Stepping a Little Deeper into Writing

This week we read a book about Ruby Bridges, an African American girl who was chosen to attend a white school in the 1950s. We talked a lot about how brave she was. To help the kids connect to the text and this time period of history,we all thought of some times that we were brave. Each child drew a picture of a time that they were brave and wrote a sentence or two about it. This was a HUGE step for some kids! Almost everyone is excited to draw, but as soon as we talk about putting words with our pictures the excitement goes down and the stress level goes up!

We've spent a lot of time learning blends and other special sounds in words (sh, ch, th) the past few weeks, and I'm super proud to say that they did a fabulous job incorporating them into their writing today! It was like a total "aha!" moment for some of them when they realized they could spell words that used to be a mystery to them. Very freeing! (Lightbulbs were coming on all over the room!)

Here are some great samples of our work (with translation underneath - spelling is a work in progress!) We started with just the word "brave" on the board (since everyone would need that one to write about their picture!) I kid you not, I did NOT spell words for these kids! I believe I spelled the word "of" for one child and gave a few hints to a couple others, but they totally did these on their own! Check out their impressive work!

I had to be brave at Monster Jam.

I was brave to go under a car.

I was brave at show and tell.

I was brave when I got a snake.

I was brave when I was on the stage.

I was being brave when I was on the stage.

I am brave in class.

I was brave on the roller coaster.

I had to be brave when I did the national anthem.

Look out first grade! Here we come!

Ipads and Oceans

Our unit this week has been all about oceans. Good thing, too, because it's hard to learn about sh and ch without beach, fish and shells! We've enjoyed learning about shells, sounds, whales and a myriad of other facts about the ocean. For show and tell we enjoyed seeing some real starfish, coral, sea sponges and a tiny little seahorse. We sorted seashells by shape, size and color. In other words, we've been BUSY!

A couple months ago, the administration gave our classroom an iPad to use. So how do we use one iPad among 20 students? Good question. We've been slowly trying it out, incorporating it into our daily schedule. Here are a couple ways we've been using it:

We love how the noise meter app has been helping us control our voices during lunch time and indoor recess. A siren goes off when the noise gets a little loud and the kids bring the level right back down to where it should be.

Noise Meter on the Ipad

Today we went on a word hunt in the classroom and took pictures of all the ch and sh words we found. Here are just a couple of the things we took pictures of on our hunt:

chalkboard

shoelaces

We also let the iPad tell us who is going to have a turn next during class. This keeps everyone on their toes since no one knows who will be chosen next!

I've downloaded some really neat apps and I'm working on a system that will give everyone a turn to use the iPad on their level of learning. I think we'll need to come up with some classroom rules to keep the iPad safe first!

Our 100 Day Celebration!

After lots of snow days and postponing our 100 day celebration several times, we finally were able to go ahead and celebrate! The kids arrived to school so excited! Each child brought 100 items to school. We had 100 goldfish, M&M's, rubber bands, Teddy Grahams, paperclips, BoxTops, Smarties and more...such creative kids!

After dividing up into groups, the kids all rotated through six stations to work on different 100 day activities. We counted, stacked, weighed, stamped, colored, and more!

The "crowning" activity was making our celebration crowns! 

After our crowns were assembled, we ended our time with a "parade" for the office staff to wish them happy 100th day! Ugh...I forgot to get a group picture with the crowns. They were so cute!

Thanks so much to all the parents/grandparents who came in to help. I think they had just as much fun as the kids!

River, Lakes, and Water Cycles, Oh My!

This week we've been studying rivers and lakes as part of our study of America. We learned all about how the water cycle works and even made it rain! Here is what the kids wrote about our activity time today.

We put some water in the microwave. We called the microwave the sun. After the water was hot, we put a plate on top of the jar. We waited and talked about the water cycle. Mrs. Keppley lifted up the plate. It rained! This showed us the water cycle.

We ended our time eating some "fishy" snacks! We had blue jello with fish floating inside. They were certainly a hit!

Next week we'll finish up our study of rivers and lakes by talking about insects that live in and around water. I have a few students who are especially excited about this!