Kevin Henkes Author Study

Over the past few weeks, our Reader's and Writer's Workshops have been immersed in the works of Kevin Henkes. Characters such as Chrysanthemum who is named after a flower gets made fun of at school and Lilly who is asked several times by the teacher to put her items away during class, and Owen who loves his blanket so much but is getting ready to go to school and cannot take it with him - are all characters that the children are making meaningful text-to-self and text-to-text connections. Finding so much in common with these characters make them real and lovable to the students.

We have been working on story elements (the characters, setting, problem, order of events, etc.) using graphic organizers. They have also been comparing and contrasting books and characters using Venn Diagrams. By learning to use these organizers in Reader's Workshop, it helps to develop their stories in a Response to Literature in Writer's Workshop. A class developed Response to Literature rubric was created in order for students to gauge how their writing compares to a standard response. These responses include a great beginning that makes sure to have the author's name and in the first few lines of the response. They learn how to start with a question or statement. The response also has a short retelling or summary of the story with a connection and then a closing which can give a personal feeling from the book.

We can't wait to share these writing responses in future posts and we know your response will probably be like that of Mr. Slinger's in Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse when all he could say was --"Wow"!

Computer Lab Time

Students had the opportunity to go to the Tech Lab with Mrs. Holtsman and get some practice on Apple Laptops. Mrs. Holtsman, our Technology Specialist, showed the students some specifics of the keyboard, such as using shift key, the colon and the backslashes. These are very important beginning lessons in learning how to log on specific sites. They had a lot of fun logging onto to a sight called http://www.buildyourwildself.com/.
We can not wait to go back and learn more about different learning sites.

Listening and watching how Mrs. Holtsman is logging onto the laptop.

Echoes Across the Day

We are very excited about our bulletin board this month. It features our Science space unit and also reflects on how we incorporated that theme throughout the day's lessons to make them more meaningful. It features Reader's and Writer's Workshops, Science and Math. In Reader's Workshop, students were learning about nonfiction conventions such as labeling, closeups, comparisons and cutaways. They made a book that sampled each of these major conventions. The piece chosen came from a book which compares Earth and Venus because they are just about the same size. In Writer's Workshop, another child chose to write a report on the stars and planets. In Math, we used star and planet word problems, and in Science, students created their own constellations and named them. These "Echoes Throughout the Day" unify the teaching and learning for the students. It is a wonderful way to bring cohesiveness to a unit and theme. Also, it worked out superbly with our "Sleepover Under the Stars" event!

100th Day of School for First Grade

On Thursday, we marked another milestone in First Grade - the 100th day of school! It is a very exciting day because we have been counting each day since the first day of school just waiting for the momentous 100th day event. Each day has been noted by affixing a dot sticker in a tens-grid. Students are taught place value using these tens-grids and also taught the base ten number system utilizing counting the days and marking the calendar. We enjoyed many activities that centered on the number of the day 100. In Reader's Workshop, every child read three or four books to equal 100. Afterward, they signed their names to the chart (above). In Writer's Workshop, each child was given "a hundred dollar bill" and asked to write about what they would buy with it which included cars, houses, and lots of animals!. They filled in numbers on a hundreds chart and stretched for 100 seconds. During lunch, we hid 100 Hershey Kisses around the classroom and when the children returned, they had a great time finding them and placing them on the big 100's chart (below). The day was capped off with "A Hundred Day Snack" whereby parents sent in in items such as Skittles, M&Ms, pretzel sticks, mini Oreos, crackers, red hots, and gummy bears. The children were given a big tens-grid and placed ten items in each section to create their own 100 day snack. Another great day...the hundredth day...in first grade!

"Make Way for Ducklings" Mystery Reader

Our very own Coach Hall was our mystery reader this week. Coach Hall reminisced about hearing her Grandmother T read her a favorite book called "May Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey. Coming from the Boston area, this book mentions familiar locales, from Beacon Hill to Louisburg Square, and over the Charles River--often from a duck's-eye view. This story is about Mr. and Mrs. Mallard Duck who need to find a safe place to raise their eight ducklings. It follows the adventures of the ducklings with a happy ending on a little island pond where they follow Swan boats for peanuts. Afterward, Coach Hall had the children acting out different animals, including ducks, lions, and snakes. Then she shared some Boston cream cakes with the children for another very happy ending!!

