How to Carve a Pumpkin

In writing, we are learning about informational writing. Included in information writing is "hw-to" writing. In this type of writing, students teach their reader the steps how to do something. We began this unit by practicing and writing about "How to Carve a Pumpkin." Here are the pictures showing step 2-"Use your hand or a scraper to get all of the seeds and pumpkin out." The students really enjoyed this part. 

Great Behavior in First Grade!

Students who showed great GRR behavior (Going safely, being Respectful, being Responsible) and went for the whole month of September without a think sheet chose how they wanted to celebrate their hard work and leadership in our classroom. 

This student chose to bring in something to show and share with the class. 

These kiddos decided they wanted to bring a stuffed animal to accompany them for the day. 

These students chose to relax by taking their shoes off in class. 

This student decided to wear a hat in class. 

This student wanted to eat lunch with the teacher! 

This student chose to sit at the teacher's desk instead of his own desk. 

How to Spell Words

It can be very tricky to teach the correct spelling of words or to help kids with spelling. I wanted to give you a little insider scoop on how we teach first graders to spell. They count the sounds, draw lines for the number of sounds, and put the letters that make those sounds on each of the lines. Sometimes it isn't spelled correctly but the letter they have put makes that sound. As the year goes on, they learn spelling rules so that eventually those words that are spelled incorrectly (but spelled how it sounds) will be spelled correctly because of the new spelling rules they learned. For more information, check out this video at http://youtu.be/MXOy0Nx3kB4. 

Retelling A Story

Retelling a story is a great way to assess a student's comprehension of a story. Each quarter, your child will be assessed for his/her reading level by not only reading the words, but also retelling what happened in the story.  They need both components--decoding words and comprehending the story's meaning/message--in order to independently read at that level.



Watch as this student retells the story If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff.

Smiling Faces of First Grade!

I took these photos to use for Word Wall Wizard. Students have a picture of themselves on the word wall, and when they meet their goal of reading each of the quarter's sight words, they earn different things (1st Quarter--Wizard's Hat, 2nd Quarter--Decorate their hat, 3rd Quarter--Glitter on their Hat, 4th Quarter--Wizard's Wand). These pictures were too adorable not to share, though, so here's the smiling faces of our first grade class that are displayed on our word wall.

PBS Parachute Party

We earned 50 blue tickets by showing GRR behavior. Anyone in the building can give us a blue ticket when they spot us showing GRR behavior (Going safely, showing Respect, being Responsible). After earning 50 blue tickets, the students get to choose from a list of activities they can do as a class to celebrate their hard work. Our class chose to have a Parachute Party. They had such a great time!

Finding the Missing Part

In our Math Program, EnVisions, we teach the students the part-part-whole method. In this method, students learn that in addition and subtraction, there are 2 parts and a whole. When adding, you add the two parts, such as 5+5, to get the whole, 10. In subtraction, you start with the whole, 10, and take away one of the parts, 5, to find the other part, 5. In this video, the students describe how they find the missing part. Enjoy! They did such a nice job explaining their thinking!

Readers Workshop

For our reading time, we have a whole group comprehension lesson that teaches the students a skill that they can use when they're trying to understand a text. When I am meeting with small groups of students to work on decoding strategies and comprehension, the other students are responsible for doing Read to Self or Read to Someone. The books the students use for those independent reading times are chosen by them. They need to get two books from a leveled book tub on their reading level, and then they get to choose three books that interest them. These types of books might be ones that do not have a certain reading level, but they engage the students' attention and, therefore encourage them to develop a love for reading  by choosing topics they want to learn or read about.

During those independent reading times, students are responsible for reading the whole time, getting started right away, and focusing only on reading, not talking to others. If they choose to Read to Someone, they are held accountable for the same actions listed above. They can choose to do two options of reading to another person. One option is "I Read, You Read." In this type of reading, one student reads a page, and the other student repeats what he or she just read. This helps the students build fluency, and they can learn decoding strategies from one another. The other option for reading to another person is called "Read 2 different books." In this option, both students get to choose a book from their book box, and they take turns reading parts of their books to each other. This also helps students learn decoding strategies from one another, in addition to exposing them to different genres and levels of text. 

Math Maniacs

Every day our math lesson consists of a brief game or hands-on workshop. When we do this, the helper for the day, the VIP, sits under our document camera and displays his or her paper. Then, the other students can look to that paper for help if they need it. This gives the VIP ownership over his or her work, and the other students can stay on track with us. 

After the game or hands-on workshop, we do a part of the page together, and then the students work independently to solve their own problems. Sometimes, when we have extra time at the end of our math time, we play a game that focuses on our skill for the unit. Each new unit we start also has a game that we can play at school or at home. When you see these games come home, you may definitely play it at home with your child to promote progress in that skill.

Game Party

Our class had a game party for earning 50 blue tickets!! Woohoo! We had such a good time sharing and enjoying each other's games.

  

First Day of School

WOWZA! Jumping Back Into the Blog-o-sphere!

As you may have noticed in looking at my blog, I definitely fell out of the blog-o-sphere last year. It was my first year in a new district, and I was a little overwhelmed learning everything new.  HOWEVER, this year, I'm going to make it a goal of mine to post to the blog at least once a week (if not more)! It's a great way to see the different activities we are doing in class, as well as a way to stay informed upcoming events!  Stay tuned for GREAT things!

-Ms. Brandt