Thursday, November 29, 2012

Measuring, Measuring

In math today, we practiced measuring items to the nearest inch.  To start, we used unifix cubes to figure out an approximate length.  Then, we remeasured the same four items with a ruler to see if there was a difference or not.  We loved measuring with rulers but are *really* looking forward to measuring with a measuring tape.





During our reading groups today we read our writing stories to our friends to see if they could help us revise and edit.  The first graders had excellent suggestions for their friends such as how to spell a word correctly and where it might be helpful to add more detail.  We are all in various stages of the writing process and are so anxious to publish our stories.  We learned today that all stories need to have a Cover Page and an Author's Page.  We have been working to add those pages to our published stories and added them to our current stories.  We had a really fun time deciding who to dedicate our stories to.  Some of us are even beginning to add dialogue to our stories which has been entertaining.  It is hard to remember to always say who is talking!

The first graders worked very hard during literacy!  Check out their awesome work!





We also had a very exciting moment when R.P. lost his very first tooth!  Check out this smile!


And, since I'm uploading photos...I thought you might enjoy seeing my sister's dog, Ivy, during her holiday photo shoot today for our family card. 


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Writing-Filled Wednesday

Whew!  We were so busy today in Room 3!  In SWR we had a sentence that was worth 28 dots!  That is a lot of writing!  We also had a first name in our sentence that we had to remember to uppercase that, too.

Before we had snack, we had a few minutes to read part of a weather book that Ryan B. checked out of the library to share with us.  It was so interesting.  We had time to read 3 sections.  We learned a lot about the sun and a specific part of our atmosphere called the troposphere.  The troposphere is very important because that is where all of the weather on earth happens.  We also learned that the sun creates all of the weather on earth.  

During math we traced our feet to measure items in our room.  Check out these first graders using their own feet to measure:




After we finished measuring, and completing our math workbook, we worked on making combinations of 6, 7, 8, and 9, and completed number charts. 



In reading today we reviewed adding er and est to words to compare them, practiced adding ing to words, practiced our vowels, (ask your first grader to tell you about the YouTube videos we watched about vowels...), and even learned about "magic" or "super" e.  Check out Miss A.S. work with super E:



In our reading groups we worked to retell the stories we had read and practiced reading with expression.  Reading with expression is so important because it makes the person listening to you want to hear more!  If you have a chance with your child tonight, let them read to you and encourage them to read with expression!  (It's okay if it seems a little over the top... they love reading with expression!)

In writing we are taking new stories through the writing process.  We have planned and prepared stories, and are now working on drafting and revising and editing.  We love writing in Room 3 and have produced many wonderful stories so far this year!

Yesterday, at the end of P.E., Mr. Pecor challenged Miss Spates and I to a scooter race with the winner of the class scooter race.  Not being one to back down from a challenge... I found myself in my socks, on a scooter today.  Check out these awesome action photos taken by Hailey while Miss Spates, Connor and I race to the finish in one heat of the races!


 You can see Miss Spates and I took the "easy" way and sat on our bottoms and moved backwards.  Connor... went flying for the finish!

 Connor and Miss Spates are way ahead of me so far!  You can see the students in the background cheering... they were "Team Spates".


 I obviously can't believe I'm losing.  (Did you know that I can't STAND to lose?!?!?) Luckily...

 Miss Spates had a tragic tumble and I beat her to the finish!  The first graders were so proud of me, they rushed through the finish line to celebrate!



 I think they were just excited to have a reason to jump on their teacher in huge pile!

It has come to my attention that some students have been logging onto RAZ-kids accounts that are not their own.  Please be sure that your student is only signing on to their own account.  Thanks!    

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Chilly Tuesday

Now that the weather is cold, damp, and wet, please remember to send your child in with warm weather gear, dry clothes (especially socks!), and most importantly, a change of shoes for the day!  If they have a pair of shoes they can leave at school, that is fine.

We started our day with Wallah teaching SWR to celebrate her awesome behavior.  She did a fabulous job leading our red words and checking student's work for correct spelling and letter formation.  The rest of the class did a fabulous job following Wallah's directions!



In math today we practiced measuring items around our classroom with non-standard measuring tools such as our fingers, hands, feet, paces, and arms!  We learned that many of our body parts have a fancier name when using them to measure, such as a yard, digit and cubit.  Using the chart below- can you guess what these first graders are measuring with?









