Cookies, Contractions and More!

Happy Sunday Ya'll! :)

It's been a great weekend and I've LOVED spending time with my family and an old friend. So good for the soul. :)

I have to update you on a few cute things that have been happening in our neck of the woods, but first....the GIRL SCOUT COOKIES craziness has begun!

It completely slipped my mind that I had placed an order from one of my old students, and low and behold they arrived on Thursday! ((My Husband was super thrilled!)) I on the other hand must resit the temptation to indulge on these addictive treats!

 

She also created the cutest little thank you note/receipt! I was impressed with her business skills. :)

 



This past week we have begun learning about the world of Contractions! I briefly explained what a contraction was and how they were created, and used a cute idea from another first grade blog..The Contraction Crocodile! He chews up words and spits them out in a new form! The kids were ALL over this, and I think it really helped them visually understand the concept.

Each student then made their very own with as many contractions written on the crocs belly as they could. I've never seen them work so hard to fit all of them in!

  

Finally, I have to share our latest Inferring Adventure.

This week our mentor text was one of my FAVORITES! The Royal Bee.

The story tells of a Korean boy named Song-ho who lives with his mother, working in the fields to help his family survive. He is too poor to go to school, but decides he wants to create a better life for this mother.

Each day he sneaks down to The Sodang School and eavesdrops into the days lesson given by Master Min.

We began with discussing the meaning of critical vocabulary words and inferring what his life was like based on the text and the pictures.

My students were so engaged with this deeply rich text and so we decided to take it further. They each wrote their own letter to Master Min explaining why they thought he should let Song-ho into his school, even though it would break the schools rules.

They took this SO seriously. It was fantastic!

  

 

 

The next day we read on and discovered that Master Min did in fact allow him in.

He studied with the other students and was sent on to the Royal Bee which was a competition of knowledge that only one student from each school could attend.

 

 

After the competition played out, Song-ho and another pupil were the final two standing.

 



I took this opportunity to reinforce the concept of predicting and using textual evidence. I gave the students 5 minutes to write their prediction and then we came back and share before reading the end of the book!

I love that this student said Song-ho would win because he is smart, brave, confident, competitive and very strong...he will be the Champion! :) So good!

After sharing, we read on Song-ho did in fact win!
It was a great experience that I feel left my students wanting more.

On that note, it's time to prepare for the week ahead, and I can honestly say I'm looking forward to the learning possibilities that the week holds!

--Mrs. Hunter

"Pulling" on my Heart Strings..

Clever title right?

Ha. Not only did we have an AMAZING Valentines Day in the classroom, but we've also been learning about Motion...specifically about pushes and pulls!

Let's start with the Valentine's Day craziness!

A few days before, I made these cute little Valentines for my students! I've never had so many compliments about homemade chocolate pops! So cute. :)

 

 

For math that day we used Conversation hearts to practice tallying, predicting, and graphing! Props to First Grade Parade for creating such a great tool! The students LOVED it. :)

 

 

 

For Reading, we read one of my FAVORITE Valentines Day books...Love Splat! We inferred how Splat was feeling at different points in the book. The students then wrote an opinion piece about what they believed were the best ways to show love as well as their very own Splat the Cat!

 

**Usually we have the students cut and paste on their own, but our day was so packed that we pre-cut everything ahead of time!**

 

Finally we attached EVERYTHING for one stinkin' cute project!

 

 

 

Towards the end of the day, I gave the students time to pass out their very own Valentines. Many of them were hand made and I was SO impressed! By the end of the day my desk looked like this...

 

 

I felt very loved and very blessed to have such a fantastic group of students and parents! They literally are THE BEST! :) Although...it does look like about 25 pounds I would have to burn off at the gym! Haha. :))) 



 

 

 

Moving on...

 

 

Currently in Science we have begun learning about Motion. We began with the concept of Pushes and Pulls and man o' man did we have a blast!

 

We began with brainstorming what we new about motion and then read our National Geographic science text and came up with hand motions for specific vocabulary words!

 

 

Then, we did a little experiment! We made predictions as to how we could make a paper cup move on two pieces of string. The students came up with some pretty interesting concepts....

 

 

I then modeled all of the students of the experiment and the kids practiced pushing and pulling to make the cup move. They also figured out how to make the cup stop! So fun!

 



 

 

Finally, we reflected on our experiment. While I'm not much of a worksheet fan, I did like what came in our series. It allowed the children to explain how to move the cup closer to them and apart from then. They also had to reflect on the experiment as a whole! They did a fantastic job!

 

 

 

 

Next week we move into HOW objects move and I'm looking forward to creating opportunities for them to explore this concept.

 



Thanks for reading and stay posted for more!

 

--Mrs. Hunter

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



A Few Highlights...

Okay all,

I planned on blogging about all of our Valentines Day fun, but in the midst of all of the crazy, I forgot to snap a few cute photos of what we accomplished, so it will have to wait until tomorrow! :(

I did though want to share a few highlights of this past week that the students and myself found quite enjoyable!

