Thank you, Grandparents!!!

Wow - So many special guests joined us today in celebration of Grandparents' Day!  They shared with the class what things were like "long ago" when they were children.  The kids were amazed to hear about the way phone calls were made, how the neighborhood would gather at the one house that had a color television, and how different schools were "way back then."  Here are a few pictures from today.

Rotary telephone

School books

Candy from long ago

Here are some pictures of our special guests!

 

 Mrs. Glime led the class during our Science Lab time.  They conducted the "Walking Water" experiment.  The children predicted correctly that the colored water would travel by way of the paper towel into the new cup.  They also predicted that the water in the new cup would be green!  Science is so fun!

 

Just starting to "walk."

My prediction was right!

So cool!

Welcome and Updates

Today the students welcomed our student teacher, Mrs. Glime!  She will be with our class from now until the end of November.  Mrs. Glime received her undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech and is finishing her Masters degree from Phoenix University.  

We are so excited to have her join our class!  She is going to be a wonderful asset to our learning this fall!  I wish she could stay all year!

Please make sure your child has turned in his/her timeline and Starring Me pages!  Try to get those turned in by Thursday at the latest!  Thank you!

We began PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening) testing today.  We will be completing this assessment a little each day for the next 2 weeks.  Please make sure your child is well rested and eats a healthy breakfast.  

Our first grade field trip is coming up soon. Stay tuned for more information to come!

FUN FRIDAY!

Wow ~ what a busy day!  We have had a wonderful first week!  Here are a few of the things that we worked on...

We worked on using proper handwriting for both letters and numbers.

The students enjoyed making it around the room to all of the different math stations this week.  I love seeing their creativity with the math manipulatives.  It always amazes me how the kiddos instinctively sort by color or size and make patterns!  

  

We finished up our study of rules and citizenship this morning.  We put the first few things into our interactive notebook.  

After reading, A Porcupine Named Fluffy, and talking about friendship, we made "Friendship Salad."  As we poured kids (fruit) in to our class (bowl), we discussed all of the good behaviors and attitudes we want to see in our classroom.  Then as I started to put in the rotten banana, the kids all said, "No, don't - yuck!"  This gave us the opportunity to discuss how poor behavior and mean words can ruin the fun we have in class (salad).  The kids loved their fruit Friendship Salad and most had seconds!  Yummy!

Today was our first Sci-Fri day!  On Fridays, we will try to squeeze in a simple science experiment.  Science is just so fun!  Ask the kids about today's Balloon Experiment.  Our first try was not successful.  :(  I explained to the class that this happens all the time in science and actually is one of the best ways to learn something!  We had success on try #2!  See if your child can remember any of the terms we started talking about: chemical reaction, base, acid, and carbon dioxide.  Did you know that you can blow up a balloon without using your mouth?!  We found out that if you make a chemical reaction that you can!  

If you want to try it at home...you will need a plastic bottle, about a cup of white vinegar, 5 tsp of baking soda, and a balloon.  Put the vinegar in the bottle, pour in the baking soda, and quickly place the balloon around the mouth of the bottle.  It will fill up quickly!  :)  Fun stuff!

Have  a super weekend!  

We are off to a wonderful start this year! I think today was the smoothest start ever in first grade! 

We worked hard on completing our time capsules this morning. We measured our height with yarn, made handprints, made a self portrait, and filled in some information about some of our favorite things. We will tuck these away until the last day of school and see how much we grow and improve this year. How exciting! 

 After reading No, David by David Shannon, we began our discussion of citizenship and following rules. The kids loved the story Officer Buckle and Gloria, too! We will continue working on rules for the remainder of the week. 

The kids got to "play" with some math games during small group instruction today. Math is sounding pretty good right now...play games, really? Yep, games - who knew that playing games could be a learning experience all at the same time! 

We finished a very busy day with recess and music with Ms. Dolfini. We are off to a great start! I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow! Get some rest...I know that I need it!

Please press play to hear a special message from me to you!

Well, it is that time again - a new school year!  If you were in my class last year and are still receiving email updates from my blog, you might want to go ahead and remove your information before the new year begins...in just a week!  I hope you had a great summer and did lots of reading!  I read a ton of books this summer!  Come by and visit me this year!