Ok, so I feel like this post comes with many apologies. Yes, I know that Halloween was 3 weeks ago, and I know that Thanksgiving is this week and I know that the best blog posts are not just boatloads of pictures thrown at you, but I could not let first grade Halloween be forgotten–even if it is a little late. So here you go with lots of Halloween cuteness, and even some Halloween learning, too. Hope you enjoy! (And that you forgive me for my tardiness! 🙂 )
Our class has been working with nonfiction text in a variety of meaningful ways. Last week we took a walk around Robinson to see how many examples of nonfiction writing we could find. We gathered a list of what we found, and talked about the purposes of these different texts. Besides being really great detectives, I was uber-impressed with how my Rm. 202 friends were able to go on a 20 MINUTE walk through the hallways without bothering anyone’s learning! That is definitely an example of following the Robinson Road Rule of Respecting Others, and only happened because everyone was being gritty. WAY TO GO, 1ST GRADE FRIENDS!
Check out our adventure with some pictures. 🙂
Landen works hard to add to his nonfiction text list on a post it after he finds something in the hallway.
Ella Marie led our super-silent first grade line down the 4th grade hall as we began our hunt.
We stopped at the end of each hallway so that friends could record what they saw.
The 5th grade hallway had a WEALTH of interesting nonfiction text.
Peyton stops to write a note about a diorama he saw in the 5th grade hall.
This nonfiction writing helped us celebrate Veteran’s Day and was found outside the gym. Besides the title, all of those flags have words to patriotic songs on them.
Kindergarten was using nonfiction in a really meaningful way! They lost something important and needed help in finding it. Update: Their flag was found and returned to them! I bet they’re glad they wrote that news flash!
Stay tuned for more ways that we’re working on understanding nonfiction texts as both readers and writers. What an important genre to read, write and dig into as first graders (and way beyond that!).
See this familiar face? Yep, she was one of our first friends who lost a tooth this year. Here’s another one! Say cheese, Briannia!
Diego must have had a patriotic loose tooth, because he lost it today–on Veterans’ Day! Check out his fancy digs (sorry you can’t see his shoes–they were stylin’ too!). Congrats, Diego! Who will have #8 in Rm. 202? Nate? Will you be next? 🙂
If there’s one thing we do well at Robinson, it’s make memories! (Wait, who am I kidding–we do so many things well!) From the Halloween parade to the Holiday Sing-Along and the end-of-year staff vs. 5th grade kickball game–fun is part of our culture! Besides fun, though, we know how to make meaningful memories, too.
Today was one such day. 🙂
It’s Veterans’ Day, and as we have for the last few years, we had a fabulous assembly planned—well Mrs. Kesler and her very talented cohort had a fabulous assembly planned–and our kiddos were a big part of it. They have been working since August and this year it did not disappoint!
The day began in the gym, and once we were all settled, some 5th graders led in a procession of our guests of honor: veterans from every branch of the armed services. I’d love to say I had a video of this, but I just couldn’t take one–partly because of logistics, partly because of respect, but mainly because I wouldn’t have been able to see the buttons on my iPad through the tears in my eyes. Our kids gave a standing ovation while they came in, and sang a medley of all of the branches’ songs. Very powerful.
Then, in turn, each grade level shared a special patriotic song they’d been preparing with Mrs. Kesler in music. I know I’m a little biased, but first grade may have been the best (don’t tell my 2nd grader!). Here’s their performance (get ready–it’s pretty great!):
The rest of the program was very special and included many other songs, as well as videos with words of wisdom from some of our visiting veterans. 🙂
We had some conversations in our classroom as well, and wrote letters to some important veterans in our lives. Mr. Raeber, Nate’s dad, and Mr. Wehrle, Amelia’s grandpa, were both in attendance for our special day and so we wanted to make sure we said our thank yous in a special way. Check out our kiddos’ kind words:
I didn’t get to catch Amelia and Mr. Wehrle because they were at the reception following the ceremony, but I did get to snap a sweet picture of Nate and his dad outside our classroom. Mr. Raeber was in the Navy for 24 years! Thank you for your service, sir! We appreciate you!
