September 26, 2012

It was wonderful to have the rain hold off all day!  We were able to work outside and have an extra recess!

In skills this morning, the Screaming Mustaches took an end-of-unit comprehension assessment.  They independently read a story and answered questions about it. 

The Zesty Wombats began Unit 2 and we worked hard on the magic e.  Magic e is the silent e at the end of words that makes a vowel say its name.  For example, we changed "cap" into "cape."  I like to make up stories so that concepts will stick in the kids' heads.  I explained how Magic E is a magician and he likes to walk up to vowels and bop them on the head with his magic wand and say, "ABRACADABRA! Now you say your name!"  So we marched around saying things like "I'm Mr. A, I'm Mr. A, When I get bopped on the head, I say /AE/!"  and so forth.  We'll be working on magic e for a while. 

The Organic Squirrels began to read their book today!  They're reading Snap Shots, which is a story about a girl who travels and takes photos.  They are still concentrating a lot on the sh/th/ch sounds and tricky words. 

The Ice Dragons read more of The Mouse and the Motorcycle.  Today in their story, Ralph (the mouse) was offered the opportunity to ride the motorcycle by Keith (the boy).  He learned that, in order to make the motorcycle go, he has to go "b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bbbbb!"  They're really enjoying the story.

In centers, the kids went to the library.  We reviewed the rules of the library , then each child had the opportunity to take out two books.  Another center worked with the iPads.  They kids worked on targeted sounds with the Phonics Genius app and also did tricky word bingo.  The last center focused on tracking student fluency.  The first graders worked on reading tricky words while the second graders worked on short phrases.  We're going to track fluency throughout the school year.

In project, the kids did a LOT of work.  They picked green beans and eggplant and got seeds from the lettuce that was outside.  They cleared 3 garden beds and composted the weeds and old plants.  They planted watermelon seeds (an experiment - they have a 70 day growth cycle, which means they probably won't make it.  We may have a mild fall, though!) and daffodils.  Then they peeled and chopped apples for apple crisp.  A small group chose to have shorter extra recess in order to make the crisp batter for the apple crisp.  Tonight I'll finish prepping the apples and bake the crisp so we can eat it tomorrow. 

We wrapped up the day with a read aloud from our chapter book.  It was a pleasant day full of hard teamwork!

September 25, 2012

Picture Day!

This morning instead of skills, we had picture day.  Although it was time consuming and required a lot of patience on the part of all of the kids, they were exceptionally well behaved.  Everyone got their picture taken and everyone was adorable! 

During centers today, Carol worked with everyone on twisting with their pincher fingers.  They wound up toys and watched them chatter.  They also spun tops.  These activities will help develop fine motor skills.  With Beth, the kids are working on sequencing.  They sequenced both pictures and sentences.  Thinking about sequencing will help when we start summarizing stories.  With Amy, everyone worked on adjectives and making sentences juicy.  We started with the sentence "The cat ate."  Then everyone brainstormed and picked adjectives to describe the cat.  Then they brainstormed and added what the cat ate.  Last, they added a because.  One example was "The fluffy, soft cat ate chips because he wanted food." 

The afternoon was full of specials.  In Spanish, the kids worked on shapes.  They learned el cuadrado (square).  They also did beautiful shape art.  I hope they show you what they made!  In music they sang a beautiful song about a lavender field.  They also sang a lot of upbeat folk songs.  Emily wasn't in school today so instead of science the kids did art.  They worked on landscapes and blending colors. 


Today Michelle and I finished making our new calming space:

Right now it's just a calm, quiet space, but we will soon be adding things like squishy balls, fidgety things, and other calming strategies they learn.  It was used a bit today and I think it's comforting to the kids to know there's a space in the room where they can feel safe to just be.

Have a lovely evening!

September 21, 2012

Another week wraps up!

