During our first days together, we do many things that allow us to work together, get to know each other, learn and practice routines and procedures, and also just have fun. One thing we did that was a big hit was a nature scavenger hunt! We are lucky to have an amazing naturescape in our backyard (which was recently made over to allow us even more natural places to play and learn!), and so it was the perfect place to go!
Kiddos were put in small groups of 4, and then we gave them a job to do and a bag in which to collect their finds.
We were blessed to have 4 adults with us during this time, and so we had lots of eyes on each group as we explored. It was pretty much up to each team where they went and they could fulfill the categories of the hunt in whatever way they chose. It was fun to see how many different leaves they found, how many “circles” there were in the woods and also what teams considered “treasures!”
Perhaps the best part of the hunt, though, was when we found something we weren’t even looking for:
Can you see it? There’s a friend in there….
Here, look again. With some help from some first grade fingers:
Yes! We found a turtle! He was walking right there across the path, and thanks to the eagle eyes of Jeremiah we got to see him! It was really hard not to touch and prod and want to pick him up (we didn’t–we left him in his home there), but we did the right thing and just watched as he walked and enjoyed the surprise visit! 🙂
This week we started conferences. If you’ve ever been to a conference (as a parent) or if you’ve ever prepared for a conference (as a teacher), then you know that both sides want to show/see what’s been going on in the classroom! Some of this happens IN the classroom and during the conference itself, but some of this happens even before families get inside, by what is hanging OUTSIDE of the classroom on the walls and bulletin board.
So luckily, we (Ms. Turken and I) spent some time before school started getting ready just such a place to share our learning goodies with everyone:
It’s pretty great, right? But yes, it’s pretty lonely. 😦
As we thought about what families would like to see, we weren’t really sure what to put out there, as much of what we’ve been doing has been to hang in our rooms, or hasn’t really had a “product” to display. Additionally, we agreed that having everyone doing the same thing and then hanging 40 of them out there didn’t really seem to fit the bill, either.
So we decided to do something where everyone has a similar item to share, but where there is still student choice and voice and where everyone’s things look different (well mostly different. :)).
Kiddos were invited to draw their favorite things from first grade so far. They could choose from the list we provided (in case they couldn’t think of something, because MAN–the list of things we’ve done is LLLOOOONNNNGGG!).
As we got started with the activity, we added to the list as kids thought of other things and then artists got to work. It was fun to watch what they chose (great info for things we should do again!), as well as to watch the empty, lonely hallway display start to fill up!
Once we were finished, we had SO MANY FABULOUS first grade favorite things to share with our families–and anyone else at Robinson who walks down our hallway! What a treat!
What do you SHARE with families for conference visits or open house? What do you like to SEE when you’re at school for a conference or a visit? We’d love to hear from you! 🙂
There are many things that are important in first grade: reading, writing, listening, speaking, using grit, working hard, being a good friend….but perhaps the MOST important thing (at least in my opinion) is PLAY. Play is a child’s work, and is how they learn. And when things are fun, you want to keep doing them! When you keep doing them, you usually get better at them and then you want to do them more and more. This works so well when you want kids to be curious and hardworking. I also think play is an important part of learning since it is through play (and problems) that kiddos begin to work things out for themselves and can take ownership for their learning.
So…there is lots of play in Rm. 111, both structured (in our “regular” subject choices and projects) and also lots of time for unstructured play during choice time. As I put the room together this year, I was afforded lots of space for play things as well as lots of places to play. I was able to find a kitchen, bugs, puppets and Little People figures to add to the mix, and I of course brought along my big blocks, games and Legos from Rm. 202. We start our day with choice time, and kiddos are able to play in our room, or with a friend in our team room next door. It’s so fun to watch what happens during this time, as well as to see who plays together and how they interact. There is much learning going on during time time–both by the kids and the teachers!
The first days of first grade are FUN, but believe me, there is MUCH more to come and I hope you’ll hang around to read more bout how we learn through play as we go on down the road this year. 🙂
Like I mentioned in our first post about our first day in first grade, we’ve been busy, as there are LOTS of new things to learn at the beginning of the year. Any year really, but especially in first grade! This post is about something every important around our classroom and our school–GRIT!
