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!