Word Family Focus During Skills Block

During the Skills Block portion of our day, we focus on two word families a week. On Monday, we introduce the word families. This week was the "-ake" and the "-ide" families. By writing on these blank picture cards, students brainstorm words that are in that family. For instance in the "-ake" family, there is rake, make, and stake. We review these words daily by pointing to each and having them say the rhyme and onset together "r-ake - rake." By teaching the children word families, they learn how to make multiple words from just knowing part of word. We say, "If I can spell "-ake", I can spell rake, take, and make." By the third day, students pick four words from the family. They draw a picture and write a short sentence using each word. In this way, we can check to see if they understand the word and use it appropriately in the sentence. Below is a sample of the activity.

More Pictures From Sleepover

The "Night Under the Stars" was just the beginning. After a few weeks learning about the solar system and constellations, in Reader's, Writer's and Science Workshops, the culminating activity was the "day" of Sleepover. It started with a parade, breakfast, dancing, and then center activities. They created pictures of galaxies, learned how to work together like the rings of Saturn, ventured in an imaginary rocket launch, learned space songs in music and had a great party in the Media Center with Miss KK and friends leading the way. There was a puppet show with the theme "You can be anything...even an astronaut." There was dancing, songs, popcorn and movie - just like at a real overnight sleepover. The following pictures were taken my our own Mrs. Holtsman. It was such a wonderful day!

Sleepover Under the Stars - Part One

Blast off into the first phase of our sleepover -- to galaxies far, far away!!

Mallon Dillard Astronauts 2011 from Patricia Wallace on Vimeo.

More Mystery Readers Surprise Us!!

Our class has been "Wowed" by our January Mystery Readers! Mrs. K. came in and read a book about the solar system and another book the students enjoyed called, "Aliens Love Underpants" by Claire Freedman. The children laughed at the silly aliens because they didn't want to meet humans; they just wanted to steal their underpants!

Mrs. M. came in to surprise J. and the class with a few books including a Scooby Doo adventure which is a class favorite. Afterward, they were treated to some Scooby Doo treats.

Mrs. C. surprised her daughter and read "Katie in London" by James Mayhew. This book was about Katie's adventure riding one of the Trafalgar Square lions through London. C. has visited England to visit relatives and shared some of her own adventures.

We appreciate all of our Mystery Readers and feel that it is important for the children to see their parents reading and sharing a favorite book. Thank you again parents for making our Mystery Reader program such a fun highlight of the children's school day!

First Grade Prepares for their "Sleepover"

For the past few weeks, students have been learning about our solar system in Reader's, Writer's, and Science Workshops in preparation for their "Sleepover". This is the big event for our first grade students. The "Sleepover" has evolved from reading books about sleepovers years ago to a unit about stars, planets and space. The students do not really sleepover night at the school, but next Thursday on the official day, they will be wearing their pajamas, slippers, and parading around the school as if they were. Last night was the official kick off of the sleepover called, "Night Under the Stars". Students and parents came to school at night and had the opportunity to gaze at the Moon and Jupiter through telescopes. Then they came in the classroom to watch "The Magic School Bus Gets Lost In Space" and enjoyed Moon Pies and Cosmic Brownies.
Learning about the solar system and constellations has given the first grade sleepover more meaning and has made it a genuine learning adventure for the students. They are keenly interested in knowing more about what is outside our Earth and they are learning how precious it is being the only planet with air and water. Hopefully we will have a future astronaut or two in our class who was inspired by this unit on space...next week...our sleepover festivities!!