Today in skills the Zesty Wombats reviewed suffixes and talked about tricky spellings.  They learned that the -ed suffix can make 3 different sounds.  It can say /ed/ like in added, /d/ like in paddled, or /t/ like in switched.  They also learned that the -s suffix can make 2 sounds: /s/ like in cats and /z/ like in dogs.  They read the story The Chips in which the cat bandit uses a catapult to shoot himself on top of the refrigerator to get the chips. 

The Ice Dragons finished the second chapter of The Mouse and the Motorcycle.  They've now met Keith (the boy) and Ralph (the mouse), and are excited to find out more about their friendship.

The Screaming Mustaches have been working on making good summaries.  It's hard to figure out just how many details to include in a summary, and that's something we'll continue to work on all year.  They read The Pancake Part 2, which is a lot like the Gingerbread Man story.  They found it pretty easy to summarize it!

In centers, the kids finished creating b's and d's.  They used clay to make the letters, and practiced just making them at demand and also making the letter that corresponded to the beginning sound of a word.  They also did some chaining.  Chaining is when they start with one word and then a sound changes and they have to write the next word in the chain.  An example of a chain is car --> card --> hard --> harp --> sharp --> shard...etc.  The kids do chains that go along with the sounds they're learning or reviewing.  The last center was another calming strategy center, which Michelle will post about soon. 

This afternoon were curriculum projects.  The second graders are finishing crafts relating to Hinduism.  They also learned about the celebration Diwali, which is a festival of lights that celebrates the triumph of good over evil.  The first graders continue to learn about the world and its continents and oceans. 

At all pod, Velma's pod released about 35 butterflies to go to Mexico.  We all got to go outside and watch them fly away.  One landed on Richard! 

This week, we've spent some time talking about being "sneaky mean."  I've noticed some kids in our class doing things that qualify as "sneaky mean."  Sneaky mean is doing something that's mean-intentioned but could be disguised as something nice.  For example, one child could ask another child about TV shows they like to watch.  But they might ask questions like, "Do you like to watch Sesame Street?  What about Dora the Explorer?  What about The Wiggles?"  When they ask these questions, they're not asking to find out whether they really like those TV shows - they're asking to gather fodder to make fun of the child.  The other child might not know they're doing it, and that's what makes it sneaky mean. 

Another example of "sneaky mean" is doing something like announcing, "I'm going to sit with all my friends!  I'm going to sit with Jane and Meg and Alice and Maria.  These people are all my friends and they're the only ones I'm going to sit with!"  This is sneaky mean because it deliberately excludes other children and makes them feel like they don't have friends.

After giving the kids many examples of sneaky mean and discussing how it's hurtful to others, I also told them that sneaky mean is absolutely unacceptable and that if I see it or hear of it, I'll be contacting parents.  Please help to encourage your children to be kind to others, even if they aren't friends with them.  I'm working really hard to create a safe, inclusive environment and every bit you can help at home to reinforce that is wonderful.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Fun!

In first grade skills the kids reviewed the digraphs /sh/ and /ch/, played a vowel sorting game to review short vowel sounds, learned 5 new tricky words and played a tricky word game called "Hot Potato"! They are such a great group and they had so much fun!

In centers today we combined calming strategies of breathing and quiet music. Ask your child about ocean breath, bubble breath and elevator breath. We practiced all these and made the breath into a visual and controlled practice by blowing bubbles while listening to quiet music. They really enjoyed this!
Have a fantastic weekend!!
Michelle

September 19, 2012 - Farm Trip!

What a fantastic first trip to the farm!  It was so exciting to learn all about a new place.  Even though it was a little overwhelming, everyone did incredibly well managing the sensory input. New smells, sights, sounds, and experiences were noted but worked through with no problems. 

Every week we work with Jonny Belber, who is an educator at Holly Hill Farm.  This week the kids mostly learned about the different places and animals on the farm and were able to feed many of the animals including the chickens, goats, horse and pony, and rabbit:

While one group works with Jonny, the other works with Amy.  In Amy's group, the kids harvested SO MANY vegetables.  They harvested curly and straight kale, broccoli, scallions, red lettuce, cucumbers, and pumpkins.  Some of this will come home tomorrow, so be ready! 

