The First Week Down. . . . . .

Hello!

Well we finished up the first week yesterday and it went by so quickly!  We have been very busy working on adjustments to first grade.  You should be proud of your children because they are working so hard each and every day!

I Finally got around to taking some pictures of some activities this past week. 

Here is our book bag sheet that will help with communication between school and home.  This sheet will help me see if they are reading at home and show me how they are reading at home.  Are they consistent in their reading at home and school ? Is the reading easy at school, but challenging at home? You can use one line for each book that is sent home.  Each book will be read for three nights.

Sorry about this picture.  I need to learn how to use my camera better.  This is a shape book based off the pattern of Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. 

 This is the back page of the booklet.  We talked not only about the names of these shapes, but their attributes as well.  What makes a triangle a triangle (three sides, three points, corners, or angles).  They did so well with this activity!

 For this project we were discussing our basic needs and our need for fun.  Students tore paper pieces and glued them to a balloon outline.

 On the inside of the balloon they drew one or two activities they think are fun.

We have been working so hard on writing (already!!).  We are working on handwriting (ask your child to give examples of the Frog jump capitals and where they should start their writing), as well as illustrations in their writing.  In our last writing lesson, we talked discussed writing rubrics and how we should strive to do our best each time we write.  This picture is an example of a score of 4 not only  in the writing, but the illustrations as well.  I am working on an anchor chart for the classroom showing what each score (1-4) looks like.  I will post the completed version once it is finished.  I will also be posting student work so you can see all the hard work they have been doing!  I am very impressed and I know you will be also.

 

 

My goal is to post on Friday of each week if you are following this blog. 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

Mrs. Parker

Welcome to Grade 2012-13!

Hello!

I am so excited (and a little nervous) to start the school year. You would think the butterflies would go away after all these years, but the do not! I wanted to be sure to have something current written here if you are checking this blog for the first time, but I will not have a true post until after our first instruction day on Wednesday.

Thanks!

Mrs. Parker

A Month in Review

Ugh!  It seems like whenever I get around to posting I am apologizing about how long it has been since I updated last.  Well, over a month is way, way too long.  We have been so busy this last month and I have been taking pictures, but the time to post has been challenging. 

I am going to update the last month starting with them most recent activities:

We have been working on keeping up with our reading towards the end of the school year.  We are currently in week three.  Each week students that bring back 4 baseballs with a title of book and one sentence about that book on the back will earn a prize on Fridays.  They will get to run the bases and then get a treat for turning in all four baseballs.  At the end of next week we will be ending with a celebration of hot dogs and chips!  Yum!

Here are our North Baseball players that came to read with us today!  The players were wonderful and the students were SOOOOOOOO excited!  I do have pictures of the players reading to the kids, but I am choosing not to post the pictures due to the visibility of their faces.
  North is the defending state champion so if you would like to go watch here is their remaining games: Tuesday, May 22 v. EC Memorial, 6pm start time at Carson Park and Friday, May 25 v. Altoona High School at Altoona Hobbs Field on Spooner Ave.  This game will start at 5pm.

Matt Wilhelm

Matt Wilhelm visited our school again as part of a rewards for such a successful fundraising last fall.  He is very entertaining and the kids talked about him the rest of the day. 

3D Shape Unit



Students chose a 3D shape and had to describe the shape according to their properties. 

I loved this idea!  The students chose a shape and glued it to the paper under the bag of clues.  They had to describe the shape to see if their classmates could guess the shape. 

When they opened the bag they saw the answer! 




Earth Day

Earth Day has come and gone, but we wanted to show how we can have a helping hand to keep our Earth clean! 

Here is an Earth Day promise by one of the students.  I love the picture of him throwing the garbage into the trash!  Great Detail!  Thank you to Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade for this idea : )

Here is our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle anchor chart we used before writing our Earth Day promises.



Well, this was a quick snapshot of all the fun activities we have done this past month.  We also had baseball math centers and currently working on fraction math centers.  The end of the school year is winding down . . . . . . .   Summer will be here before we know it!

Take Care,

Mrs. Parker

 Hello!


This short week was sure a busy one!  We tried fitting in as many bunny and colored egg activities as we could the last four days. 


One activity we completed was a jelly bean graph.  We also sorted, tallied, patterned, and added our jelly beans according to color. 

