Place value

We are continuing to get a better handle on place value. Students are understanding the value of the digits in two digit numbers, using tens and ones. We have been modeling this using ten sticks and ones, the smart board and the number pieces app. They are able to represent and draw the value of two digit numbers and write it in expanded form(ex. 4 tens and 5 ones would be 40+5=45). We are using math talk to have rich discussions on being able to compare numbers using place value. 

Starting this quarter we have the help of three math support teachers. They are splitting up first grade classes to teach in another classroom. All students are receiving the same core lesson. This benefits all of first grade because it reduces our class sizes to around 15 students in a math class during this time. Having smaller groups is a more effective use of instructional time to best support all students! 

First quarter recap

We have had a great first quarter together! 

Here is a look at some of the literacy stations; buddy reading(asking and answering questions), word work (focused on word families), writing, and responding to reading. 

In science we learned how to compare and measure. 

In math we learned how addition and subtraction are related. We just started learning about place value for two digit numbers. 

We worked on small moments stories in writing. Below Hunter is planning his "big watermelon moment" and choosing one of the seeds(details) to focus on for his writing. In literacy, we focused on what makes a good reader and strategies to solve tricky words. Below Saffie and Kyiara are recording their voices while reading to work on fluency. When they hear back how they are reading they can reflect on if they are using expression and reading fluently. 

We've had lunch bunch groups, lots of dance breaks, and learned(as Madison's shirt says) that first grade rocks!!  I've loved getting to know your children these first nine weeks and I'm already seeing such growth. 

All About Me projects

Check out the first tech project from the beginning of the year

We are leaders and good sports

A huge part of the beginning of the school year is establishing a positive classroom environment and giving students an active role in doing so. The class created their own class mission to live by daily that "they are leaders and good sports." Students were each given a special leadership role and were able to apply for a new role this past Friday. They had to give a speech to the class to tell them why they'd be a good fit for their leadership role and how they would show responsibility in their new role. 

Classroom routines and expectations have been set and they are now given more responsibility to follow them. Students are now leading the morning meeting and helping lead classroom discussions, such as math talk. 

Leaders are often recognized and rewarded:) We have leaders of the week for each habit. Once all students receive leader of the week for all 7 habits  the class earns an ice cream sundae party. At the beginning of every week students get to "cash out" their dojo points from the previous week at otter den. There are small trinket items the can buy or they can buy special rewards such as; no HW pass, lunch with the teacher, teachers assistant for 15 min, play the wii with staff member, etc! 

First tech project

We started simple with our first tech integration project. Students created "all about me" collages to teach others more about themselves and get comfortable navigating the devices. 

A look into lit

Here's a look at our literacy stations. We follow the daily five, incorporating; writing, reading, listening, word work and buddy reading into the literacy block. After read to self students work on retelling the beginning, middle and end in their notebooks. Word work activities follow the letter land pacing and vary. Below they are using magnet letters on iPads to create words in the word family provided. In writing, students are given a prompt to independently respond to. For listen to reading they go on mobymax.com where they read a story at their level and have to respond to questions. During guided reading they are grouped by ability to work on the strategies necessary to help build their reading skills.

I know, it's about time!

Now that we are halfway into the first quarter I figured it was time to post!! There has been a lot of fun and a lot of learning happening! Below is a look at math stations during the first few weeks. We focused on being able to count to 120, number sense(one more, one less) and being able to add and subtract with in 20. We are now working on using a variety of strategies to solve math word problems for addition, subtraction and partner unknown equations. We are also looking at how addition and subtraction are related.

10 day countdown

For the last ten days of school we did a balloon count down. Every day we popped a balloon with a special class reward. We had a dance party, got to pick new seats, had extra device time, bubble day, bubble gum day, lunch with me, beach party, played with chalk, and tomorrow will be ice cream sundaes!! 

Above you will see Mrs. Behrend and Mrs. Johnson came to read to the kids one last time since they are moving to knightdale HS. They will be greatly missed.

Our beach party was a splash! Don't forget to take out their wet suits and towels from their back packs!;) There was a sand table, water tables, jump ropes and beach balls. The kids enjoyed splashing each other and playing around! 

EOY Celebration

Here is the video from the end of year celebration for those that missed it! 

Techsperts!

BYOD has been a great experience as we learn together during this trial period. The students have been excited and engaged in learning while doing the tech assignments. We use devices daily at various points in the day. 

Some days it may be as simple as using our magnet letters to practice new letter land words, or math pieces as manipulatives to add two digit numbers using tens and ones. Other days, we may be working on a week long project that we are creating for a specific subject area standard. For example, we are currently using chatter pix kids to make books come to life. After we read aloud a non fiction book they each get to take a picture of an animal in the story and make it talk using the app to retell key details from the text. We've used kahoot to play review games in groups to prepare for assessments and observe if they are really grasping material being taught in an informal, energetic way! 