Everyone did very well and had fun at the farm today!  It was a great, beautiful, productive day.

First Grade Skills - September 19, 2012

What an amazing group of first graders! They work so hard and never stop amazing me! Today we worked on decoadable words and phrases. We also practiced the letters k and x. Please continue to work on tricky words at home as they are essential to developing reading fluency. What a great week so far!

September 17, 2012

Happy Monday!

Today in skills the Organic Squirrels reviewed old sounds and learned more about the partner sounds /j/ and /y/.  They went over tricky words and reviewed nouns. The Zesty Wombats reviewed how two letters can make one sounds and reviewed /qu/, /wr/, /wh/, and /kn/.  They read the story The Ham, too.  The Screaming Mustaches read another Bedtime Tale called How the Hedgehog Tricked the Hare.  They began a graphic organizer about it so they will be able to quickly and easily write a book report about it.  The Ice Dragons finished their Jigsaw Jones mystery!

In centers we began to review how to write b and d.  Last week was all about discriminating between the letters and this week is going to be writing them in many different ways.  Today was with crayon on sandpaper.  They also learned a little about how to keep track of their reading fluency using a graph.  We used a fake graph with fake data, but starting next week we'll be keeping track for real.  They also reviewed the tricky words so and is.

In writing we're still working on the sentence.  Today the kids drew pictures then wrote a one-sentence descriptor.  They were trying to do more than just label the picture, but also to explain what was happening.  They're getting better with sentences!  We'll jump to two sentences next, and hopefully soon everyone will be able to write 3 sentences about a picture. 

It can be hard to ease into Mondays, but the kids are working hard to come to school ready to go.  We're all working hard to keep things going smoothly!

Hello and What's New!

Hello Families,

I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself to those of you who may not know me. My name is Michelle Gallagher. I am the Learning Services Teacher for Level One. I also co-teach with Amy. I am in the classroom three hours a day. I am teaching first grade skills to a group of 7 students. I help plan and run "centers." I also teach 2nd grade math side by side with Amy. Amy and I have been co-teaching since the time I started here at SSCPS almost 4 years ago! I have been a special education teacher for 15 years.
I wanted to make sure knew who I was before you start seeing posts from me. You will see a lot of posts from me about our Social Thinking curriculum as it is a passion for me! I will also try to send posts about 1st grade skills as well! If you are around and want to pop in and say hello I am located in an office two doors down from Ted. I look forward to meeting all the new families throughout the year!

Spetember 14, 2012

Whew, what a busy week!

Today in skills, the Screaming Mustaches did a review game where they rolled a big dice, moved to a sound, and spelled a word with that sound in it.  The sounds they reviewed were /oo/, /oi/, /ou/, /or/, /ar/, and /er/.  They played outside and the wind threatened to spoil the game, but everyone was very resourceful and we managed to make it through.

The Zesty Wombats also played a game, though theirs was inside.  They played a board game checking their ability to discriminate between soft and hard c.  Today was the last day to work on soft and hard c and g, but we'll definitely continue to refer to it.

The Ice Dragons nearly finished their Jigsaw Jones mystery.  They know all about suspicious behavior on the part of some of the characters and on Monday they should see it solved.

The Organic Squirrels are just about finished reviewing how to blend and segment short vowel sounds.  That means they can put words together and take them apart (sounding out c-a-t as cat and also taking cat and stretching it into c-a-t).

In centers today the kids finished their week long mini-unit on discriminating between b and d.  They did a word sort, sorting by initial consonant.  They also reviewed the tricky words no and of.  They learned another calming strategy, this time a song to help them be calm.

In curriculum project the first graders got to see a monarch butterfly hatch out of its chrysalis.  How lucky!  They are working on continents in curriculum.  The second graders are learning about Hinduism. Today they started mini-art projects surrounding either the holy place (Ganges River), holy text (the Vedas), some of the gods (Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma), or someo f the principles (Dharma, Brahman, reincarnation). 