You might already know about how we have a Robinson Mindset that we have learned and use, and that we start everyday with together. One really important part of it is: I have grit! In fact, it’s so important it’s the first line!
So…knowing how important this idea is, we have to make mighty sure that kiddos know what it means and how they use it and get it. Most of them have at least some knowledge from kindergarten (and their super smart parents who may have already taught them about it!), and so we started there. We charted what we remembered:
Aside from just being able to talk about GREAT though we have to be able to use it, right? Pull it up from deep down inside even when things are super tricky and really hard. So next we did an activity that gave them the chance to do that–PUZZLES!!
First I talked about how I do a jigsaw puzzle everyday! I have an app on my iPad that lets you build puzzles, and has a new “puzzle of the day” each morning. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and helps keep my brain awake and active. I LOVE how it feels when you’re working a really hard puzzle and then you finally figure it out! I want kiddos to feel that same feeling, as well as realize that some things are even hard for grown-ups!
We picked partners, and also the puzzle we’d do–there were some that were 24 pieces, some that were 60, and some that were 100 pieces! After some quick directions about where to go and how you HAD TO KEEP WORKING, we got busy. As a side note, I was watching for what would happen with GRIT during this activity, but I was also collecting data on partnerships that worked well.
Some teams were able to finish their puzzle, and 1 team even got to start (and mostly finish) another one. We worked for about 20-30 minutes and then gathered to debrief. We talked about what we had learned about what helped us and what was tricky. Some of their smart strategies are the ones that I use as an adult to do my puzzles, too!
As with many things, we decided (well, actually they asked!) if we could do this whole puzzle thing again. Some said if they’d have had more time they could have finished, and some wanted to tackle the same puzzle after our conversation and try some of the new strategies they’d heard from their friends. We (Ms. Turken, who we work with ALOT now, and I) decided that this was a GREAT idea.
We planned a read aloud first, which highlighted the idea of trying new and different ideas, not giving up and working to complete your task even when it’s tricky. We read the book Stuck by Oliver Jeffers together as two first grade classes. This protocol is always fun and helpful as there are SO MANY FIRST GRADE BRAINS to learn from and different perspectives to consider.
After this book and some super creative thinking about how the boy in the story (Floyd) used his GRIT to get his kite (and then everything else he threw in the tree) unstuck, we checked out the posters our classes had made separately and noticed the similarities and differences. Many strategies were similar, but there were ideas that were specific to each one and it was great to be able to share these new ideas with everyone before they got to work again.
We had planned to use the SAME partners and do the SAME puzzle, but we did do one thing DIFFERENT: we traded teachers! This time Ms. Turken worked with Rm. 111 kiddos and I stayed to learn from/with Rm. 112 kiddos. It was an opportunity for us to get to know each other better, as well as for me to see her kids in action, perhaps seeing different things than Ms. Turken did. Being able to share new insights on our students is one of the things we’re already loving about working so closely together! Lots more friends finished puzzles this time than they did on our first go-round.
These are some Rm. 111 friends I worked with that day–look how engaged they are!
After our work time, we gathered one more time to discuss how it went, and shared things that had we had changed, things we had learned or things we had noticed.
Ms. Turken led the conversation as we shared our smart thinking! (And yes, I promise I will include more pictures of me–seems funny to see someone else’s face all over my blog! lol).
What a great day of learning, and one that we will keep coming back to for a VERY LONG TIME!!
OH my goodness–today was a TOTALITY amazing day. hee hee Yes I know, it’s a bit much. But really, what a once-in-a-lifetime day to enjoy and experience with our Robinson community. I am sure many other KSD teachers and families have said it, but KUDOS to Joe Bartin for all of his hard work to get us ready for the big day. There were websites just for the day, y’all, that had videos and info galore! If you haven’t seen them, check this out:
We did some preteaching on eclipses so kiddos would know what was going on and what to expect, using videos and books. On Friday, we got together with Ms. Turken’s Rm. 112 friends to do some work. First we watched a BrainPop Jr video on eclipses and learned a little from Annie and Moby.
After the video, we read a book together called Eddie’s Eclipse. It was written by two St. Louis librarians just for this special day! We enjoyed it and listened for facts/details we had also heard in the video.
