Weather and Shapes

Last week we also learned about weather! We are keeping weather logs and recording the temperature and weather every day. Monday, we will begin learning about the water cycle and do a fun experiment studying evaporation.

We wrote about our favorite type of weather and illustrated it (sorry for the funny lighting in the photos!).

We also drew pictures how do dress for the weather of each season: 

4/8/12 ** Update on our weather unit **

Guess who finally uploaded pictures of our weather logs?! Check out the fun we had recording the temperature and weather outside each day during our weather unit...

Big smiles after hard work. :)

Buddies enjoying working together!

Kiddos working hard!

Love these smiling faces!

Karsyn hard at work.

In math, we have been learning about shapes. We started out with a review of two-dimensional shapes. We were shape detectives and went on a "Shape Hunt" around the classroom.

Later on in the week, we learned about solid shapes and went on a shape hunt for them in the classroom, as well!

Dr. Seuss and more!

These past two weeks we have been celebrating the works of one of my favorite authors, Theodor Geisel... better known as DR. SEUSS! What an inspiration he is and so much fun to learn from! 

We created our own "Seussy" characters and wrote about them.
4/8/12 ** Update: Some Suessy writing examples: **
(Sorry I didn't post them all, there were so many wonderful works!)


Dr. Snoop:

Dr. Jarumin:

Bridley:

Pinksilverous:

Eggs E:

Sareo:

Med the Bed:

 I was so proud of the kiddos for their hard work on these! We also read numerous silly Dr. Suess books and enjoyed dressing silly each day for Dress Up Days.

We also learned about cause and effect with another one of my favorite authors, Laura Numeroff. We created our own cause and effect stories mirroring her classic, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

We learned about homophones (words that sound the same but look different) and chose our own to  write about.

This little lady chose TWO homophones! (see and sea, moose and mouse)

Just enjoying out newest pillow addition in the library. 

I'm so excited for the passion the children have for reading!

Pop Rocks Descriptive Writing

The kiddos had fun learning about describing words. Using Babbling Abby's "Let's Get Pop Rockin" activity, we tasted Pop Rocks and used our five senses to describe how they felt in our mouth.

Look at all the fun we had learning to be creative writers and enjoying a tasty treat! ...

A Little Overdue... Valentine's Day!

What a busy couple of months it has been with my sweet first graders! This is (more than) a little overdue, but here are some of the fun things we did to celebrate Valentine's Day this year...

The children brought in decorated Valentine's mailboxes. We took turns passing out candy and Valentines. What a fun day!

We counted and graphed our candy hearts.

We talked about what Valentine's Day means to us and recorded it on an anchor chart.

We also made a "Valentine's Love List" of all the things we love.
First we listed some ideas together, then we made our own lists.

It was a great day full of candy and fun! What a great day to get to enjoy together!

Daily Five

For reading, my first graders participate in the Daily Five. This consists of independent reading, partner reading, writing, word work, and listening to reading.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos at work:

Partner Reading / Independent Reading

Listening to Reading

Writing

 Now we come to my biggest challenge: Word Work. I think Word Work can be a challenge for a lot of teachers simply because there are so many different ways to implement it and you have to find the right combination for your group of students.

After trying MANY different word work activities and techniques, this week I have settled on one that seems to be working the best out of all. I placed this pocket chart on a filing cabinet in my sink/nook area. In the chart, I have placed several words focusing on our spelling pattern for the week, as well as a couple which focus on our past spelling patterns. The children have the choice of building any of these words throughout the week using several different activities: tile writing, rainbow writing, magnet writing, and puzzle magnets. I plan on adding more activities and organizing a little more over the weekend, but I am enjoying the new routine so far.

One thing that I had not been using much was the magnet letters, since I am using all of the magnetic boards with my small groups. I love that now they can use the magnets on the filing cabinet and the words they have to build are right there in front of them! The students use the bottom as well as the side with the drawers. They are really seeming to enjoy it so far. They also are doing a great job at staying on task, which is always a difficulty with word work.

The children build with magnet letters on the filing cabinet.

Another example, where the children used some magnetic puzzle letters to build their words.

I liked how they used other magnetic letters when they ran out of the puzzle pieces. :)

All in all, I am excited and optimistic about our new word work station. I will keep you updated on how it continues to grow! :)