In writing today we worked a bit more on the sentence.  The kids learned about subject and predicate and we reviewed that (subject is who the sentence is about and predicate is what they do).  Then they unscrambled a sentence and underlined the subject once and the predicate twice.  The second graders turned their simple sentences into juicier sentences.

We started our read aloud book today.  We're reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which is a book about the importance of stories.  It's one of my absolute favorite books, full stop - not just out of kid books, but out of all books.  Its language is so vivid and its adventure and excitement reel the readers in.  I read it to my class two years ago and at the end of the year last year I had a few kids who remembered it so vividly that we retold the story to each other in great detail.  I'm so excited to be able to share this book with the class.

With our first full week behind us, we all deserve a relaxing weekend.  Enjoy!

September 13, 2012

Today was a great day!

The kids continue to forge forward in skills.  One thing I've been teaching to the Zesty Wombats and reviewing with the Screaming Mustaches is soft c and soft g.  I made up a story about "bully vowels" who like to follow around c and g and scare them. 

In the story, when g is scared, he says "/j/!" and when c is scared he says "/s/!"  G is slightly smarter than c in that he's sort of confused by the i - the kids say it's because i is a cyclops.  G doesn't always say /j/ when followed by i, so the kids have to think harder about gi than any other letter.

In social skills today the kids learned about overreacting.  They were able to give many examples of when people overreact, and had a great time sharing.  Then, we switched from overreacting to appropriate responses.  We categorized happenings into "big deals", "pretty big deals", and "not big deals."  We're using a thermometer to show the difference.

Things they categorized as a big deal were things that would require emergency personnel or are super dangerous, like:
-Fire
-Throwing rocks and sticks
-Running away
-Stealing
-Hurting someone on purpose

Things that are a pretty big deal are dangerous or destructive and may require a call home to a trip to Ted, but not the police, like:
-Bringing peanut butter to school
-Getting hurt
-Not sharing
-Running in the hall

-Using bad language

-Destroying property

Things that aren't a big deal are annoying and bothersome, but don't hurt anyone, like:

-Cutting in line

-Someone not following the rules in a game

-Getting a warning

-Someone else getting a star when you don't

-Someone sitting in someone else's chair

-Being in someone else's space

-Someone not going when the line moves

An important thing we also talked about is that even though it's not a big deal when someone else does it, the kids should still try not to, because the behaviors annoy their friends.

The next step to our thermometer is to illustrate some of these things and hang them around it as a reminder.  This is language we're going to use throughout the year to help kids keep things in perspective.  Hopefully, when we keep them from overreacting, their peers will continue to appreciate how awesome each child really is.

At the end of the day Jonny, the farm teacher from Holly Hill Farm, came to work with the class in the garden.  He introduced himself to them and asked each child what they wanted to plant.  We got answers that ranged from watermelon and all kinds of berries to sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes.  When we went outside to plant, the kids weeded the bed and turned some soil.  Then they planted some arugula.  Arugula is a delicious, spicy green that's great in salads.  I can't wait for it to grow so we can eat it!

It was a busy day today, and everyone learned a lot and worked hard.

September 11, 2012

Today was another busy day!

In skills the Organic Squirrels worked on vowel sounds and tricky words.  The Zesty Wombats continued work on hard and soft g (like glass as opposed to gem) and played a game to find many hard and soft g words.  The Screaming Mustaches worked on /ou/ spelled both ou (like mouse) and ow (like cow) and learned how to do a crossword puzzle.  It was hard!  The Ice Dragons continued reading their Jigsaw Jones mystery.

In centers today Carol worked with a group on handwriting.  They're working on letter formation with her.  Another group did a "d hunt" around the school.  We're working on recognizing b and d this week.  The last group learned about brain bubbles.  A brain bubble shows people's thoughts:

Michelle and Amy did some role playing where one person would do an unexpected behavior like crawling around the room or playing with their shoe, and the other would write their thoughts as the scenario played out:

We tried to show the kids that when they do unexpected behaviors, people can have negative thoughts that lead to negative perceptions. 

