Happy Read Across America Day!

WOW! What a great day we had at our READ-A-THON. We read many different kinds of books. Had people read to us, and even listened to stories online. We read under tables and blankets, to ourselves and with buddies. Overall it was a fabulous day and we got to really ENJOY reading.

Read Across America READ-A-THON

Just a reminder that Friday is our READ-A-THON!

Celebrating Success!

On Friday we celebrated our middle of the year reading success. The students were surprised to return from PE to this:

Along with this classic blasting on the speakers. 

                                            

Every student in our class has improved their reading score from September and our class average has moved up 18 points! I told them I was very happy with their hard work and I can't wait to see the scores at the end of the year. Has we had Fantastic Friday, students enjoyed some fruit parfaits in honor of their fabulous reading. 

Syllable Sort

We have been practicing sorting words by the number of syllables. This week we made an art project out of those pesky sales ads.

Thanksgiving Story Bracelet

We've been working hard to learn the story of the first Thanksgiving. We learned that Pilgrims didn't use forks and ate off wooden plates. We also learned that there were 140 people that ate Thanksgiving together. Did you know, that along with turkey, the pilgrims and Native Americans also ate deer, fish, and mussels?  Today we made bracelets to help us remember the order of the story. Ask your child to retell the story to you using their bracelet.

I hope everyone has a great and safe Thanksgiving. I am thankful for our awesome classroom and their families! 

More Laura Numeroff!

Laura Numeroff Author's Study

This week and next week we will be reading LOTS of Laura Numeroff books.  Her books are perfect for our 1st graders because of the lovable characters, predictable stories, and simple language. Today we read Laura Numeroff's most famous book:

If you'd like to listen to the story you can here! 

We also had a chance to make a mouse character and write our own version of the story! There are many more fun activities to follow the next two week!

Spelling

Each week during our Literacy Centers, the students rotate through a spelling center. This center has various phonics activities. This practice helps teach and reinforce the 50 words every 1st grader should know by the end of the year. Often, these are sorting and building activities followed by a game. Here is a look at a few spelling activities we have done the first quarter.

Secret Code Spelling

Phonics Battleship

Say, Make, Write

If you are looking to practice spelling at home, check out the Reading tab at the top of the blog for some great online resources, or ask your child to teach you a game we play at school!

Some Science and Vowel Bats!

Our plants have started to sprout. There has been great excitement in tracking the growth of these plants! We are hoping the seeds that have not popped out of the soil yet will soon.

We are working on the short A sound this week. In the weeks to come we will focusing on other vowel sounds. Since all great lessons come with songs, we have been singing the song Vowel Bat all week. Beware it is catchy and WILL get stuck in your head. 

During reading centers, the students are making origami bats with the vowel letters on them. 

Rhyme Monster

To wrap up our rhyme mini-unit,  we drew a rhyme monster on Friday.

Here is how our monster turned out. Pretty scary! 

Tingalayo and some brand new plants!

You may have heard the song Tingalayo being sung around the house the past two weeks. If you would like the hear it, click here! This week we have taken the song to a whole new level by writing our own verses. First, we had to figure out the rhyming pattern of the song. Then, we were able use that pattern to make up our own verses! We have had some pretty creative songs with donkey's doing all kinds of silly things! We are hanging them up in the classroom so everyone can read them!

We also planted some seeds today! The girls planted pinto beans, while the boys planted garden peas.

 We watched this time lapse video to see how seeds grew into plants. We used our prediction skills to guess how long it would take for these plants to really grow! Did you know it was only 9 days?

Here is a before picture of our plants. Check back for updates on how our peas and beans are growing! 

Good-Bye Poem

We end everyday with our Good Bye Poem. This week in our literature block, we will be working on making and finding rhymes.

Power Towers

Power Towers are our new favorite spelling game! The rules are very simple and we use little paper bathroom cups with words on the bottom to play in our classroom!

TA-DA! These spellers built a tall power tower!

Ready For Anything and a HUGE THANK YOU!

The first day of school we read a book called Ready for Anything by Keiko Kasza. We decided that first grade would be challenging and different at times, but we would be open and READY FOR ANYTHING!

 

Well... today was one of those days were we had to be READY FOR ANYTHING! The combination of tornado warnings and a classroom that is in a trailer provided a very busy day of shuffling back and forth. The kids were so patient and attentive to directions that it made me very proud to be their teacher! At the end of the day we were able to still squeeze in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. We even accomplished it by staying "mostly" dry! I think after today our class really is READY FOR ANYTHING!



I wanted to give out a HUGE, GIGANTIC, MONSTROUS thank you to the parents who have purchased items from our classroom wish list. Today we received these:

They are awesome chair sacks so the kids can store their notebooks and folders right at their seats! SO WONDERFUL! The biggest downside to my online wish list is that I don't know who sends me all these amazing gifts! If you buy things for the classroom, please let me know, I want to give you a personal thanks as well! 

Reading Centers

Our literacy block is every morning from 8:00 to 10:00. We start by singing a few songs and then transitioning into reading centers. This week the class has been practicing the different centers. Monday we learned what it meant to work in a "small group". We decided the top two rules were to whisper and share. Today we learned about the spelling center. In the spelling center, the students will do many phonics based activities to expand their knowledge of words. We practiced using our different spelling tools to make all the names in our class. 

For the rest of the week we will be learning and practicing what to do in the writing, reading and computer centers! Next week we will have a chance to rotate through a weeks worth of centers and start to become comfortable with this daily routine.