11/15-11/23

We had another amazing week at school—learning all sorts of new information and concepts!!!

We read Life in the Forest, and discussed how the forest is a community of plants and animals that depend on one another. We also discussed survival strategies of forest animals. First graders just love learning about animals! On Wednesday we Buddy Read our story. The students were spread all over the classroom, reading with their partner(s).

In grammar we reviewed plural nouns. For most plural nouns, you just add –s to the base word to make it mean more than one. We quickly talked about how you sometimes add –es to a noun to make it plural (such as dress). We’ll discuss that more later on. We also worked on putting words in ABC Order. I wrote words on the ActivBoard, and the students had to put them in ABC Order on their whiteboards. They loved it!!!

In math we’re still counting money and working on addition and subtraction. Remember, beginning Monday the timed facts quiz will count as a grade.

Our unit on Thanksgiving has been extremely interesting. It seems as though every year I learn something new about our early immigrants. This year I learned that Squanto was actually a slave at one time, but escaped and returned to America, just to find his whole village dead. The students were mesmerized by the fact that the Pilgrims didn’t have forks, but used knives and their hands to eat. After reading many books about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, we created a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast our lives today with the life of a Pilgrim. We wrapped up our unit by making the cutest edible turkey and a Harvest Blessing mix.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please remember to attend Tuesday night’s GSES Sneak Peek!!! It begins at 6 pm. Visit the library to bid on baskets and to sign your child up for clubs. To get to our classroom, enter the main doors and walk straight to the library. At the library make a right. Go to the next intersections and make a left. We are the second classroom on the left. I can’t wait to see you and your children there!!!

11/8-11/12

It’s difficult to believe we are nearing the end of the first semester already! Soon we will be in our brand new building, and I just can’t wait! You and your children are going to love our new classroom and the school’s beauty. I was there last week, and new decor is being added daily! Moving is going to be a huge undertaking, but I know I have willing and wanting parents to help me! For that I am thankful!

In class this week we read The Big Circle, a story about dinosaurs. When the T Rex wanted to eat the baby triceratops, the triceratops all made a big circle and drove the T Rex away. I explained to the class that in life, they are the baby triceratops, and the adults in their lives are the big triceratops, trying to protect them with all that we have! They just love learning about dinosaurs! I need to learn to relate every life lesson to a story about dinosaurs!

In phonics we continued to study long vowels with sneaky e. We also learned about contractions. I explained that a contraction happens when two words collide and make a smaller word, only some of the letters fall out in the collision, so we use an apostrophe to replace the missing letters. We played a game called “Car Crash Contractions” that is a lot of fun! In the picture below we sang about a baby dinosaur and then underlined words with long o and circled contractions.

In math we are still practicing our addition and subtractions strategies. Here is what we looked like during a math test this week. Students put their head down after they finish to a certain number on the test. We stay together so that I can explain the direction thoroughly. Beginning the week after Thanksgiving I will take the timed facts quiz (just addition for now) as a grade, so please practice at home.

In math we are also counting money. So far we have learned about pennies and nickels. We will continue to count these two coins until after Thanksgiving, at which time I will introduce the dime, and later the quarter.

We finished our body unit this week. We learned tons about our body! Ask your children about their eyes, brain, blood, heart, and skin. See what they remember. On Friday we made a model of our body, using everyday items to represent some of our internal parts. They are quite cute!

11/1-11/5

In class this week we read about community helpers and made Sparky, the Firehouse Dog. We discussed sounds that we hear in our community and learned about different jobs, thanks to our guidance counselor, Mrs. Carr.

We are continuing to learn about long vowels with sneaky e at the end, and all of the students are really paying attention to the sneaky e! Please continue to read words with and without sneaky e at home. Students must be able to differentiate between the vowel sounds! In a few months time, this task will be simple, but for now it takes a little more thinking. We have also learned the th, sh, wh, and ch sounds. This week we listened to our sing along song, and the students made a t chart on their whiteboards. They then labeled the two columns as ch and long i. They then found and wrote words from the sing along song that fit in each column. After a few minutes they told me which words to circle. This a great phonics activity that we complete almost weekly.

In grammar we are perfecting our knowledge of proper nouns and titles.

We began counting pennies this week, and next week we will count pennies and nickels. Counting money is a developmental task, which some first graders learn, while other students will not master this task until second or even third grade. The best way to help your child is to give him/her money to count.

We are also perfecting our addition and subtraction skills. We are trying to memorize basic facts. We visited the Math Magician website this week, which the students were crazy about!

The class has loved learning about the human body. So far we’ve discussed skin, bones, eyes, ears, muscles, and cartilage. We used q tips to make a skeleton model. The coming week brings more learning about the human body! If any of you parents want to share your knowledge about the human body with us, please e-mail me so that we can set up a time.

I can’t believe we are less than two weeks away from our big move! At the end of the month we will have a sneak peek at GSES. You and your children are invited to attend! You will get to view classrooms and other areas of the school. I can’t wait! There’s so much to do though! YIKES! I get a little worried just thinking about it! So many of you have already offered to help, and don’t worry, I will be taking you up on your offers!!! J Thanks!

10/25-10/29

This week was a blast! It was Red Ribbon Week, so the students and teachers participated in fun spirit days. The purpose of Red Ribbon Week is to teach students about the dangers of using illegal drugs and of using legal drugs illegally. In first grade terms, I explained that an illegal drug is something harmful that you put into your body. I told them that sometimes medicines are called drugs, but as long as we use them like the doctor tells us to, we will be fine. They seemed pretty content with that explanation and told me that they will never put harmful drugs into their bodies.

I love the innocence of a first grader’s mind. If only we could keep them innocent and sheltered forever. Unfortunately, that is not the world in which we live, but I pray for these children daily, and I will continue to do so for all of my days. I may not call each of their names in prayer (though some days I call a few), but I do ask that God keep them safe and help them to make good decisions. I pray that they will love long, prosperous lives. I pray that they will know the value of a dollar and will grow to be helpful citizens. I pray that they will find happiness, even if it is hard work. I pray that they will be people of their word and hard workers. I pray that they will be responsible, trustworthy, and productive. I pray that they will multiply their talents. Most of all, I pray that I can touch their lives in a way that reaches far beyond the four walls of our first grade classroom. I pray that one day I will pass them in the mall and they will tell me of their wonderful accomplishments, and that just maybe they remember something that I taught them. Their impact leaves a lasting impression on my heart, and I can only hope and pray to have just a fraction of that impact on their hearts and lives. I count being a teacher as one of God’s greatest blessings of my life! I am so fortunate to teach and to learn from your darlings!

In other news, we learned about proper nouns this week. A proper name names a particular person, place, animal, or thing, and must begin with a capital letter. At our Word Work Center we went on a noun search through magazines. That was a fun mess!

We continued to practice our addition and subtraction strategies in math.

During our unit time we had some Spooky Fun. We did spooky math activities (‘Dem Bones), made spooky BINGO cards, and read lots of spooky books. Friday was a particularly interesting day with all of the fun crazy hair! The class was treated to goodies form a few classmates and Mrs. Clark. We also made an edible witch’s hand, thanks to the parents who sent the necessary ingredients.