Some students wanted to see how many "hands" I was, so they took turns measuring me.  To some, I was 13 hands, to others I was 15.  




In reading today we reviewed vowels, the different sounds they can make, and why they're important.  In our writing, we're always checking to make sure that our words have at least one vowel.  We also learned about three letters, that when placed together at the end of the word, mean we're doing it RIGHT NOW.


ING
We practiced adding "ing" to the end of many words to show that we are doing something.  We also wrote stories with many words ending in ing.  


Colin wrote about his morning going to school. Check out all of those vowels in his words!


Ryan P. demonstrates what blastoff means in his reading group.


Then, Ryan added ing to the word write to build a sentence about what he's been doing.  (Did you notice that all of his words have vowels?!?)


Avery wrote a story about Dancing with the Stars- she added ing to dance, amaze, and dress.  


Wallah shows us that she can build words with vowels as well!


Tucker and Connor work to add ing to words.


Joud wrote a poem using word family words and made sure each of her words had vowels.


Matthew built a sentence about his car.


Angie wrote sentences and made sure that each of her words had vowels.  

Gavin wrote two sentences about attending Cub Scouts with Tucker and hiking Mt. Philo.


In math we compared objects to one another and we realized that we can compare things using the endings er and est.  We noticed that Miss Terrien is short, Ava is shorter, but Angie is shortest.  We also realized that Ryan F's hair is long, Matthew's hair is longer, but Hannah's hair is longest!  We loved comparing things, and people, around our room and finding other words we could use to compare.  






Monday, November 26, 2012

Fantastic Monday Back

Joud chose to lead Morning Meeting for her awesome behavior! She is tallying the class results for our daily poll.

Wow!  We had such a wonderful first day back together.  We got right to work with our new red word in SWR: are.  We discussed how this is a tricky word because it can sound a lot like or and our. Our new word families this week are "___ip" and "___ib".  We realized that many of the words in these families sound the same and we have to listen very carefully for the ending sounds.  We did a fabulous job generating words in these families before we even learned them and we came up with sibling, triple, and shipwrecked- wow!

Our WOW word this week is anxious- nervous or excited.  We talked about how it can mean both of those words, and how they are different.  You might be the nervous type of anxious if it's your turn at bat and there are two strikes already.  You might be the excited type of anxious if it's Christmas Eve or the night before the first day of school.  

In math we started a brand new unit that is all about measuring.  We started by measuring the temperature and reading thermometers.  We will be discussing the temperature and weather a lot in the next couple of weeks (our new science unit is weather too!), so expect your first grader to be looking for weather/temperature related stories and things at home.  

During reading we learned that there are 5 (sometimes 6) vowels in our alphabet.  The vowels are A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y.  Did you know that every word HAS to have a vowel?  We played a funny game where we wrote our names without vowels- it didn't work!  Can you figure out any of these names without their vowels?

vr
Tckr
Rn
Mttw
ng
Wllh
Jd
Jrdn
Hnnh
Smmr
Trc
Mss Trrn
Hl
Cnnr
Cln
Mrk
Gvn
v

Crazy, right?  

As we write new stories in Writer's Workshop this week we will be focusing on making sure all of our words have vowels when we edit.  

Check out these students practicing the new skills they have learned during Reader's Workshop:

 Joud showed vowels in the alphabet and worked on work family words and sight words.

 Ryan F. was so thrilled to find the red word, are, in his reading group book.

 Summer remembered to capitalize names of people and ended her sentence with a period.

Ryan F. built a sentence explaining why he is anxious.  We talked about how you show you know the meaning of a word by using "because" and giving an example.

At the end of reading we had an amazing thing happen- Ryan B. made it all the way up to Super Student because he had been working hard ALL day!  Ryan called his mom at home to tell her he made it to super student.  He thought that was pretty awesome!


Our new science unit is all about weather!  The first graders know a lot about weather and are fascinated by weather such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and monsoons.  We will learn about all of those things, and more, but our main focus while we learn about weather is the water cycle.  Some key words to be on the lookout for will be: precipitation, evaporation, condensation, continuous, and cycle.  We were so lucky because today we were able to see the water cycle first-hand in a very obvious way!  We also read a story today about mice who get caught in a rainstorm and what they do to find shelter.