We collected data with different kinds of candy, placed the information in the data table, and then graphed the information.

 

We also took turns shaking dice to build our own bunny.  This was a popular activity and they all took great pride in their drawings!

This picture did not turn out well, but I had numbered eggs with jelly beans in it.  They had to count the jelly beans in each egg and then write a number sentence adding +1 to that number and then write another number sentence taking away -1 to that number. 

Here is a better picture of the jelly bean numbered egg activity.  

We did make cute bunny clocks to go with this activity, but we did not get to the activity on Tuesday so for the math centers I had them use the large clocks I picked up at the dollar store.  The concept of time is really catching on!  First graders should be able to tell time to the hour and half-hour.

 This was such a cute picture I just had to take a picture!  Here is a flower, a mother duck, and her 6 ducklings!  This math center was using pattern blocks through guided discovery to develop spacial awareness.

 We started a unit on 3D shapes this week and I found this great resource created by Tina Rubie.  Each student got a mystery 3-D shape and had to identify it by name as well as properties of that shape.

This activity was also from Tina Rubie.  This time the students got to choose a 3-D shape and had to give clues so we could guess what shape they had. 


They enjoyed this activity so much that when I asked who wanted to share every single student volunteered.  What a great way to practice the properties on 3-D shapes!!

Yesterday we got a new student to our classroom.  This brings us up to 21 students in our room.  Please keep this in mind when sending the snack bucket to school. 

We do not have school tomorrow so have a wonderful day off tomorrow!  I will see you all on Monday, April 9th!

Mrs. Parker



Hello Everyone and welcome back from Spring Break!  I did not go anywhere, but the weather was so beautiful it made me think I traveled somewhere where warm!

I am sorry to say I have not taken any pictures so far this week, but I am going to update you about what is going on in our classroom.

First of all your child should be bringing home their report card home today.  I have them taped shut and stuffed in a white envelope.  There is also a pink sheet that you should sign and return to me so I know you saw the report card.

I am also sending home information about our field trip April 17.  I know it is early, but we have all the information already so I am sending it home with your child.  There will be a yellow-ish gold color sheet that you can fill out and send to me if you would like your child to get a library card from the public library.  If your child already has one then be sure to bring it with them on the 17th.  When we go they will not be missing lunch so no need to pack a lunch. 

Summer school deadline is fast approaching.  If I have not contacted you, but you would like to have your child attend summer school to keep up with basic math and/or reading skills then please let me know.  You will need my permission before your child can be entered into summer school.  This is for the basic skill classes only.  If you are having your child take discovery programs then you do not need a teacher referral.

We are currently having a food drive until April 5th here at Davey.  If you are able and willing to bring in canned or boxed foods please send them to school with your child before April 5th. 

This week we started a Space Unit for writing/science.  We are writing and studying about each planet including the sun and making our own nonfiction fact books.  I would also like you to see more of your child's writing!  They are very interested in the topic of space and they amaze me by how much they actually listen to and understand since the textbooks are not always at first grade reading level. 

Well, that is all for now! 

Mrs. Parker

The Week Before Spring Break

Hello!  Can you believe how nice the weather has been this last week?  Really? Seventy degrees in March may not be odd in places like Florida, but Wisconsin?  I am not complaining one bit, but I have to admit the students have had endless energy since the warmer weather arrived!  Oh how I wish I had a quarter of their energy level : ).

This week was once again a busy one.  We started a Zoo Animal writing/science unit the end of last week studying giraffes and continued this week with zebra's and alligators.  I bought this Zoo Unit from Deanna Jump and absolutely love it!  She was the same teacher that created the Arctic Animal Unit back in January.

Here is our anchor chart we used after reading about giraffes.

Here are the cute giraffe writing and craft activity.  We are learning the process of writing a research report about a given topic.

Here is the anchor chart for zebras.

zebra craft

Zebra research paper outline.

Here is a Venn diagram comparing how giraffes are alike and different.

We put our thumbprint on one square and another student's thumbprint in the other square.  Then they looked at each thumbprint to compare alikes and differences.  This activity ties into this unit because, we, just like giraffes(spots) and zebras(stripes)  have unique fingerprints.

I am planning to add the alligator pictures by tomorrow!

In Like a Lamb?

Hi First Grade Parents!