P.E. Fun in the New Year

Happy New Year 2011 from The Mall-ards! We are just getting adjusted to our routine after two weeks off for the holidays. Today the students had fun in P.E. stacking cups on a cool January morning in Florida. They were very proud of their accomplishment and asked the P.E. teacher to take their picture so that it could go on the blog. It is amazing to see how much technology is a part of these young children's lives and how aware they are of how important it is as a communication tool. They have been born into a time that has them surrounded by computers of one kind or another - iPhones, iPads, iPods, and ereaders of one kind or another. Well, just like they expected, their picture is up on the blog of the fun they had one day in P.E. stacking cups...how nice that is to share with you.

Holiday Crafts to Brighten the Season

After our Holiday Breakfast, the rest of the morning was centered on creating some holiday favorite crafts. As you can see, it took a lot of parent help at each table in order to keep thirty-five children organized and moving in order to successfully complete each one. We had snowman hot chocolate, reindeer hand bags, popsicle stick snowman ornaments, to name but a few. The best part of the morning was having us all eat a great breakfast together, provided by our parents and of course the fun crafts. This is a special time of year and "The Mall-ards" would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Nadolig LLawen, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Maligayang Pasko, I'd Miilad said oua sana saida, Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan, Sretan Bozic, Glædelig Jul, Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Hyvaa Joulua, and/or Kala Christouyenna!

Mystery Readers Galore!!

The last few weeks were highlighted by our "Mystery Readers" who delighted the children by reading some of their favorite books to the class. Claire L. read "Oh Christmas Tree" Phineas and Ferb series by Scott Peterson and then donated the book to the class! Melanie H. was the Cajun Red Riding Hood complete with the costume and accent. She read "Petite Rouge" by Mike Artell. Crystal C. came in with "Frosty the Snowman" and Carmen D. read one of her favorite books "Piggie Pie" by Margie Palatini. Each Mystery Reader brought her special love of reading and showed the students what fun reading can be. We appreciate our Mystery Readers taking time out of their busy day to spend some moments with first graders who are just starting to understand how fascinating books can be.

Procedural Writing - How to's in First Grade

How To Trap a Mouse by Lexie
Need: cheese, string, wood, mouse, fly paper
1. First you check if you have a mouse hole. Then put fly
2. paper by its hole. Then to catch t, tie a string
3. to wood then the string to the cheese. Then get ready.
4. Put the cheese by the fly paper and the mouse's feet are stuck to the fly paper.
Writing "How to" papers is one of our classes' favorite genres to write about in Writer's Workshop. Learning that they are all experts in something makes this writing a fun type of writing that they look forward to. They have written "How to" papers on "Getting Ready for School", "Washing the Car", and "Going on a Plane". They have also put their "How to" books together and made one big "Book of How To's" which includes a title page and table of contents. They have also learned that Procedural Writing includes: recipes, directions to locations and rules for board games. So, if you would like to learn how to trap a mouse or grow a flower these two papers may help you. Each paper provides a clear title, what you will need, and pictures with captions. "How to Grow a Flower" includes where to go to find out more information on growing a flower. These are great examples of the writing we are doing now in Writer's Workshop.

How to Grow a Flower by Sarah
Need: seeds, water, dirt, sun, flower pot
1. First you get a pot and put dirt in it. Then you plant a seed.
2. Put water in the pot. But not too much - just middle size.
3. Put your plant in a sunny spot.
4. Just wait and wait and wait.
For more information, go to a plant store.

SBBB: Pigs in a Blanket

In Math, we completed a unit called, "Making Shapes and Designing Quilts" (2D Geometry) in our Investigations Curriculum. This included students designing their own quilt pattern and repeating it over several times. In this way, they can see different shapes in their quilt patterns.

As a culminating project, this bulletin board called "Pigs in a Blanket" involved the entire class in its creation. By copying a design, each child made a piece of the quilt and together we made a blanket. When the blanket was formed, the students noticed the different shapes that appeared. The repeating squares made combinations of triangles and rhombi. Because we are "hog heaven", we thought it appropriate to have our pigs in a blanket. The students wrote their own commentary on each blanket demonstrating their understanding of the assignment. The kids just love this bulletin board and so do we!

