Happy Thanksgiving!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving our class completed many fun projects.  After reading and studying the Mayflower the first graders made a list of what they would take with them if they were traveling on the Mayflower.  They then made a suitcase listing and illustrating what they would take on their journey.  Here is a great example of a suitcase we made.

 We also completed a Thankful Plateful, the students took the plates home and used magazines, pictures and words to describe what they are thankful for!  These turned out so great and everyone enjoyed looking at these cute plates hanging in the hallway.

First graders also had a Thanksgiving feast.  We created Pilgrim's Porridge, a mixture of various snacks that symbolized items from the first Thanksgiving.  For example; skittles- representing the colorful harvest, doritos- representing the teepees made by the Native Americans.  We had a great time sharing the porridge and spending time together giving thanks.

 To top off the fun week before Thanksgiving, we completed some fun Thanksgiving centers!
The one pictured below is Turkey Fact Families- during this center the kids had to match up the turkey feathers to the turkey that included the fact familiy numbers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Reading Groups and Centers

Each morning my Fabulous First Graders and I embark on a reading journey.  We begin with a mini-lesson, a short 10-15 minute lesson focusing on a comprehension strategy.  For the past couple of weeks it has been, Making Connections.  After the mini-lesson the students then have a chance to practice what we have discussed during read to self time, a time when they read from their book boxes of Just Right books.  After we read from our book boxes, the kiddos and I come together in a sharing circle.  We share what we think may help someone else in our classroom become a better reader.  Sharing circle is a great time for the students as well as myself, the teacher, to listen to the kids thoughts on what they are reading and check for comprehension of the strategy we have been working on.  After sharing circle we begin reading groups and centers.  I meet with 2 groups each day while the other students work in their groups on independent reading, writing, math and spelling activities.  This time of the day is a favorite for many students, they love centers and also enjoy getting to have small group instruction from me.

Ever wondered what we do during reading groups and centers?  Here's a peek into our 90 minute reading block each morning.  Each day 2 groups get direct small group reading instruction, here is the "green" group below.  We were reading Peter's Move.  After reading we do some type of comprehension activitiy and the activity normally involves writing.

 You may be wondering what the other 16 children do while 1 group is working in small their small reading group?! Well centers of course.  Some examples of centers are...

Buddy Reading- kids partner up and read out of their reading text book. 

They have 2 options of how they want to buddy read;

 echo read--one person reads and the other echos

chorale read--both students read at the same time

shared read--the students take turns reading each page

 Word work- this is normally some type of word sorting activity where the kids focus on a specific sound in words and sort the pictures and words accordingly.  For example short u word families or sh words and ch words.

Poetry--the kids each have a poetry notebook

The notebook contains a years worth of poems, they get a new poem each week.  The kids are to read the poem with their group, put the sentence of the poem in the correct order in the oetry pocket chart and lastly, illustrate the poem in their notebook. 

Happy Reading!

Happy Halloween!

Today we celebrated Halloween! Here are some pictures from the Halloween Party!

 The party planners did such an awesome job planning great events for the kids.  Here's our class playing the mummy relay race!  The kids had to wrap their team in toilet paper like a mummy and race to the other side, first team to get through the whole team...WINS!

 We also got to make sucker ghosts! Spoookey!

 The day wouldn't have been complete without the teachers dressing up...Here's the primary wing aka Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, complete with a magic mirror and poison apple!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Math Fun

We have been learning all about addition techniques such as; counting up.  When we count up we start with the bigger number in an addition problem and count up the little number in the problem.  After doing a lot of practice we got to play a really fun game; double compare.  Double Compare is a card game that is similar to war except each player flips over 2 cards and adds the numbers together, the player with the largest sum wins the cards.  Here are some pictures of us playing!

Just Right Books

This week we are learning Goldilock's rules on how to choose "Just Right" books!  Check out this GREAT site all about choosing these "Just Right" books.
http://www.booknutsreadingclub.com/goldilocksrule.html

Family Trees

Today we completed our Family Trees.  The kids worked so hard on these, they enjoyed sharing their families with the class as well.  Here are some pictures of us at work contructing the trees! 
Enjoy!

Eye, Mouth and Body Control

This week we discussed Eye, Mouth and Body Control.  We decided the following would be what First Graders would fo to show good Eye Control;
Look at the person speaking.
No eye rolling.
For Mouth Control we decided First Graders should be;
Keep your mouth quiet when someone else is speaking.
Use a whisper voice in the classroom at work time, a shoulder voice when working with a partner, and a table voice when working as a table.
Use only kind, respectful words.
Only use an outside voice outside at recess time.
For Body Control we decided we would need to;
Keep our hands and feet to ourselves at all times.
Sit criss cross applesauce on the carpet. 
Walk with our hands to our sides in the hallway.

To finish up Eye, Mouth and Body Control we made a book and chose one rule for each to write down.  We then got to share our book with a friend.

 

Class Promise

Today we made our class promise.  To get started we began to brainstorm a list of things we promise to do this year in First Grade.  After we made our list, as a class we needed to "sign" our promise.  We decided to sign it by writing our name with rainbow letters and topping it off by decorating a face to go with our name, just in case anyone couldn't read our words.   We worked VERY hard on our names and faces, check us out!

Our finished Class Promise!!

Tour of our First Grade Classroom!

Welcome to our room! I'm sure you have so many questions about all of the fun areas in our room.  I'll take you on a quick picture tour! 

Once you walk into the room you will see our calendar board.  This is where we will do the calendar each day, count by 10s, 5s and 2s as well as chart the weather, count money and days in First Grade!  You will also see a tall book shelf with colorful boxes, those will be our book boxes all year.  The book boxes will store our Just Right books that we will read during Reader's Workshop!

Next you will see my desk, this is where I will be when we are doing things as a whole class using the projector screen.

Next you will see the word wall and reading group table.  The word wall will be used to display words we have worked on in class.  It is there to help all the kiddos learn to spell and remember those tricky sight words.  The reading table is where Mrs. Cook will hold reading groups.  We will meet three times or twice a week to read books together.  These books will be perfect for you because they will be on your very own reading level.   

The next area is the classroom library.  This is where you will get to go book shopping to pick out just right books for your book boxes!

Next up, we have the back counter top.  This area will hold tubs for center time work and will also be the place we store our daily writing journals and daily math journals.

Lastly we have our classroom job board.  This bulletin board will hold our daily schedule as well as the classroom jobs.  There is also a place on the table to turn in your monthly calendars each morning and your work each day.  Underneath the table you will see the Listening Center, this is where you will get to listen to books on tape and write a book report over what you heard!

I really hope you enjoyed the tour!

Mrs. Cook

Welcome!

Dear First Graders (and families of first graders),

Hurray, hurray!  You're a first grader...at last!   I have been waiting all summer long to meet you, and I can't wait to take you on the most wonderful learning adventures this year!  Get excited--we are going to be reading oodles of the BEST books ever written, conducting fun science experiments, writing and illustrating books just like real authors, solving all kinds of puzzling math problems, and all along the way we'll be dancing, singing, laughing, and having a GREAT time learning together!  Some of you may have butterflies flapping around in your little bellies-- maybe some of you are so nervous, you even have whole birds in there!  Don't worry.  First grade is going to be a BLAST!  I promise.  Pinky promise.  See you soon, first grader!  

Love,