While Ms. Turken read and kiddos listened, I kept record of the important facts that students thought we should remember. We made a chart of what was essential:
Also on this day, we put the finishing touches on the glow-in-the-dark bracelets Ms. Maldonado helped us make for the big event,
and tried on the new eclipse glasses that were gifted to us by the Kirkwood School District Foundation:
Today, on the actual day of the eclipse, we did some more reading and shared another book, called Eclipse: Darkness in the Daytime together with our Rm. 112 friends again.
For the rest of our amazing day, we watched another video, practiced with our glasses, spent the TOTALITY of the eclipse outside with our amazing Robinson friends and family, and commemorated the day with some artwork and an eclipse snack (Capri SUN, SUN chips, STARbursts and MILKY WAYs). It was pretty intense and fabulous and I can’t really put it into words. So I’ll just use pictures. 🙂 Enjoy!
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If you haven’t had a chance to check out Robinson’s Facebook page, be sure to see it–there are loads of other fun pics to see and even a LIVE video from when we were in TOTALITY. Cool, right?
Ok, one more thing…if you’re reading this and you were in the path of totality, please comment and let us know what you experienced today! We’d LOVE to hear from others about how they celebrated the day and what they thought of the experience. I know for me it’ll be something I will NEVER forget!
Wow! After waiting the whole summer–moving my classroom, moving my HOUSE, going on a fabulous vacation with my family and then figuring out how to set up a new classroom, it was FINALLY time to get started again.
Before I share the first day of first grade in Rm. 111, indulge me with a couple of first day pictures of my own kiddos, won’t you?
Somehow I am now the parent of a 5TH GRADER (Riley) and a 1ST GRADER (Allie)–how did this happen?? Oh yeah, kids grow up. 🙂 Anyhow, both were super excited to get their day started (as was I!) and we snapped an on-the-way-to-school selfie (don’t worry–I wasn’t driving yet!).
So it’s funny as I go back through my photos to see what to post here and what stories to tell. I can tell it was a really busy day because I didn’t have time to take that many pictures! I CAN tell you that we were able to read lots of stories together (which you will hear LOTS about this year!), work on learning names and beginning to build our community, work on something fun with our 1st grade neighbors in Ms. Turken’s class, had some quiet time and of course learned a little about how things work in first grade at Robinson and in Rm. 111. We had some fun, made some memories and shared some laughs. Hopefully they came home with lots of stories to tell and were exhausted from the day! Ok, well at least my first grader was. 🙂
Happy First Day of First Grade, from Rm. 111 kiddos!
We also took some pics of each kiddo, which are super cute and will be great to look back at throughout the year and compare our “last day” selves to! Check them out!
We ended the day together with our next-door-neighbors and created first day crowns with pictures to help kiddos tell families about their amazing day at school. Hopefully if you’re a Rm. 111 family your kiddo shared it with you! If not, be sure to ask them about it now! You will notice kiddos from both classes in our pictures, and even Ms. Turken makes an appearance!
Makenna glues her first day pictures to share on her crown.
Check out Sutton’s crown!
Ms. Turken helps Alice tape her creation together.
Mackinsie, Addison, and Thomas work together.
Cheese!
Smile, Addy!
Campbell looks excited about his crown, too, doesn’t he?
When we were finished we got to read with our new friends!
Check out this gathering in our library. Love all the first grade fun!
I know this post is short, and doesn’t include many specifics and I PROMISE that there are more goodies to come! We had two more FULL days after this one to share, as well as an EXCITING ECLIPSE DAY tomorrow to tell you about! If you haven’t subscribed yet, be sure to do that while you’re here so you don’t miss out on the fun! See you soon!! 🙂
The following letter contains 2636 words that will begin to shape your child’s first grade year (I know–it’s a little long. Sorry!). You will want to have your family sit and read this so you can all be excited about first grade together. You should also have dancing shoes on (you’ll learn why later!) and your phone (or other recording device) handy.
Ready? Of course you are! Because you are all about to become…
First Grade and Fabulous!
I am excited for the year ahead – how about you??
Let’s get started!