Similarly, when they do expected behaviors, people have positive thoughts that lead to positive perceptions:

It was just an introductory lesson, but we plan to continue with brain bubbles throughout the year.

This afternoon, the kids had Spanish in which they sang songs about colors, music, in which they sang more songs, and science in which they were introduced to the body systems like the circulatory, muscular, nervous, and digestive systems. 

The kids are working hard to gain more gold stars, and behavior and effort continues to improve.  It was another great day!

Weekly Wrapup!

What a great week we had!  Even though it wasn't quite a full week, it still managed to be a FULL week! 

In skills:
Each skills group picked a name for themselves.
The first grade skills group decided to name themselves the Organic Squirrels.  They spent the week working on short vowel sounds and nouns.  They haven't started reading their book yet, but it will start soon!
One second grade group's name is the Zesty Wombats.  They reviewed double consonant sounds and suffixes.  They began to read the story The Cat Bandit.
Another second grade group chose the name the Screaming Mustaches.  They reviewed magic e and alternate spellings for long e (e_e, like in Pete; ee, like in bee; and ea, like in leaves).  They began to read the story Bedtime Tales.
The chapter book group chose the name the Ice Dragons.  They are reading a Jigsaw Jones mystery.

Be sure to ask you child which group they're in!

In writing:
Each week the kids write in their project journals.  They summarize what they did in project that week and write about how they felt about what they did.  The first graders wrote 1-2 sentences and the second graders wrote 4-6 sentences.  We also started goal journals this week.  In it, the kids chose a goal for something they can do to make the class a better place.  They will be keeping track of their progress toward their goal in their goal journal.  Ask your child what their goal was!

In Project:
This week the kids made mashed potates in project.  It was an overwhelmingly positive experience for the kids, and most of them enjoyed eating the potatoes, too!  When we make things in project, nobody is required to even taste what they made, but everyone does help to make the food.

In Social Skills:
This week we focused a lot on what we're calling "expected" and "unexpected" behavior.  Sometimes we also call unexpected behavior "rubber chicken behavior."  The basic idea is that expected behavior is doing what's expected from your teachers and peers.  Unexpected behavior is doing things that people don't expect - like having a rubber chicken in school.  We'll put up a whole post about expected and unexpected behavior, but be sure to ask your child what they know about it.

We also spent a little time talking about letting people be who they are.  We read Ferdinand and after discussing it everyone traded shoes and we talked about how uncomfortable it is to wear someone else's shoes.  Then we likened that to trying to be someone you're not.  It's awkward and squishy to try to be a different person than you are on the inside, and the kids agreed that they'd do their best to respect each other for who they truly are.

Lastly, we spent a little time talking about different ways to ask for help.  Everyone agreed that not knowing how to do something is frustrating and can make you sad or grumpy.  Everyone also agreed that when they get help or understand things, they're happy and accomplished.  Sometimes it can be embarrassing to ask for help, but we came up with a few different ways to ask:

"Help please!"
"I don't get it!"
"Can you explain?"
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know how!"
"I don't understand!"

My goal is to get the kids to ask for help and never say "I can't!". 

In all, it was an incredible week.  Everyone is doing well, and each day is better than the last.  I'm excited for our first full week next week!

September 5, 2012

Today was a wet day!  Because of all the rain last night and intermittently through the day, we weren't able to go outside and plant or harvest in the garden.  Instead the kids made mashed potatoes from the potatoes they harvested last week.

We started with a chat about how to make mashed potatoes and how to appropriately use tools.  Although peeling potatoes isn't easy - the potatoes get kind of slimy and are hard to hold and the peelers require leverage that's hard for a small child to get - the kids worked hard to peel over 20 potatoes!

 

 

Next, they chopped the potatoes into small pieces and we boiled them in a pot over the hotplate we keep in the classroom.  Last, they mashed them with butter and milk. 

 

Finally, everyone enjoyed eating the mashed potatoes they worked so hard, from harvest to preparation, to make!