Book Fair

Many of us have purchased items from the book fair in the school library already.  If you haven't yet, the book fair is open until 7pm tonight and from 8-11am tomorrow.  Please feel free to send money or a check in with your student if that is easier as well.

This morning, Mark led our morning meeting to celebrate his awesome behavior.  He did an outstanding job!  I am always so impressed at how easily the students manage using technology. 

During SWR the students thought it was *so* funny when I threw in one of my favorite types of candy to their spelling today... Twix!  They loved realizing that it is a member of the ___ix family and that they could hear all of the sounds/letters in that word.  

We were so lucky today to have Mrs. AND Mr. Fetters with us for math.  We rotated through math stations that included:

• rolling 3 dice and counting out that number in coins
• rolling 3 dice and adding the numbers
• domino addition (part/whole)
• computer games
• pattern blocks
• telling time to the hour and half-hour (and ever the QUARTER hour sometimes!)

We had such a great time!  

During literacy we read another story about Thanksgiving and made pattern block turkeys!  The first graders got a little frustrated with how much tracing and cutting was involved in this project, but their turkeys are very cute.  We continued to add to our "Thankful" books in writing.  Our new poem of the day is quite short- and funny! I know your child will be anxious to share it with you when they get home.  Look for the packet of our Thanksgiving poems in your child's folder tonight.

 Gavin is thankful for Ryan B. and Mr. Pecor

 Ava is thankful for her house

 Hailey has worked very hard on her illustrations

 Sweet Angie is thankful for everyone!  

Connor is thankful for his teacher...(I'm thankful he made me look so good!)

We were lucky to have Guidance today and the students made "Tender Trunk" elephants that use kind and caring words.

Reminders:

• Report cards will go home tomorrow in folders
• Conferences are Monday and Tuesday

Wonderful Wednesday

We started our day today by reviewing our red words and practicing words in the ___ax and ___ix families.  There aren't very many words in these families so the first graders are loving how quickly SWR has been going this week!  Since we had extra time, we read a story about a turkey who was trying to avoid his fate at Thanksgiving time.  He got his best, final solution while he was in the family garden... you should ask your student about the solution. They thought it was *so* funny!  (And clever!)  

We have been discussing thankfulness all week so we took time today to make Thankful Turkeys.  Here they are in progress...

and finished!

We have quite the flock of Thankful Turkeys in our room which I am so glad about!

Ryan P. and Connor had lunch in the classroom to celebrate their awesome behavior!  We had a great time visiting about our upcoming Thanksgiving plans.

 Ryan B. and Colin enjoyed sharing a new book from the book fair.

We learned a new poem today that can be sung to the tune of "Are You Sleeping".  The students loved saying the poem and singing it.  They've asked that I make copies of all of our poems so they can bring them home- be looking for those towards the end of the week!  

We finished our day by coloring in a map of the Porters Point area and coming up with our own words for N, E, S, W instead of Never Eat Shredded/Soggy Wheat.

Finally, at the end of the day... our turkeys took flight!

Report cards will be sent home on Friday.  Please check your child's folder for it!

Jeopardy

Oh my gosh- I'm sitting at home watching Jeopardy and had to share this with all of you! 

The $2,000  clue for the "4.'O'" category (every answer has four "o"'s) was, "A word whose sound is imitative of the sound it refers to, like hoot".

I am almost certain each one of our first graders would have gotten this correct:

OnOmatOpOeia!

Thanksgiving Recipes

The first graders were working very hard today to write their favorite Thanksgiving recipes... they were a little anxious that they couldn't remember them exactly- or at all- but I encouraged them to just do their best.  Here's a sneak peek- I cannot wait until they're finished!

 We have pumpkin pie

 Mashed Potatoes 

and Chocolate Cookies

Yesterday, we created beautiful fall trees with markers and chalk.  Check out how they turned out:

We read a poem today called "Autumn Leaves" and the first graders LOVED finding excellent examples of onomatopoeia in it.

We are having such a wonderful time this week with our Thanksgiving themed activities! 

Full of Thanks

This week we are discussing Thanksgiving and what it means to be thankful or appreciative.  We have lots of fun activities planned that the first graders will be so excited about!

In SWR this morning we introduced two new word families- "_ax" and "_ix".  Ax and Ix words can be VERY tricky because "x" sounds a lot like "cks" in tricks, sticks, and bricks.  Our new red word of the week is, is.  The first graders cannot believe such an "EASY" word is our red word of the week.

Our WOW word of the week is "stumble" or to trip or fall.  We discussed that it is a verb or an action word.  Some of us thought that you could stumble someone else, like trip them, but we talked about how you can really only stumble yourself.