Students were taught how to safely search the Internet on their devices to do research. They are only allowed to use the lake Myra kid approved search engine sites on the school website. While writing their science investigation books they did research to test their hypothesis on a specific organism. For example a student may have asked, "what is the life cycle of a frog" or "how do bees make honey?" They then had to do research both at the library gathering books and online to find the answer to their questions. 

We had a wonderful opportunity to mystery Skype (video chat) with another first grade class to guess a number using number sense and math vocabulary. We will be using it again to possibly speak with and author or have a virtual field trip. I'm looking into a few ideas. 

I'm very encouraged with how BYOD has gone. Other than a few bumps in the road with downloading universal apps. Next year our tech specialist will be creating a BYOD website that has everything needed for each grade level to access. This will help eliminate the downloading of apps on a regular basis and all devices having access. We will also be using QR codes so the kids can scan the imagine and be brought directly to a page I need them on. I encourage any constructive feedback on the use of tech and bringing devices to improve for next year! 

End of year math review

We have been doing various math skills in centers to review what has been taught all year. This is a fun way to prepare them for the end of year summative assessment with out them realizing! Stations include, telling time, place value, two digit addition, equality, word problems, and math facts. 

Tasty science experiment treats!

After the fun experiment with Mr. Hall testing to see where the most bacteria grows in our classroom, we got a special treat. Mrs. Hall made jello in Petri dishes to look like the micro organisms that grew! 

Experimenting with Mr. Hall

We had the honor of having a special guest scientist today to do a science experiment with us! Liam's dad, Jonathan Hall works at NC state and came in to conduct an experiment involving microrganisms. He explained how there are smaller organisms than even bugs that we can't see, like bacteria! The students predicted what areas in the classroom are the dirtiest or have the most bacteria. Then, They swabbed the various areas to put the specimen on Petri dishes. Mr. Hall is going to put them in an incubator for a couple days to see what grows and bring it back to test our predictions. We are looking forward to having him back and learning more from our experiment! 

Skype in the classroom

We tried something new and exciting today! We were able to skype(video call) another first grade classroom across the country in California! The idea of the conversation between classes was to guess each other's "mystery number". We did this as a math warm up for number sense. The game involves asking questions that focus on greater than less than, place value, two digit vs one digit numbers, odd/even, doubles and number range. We were able to guess their number and they guessed ours, as well. We will continue to practice and get even faster guessing with experience while building math knowledge!! 

Leadership day!

If you missed leadership day on Twitter here's a link to see all the greatness that occurred!! https://storify.com/lakemyra/lake-myra-leadership-day-2015?awesm=sfy.co_p0Pca&utm_content=storify-pingback&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&utm_campaign=

Getting ready to perform!

Singing about the habits 

Habits presentations! 

Love these leaders!! 

Leadership day thinglinks

Our leader in me presentations!

Check out the thing links the first graders made for today's leadership day presentation!

The writing process

Now that students have learned a variety of writing formats; informative, opinion, and persuasive, they are getting to choose what they want to write this quarter, using the writing process. The options are; persuasive letter, friendly letter, small moments story, how to, all about book, recipe, song, or poem. They started by brainstorming a list of ideas and what writing paper they would need for each. After,  they chose a writing idea.  The next step in the writing process is to make a plan(they have been creating web diagrams or planning it out in steps using a hand drawing). Then, they draft-write, edit using a checklist, and publish! The editing process involves them editing their work using a checklist of writing skills they need to look for. Such as; punctuation, capitals, spaces, sight words spelled correctly, and interesting details. The checklists vary depending on the writing (I.e all about books need an introduction and closure page). The publishing step involves students reading it to a partner who can also make suggestions to make it better. The writing process will continue to be reinforced through out this unit in the variety of writings the students choose from.

Creating a terrarium!

For science this quarter we will be exploring living things. We started this unit off with investigating how plants are living things! We examined seeds and made predictions on what they need to grow. They planted them and are waiting to see what happens. Here, they are finding rocks and leaves for the bottom layers of the terrarium. A layer of soil was added, then moss and even a little baby tree was planted. The students write down their observations in their science notebooks. 

Thinglink!

Check out the tech projects the students made on a great website called thinglink! We had third grade leaders teach the first graders how to make an interactive poster. We have been working on comparing and contrasting two different texts on the same topic. The students got to choose a topic and then were given a poem and book to do research. They created venn diagrams in groups and took notes on what they learned about their topic. They then put together the interactive posters and will be presenting them tomorrow! I was so impressed with how independent they worked on the ipads. The students were so excited to work on them every day. I'm really looking forward to doing more tech projects once we roll out BYOD!

Student projects

Book character day

Here are some of the wonderful book character costumes! We watched the kindergarten parade go by and then has a big assembly to wrap up a successful literacy week! 

We've been practicing reading fluently and with expression all week to put on a readers theater of "green eggs and ham!"

Every grade level surpassed their reading goals. First grade set the record for most minutes read! The whole school did a read aloud to "oh the place you'll go." I got duct taped to the wall since first grade net their goals! 