First a little bit about me. 🙂 I am going into my 18th year of teaching and every one of them has been at Robinson! I even did my student-teaching here long ago, so Robinson is definitely my home-away-from-home. In my real home I have a fabulous family that I love dearly. My husband, Grant, is a teacher, too, in Mehlville. He has taught 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. We have a 11YO son, Riley, who is in starting MIDDLE SCHOOL, y’all! (Not sure how this happened but we’re excited for a new chapter. 🙂 ) We also have a daughter named Allison–we call her Allie–who is 7 1/2. She goes to Robinson and you might even know her (if not, I’m sure you’ll meet her soon). We LOVE (yep, love) Disney World, and travel there often. Chicago is another one of our favorite places to travel to together. We also just like to hang out together at home (or anywhere, really) and spend time with each other. So that’s me. What about you? Can’t wait to learn more about YOUR family!
Like I said, this is my 18th year as a teacher, and every year, I begin the school year as a different person. I decide on that first day and then every day thereafter, who I am as a teacher. What is important to me. What I want to accomplish. What I want my students to see when they come to school. I choose that. I don’t let other people tell me who I will be and I don’t just be who I think other people want me to be. I read, I think, I write and then I decide.
Today is your day! Choose how you will use it. 🙂
Parents, I am excited to find out who YOUR CHILD will be!
Another wondering: What is important to you? What is important to your child?
There are lots of things that are important to me: my husband and my kids, sharing ideas, reading, writing, being able to have a conversation, making things, discovering things, sharing what I know, staying healthy and active, sleeping in, staying up late and knowing when to say sorry (and when to say nothing at all!).
As a teacher, there are a few more things that are important to me:
* YOU and YOUR CHILD!: They’re the reason I’m there, after all right? It is important for me to get to know your child (and your family!), and know them well. Not just as a learner, but as a kid, too. I want to know what they like, what they don’t like, what makes them tick. Who they are. That’s ok, right? 🙂
* Respect: At Robinson, it’s pretty much what we’re all about. I expect respect to be a huge thing in our classroom. I will respect your child, and I expect them to respect me, as well as everyone else in our community. This counts when we agree and even when we don’t. I have a saying that I learned from my good friend Mrs. Ford years ago, that is really important with this whole respect thing. It’s this: You are not the sun. In other words, the world does not revolve around you, and there are lots of other people in our classroom that have needs, wants, likes, dislikes, etc., that we need to take into account. I love your child, but I love everyone else, too! Additionally, it is SUPER important to me that we learn to love each other as people, learn to support each other, learn to cheer when our friends do well (and know that that doesn’t mean anything negative about us), learn to encourage each other when they need it, learn to understand and appreciate how we’re different as much as how we’re the same, and learn to learn together. We are in this together and none of us will be as successful alone as we can alongside each other. That’s a life lesson, not just a 1st grade lesson. 🙂
Maybe you saw our #classroombookaday wall in the mail hallway. We made it to 560 books last year! Here’s to another great year of reading in first grade!
*Reading: I know–you’re thinking, “well isn’t every subject important?” And yes, to a point, that’s true. But in my opinion, one of the single most indicators of success in life (and let’s face it, enjoyment as well!) is developing a love of reading. I ask that you join me in the task of helping your child LOVE reading. I am sure they’re probably already on their way, but let’s keep it up together! Read to them as well as with them. Share your own reading with them. Read in front of them. Show them the importance of words and how you can lose yourself in the right text. HAVE FUN and help them do the same! I hope that I will do my part to encourage all of these things as well! (In case you want to see more about how important this is, read about our #classroombookaday challenge from a previous year here).
*Writing: Words are important. They help us to communicate and tell our stories. When you write those words, you can deepen thinking and learning, as well as better process things you heard or are still thinking about (I know this is one of the most important reasons I write!). We will write, write, write in Rm. 111, just like we will read, read, read! (And no, don’t worry about correct spelling or perfect handwriting–everyone is allowed to make mistakes, the message is the most important part!)
* Mistakes: I expect your child to make them. 🙂 I want them (and you!) to learn to work through it when it’s hard and figure out what to do. I want them to feel the joy and success of learning something new because they persevered! Not everything will be easy here. And that’s ok. We’re in it together and I’ll help you all along the way. 🙂 THIS IS A PLACE WHERE WE WILL BE GRITTY!
