Kevin Henkes Celebration 2017

 It was time to celebrate our mentor author Kevin Henkes and his beloved mouse books. Children dressed up as their favorite character and had a great time rotating through centers this morning. These are our Lilly's and Mr. Slinger.

 The boys loved "Wendell" from "Weekend with Wendell."

 Chrysanthemum is a class favorite along with Mrs. Twinkle.

 Wemberly Worried was these three girls favorite!

Finally, we have Julius, Sheila Rae, and Lilly - this was a great day to celebrate a wonderful author!

Kevin Henkes Puppet Presentations

Today students started bringing in their Kevin Henkes puppets from their favorite book. We had a few Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse presentations and the children had a wonderful time retelling the story with the puppets. We will be doing a few each day so that everyone has a turn to retell these great stories with lots of life lessons.

Reader's Theater - Kevin Henkes

 The children are enjoying our Kevin Henkes Author Study this month. They have been practicing their Reader's Theater scripts and they take it very seriously. We have four script practices going on in our room this week: Chrysanthemum, Weekend with Wendell, Sheila Rae the Brave, and Owen which are all class favorites.

After a few days practice, students were up and doing their final rehearsal before their class presentation. These Reader's Theater scripts are not only fun for children, but it helps with fluency and intonation. After they present the play, they get to pick a new book to rehearse.

"Sleepover" Camping Out Under the Stars

 Today was the First Grade "Sleepover" - Camping Out Under the Stars. Students came to school in their pajamas had a whole day of sleepover activities. It started with a parade around the school with them holding their pillows and flashlights. The cupcakes are compliments of one of our room moms (Nicole). It was a memorable day for the kids.

Working on our Analogies

Students worked in groups on analogies in Writer's Workshop. Children wrote opinions about restaurants, ice cream stores, movies, games and sports. Those that wrote on the same topic, worked in groups and organized their analogies. 

They made beautiful cover and title pages for their collections.

Afterwards, the groups presented to the class. It was a wonderful way for them to talk about their opinions on the same subjects, collect their data, and report to the class.

100 Days in First Grade 2016-2017

In First Grade,we like to mark the 100th day of school with a bit of excitement but not over the top like Kindergarten.  Today, we played Bingo with numbers to 100, played Race to $1.00, performed 100 exercises and they shared their 100 day water bottle filled with 100 items. Some of the items that were placed in the bottles were 100 Nerds, Pompoms, pennies, Legos, Skittles, toothpicks and 100 spelling words!

Thank you Ella for the great 100 day treat! Everyone enjoyed the "chocolate-y" 100!!

Holiday Party and Crafts 2016

 

 After our holiday brunch, we started on crafts. This is a sock snowman whereby the children filled the sock up with beans, tied it in 3 sections and decorated it with pom poms, googly eyes, and other miscellaneous craft items.

They turned out adorable and the kids have a great keepsake to share with their families.

 All of them together make a great snowman community!

 Another craft was a snowman doily that was decorated and is now ready to display!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2017 from The Mall-ards!!

Polar Express and Hot Chocolate Treats

Today we took a walking field trip to see the movie The Polar Express at Chet Creek Church next door from our school. When we returned, we had Matt and Jami Michaud waiting for us with hot chocolate and snowman cookies from Starbucks. Thank you to the Michaud family for the wonderful refreshments after the movie!!

To thank Matt, the class made a holiday quilt - it may be hanging up in our local Starbucks right now!!

Book of the Month - The Gingerbread Man- Loose at Christmas

Our book of the month is The Gingerbread Man - Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray. It's about The Season of Giving - to look around at our Community Helpers and see how we can thank them for all they do for us all year. They can make something sweet, say something kind or write a thoughtful thank you card.This is a great book to read to children so that they realize that even the smallest act of kindness can make a big difference.  Below is a note to one of our dining room assistants who help the children everyday with lunch room duties.

Dear Lunch Lady,

Thank you for helping me and cleaning up and

giving me a spoon and coming to help me

when I need help.

Thank you for everything.

You are the best,

Love, Brishell

Roll 3 for 20 OR Bust!

During the Skills Block segment of Math, students learned the game of "Roll 3 for 20 or Bust". The purpose of this game is to get to 20 or as close to the number 20 as possible. They roll 3 die (each color is specific to a number) - blue (0-5), green (2-7), and red (4-9). Then they add the sum of the 3 dice and decide if they want to hold or roll again (one die). If they chose to roll again, they choose the color. This game builds computational fluency and enhances estimating skills.

Opinion Writing About Our Collections

 

This week we started our unit on opinion writing. Students were invited to bring in one of their favorite collections. Items ranged from rocks to Pokemon cards to stuffed animals. Children rated which one was "Best in Show" (1st Place) and on down the line. They wrote the reasons why they rated their items the way they did using the word "because".  

 Today,students visited their friend's collections to see how their items were rated and they wrote about how they would change 1st, 2nd, etc. place. They also gave reasons why they felt that way.

They enjoyed rating the items and expressing their views on why they think the collections should be changed. Students are learning how to disagree politely and write their reasons why.

Word Family Word Wall - Learning more words

A portion of our Skills Block time is devoted to learning spelling patterns and one of the best ways is our work with Word Families.  Each week two new word families are our focus. These word patterns are chosen because of the Primary Spelling Inventory Assessment students took the first week of school. These special sounds and letter combinations are where they had the most difficulty. We review the previous ones by playing word and guessing games. For instance, "Find the word in the "ight" family that is the opposite of day."  Students will then write the word on their white board. Keeping the work on our walls useful and meaningful is important in our classroom laboratory! 

Pictures to help say more about writing

 Students were invited to bring in pictures that matched their informational writing. In this way, they can write more about their pictures via a caption or labeling.

Studying the image helps students to notice more about their subject, in this case butterflies.

 Working with partners, they talked about their pictures and then added more in their "All About" book. Adding this layer of research was a great way to enhance our Writer's Workshop.

Literary Character Parade

 A favorite tradition for kindergarten and first grade students is to get dressed as a favorite book character and parade around the school in costume with the book.

 We had everyone from Pinkalicious to Ninja warriors represented in our class.

 The children loved getting dressed as their favorite book character.

This is always a great memory and fun day for the children.

Literary Pumpkin Time - Adventures of Little Bird

One of our favorite books this year is "Adventures of Little Bird" by Johnathan Hillstrand the Captain of  the "Time Bandit" (Deadliest Catch). He wrote and illustrated this book about a parrot "Little Bird" who wants to be a pirate; however, everyone he meets discourages his dream. Fortunately, he was bound and determined to be one and his dream finally came true. We decided to make this book into our class pumpkin display for the front lobby for all to enjoy!

Students worked on painting the boat to get it "ship-shape" for our literacy pumpkin display.

Finally all the characters are ready and reporting for duty. It turned out great. Thanks to Captain Jonathan for such a wonderful children's book!

Mrs. Jackson - Character Education

Every month we are treated with a visit from Mrs. Jackson. She comes with her basket of books and treats for the children. Mrs. Jackson also comes with a focus on the character trait of the month, for instance, respect, cooperation, patriotism, and diversity. The students love to hear her animated read alouds and answer her many questions about the books.

In addition to the lollipop treats, Mrs. Jackson (who happens to be our Vice Principal's mother) gives each class a book for their classroom library. We are very fortunate to have such a delightful volunteer visit our children each month!

Strategies for Solving Math Stories

Since the beginning of the school year, students have been learning math strategies to help them solve a variety of math story problems.  These strategies are useful in solving both addition and subtraction story problems. While building on these strategies, students will get better at choosing the most efficient strategy for their math problem.