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!