A couple of other sweet things happened during our day that I just had to capture and share, too. 🙂 Kylie came in this morning telling me about a special locket she had that held pictures of her grandfather who was a veteran, but who had passed away recently. Her mom had pinned that locket to her sleeve, and so he was here with us, today, too. Wow.
Later on, after our assembly during Writer’s Workshop, kiddos were brainstorming how they could include Veterans’ Day topics in their work. Millie was inspired to write a song. 🙂 Darn it–I should have gotten her to sing it. Instead, I just have the lyrics–written on a flag!
What a great day of celebration and remembrance! 🙂
How did you celebrate Veterans’ Day?
This is the first year I’ve taken kids to the zoo in the fall. And you know, I wonder why we’ve never done it before!? Who needs to be there in May when it’s hot and ALL of the other teachers around town also have the idea of going to the zoo during their animal unit? We had the idea to go now, when we thought we’d have a chance for good weather as well as a chance to front-load our kiddos with information for when we do study animals later this year. We tried it last year in 5th grade for our study on the Cahokians (went to Cahokia Mounds BEFORE the unit instead of after!) and it was great! Once we got into the unit, there were so many times where we could tie our conversations to specific experiences we knew that all of our learners had been a part of. This made the connections they created even more powerful!
That being said, we knew it this would be a great idea, and THANKFULLY we got one of those sunny, crisp and cool kind of all days instead of one of those St. Louis fall days that are cold, rainy and dreary! Our kids were excited, we had loads of helpful parents and we were on our way!
Our kiddos went with a job–to take the temperature of certain places in the zoo and record the time as well as the temperature. This would tie to the work in our Matter & Energy unit where they are expected to know how to do just this thing. They decided on the places we’d record, as well, which made this an even more meaningful task.
Thanks to Mrs. Ross, Ms. Branco and Mrs. Buesching (plus a few of my own!) I have LOADS of pictures to share with you. While I should probably caption every last one of them, I am just going to show them all to you here in a fabulous slide show. It’s really hard not to smile when you see how stinking cute all the kids–and the animals–are!
Just one more thing…I asked everyone what their favorite thing about the trip was and here’s what they said. Priceless answers 🙂 :
Charlie: “Being in Landen’s group!”
Landen: “The picture I took with the bear!”
Amelia: “When I saw the giraffes…”
Makayla: “The elephants.”
Sara: “Seeing the zebras and being with my friends.”
JKB: “Penguins.”
Lauren: “We joined up with another group and spent time with our friends and took pictures together!”
Ava: “Elephant poop.”
Kylie: “The seal tunnel.”
C.J.: “Seeing the tigers, lions, giraffes, and zebras.”
Emily: “The reptile house.”
Millie: “We saw the seal show before lunch!”
Ella Marie: “The log with snake eggs and the zebras.”
Nate: “When we saw an eagle.”
Jacob: “I ate a second lunch.”
Peyton: “I got to stand by an eagle.”
Thomas: “Lions!”
Diego: “Lions!”
We had a great time and learned a ton! I’m excited to see how this learning connects with our animal study that comes this Spring. 🙂 THANK YOU to the parents who helped make this happen! What a fun day at one of the best zoos in the country! 🙂
This happened today:
Besides being a really great example of interactive writing, there’s a great story behind WHAT we did and WHY we wrote this News Flash. So keep reading. 🙂
The last two Fridays, we’ve ended up with many things to do and have deemed the day a “ketchup and mustard” day. I have given them a big ‘ole list of things to do or finish, and they work through it at their pace, moving on when they need to–making sure they complete all the things on the list. While they were working I have been pulling kiddos individually to do assessments and other things. And you know what’s really cool? These kiddos are already AMAZINGLY good at managing both their time and behavior to make these periods both engaging and productive. I’ve had 5th grade classes that have had a hard time with that!
