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. :)
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
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