* Collaboration: I love to share ideas and get ideas and try new things and even when those things fail, I know I am just one step closer to finding what does work. I love to work with other teachers to figure things out and find new solutions to old problems. But just as much as working with adults, I love to collaborate with students. I love to hear what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling about things, what they think would be the best way to learn something. It’s OUR classroom, and often your kiddos’ ideas are WAY better than mine. I know I’ll share lots of examples with your child (and you!) about how that’s happened to me over the years.
Aside from collaborating with me, though, they’ll be collaborating with each other! Your child will have lots of opportunities to share with their classmates, to give ideas, ask questions, prove reasoning and challenge each other. I expect that we will work together to help EVERYONE in our class be the best they can be. Together we’ll achieve much more than we would if we tried to do it on our own. 🙂 Reminds me of a sign I saw in Disney World at the Animal Kingdom:
I like to say that in our room, everyone is a teacher and a learner.
And as a new level of collaboration and learning, we will be combining with and I will be co-teaching with Ms. Turken for many things this year. Be ready to hear your kiddo talk about a whole other class of kiddos, and their “other” teacher, Ms. Turken. We had such an amazing year last go-round and are excited for another! Can’t wait to share more as we go forward!!
* Curiosity: There is no better way to learn something than to ask a question. It is DEFINITELY how I learn, and so please understand if you find me asking you (or your child) lots of questions as a means of figuring out how best to meet their needs or to connect with your family. In turn, I hope you will feel comfortable to ask me any questions you may have, and the perhaps most importantly, your child will feel comfortable to ask me–and their classmates–questions when they need to. Knowing when to ask for help is an important part of learning. 🙂 Also, WONDER is a natural part of being a kid, as well as a super important part of learning something new. WONDER is something that I will always encourage, and hopefully many things we learn together will start as someone’s wondering about the world.
* Technology : I love technology because it allows me to connect to new ideas. I like to think about what I want to do and look for tools to help me do it. I want to hear your ideas on technology and what works for you–and I ask that you be open to trying new things (that goes for BOTH you and your learner). We will be using technology in many new and exciting ways this year, so get ready! You child may be blogging, using Twitter, Schoology, Seesaw (which is an AMAZING app that allows endless ways for your child to share their learning with me, their peers AND YOU!) and other sites (like Skype to connect with other learners around the world), using iPads, making videos of learning and trying out many new things that we may not even know about yet. Whatever we do, though, the goal is always learning. We will use technology in meaningful ways to better create new knowledge. Excited? I know I am! PLEASE let me know what–if any–apprehensions you have in this area, either for you or your student. This will be an important area for us to explore together. 🙂
* Community: Our class, our families, our school, our neighborhood, our city, our state, our country, our world. There are so many amazing people doing amazing things. I am hoping to integrate your family stories into our classroom this year, taking full advantage of all of the amazing things each one of us has to offer. That might mean I ask you (grown-ups) to come read to us, teach us something, help us make something, send in things, etc. We want EVERYONE to be a part of the Rm. 111 family!! One of our first units this year will be learning about our names and families so stay tuned!
* Taking risks: I like to take risks. I hope you do too. It is scary sometimes and it fails sometimes but sometimes, more often, it is just A-MAZ-ING! Usually when you do something scary you do things you never thought you could. You surprise yourself. And then you want to do more! Someone smart once said “Fear and Excitement are shades of the same color”. Cool, huh? (Parents, this is true for you as much as it is for your kiddo!! 🙂
HANG IN THERE….You’re almost done!
OK…if you made it this far and are still with me, congratulations, you (and your kiddo) are a rock star. Stop reading right now and do some kind of victory dance. No really, go ahead. Dance. I’ll wait. Better yet, have someone video tape your dance and send it to me! I’ll even post it on our blog! (Did you see the posts where I did that with my last class? They didn’t believe that I’d do it, either. 🙂 )
So….what now? How can you best prepare for the extreme awesomeness of first grade?
Have a great summer! Be extraordinary.
Read something. Write something. Wonder something. This will get your learning muscles warmed up. 🙂
If you have any questions you can always email me. Anytime. No question to big or too small.
Think about what I said about who you want your child to be. Most importantly, remember that everyone else in our class is thinking about that too. Be gracious to those who are brave enough to set lofty goals and make the effort to become an even better version of themselves.