Hanukkah Traditions and Story 2010

We are so fortunate to have a previous student S. come to our room each year and share the story and traditions of Hanukkah. Her brother J. was also assisting in explaining the history of Hanukkah to the class. Most of the students were very familiar with it because of her visit last year. However, this year they understood it better and were very ready to play the dreidel game.

S. & J. explained the story as follows: After three years of fighting, the Jews defeated the Syrians and, to celebrate, they restored the Temple of Jerusalem. As part of the celebrations they lit an oil lamp which should have been kept burning all the time, even though they could only find enough oil to keep it burning for one night. However, the oil lamp stayed lit for eight days, which was the time it took to make new oil for the lamp. This was the Miracle of the Oil.

Following the story, the fun of playing dreidel began. Everyone received their own with chocolate kisses to use as gelt (coins). The game was explained again and the children had a wonderful time learning the story and traditions of Hanukkah. Next year S. will be moving on to sixth grade, so J. will visiting us from second grade to keep our tradition going!!

Pine Cones and Turkeys - Thanksgiving Fun

On Tuesday, the day before our Thanksgiving break, we tinkered with some pine cones, feathers, and pom poms. We came up with some very cute pine cone turkeys for each student to take home. These were just too cute not to share. A very Happy Thanksgiving from the Mall-ards in Hog Heaven!!

Thanksgiving Day Read Aloud - Magic Tree House

During the past few days, the children have been learning about the Pilgrims, the Native Americans, and the first Thanksgiving. We have been reading several books on the subject but the one they most liked is from the Magic Tree House series. The book is called, "Thanksgiving on Thursday" by Mary Pope Osborne. Eight year old Jack and his seven year old sister Annie get transported in time whenever they open a book in their magic tree house. On this adventure, they are in Plymouth on the first Thanksgiving. They meet Squanto, Captain Standish, and Governor Bradford. They befriend a pilgrim girl, Priscilla, who has them helping to prepare food for the feast. The first book in the series, "Dinosaurs Before Dark" was read last week. "Thanksgiving on Thursday" is book #27 in the series. Reading these chapter books aloud is a great way for the class to come together as a community. Reading aloud is the best way we have to immerse children in the glories of reading, showing them both how and why one reads (Calkins, 2010). We will be going on several more Magic Tree House adventures in the future, such as mummies, knights, and moon visits...and we can't wait!

Calkins, L. (2010). A guide to the reading workshop. Heinemann.

Mystery Reader: P is for Pom Pom!

Our mystery reader this week surprised her brother,sister and the class by coming in and reading "P is for Pom Pom" by Laura Purdie Salas. Her arrival was announced and then five clues about our mystery reader were read. Some of the clues were: She used to go to this school; She was our patrol; and she has siblings in this class. While students were guessing, V came in and we all clapped. She was wearing her cheering uniform, brought pom poms, and was carrying the book with her. She then read "P is for Pom Pom! The Cheerleading Alphabet Book to the class. The girls could not wait to imitate some of the moves she read about. V was brave enough to chant and show us the routine of some of her cheers. During the finale, she showed us a jump and the kids just loved it. Thank you V for a great reading and being a wonderful mystery reader. The children enjoyed it and C and L were very proud of their big sister!!

Literacy Centers - Time to Practice Reading

A favorite part of the student's day is when they get to enjoy authentic reading by engaging in Literacy Centers. A popular station is "Books on CD". Children have the opportunity to read along with the CD. By listening and reading along, they get to hear and practice fluent reading. The books we are using are from the county sponsored Houghlin Mifflin series for first grade and each come with a CD. These readers have some wonderful trade books incorporated into one leveled book. The CD players were sponsored by some of the student's parents. We asked for CD players at our Open House and now have six which makes a great listening center. Other stations the children visit are the computers. We have four that they visit on a rotating schedule. Also there are various genre baskets of books and magazines that they love to dive into. This is a time where students have time to practice reading either on the computer, CDs, books or magazines. They can read about sharks, finish up a chapter from Magic Tree House, or grab a Dr. Seuss book...Oh, the places they can go...during literacy centers.