Just so you can appreciate it, here’s the list they were working from this morning. The stars are MUST-DOs and the others are CAN-Dos for when they had time. The boxes on the left are full of everyone’s initials; they marked the activity when they were finished and moved on to the next thing they had to do:
I was SO IMPRESSED when we sat down before lunch to debrief on how the morning had gone. And apparently Nate was impressed, too, because he said, “Mrs. Bearden, I think after lunch we should write a news flash about this because of how great we did!” I agree, buddy, I agree! Well done, Rm. 202 kiddos! 🙂
In first grade we have many really important lessons to learn. Some of the most important ones are simply about how to be learners!
We’re lucky to have some well-designed lessons that are part of a program called Second Steps; these are part of the foundation for our work that continues in gr. 3-5 with the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.
Every week, Mrs. Wilson comes to our room, often accompanied by her friends Puppy and Snail.
Together they have taught us about listening with our whole bodies (including our eyes and ears and brains), how to focus (and we even have attention-scopes for this purpose!), how to use our self-talk to help us do the right thing and keep trying, and also how to be assertive (which is a GREAT BIG word for a first grader with GREAT importance).
Often there are times for students to turn-and-talk, hearing someone else’s ideas about a topic.
Makayla and Sara share ideas with each other in a turn-and-talk conversation.
While I love the time during the day when Mrs. Wilson is here, the lessons she teaches and the songs we learn to help us remember the concepts, my favorite thing is when I see and hear kids applying them outside of those times! I often see kiddos using their attention-scopes to get refocused, hear them use their self-talk to encourage themselves to try again or solve a problem and also hear them being assertive as they “ask for help out loud” (which is a line from The Learner Song we sing).
The lessons are simple, but have staying power and build a STRONG foundation for these learners. Yay Second Steps!
One more thing…check out who showed up in our school pictures and will be in our yearbook this year!:
Sometimes you just have to do something because it’s fun. This was one of those times. 🙂
Hello from Rm. 202 and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LANDEN!! (Now…can anyone give lessons on getting everyone in the picture? Maybe I need longer arms…:) )
Today was an exciting day at Robinson–ok, well every day is exciting, but today was a more-than-exciting-day because the firemen came! It is Fire Prevention Week, so we got a visit from some fantastic Kirkwood Firefighters. They came with a message for us to STAY LOW AND JUST GO if we hear the smoke detector. We watched a video and were able to have some questions answered, as well as being reminded to STOP, DROP and ROLL!
Check it out!
At the end of the presentation, they showed us what the smoke detector sounded like so that we would know if we heard the sound at home (I must add here that it was funny as the friend next to me said, “I know what that thing sounds like–it always goes off when we’re cooking!” Ha ha ha ha!!). We even practiced getting in to the “stay low” position so we could crawl out.
I thought it was great that Nate wore just the right shirt for the day, without even knowing what today was! Do we see a future firefighter here?
After this, we did a little bit of writing, drawing and wondering about the presentation. I will share these once everyone is finished! For now, here’s how you can help your first grader process through our learning today:
1) Make sure you have smoke detectors, and that they work!
2) Talk with your family about your fire safety plan. Do you know what to do in case of a fire? Does everyone know how to get out? Do you have a “safe spot” outside where your family will gather?
3) Many kiddos were concerned about their “second exit.” We learned about how to feel the door with the back of our hands, and if it’s hot, to go out the second exit of the room. I had many worried faces with wonderings about what they should do since they are on the 2nd or 3rd floors of the house. Help calm these fears with reassurance that they CAN get out and that they WILL be safe!
4) My son saw this very same video last year and was suddenly very worried about fires in our house. He had never been afraid before, but obviously talking about prevention and safety can bring up some fears in little ones. This is normal, and your (ours really–I’ll help, too!) job is to reassure them that just like all the drills we have at school, it’s important to know what to do in case of an emergency. Remind them that it’s VERY UNLIKELY that it would ever happen, that they ARE SAFE, but how lucky they are that they would know exactly what to do if they were ever in that situation! Knowledge is power.
Oh the joys of childhood! 🙂
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 