Talk with your family about how you would define HOME. I really want to make our classroom a comfortable, warm place were our school family can feel safe to get down and dirty, taking chances and making mistakes and LEARNING TONS! I want this to include pieces of each of our homes. I will send a survey to you later, where you can give share your ideas, but I wanted to get your thinking about it now. 🙂
THIS ONE IS FOR THE KIDDOS!: Look around your house (or your computer, maybe) for a picture of your family. I’d love to be able to decorate our room with us–pictures of all the people who help make us who we are and who encourage us to do our best. I want to be able to fill our room with love, support and smiling faces, so please bring a 3×5, 4×6 or 5X7 picture (framed if possible–but don’t stress over this part!) with you to Open House or on the first day of school. And if you don’t have one, don’t worry! We’ll take your picture!
Despite having now used more than two thousand words, there are no words to describe how excited I am about working with you next year!
Here’s To Being First Grade and Fabulous!
♥ Mrs. Bearden
PS. If you didn’t get up and dance before and are now wishing you did, there is still time to do it. Anytime. Send me that video with your best moves (we’ll check these out together once we’re all in school together. Fun, right?).
When you have had a chance to relax, digest this letter (maybe talk about it with your family or friends) and get your first grade brain tuned up, I would love for your child to write to me to introduce yourself, ask questions, maybe respond to something you read in this letter that made you think. An email, postcard or a good ‘ole letter via snail mail is great! Don’t worry–there’s still loads of time before school starts! You can send your letter to Robinson, c/o of Mrs. Bearden at 803 S. Couch Ave., Kirkwood, MO 63122.
I look forward meeting you!
Mrs. Bearden: Email–jennifer.bearden@kirkwoodschools.org; Phone–314-213-6100 x4211 (after August 9)
Twitter: @jbeardensclass (This is our class feed, and we will tweet here together with my supervision and instruction. It’s a great way to stay on top of what’s going on in our classroom since you don’t get to be there every day! Follow us!)
Blog:http://www.20somethingkidsand1kookyteacher.com Feel free to leave me a comment here to let me know what you thought, what you wonder, how your summer has been, etc….this is always a great place to talk to me! 🙂 Also–if you have a minute while you’re here, go ahead and subscribe to the blog feed. That way you’ll never miss anything that happens here. I add things often and you’ll want to read it all!! Just click on the button on the right side of the page and add your email address. 🙂
**Thanks to @terSonya for help with writing this post! Like I said, I love to share ideas!**
Oh my goodness guys—this week has been BEYOND amazing! All week we’ve been collecting books to donate to friends who don’t have any as well as food for Feed My People and our own Robinson Cares Food Pantry. It’s been so great to see how kind and generous kids and families are, and has been great as we’ve been able to use this meaningful topic as we work on our reading, writing and spelling with our chart:
Our conversations all week have included ideas for how we can all show more kindness to each other, and today we added that last idea of making #weekofkindness cards for special Robinson people to show them we care. We started the day with an easel question related to this topic:
We had loads of great suggestions (including several post-its with MY name on them, LOL), and came up with even more and we planned for our card-making. Kiddos decided who they wanted to create for and then most paired up to share some love!
The smiles on their faces as they finished and then the excitement as they came back with stories of the joy they spread to the recipients was over-the-top. This was definitely a GREAT addition to our #weekofkindness activities. 🙂 Spreading kindness makes you all warm inside too!
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I am SO glad we did this and wonder if #weekofkindness should happen once each MONTH instead of just once each year. 🙂
I was so excited to find out about Global School Play Day 2015 right before it happened. It was the first one ever and my class helped inaugurate the new tradition! For some reason (I’m not sure why except that maybe I just forgot??) we didn’t participate last year. This time around I was ready, and even got some other Robinson friends to join in, too!
Last time around I wrote a really long (but great!) post about all the things I thought we learned from our play, and while that was all true and good, this post will be more about what we actually did. There are some great stories, pictures and videos to share, and yes, indeed, also learning. 🙂
Ok…so we started our GSPD 2017 with our normal easel question. Sometimes it’s math, sometimes it’s writing, sometimes it’s review of something else. Today it was a question about the day:
I really wanted them to get the idea that while it would definitely be a FUN day, it would also be a day where they would indeed be learning something. I hoped this would focus their minds on that idea and help them see the opportunities in a new way.
