sorting and recording!!   Oh, I almost forgot...ask your child to sing you our Punctuation song!

How Big is a Foot?

I read the book, How Big is a Foot? by Rolf Myller.  In this story the Queen's birthday is only days away, and the King is concerned that the royal carpenters will not be able to build her a bed because they do not know how to measure.  Following the story we discussed non-standard units and used a footprint to measure various objects with a partner.

Combinations to Ten

Students were given 2 sets of different colored multi-link cubes.  Their task was to make as many combinations to ten as they could.  After each combination they took a picture then download them all to Skitch.  With this app they used the writing tools to identify each set and write the math sentence for that combination. 

Tellagami

Today after D.E.A.R. time I had the students choose one of their books to retell.  They always enjoy using the app Tellagami to practice this very important comprehension skill.

Write About This app

Last week we planted grass seed in cups using different soil (sand/playground/potting).  Using the app 'Write About This' students took a picture, wrote and voice recorded themselves explaining the changes they noticed.  I loved the connections they made with our previous Natural Resource lessons which in return lead them to write wonder questions.  These questions were added to our class I  wonder chart!!

Text to Self Connection

We are loving the book Marty McGuire!  After reading chapter 5, we made 'text to self' connections  about a time when our mom or dad told us to do something that we didn't want to do!  After sharing a connection with their 'teaching partner' everyone got right to work.

Bat Books continued...

Students continue to work on their bat books.  Most of them chose to write a non fiction book using the app 'Scribble My Story'.  This app also gave them the opportunity to record themselves reading their book.  They LOVED that option!!    Next week... spider books. 

Happy Columbus Day!

I hope you and your family enjoy your long weekend.  I will see you on Tuesday!

Natural Resources

After learning about Natural Resources, students were grouped together to create a poster to reflect their learning.  First each group had to decide together 'what' and 'how' they wanted to share their learning of rocks, water or soil on the poster.  Then off to work!!  I just loved watching them working so diligently.
When they were finished, each student completed a rubric evaluating their work as well as how well their group worked together.  Then at the end of the day posters were shared with the class. 

Math Game

Today the students played a new math game called, Dot Card Addition and Subtraction.  They had a great time practicing subitizing, adding and subtracting with their partner.

Bats

After reading numerous non-fiction books about bats the students created a Popplet of bat facts.  Then when they were finished they downloaded their Popplet onto Kidblog. 
Tomorrow they will begin writing their own non-fiction bat book.  But before we get started, each student
will need to decide if they want to write it using paper/pencil or the app 'Scribble My Story'. 

Todays Meet

Before I began reading Chapter 3 of Marty McGuire, the students predicted what Marty was going to do after her teacher, Mrs. Aloi chose her as the princess in the class play.  Each student posted their responses on Todays Meet.  The students loved using this program to backchannel and receive immediate feedback from classmates about their predictions. 

Global Read Aloud

I am so excited about the project we will be participating in, Global Read Aloud.  This world-wide project is meant to connect students through the sharing of one book that is read aloud over the course of 6 weeks.  The book selected for GRA 2013 is Marty McGuire.  During this project not only will I incorporate many of our reading standards, but our class will also have the opportunity to connect with other first grade classrooms--one from Wisconsin and the other from Oregon.  Prior to reading the first chapter we made predictions about the book, blogged and the class from Wisconsin commented on each students blog.  In return we read their predictions and commented back on their blogs. On Friday, I also had them post connections they had with the first two chapters.  As for next week we hope to Skype with the class from Oregon, create graphs as well as submit questions to the author, Kate Messner, as she plans to answer questions in videos that she'll post every Friday starting October 11th. 

O.R.E.O. Project 2013

This year our class participated in the O.R.E.O. Project 2013 (Our Really Exciting Online Project).  For this project classrooms around the world participated in this math based inquiry lesson.  I started the activity by asking the inquiry question: How many Oreos can be stacked before the tower tumbles?  Their predictions ranged from 5-61 cookies.  While students built their tower others counted as each cookie was placed AND made sure it wasn't moved/adjusted once it was placed on the tower.  Oh my goodness...such excitement!! The students predicted, counted, compared their original guess to actual results, tallied and graphed!  They had SO MUCH FUN!  But we weren't finished.  We needed to figure out our class average (16 cookies) and post our class results to the website. It looks like our average   was one cookie less than the global average of 17 cookies.

Observation Window

 

This observation window gives the students an opportunity to look at their world outside our classroom.  Once observations have been made, students are invited to write and draw about what they noticed.  Through these observations they are recording what they see, hear and wonder about in their world around them.

Soil Samples

Today the students were given 3 different soil samples.  By looking carefully at each sample they were to look for clues that would help them identify from which location the samples were taken, playground, backyard or planted flower pot.  After some discovery time, the students were grouped to discuss what clues helped them to make their decision.
Next week we will conduct a soil soak test as well as plant.

Number Sense

Today the students played a game called Three Way Apple Math.  The object of this game was for the students to use problem solving strategies to match apples with tally marks, ten frames and addition sentences to the correct number bushel.  Math is always fun when you work in teams!

Going on a Rock Hunt

The students took pictures with their iPad of things in and around our school that are made of rock.  Once they had their collection of pictures they created a collage using the app 'PicCollage' then posted it to their blog.

Objects in the Sky

The students created a double bubble Thinking Map comparing objects they would see during the day and night. After creating a map each student took a picture of their double bubble and downloaded it to the app 'Doceri' as well as record their thinking about their learning.