Cinnamon Ornaments

Students were eager to get started on our latest ornament. The cinnamon has filled our room with the most wonderful fragrance. "It smells like cookies in here," they say.

We turned our craft into math and reading review. We measured, counted and read the recipe together. Students took turns photographing, combining ingredients, measuring, and stirring.

We each used Ms. Pace's cookie cutter to cut out our own gingerbread man. We will have to wait several days for the dough to dry so we can put them on our tree. In the meantime, we'll be sniffing the aroma of cookies. {grin}

We're really excited to get these on the tree!

Synergizing Researchers

First graders in Ms. Wilson's class are using the Mac Air lab to research animals of their choice.  We will be researching them for the remainder of this week and adding our new learning to our research notebooks.  We are so excited to use our school's newest technology with the help of Mr. Massey.  We're also synergizing with the Research Center and Ms. Quinn's computer lab.  We have really become researching machines! 

Check us out in action. 

Collecting non-fiction books of our choice from the Research Center.

Here we are working hard to collect facts from our non-fiction books to add to our research notebooks.

We have highly anticipated using the Mac Air lab to do research on this website.  Feel free to research other animals with your child at home.

Ms. Quinn helped us use World Book Kids in the computer lab to add even more information to our notebooks. 

We are happy animal researchers, and can't wait to share our new learning with you. 

Rudolph the Candy Cane Reindeer

On Monday we were excited to see what our new ornament would be. The excitement was evident as students worked hard all day long.

Students collected their own materials for the project. They were instructed to gather 2 candy canes, 1 brown paper square, 2 eyes, 1 red pom pom, a piece of tape and glue.

Our finished products have been added to the tree! 

We have more than 80 ornaments on the tree now.

Icicles

We used pipe cleaners, laundry soap, and warm water to make sparkling icicles.

This was an easy ornament to make... all we did was swirl our pipe cleaner around our pencil. Then, we hung our swirls in warm soapy water to sit all weekend long. When we came back to school this morning to our surprise we had beautifully, sparkly icicles.

Our tree looks wonderful! We have so many ornaments already.

We are still working like elves once we finish our schoolwork. Today we are wrapping up a project we've been working on for several afternoons. We won't reveal too much, because there's a surprise involved. {grin}

Our project started with homemade salt dough. We made an impression in the dough using our handprints. The lunch ladies baked our creations while we worked hard in the classroom. Next, we borrowed paint from Ms. Walter in the art room and added some color. The rest is a secret. We can't wait to share these ornaments with you, parents!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We have been busy elves. We made a class goal to be proactive all day long so we can make ornaments for our tree at the end of the day.

We have been enjoying our glittered pine cones, and today we began making toboggans.

 

We had to follow careful instructions to ensure we ended with a toboggan ornament. We carefully tied yarn around recycled paper towel rolls and knotted them just so.

 

 

7 Habits Happy Class

During recess today suddenly Ms Pace and I noticed the class synergizing and organizing their own game of Duck, Duck, Goose. Everyone was thinking win-win as they gladly accepted more classmates to play. No one argued or got upset (proactive students in action) as rules were explained; they were seeking first to understand each other. Everyone slowly joined the game, leaving the playground behind, a few at a time. When someone new joined the game all students included them in the circle, keeping the end in mind. We were so proud to see the entire class involving everyone and sharpening the saw together.

If you're keeping count that's using 7 of the 7 habits during recess!

Ms. Pace and I delighted in watching you all play.

First Quarter Goal Getters

We celebrated our classroom friends who made and achieved their first quarter goals. We are so proud of our friends who worked hard; they sure are leaders! They began the quarter with the end in mind.

Congratulations to...

Lupita, Betsy, Jesus, Angel, Kota, Maddi, Eba, Alyssa, Adam, Makenzie, and Cristal

WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!

Oh Christmas Tree...