After we got through our morning announcements and the pledge, I had everyone gather on our rug for a meeting to start our day. We talked about the answers they had put on the easel question, and I also gave them an idea for what they could expect ME to be doing throughout the day. We talked about ways that I like to play–with words, puzzles, drawing, painting (this is a new love for me since we had our experience with Figy earlier this year!), teaching new games (we have many on our game shelves that kiddos have never played!), or just kid-watching. I started with the whole word play piece by sharing a few books I had found in the library that morning. We couldn’t let a day go by with out books for our #classroombookaday challenge, could we?
Some were songs, all were rhymes and many of them had directions that the listeners had to follow. We read them throughout the day and it was a LOT OF FUN!
Kiddos have been invited to bring along a toy or game, with the directions that it had to fit in their backpack, or they had to be able to carry it up on their own. Also, it could not be electronic.
Before we got into the actual business of the day, we set the guidelines–because of course, just since the day was different, that didn’t mean there weren’t still rules. 🙂
Then we got busy. 🙂
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It was so fun to watch how the morning unfolded. Kiddos started with playing with their toys, and then quickly began MAKING things for their toys or inspired by their toys. We noticed that no one chose to play with Legos; we inferred that it was because that’s a “normal” thing we always have and today kiddos wanted to play with their “home” toys.
I was impressed by their creativity and was super excited when Aadish and Allie suggested that we should have an art parade to share all the things they were making!
The parade planners announced on the microphone that we would be having a parade at the end of the day, and that anyone who wanted to join in could do so by making something. Pretty simple. A problem quickly arose when Rachel realized she had to leave early to go to the dentist and she would have to miss our parade. I suggested she talk to A and A and see what they could figure out. The three decided we could add another parade, and do one after lunch as well as one later in the day. Super first grade problem solving, eh?
At one point I’m pretty sure the whole recycling station (which is usually housed in the hall) was in our classroom, as kiddos created instruments, costumes (elephants were popular!), and many Star Wars related items. They were SO EXCITED and as we got back in from lunch and recess, we lined up for our first parade of the day.
Oh wait–there were even flags! I had forgotten about that! Such first grade festiveness! 🙂
Isn’t that about the greatest thing you’ve ever seen? Not yet? Ok, check out this one:
After this we went to specials (like a normal day) and came back to finish up anything we wanted to add or redesign for the second part of the parade. What I loved was hearing so many friends that were thinking about how they were going to improve their art/instrument/ship/costume for the second time around. It was definitely not in the plan for this day to include engineering design challenges, but it happened and it was amazing!
Jack had a drum for the parade that we worked to improve. What great thinking!
Our second parade was special because it was the second one, but also because of where it went.
Abderdeen Heights, our neighbor to the north, and a building full of amazing residents!
We took our little parade down the street (rather loudly, I should add–we had drums, remember??) and over to Aberdeen. This had been included in our plans from earlier in the day, and another teacher suggested we just show up and see what happened. If they had some time for us, we’d parade around inside, and if not, we’d just entertain them through the windows from the parking lot. 🙂
Well, it so happened that we got there just as our friend Ms. Cutler was getting of the bus and we told her our little plan. She was so pleased to have us visit, and we spent the next little bit of the afternoon traveling the halls of Aberdeen, sharing our joy and first grade smiles with the residents who were available for a visit. It was “happy hour,” and many residents were awake and allowed us to just come right on in their rooms! Wow! It was so much fun and definitely filled our hearts and theirs. 🙂
I think maybe my favorite picture of the day came on our walk back, as we joked that “Old Man Lemcke” had come back from Aberdeen with us. Ciyah was his helper as they traveled back to Robinson. 🙂
Then it got even better as they pretended that Old Man Lemcke and Old Man Carter were celebrating their 100th birthday. Ciyah had made them a cake! See how those candles even have flames on the tops of them? Love it!
After that she cut the “cake” all apart and shared pieces with the class! She even asked me if I wanted some. This is play at its best! 🙂
Ok, and so the best way to end a story of an amazing play day is to share what they said when I asked them what they walked away with (this was the easel question the next morning):
There are some pretty great things on that list! What a successful LEARNING day in Rm. 202!