Readers to Leaders: Principal Slimed

The whole school was in for a special treat today when Mrs. Phillips, our principal, kept her promise and was "slimed" because most of the students met their twenty-five book challenge this quarter. Readers to Leaders comes from a county incentive to have students read one million words a year. The one million words is broken down to approximately twenty-five books per quarter. The students are also recognized during our awards ceremony every quarter for this achievement. Mrs. Phillips was a good sport and the children really enjoyed seeing her get slimed! What's next? Oh...it only gets better!!

Koala Lou...We Do Love You...bulletin board

The Mall-ards actually look forward to creating a new bulletin board presentation each month. We love sharing the learning that is going on in our classroom and the bulletin board is one way to do just that. Our board this month was on reading which featured our Author Study of Mem Fox literature. It consists of a sampling of the work that was completed by our first grade students during Reader's Workshop during this study. The first piece is a text-to-text connection between Shoes from Grandpa and There Was An Old Lady. Next is a a retelling of Possum Magic by sequencing the story in six parts. Then we have students reporting on story elements from Hattie and the Fox listing characters, setting, problem and solution. Finally, there is a Venn Diagram showing the similarities and differences between between Shoes From Grandpa and On Halloween Night. These pieces are just a sampling of showing how students are making meaningful connections and comprehending text every day in Hog Heaven!

Character Parade and Fall Fun Festivities

It was another festive day in Hog Heaven as our First Graders came dressed as their favorite literary characters. We had everyone from Toto to Darth Vader present and accounted for. The day started with a Character Parade that went around the first floor of the school. Students brought a book with them to represent their costume. Older grades lined the halls and cheered on the Kindergarten and First Grade students as many of them remembered when they were the ones parading through the halls. Afterward, students worked on center activities including Q-tip skeletons, stained glass (tissue) pumpkins, and bat hats. In the afternoon, students also tinkered creating their own haunted house. In the evening, many students returned to school for trick-or-treating through the hallways and then enjoyed the fall carnival on the school grounds. October ended most memorably for all.

Mystery Reader Delights Students

Today we had a mystery reader come to visit. Mrs. W. came in to surprise her son and the class. Dressed up as the Reader Queen, she delighted the students with "Trick or Treat" by Bill Martin, Jr. Also, Lola, the Chihuahua was the featured guest and had treats to give to all the children. Everyone loved the surprise visit and we are looking forward to having more mystery readers come in to class and read aloud a favorite book to the students.

Mem Fox Author Celebration - Skyping and so much more...

Today we celebrated the end of our four week unit on the literature of Mem Fox. Our culminating activities started off first thing this morning with technology. We were lucky enough to have a teacher friend of Mrs. Holtsman's skype with us from Australia. Amanda Marrinan is a second grade teacher in an Australian school and she told us all about what her students are doing at this time. Also, she told us that she had met Mem Fox through a workshop she attended. Ms. Marrinan showed the students samples of the food that was featured in the book "Possum Magic", including pavlova (a dessert similar to meringue with fruit), lammington (a sponge cake with chocolate and coconut), and Tim Tams (a chocolate biscuit). Each first grade class prepared a question to ask her, such as "Have you ever been to the Australian Zoo?" and "Does your class read Mem Fox books too?" It was a wonderful visit and kick off to our "Down Under" day.
Next, we had a former student of our school who was born in Australia play the digeridoo for the students. He explained the background of the instrument and its markings. That was another wonderful experience for the children.