To begin with, we have been learning about ordering numbers in Math, so what better way to practice than through the creation of a number line. I gave each team a starting point and an ending point. They had to synergize and use sticky notes and string to order the numbers between the two boundaries. Depending on their ability levels, I made the numbers easier or more difficult. Some teams mastered their challenge and asked to continue as far as they could! Of course..:)

    

A few team members of mine also tried something new during Writers Workshop! We had the students bring their journals to the carpet DURING the mini lesson instead of taking their supplies out afterwards. In this case, I taught the mini lesson and each child started writing in their carpet spot. I dismissed them one at a time if I saw them writing the whole time! Ya'll, I've never seen all of them writing SOOO much at one time! I think the fact that every child was writing and focused helped SO much. Definitely doing this from now on. On that day, they were writing opinion pieces as to which resource class they like the best....here is a snapshot! 

We also continued this week with Inferring. I used the book "Grandfather Twilight" and they ate this up! The first day we started with a statement to which they had to agree or disagree just based on the cover of the book. We then read the book and I gave them the chance to change their original thought. We talked about the power of prediction and how our thinking changes as we read!

 **Sorry about the glare on the board! I'm out of chart paper and REALLY need to get more! I'm using the board and snapping pictures until then!** 

 

The next day we re-read the text and then brainstormed what else he could be besides a ghost! They came up with brilliant answers (a human, a mythical creature, the sky maker, God, etc). Each student then put their thinking on paper and wrote what they thought he was as well as the thinking behind it. We are really trying to help the students use textual evidence to support their thinking. This has been a great start...

       
                                      

As you can see we have been SOO busy! I'm excited for the week ahead and will be back tomorrow with a Valentines Day recap! 

Happy President's Day! 

--Mrs. Hunter 

America and Inferring: The PerfectPair!

Happy Sunday!!!

It's been a fantastic weekend after a jam packed week of learning! I'm so proud of all we accomplished this week as well as our focus on being strong classroom leaders. :) Check it all out below!

This past week we began our preparations for our First Grade Living Museum! It's a huge undertaking for everyone involved, but it always turns out AMAZING, and the students do a phenomenal job! Check out the blog next week for pictures!

We began with learning about the Statue of Liberty. We read books and watched Brain pop and then wrote some pretty stinkin' cute similes with a drawing attached! Here are a few...

 

 

We also learned so many fun facts about The White House. Did you know that John Adams was the first president to actually live in the White House? I'm actually stunned by how much I didn't know! The students wrote an informational paragraph and then drew their own White House! Pretty impressive. :) 

 

 

 

Learning about the American Symbols was next on the list considering many of the students have a symbol for their home project. We discussed and read about several symbols and what they stood for. Check out these examples! We attached crepe paper to the bottom to make it look like a flag. Who would have thought a simple touch could jazz up a piece of writing so much!?

 

 

Teaching writing has been a personal goal of mine this year and I'm so thrilled with what the students are producing. :)

 

Speaking of which, our school this year has been pushing amazing handwriting for all students considering the high expectations for upper grade writing assessments, so we threw in a little handwriting practice with a cute patriotic poem. Glued against fun scrap booking paper, it was another great piece to add to our classroom student work display!

 

 

 

 

Now, to switch the focus a bit...

In Readers Workshop we have been focusing on Inferring. First we began inferring unknown words through the use of "John, Paul, George and Ben". Such a good book for this if you haven't seen it! My team and I modeled how to figure out the meaning of an unknown word by using text evidence and our schema's. The students did a fantastic job on their own inferring what the word independent meant! Here was our anchor chart:

 

 

 

Many of the students inferred that Independent meant on your own, ignoring what someone tells you, being by yourself, etc. It was fantastic!

 

We then moved into inferring the answers to questions that were not specifically answered in the text. We read "How Many Days to America" and inferred the answers to many questions through whole group and team discussions.

 

 

 

 

At the end of the book, I really wanted to give my students the chance to think critically about information or lack there of in the book. The story tells of a family of immigrants who come to America to live a better, safer life. Where they came from though is not stated. This was one of our questions! So, I took a screen capture of a world map, painted 3 red dots on it (one for where they probably came from, one that was for sure not where they came from, and one that could be a possibility, but it would be highly unlikely!) The students ate this up! I have never seen them so engaged and wanting to think so deeply. We concluded through out knowledge of maps and evidence in the book that they came from an island in the Caribbean, since there were tropical fruits in their area and it only took about a month! It was also a great way to discuss maps, the equator and weather. As we say in my hallway, "That is SO Common Core!"

 

 

Well, that's all for now! I'm looking forward to another wonderful week with my kiddos! :)

 



Next week, Valentines Day and Living Museum greatness! We can DO IT !

 

--Mrs. Hunter

 

 



 

 

 

The 100th Day...

 

It felt like the 100th day snuck right up on us! We did the best we could and had a blast!

 

 

Each of my first grade team members encouraged their students to dress like they were 100 years old! It was a hoot! Now, I cant show you pictures of the students, but here we are "hamming" it up!

 

 

 

I'm tellin' ya...we felt like we were 100 after the day was over! Haha.

 

We also had the students make 100th day trail mix. We incorporated measuring cups and counting into it which was really fun! Forgot to get a picture..:((

 

Finally,

 

We had the students make 100 year old people and write about what they could do and what they couldn't do. They came up with the most interesting ideas...and their old people looked pretty interesting as well!

            

 

 

 

So funny! One of my students said if he were 100 he would relax and read on the couch. It inspired me to do just that! So here are a few books on my read/re-read list! I tend to read a few books at a time...:))) 

 

 

 

 

Happy Reading!

 

--Mrs. Hunter