This week, math is all about review!  We are practicing counting coins, telling time to the half-hour, adding two and three numbers together and using dominoes to add.  There is no math homework this week, but please make sure that your student is logging on to www.everydaymathonline.com and playing some math games.  Also, use this time to practice skip-counting with your child and count coins!

These are first graders hard at work during math today:

 Trace adds the two parts of dominoes

 We told time to the hour and half-hour

 We designed and measured

 We counted coins

 Tucker uses the number grid to count up

 Summer used a ruler to make this blue jay

A group of students counts coins

During literacy we read a poem about the month of November and created beautiful chalk drawings of a fall tree.    We also read a story about the first Thanksgiving.

Summer and Ava joined me for lunch to celebrate Ava's awesome behavior!

In social studies we are finishing up our mapping unit.  We will spend this week wrapping up and completing a final activity. 

In writing our focus is being Thankful.  We will write a story and a poem about being thankful. 

Parent/Teacher conferences are next week!  The conference time you signed up for was sent home in your child's folder this afternoon.  Please make sure to check for that date and time.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone next week. 

Election Assembly

Wow!  Our Election assembly was absolutely oustanding!  I am so proud of every student in our class.  They worked so hard to write their sentences, practice and memorize them and were just fabulous in front of the entire school.  We barely got our work done today because so many people kept stopping by our room to compliment us on our awesome assembly. 

And everyone looked great in their red, white and blue, too. 

We have been learning about how adding an "s" to the end of a word means more than one.  Hailey was so excited to find an example of this in the book she was reading today. 

 Jordan and Colin show their work during literacy today

 Ave shares her response to a story she read

 Wallah is so excited to have found an example of "qu" in her story, The Hungry Squirrel

 Ryan P. writes about the problem and solution in The Crab Hunt

 Then he and Colin partner read

 So do Matthew and Ava

 Joud and Trace read independently 

 Connor, Jordan and Ryan B. listen to reading

 Hannah writes, "I was wondering if I could play with Summer."  You can see she used her double "o" vowel pattern she just learned to spell "kood" it sounds just like hood, good and stood- way to go Hannah!

Avery and Tucker wrote notes to me while they were at the writing center:

Tucker lets me know he found onomatopeia in a story he read

Avery would like to know who I would vote for she writes, "Would you like to vote for Barack or Romney yes or no," and she even includes math skills by finishing with, "put a tally for Avery."

Election Assembly

Wow!  I was so impressed with your first graders today- they practiced their line for our assembly so much at home last night.  We practiced more today and they are READY for tomorrow.  Of course, practicing a few more times tonight would be great.  Today, we practiced filling up a room with our voice.  We will be using a microphone tomorrow, but encourage your first grader to fill the room up with their voice when they read/say their line. 

Some families have inquired about our assembly tomorrow.  It is our school-wide morning meeting and (should) begin around 8:25 tomorrow morning.  These assemblies are meant to foster community at school, recognize outstanding student behavior, and share what we've been learning in our classrooms.  If you would like to attend our assembly tomorrow, please feel free!  We also decided that we would all try to wear something red/white/blue tomorrow for our very Presidential presentation.  (If we can remember...)

This morning in math we plotted a line graph for the first time and then counted combinations of dimes, nickels and pennies.  The addition of the dime to our coin combinations is very challenging. The students now need to remember the difference between three coins and how much they're worth.  Whenever you get a chance with your child, practice counting coins and talk about how much they're worth.

 Summer and Hannah count coins

 Ryan F. and Connor work together

 Colin and Wallah record their amounts

Mark is thrilled when he realizes he counted his coins correctly!

We read a story today in reading and discussed the problem and the solution.  The problem in this story was something many of us could relate to... noisy baby brothers!  The first graders loved hearing how Geraldine, the older sister, handled having a new baby in her house.

 Wallah builds a sentence with her connection to our story.

 And then encourages all of us to vote for her!

 Matthew works on a story

 Hannah reads a story to Hailey and Wallah

 Ryan B reads independently

 Trace and Joud do word work

Summer writes about electing a teacher for President...

We've started a 5-week Guidance session and the students love their time with Mr. Moses.  I left the room for a minute today... and walked in to this:

 Mrs. Palmer helping Mr. Moses- she is acting out a letter of the alphabet... can you guess which one?  The students played a version of charades and then Pictionary to get their bodies and minds ready for Guidance.  Check out these impressive drawings:

 Mark and Wallah draw their favorite season...

Connor and Summer draw their favorite season!

The Unit 3 math test went home in folders today.  As always, if you have any questions, please let me know!