The rest of the day was filled with arts and crafts, reader's theater, books about Australian animals and a Mem Fox book that we saved until last called, "The Goblin and the Empty Chair." They were captivated by this thought-provoking story. Enjoy hearing Mem Fox read it to you:

Writers Sharing Writing

Over the past few weeks, we have been enjoying the literature of Mem Fox. In Reader's Workshop, the children have made connections to her works in Reader's Response notebooks, charted similarities and differences on Venn Diagrams, and retold the stories using story maps. In Writer's Workshop, we used Mem Fox as our Author Mentor. We wrote great beginnings like Mem Fox, told stories with some great details like Mem Fox, and always stayed in the moment for a great ending, just like Mem Fox. As our mentor, her books were used as a model for students to borrow some of the wonderful ideas and techniques of Mem Fox in our Small Moment (personal narrative) pieces. One of the classes' favorite activities is to share their writing with each other, much like they do when partner reading. They take turns and read their writing to each other. Each reader/writer can use this time to make edits to their writing from suggestions from their peers. They compliment each other on the great writing they are doing and everyone feels very special. They take this reading and editing time very seriously...as you can tell from the pictures. Mem Fox would be very proud...as are we!!

Open House: Settling into First Grade

Last night was our First Grade Open House. Students have been in school for 31 days as of yesterday, and their learning and growth have been amazing. The children were very excited to show-off the classroom to parents. We called the children to the floor as we usually do with our morning song, "We're Going to be Friends" by Jack Johnson. After a few housekeeping items, we started our Power Point featuring a day in the life of a first grader. From reading books in the hallway before school starts till the end of the day, parents received a snapshot of the day. After the Power Point, students took their parents on a self-directed tour of the classroom using a flow chart. Included on places to visit were the Math Counts board, book bins, vocabulary word wall, class library and class promise. It was wonderful to see everyone and share our great learning.

Mem Fox Author Study - The Beginning

Our author study for the next few weeks will be on the works of Mem Fox. Mem was born in Melbourne, Australia and at the age of six months was brought to Africa with her missionary parents. The mission, Hope Fountain in Zimbabwe used to be called Rhodesia. She married and Englishman and finally moved back to Australia and had a daughter. She is an advocate for child literacy. She said: "Literacy has become the great focus of my life — it’s my passion, my battle and my mission and my exhaustion." Mem has received numerous awards ranging from the Dromkeen Medal for Distinguished Services to Children’s Literature in 1990 to Children’s Language and Literature Achievement Award from the Speech Pathology Association of Australia, 2007. When visiting her website, be sure to go the "How to Read Aloud" section. It is loaded with wonderful pointers on how to make reading to a child a magical and delightful experience for both parties.

With the first week of our author study completed, the students have heard the books Possum Magic, Night Noises, Time for Bed, and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. In Reader's Workshop, we have started an attribute chart listing the title, character, events and interesting language of each book. We also started a chart on Mem's interesting life, took out our map and found Australia, and looked through piles of her books to get students excited about reading them. In Writer's Workshop, we learn how to develop our own small moment writing by using Mem Fox as our mentor. We are anxious to get the second week of our study underway and can not wait to hear the books Koala Lou, Shoes for Grandpa, and Hattie and the Fox.

Multi-senory Field Trip

On Monday we were invited to visit a neighboring school called J. Allen Axson Montessori School. They were hosting a multi-sensory safari field trip in their auditorium. They had animals represented from all parts of our globe including a lynx, tiger, jaguar, zebra, and water buffalo. The children learned about where they came from, their habitats, and how they are sustained. The students were invited to touch the animals and note how different each animal's skin felt. On our way to the school, we felt like we were on a safari getting there Donning our green field trip t-shirts and sneakers and carrying cold water bottles, we ventured to the safari. It was a hot trek but sure worth trip!

What's the Matter...with matter?

Hog heaven students have been up to their eyeballs in matter these past few weeks. We have been asking ourselves about matter and what matter is (anything that takes up space), together with the properties of matter. Students use their five senses to describe what it is that they see and feel when observing things. Today we went on a nature walk and students collected matter. They found stones, feathers, leaves, flowers, twigs, pine cones and ants. When they came back to the classroom, they took the items out of their paper bags and used their Science Journals to write about what they found. They described the items as rough, pointy, colorful, sticky and smooth. These basic lessons in Science are building the background knowledge that students will use and need as the years go on. They will scaffold what they know and build on it. But for right now, they are noticing the world around them and coming to realize that we are surrounded by matter, whether it is a solid, liquid or gas.