After the lion-like snow day last week on the last day of February and the lamb-like weather we have had since the beginning of the month, I hope we don't get hit with a bunch of snow at the end of the month!  Spring has almost sprung afterall!

Sorry about not posting our Dr. Seuss activities last Friday, but we did not get to anything due to an assembly and all the other reading and math we usually do each day.  We made up a few activities on Monday, but I still did not have enough for pictures.  The lone picture will be the mini-writing lesson we did after we read Green Eggs and Ham.  I got this cute idea from Cara Carroll. 

The students had to rhyme where they would and could eat eggs and ham and record it on the writing sheet.  Then they were asked to illustrate green eggs and ham on a paper plate.  Some chose to decorate their plates so their ham and eggs were a bit overshadowed by the design :).

I am going to take the time to explain our guided reading centers since it is such a big part of our day.  We have guided reading for at least 60 minutes every day (I usually go a bit over) except on Wednesdays we go for 75 minutes since we do not have morning recess that day.  This also gives me an opportunity to see every reading group that day.

While I am meeting with reading groups, the other students are independently working on one of five choices of activities.  This concept is from the Daily 5 model of guided reading.  Each student not working with me will get to choose one of the five centers to work at quietly until it is time to change.  Students are at each station for 20-25 minutes before switching. 

The first choice is Read to Self.  As you can see from the picture (from Kelli B. from Castles and Crayons) each student is to choose a book from their book bins (all at independent reading levels) and start reading quietly by themselves (in one spot) right away.  We spend the first five or six weeks of school building up stamina each day.  They all know the need to read the whole time or we find time to practice later on in the day.  I can't believe how well they do! 

The next choice is Read to Someone.  Students will get a choice to read with someone as long as they are quiet, reading the whole time, stay in one spot, and sit EEKK or elbow, elbow, knee, knee and hold their book in the middle.  This choice is a popular one in our class so we review the expectations every week.  The second picture is just a little poem to help them remember their job!

Another choice is Listen to Reading.  I have a rule that only two students at a time are at this center.  I put in two different book titles each week, but I also had this singing book and they absolutely love it.  I go home hearing those songs in my head.  I am looking for more singing books on tape since the interest is there.  When they are finished listening they are required to complete a follow up activity to test their comprehension and understanding of the story.  They could draw their favorite part of the story, draw each of the characters and the setting, or relate the story to something similar that has happened to them in their life (relating text to self).

Another choice they have is Word Work.  Each week I have two hands-on activities that they may choose to do.  We go through each center activity on Fridays for the following week so they know exactly what is expected of them.  Sometimes I have a recording sheet that you may see, but many times it is just working with concepts involving sight words, vowel patterns, or other concepts such as contractions, nouns, verbs, or adjectives.  Again the expectations are that they need to work alone unless the activity calls to work with someone (such as Bingo).  They also need to get started right away, work the whole time, and clean up when it is time to switch.

The final choice is Work on Writing.  I also have two different writing prompts or activities for the students to choose from.  One is always an activity that comes from them.  I will make blank books up for them to be both the author and illustrator or create a prompt that will interest them.  The other activity will be a more structured writing activity such as rolling cubes with words on them and putting them in order to make a sentence.  Then, they will need to write and illustrate the sentence.  Another example is to find hidden pictures from Highlights magazines and then write where they found each object.  I made sheets that say, I found the ________________________ and they will need to fill in the blank telling me where in the picture they found each item  ( I found the toothbrush on the back of the park bench).  I like the writing center because I can see the progress of their spelling.  I also use this writing to see what future activities I need to create or find based on the spelling need.  Again, this is a quite and independent activity. 

While they are working on the Daily 5 activities I am pulling students to work in small guided reading groups.  We will be practicing reading strategies to increase their independent reading level.  These books are at their instructional level meaning that they are not quite able to read the book independently.  This is why it is soooooooo important to read every night.  It may seem like they are reading books they have memorized and they may have, but that is why I sent home the blue reading comprehension cards.  Many students are wonderful word readers, but they need to understand the story as well.  Ask them what happens at the beginning, middle, and end.  If you have not seen the blue reading comprehension cards let me know and I will get them to you. 

Remember to keep track of your reading minutes!  The Reading Night will be next week!

Stay dry!

Mrs. Parker