This afternoon we synergized to build our classroom Christmas tree. We each received a branch, and got in groups based on the colored tape on the branch. We collected data and found that our tree has 29 branches. We each contributed to building the tree as we added and fluffed our branches.

We are excited to begin decorating our tree! Our first task is to bring in a pinecone (or more for sharing) to make our first ornament.

Election Day

In preparation for Election Day we have been reading stories about some character's that wanted to be considered for President.  We read together the following stories:

 

 photo credits

Students were asked to vote today on their favorite character for President.  Each child got to use an official ballot, vote and submit their ballot to be counted.  Together, we counted the votes using tallies on the board.  The excitement was overwhelming, as there was a close race between My Teacher and Duck, but in the end My Teacher received the most votes.

So, I am proud to announce that this year's first grade Presidential election has chosen My Teacher for President. 

First Quarter Class Goal

Our class goal for the first quarter, nine weeks, of school was to ensure everyone practices their reading everyday. We are still working on this goal for the next nine weeks, because we all want to become better readers. Students can be proactive and practice their reading during Just Right Books. We are reaching for our goals in first grade!

East High Football Players Read to Us

We were lucky to have football players from East High come read books with us today. We had eleven players in our classroom! It was a great treat for them to share Halloween books with us. Thank you for visiting us, East football team!

First Quarter Conferences

First Quarter Conferences are wrapping up. I have very much enjoyed meeting you and discussing your child's academic progress in first grade. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any additional questions or concerns you may have; your child's agenda is a wonderful place for us to make those contacts with one another.

Those of you I have not yet arranged a conference with, please advise me of your earliest connivence as I am eager to meet with each parent. Your child's academic success is propelled by our joint commitment in their learning targets. I look forward to meeting you soon.

Pawsitive Behavior Day

As a reward for reaching 500 shout outs, school wide, we celebrated with an early Pawsitive Behavior Day. This time the theme was careers. First graders were lucky to have the opportunity to explore careers presented by each of the first grade teachers. Ms. White provided students within archeological dig where many treasures and fossils were uncovered. Students explored careers in music with Ms. Socha, and were able to perform their singing talents. They were invited to explore careers in law enforcement in Ms. McMurray's classroom with the help of Fletcher's police department representatives. Finally, in our classroom students were offered an unique experience in an effort to explore careers associated with flight. Ms. Pace and I built a life-size aircraft in the classroom that sat 22 passengers. We offered inflight entertainment and snacks as we red presented flight attendants. My father, Mr. Wilson was a guest in our classroom and spoke about careers in air traffic control. Of course security was of upmost concern, therefore no passengers were issued boarding passes or permitted on the aircraft without successfully passing through security.

During student's specials hour they were lead through a career fair where they learned about several more careers including paramedics, health care, technology, sports broadcasting, and many more!

We had a great day!

Scholastic Book Club Orders

Scholastic book club order magazines are going home today.  I will place the order on Wednesday, October 10, 2012.  We should expect the order to arrive on or around Wednesday, October 17, 2012.

If you are interested in ordering you may do so by sending a check to school, or ordering online with our classroom code (GYTGY).  Please enter the classroom code so your child's books are delivered with the rest of the class.  Also, if you place your order online at home you will recieve a $5 gift card to be used on your next Scholastic book club purchase AND our classroom will recieve free books.  Click the banner below to order now.


Consider ordering now for Christmas and special occasions. 

Midterms September 27, 2012

Mid-terms go home today! I am looking forward to meeting with parents in the next couple weeks to discuss your child's academic progress.

Comprehension Strategy: Compare & Contrast

This week we are learning how to compare and contrast characters in stories to improve our understanding. We are using a venn diagram to organize our thinking.

Today we read the story entitled, First Day Jitters. We then worked independently to create a venn diagram in our reading journals. We compared and contrasted the main character, Ms. Sarah Jane Hartwell, with ourselves. Some students did a fantastic job and shared their work with the class.