If you’ve been here much this fall you’ve read many posts about pumpkins. We’ve read lots of books about pumpkins, planned and created amazing Literary Lanterns out of pumpkins, and then, because of a super lead from Mrs. Meihaus, returned our pumpkins to the wild depths of the Robinson Woods from whence they came. Ok, not really, but we did take them out to see what would happen next, with our fingers crossed that we’ll grow a pumpkin patch. 🙂
Well, over Thanksgiving, while I was working on dessert with my own family, it seemed to just make sense that our Rm. 202 family needed to make, bake and ENJOY a pumpkin pie together. I mean, come on, right? PERFECT!!
And of course, true to 20somethingkidsand1kookyteacher form, this story is going to SUPER LONG because I kept the whole story to myself until the very end. Apologies–I’ll try to save as many words as I can and instead use pictures and videos of my kiddos instead of lots of teacher words from me!
1.) We used the 3 Act Task that I had learned about a couple of weeks ago to start our thinking about what would be the best way to cut our pie and therefore how many we might need to bake to feed our class. I showed them these images and asked what they wondered…
They came up with these questions:
We decided to tackle the last one: Which is the best shape of pie to make for all of us? But even before we could figure out the answer, we had to determine what we meant by the word BEST. We agreed that it was the pie that fed the most people with the least amount of work and the biggest piece!
We worked in small groups to try out triangles and rectangles to see how we could make those shapes and sizes work.
We eventually agreed that triangles would give us a bigger piece of pie, as well as would be much easier to cut all the same way (so it would be fair for everyone), and so another group got busy working with the recipe. We used this one, from The Minimalist Baker. It’s vegan and so perfect for all of the allergy concerns we have in our room (and which was why I tried it for my Thanksgiving, too–everyone could eat it!!).
We did some quick multiplication and figured out we’d need to make 3 pies to get enough pieces for all of the kiddos plus two teachers, and so then we had to look at the amounts of each ingredient we’d need to have (that way I’d know if I had enough of everything at home already like I thought I did).
With some moments that reminded me of the Feast Week work we did in 5th grade several years ago, some of my first grade friends helped me triple the recipe. Wow!
Once we had the details figured out, the kitchen ok’ed to use (thanks Ms. Barbara!!), and all the ingredients brought to school, we got busy! We carved out the morning to make and bake our pies so that then we could eat our pie for dessert after lunch. I have to say THANKS A MILLION to my Rm. 202 friend Rachel for taking care of pictures for us while we made pies, and man did she take a lot! I cannot decide which ones to share so I’ll just play a slideshow here so you can see her great work and the smiles on all the faces of the Rm. 202 bakers! Plus I love how things look so different when someone else takes the pictures instead of me. 🙂
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We got a little surprise when we took our pies to the oven to be baked–Ms. Barbara gave us a tour of the kitchen! What a treat to see where the lunchtime magic takes place and it definitely gave us more of an appreciation for what those ladies do for us every day!
We cut our pie (using our super smart thinking from math earlier in the week!) and then plated it, topped it with whipped cream (well most of us did!) and then chowed down. Some kiddos were worried that they would not like the pie, so we agreed that they didn’t have to eat the whole thing, but just take a “thank-you bite,” which is a way to say you appreciate the time and energy it takes to make a great dessert. We got mixed reviews on the pie, but I think the thumbs-up have it with this one.
I’d say these three were the happiest about pie. Could have probably eaten the whole thing themselves! Love their smiles!!
Ok, I will be done now, and will leave you with this picture. It sums up what I wanted to happen at that old kitchen table in my classroom and kind of reminds me of what Thanksgiving looks like at home. Only this one was celebrated with my Rm. 202 family. 🙂 I am definitely thankful for them!
Can you see it? There’s a friend in there….
* Taking risks: I like to take risks. I hope you do too. It is scary sometimes and it fails sometimes but sometimes, more often, it is just A-MAZ-ING! Usually when you do something scary you do things you never thought you could. You surprise yourself. And then you want to do more! Someone smart once said “Fear and Excitement are shades of the same color”. Cool, huh? (Parents, this is true for you as much as it is for your kiddo!! 🙂
We had loads of great suggestions (including several post-its with MY name on them, LOL), and came up with even more and we planned for our card-making. Kiddos decided who they wanted to create for and then most paired up to share some love!
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 