Even all the teachers got into character! The first grade team and TA's were Snow White and the seven dwarfs.

PJs and DEAR time

We had a super cozy day today! I almost forgot to take a picture and grabbed the last handful of kids during dismissal. I wish I had captured everyone looking comfy and cute! I'll be sure to capture all the fashion disasters tomorrow!😜

DEAR time!! We have to carry our books everywhere incase the song comes on to drop everything and read for 15 minutes. We are tracking each grade levels reading minutes. If we reach our goal I will get duct taped to the wall!! The kids are so sweet, they said they don't want to win so that doesn't have to happen to me. It's all in good fun though and I let them know I volunteered! 

Let me know how many minutes your child is reading each night!

Fashion Disasters

It was a wacky and tacky day alright! 

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego

Carmen has been running around our school stealing books from the library to read to classes. We spotted her today and she came to read to us! She was super impressed with all the places we are traveling on the map by getting so many reading minutes! Even Clifford the big red dog came in to congratulate our class on reading so much!

Geo Animals

The kids created a giraffe,turtle, dog, and elephant out of 3-D shapes. Thank you for all the donations to make this possible! They enjoyed themselves and worked well as teams to come up with their animals! Tomorrow we will be looking more at the attributes of the shapes that make up their geo animals. 

Kicking off literacy week

Here are some of the kids that dresses up for sports day! 

Snow Day #8

I'm getting a little stir crazy and had to find something to do. I went to town at the dollar store stocking up on items to make into fun learning themed activities! I'm making word sort games that align to letter land and a blend/digraph hop game. I've also created math fact fluency games, place value puzzles, clock and digital time match, greater than or less than match up, missing addend sticks, and many more to come! The kids will have these to look forward to when we get back. 

What are the kids up to? I'm going to start a class snow day picture contest kind of like wcpss is doing! Send me the most creative picture of your child doing something school related for snow day #8!  The winner will get a free hw pass. Another activity they could do tomorrow to keep them occupied is create a bookmark for literacy week, which is next week!! Here's the bookmark template https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxwU5MGiCos-eDBLaFR1U25zekk/view?pli=1

You and your child could also work on coming up with their book character costume!! 

Here is next weeks spirit week dress schedule:

Mon- Sports

Tues- Pj day

Wed- Fashion disaster 

Thurs- LMES Spirit wear

Fri- Book character day

*I will send out more info regarding literacy week

100th day!!

We finally made it to the 100th day after a long week of snow days! The kids had fun sharing their 100 items collection, making a snack mix of 100 of each thing, wearing their crowns and coming threw the 100 days smarter grand entrance! I've loved every one of these past 100 days with your child. Now, I'm ready to get back to school to be with them for the remainder of our school days... Even if this does mean Saturday school! Get ready, the make ups will be coming. I'm calling it now though to make it more motivating for kids to come to school on a Saturday; they will be pajama days! Almost like a typical Saturday rolling out of bed and staying in pjs, they just get to join their friends and favorite teacher an extra day 😄 Hopefully everyone has power back now and is staying warm! Hugs to the kids! I WILL(better) see them Monday!

Growing independent readers

Now that we are half way threw the year I'm giving them a little more independence with their literacy stations. As daily five they have to hit every station through out the week(word work, writing, listening, read to self and buddy reading). Up to this point I've assigned where they go each day. Gradually I'm going to be giving them free choice. They will be assigned a reading group still with me two days and Mrs. Pattison the other two. When they aren't in guided reading they will chose a station. They will have a calendar where they check off which station they go to each day. I check in with them on Fridays to see their calendars and work completed. Of course as its being rolled out this way I'll still be checking daily to hold them accountable until they show responsibility and we'll start conferencing only on Fridays to save instructional time during the week. They will also be given choices in centers. Instead of giving one writing assignment or word work activity, they will get a few choices in their center folder. Below you will see the tic tac toe word work menu. They have been using comprehension sticks in buddy reading to ask questions to their partners while reading. In independent reading they are given an interactive comprehension sheet for their readers response notebook to complete. I've started a new listen to reading site called mobymax.com. At the end of each reading they are given a comprehension quiz where they are given a score that gets sent to me. Feel free to check out the site along with big universe. Which we are beginning to use as well. Your child's big universe log in would be wp(followed by their lunch number), password:lunch # and group name:wcpss. For moby Max their login is just their name and password is books. Have fun exploring these sites with your child. As I set up the big universe account more your child's library will grow with books I chose for them at their level! It's time consuming but will be well worth while. It could eventually substitute take home reader books so they never have to reread the same book, since there are endless books on the site! 

Valentines Sweeties

We decorated hearts with their names on them to put on their mailboxes for the valentines exchange on Monday. Please don't forget to have your child bring in their filled out valentines cards tomorrow. We are looking forward to spreading the love and kindness with our classroom family!