Plants and Stuff

Originally post 2/27/14

 

(our plant experiment - 

they finally grew flowers and even a few seed pods!)

Next week we start science rotations! There will be five different science units, split between the five second grade teachers = one for each of us! I will be teaching matter and gravity. I was rather nervous since I didn't know what about those two concepts I'd actually teach, but now that I've started to research, I'm actually really excited! There are so many cool experiments to do that pretty much the whole time can be hands on, perfect!

These twirly rainbows with hanging pots of gold are our new ceiling decor for March :) They look complicated, but were pretty easy to put together. They ended up being just what I wished for! Most of the kiddos like them, but they might be a little girly for a few of the boys ;)

One morning this week, one of the cute girls came to class late, but was holding these flowers, which she then handed me. Aw! Aren't they pretty?

The same day, another student gave me this yummy Valentine that she forgot to bring to school on Valentine's Day. My students are the best!

Valentine's Day

We made these super cute swirly Valentine's Day hearts for the ceiling!

Learning to Write

Welcome to First Grade!

I don't remember learning how to write. Do you?

In high school, I recall writing papers and learning about outlines and such, but how did I learn to write a sentence? How did I learn how to write a paragraph? It must have been taught in elementary school, but I really don't recall. I wonder if my students will remember learning to write - some will for sure, due to their telling me how much they like writing. But what about the rest? Will it be a mystery to them?

Next year, I'll be teaching itty bitty little first graders who are just beginning to write. This brings us to my newest purchase...Project Read's Written Expression. I love this program! When I taught summer school with SensaLearn two years ago, they paid for the teachers to be trained in this program. It was awesome!
Even after the Reading Endorsement class on writing, which I loved, I wondered how to teach the foundational writing skills. Well, this was it! It starts with two word sentences and builds easily to complex sentences. Without the book, I taught the major points of the program this year, but now, with the book, watch out! Next year's students are going to rock this writing thing!

This is what I bought (Framing Your Thoughts Sentence Structure Guide, Applied Writing Guide, and Companion DVDs)

video clip

I'm thinking that I'll make my own version using a lamination, file folders, cardstock, and velcro. It'll last longer that way! First graders and sticky notes? Uh, yeah, that's kinda crazy!

The Written Expression curriculum...focuses on the art of sentence and paragraph development, using multisensory and sequential instruction to develop the basic skills of writing. Activities center on eight graphic symbols that explain sentence structure in a concrete manner. These activities evolve sequentially from simple to complex sentence-building, and ultimately to paragraph composition. ProjectRead

Science Demo Team

This year, the first graders have Science Demo Team. Science Demo Team is made up of a team of about 15 sixth graders. These students are divided into two teams - the AM team and the PM team. They stay after school and work with a sixth grade teacher who teaches them to present a science topic. There is a short direct instruction/introduction time, and then a longer experiment time. We have the team come about eight times during the year. The lessons are adorable and the kids love having science with the sixth graders! We, of course, supplement these lessons with additional lessons throughout the year. Today was our FIRST! Science Demo Team lesson and experiment. They learned how scientists use their five senses to figure out what something is. The something was in Styrofoam cup covered with tinfoil that had a small hole in the top. The students weighed it (about 3 oz), took its temperature (0*C), smelled it (wafting) (sweet, vanilla, fruity), tasted it with their eyes closed to make a guess as to what it was, and listened to the soda fizzing as it was poured into the cup. Any guesses?

Here's one student's reaction to having science this morning:

"Teacher!!! When is science, when is SCIENCE?????? I've never been teached science before!!! When is ScIEenCe???"

" In about 10 mins."

The same student later decided that he just HAD to know what would happen if he unplugged the orange cord from the outlet at the front of the room, so he crawled around me on the floor while we were having a lesson at the SmartBoard and unplugged it. The screen went blue. I happened to glance down to see him plugging the cord back into the outlet! Yeah...perhaps we should leave scientific experiments for more appropriate times.

And the answer to today's mystery is: strawberry and vanilla ice cream with 7-up.

This and That 2014

September 4th:
Such feisty-ness: "The only one who can tell us what to do is the teacher, 'cause she's in charge of us!!!"

September 2nd:
Student: "Teacher, guess what?" 
Me: "What?"
Student: "I have a crush on someone in our class."
Me: "You do?"
Student: "Yeah, _______."
Me: "Oh. He's nice."
Student: "Yeah." while sighing, and then walking over to gaze on her love.
Me: giggle in my head :)

Update: She followed him around at recess the next day, but he wanted to just play with his brother and not with her, so she punched him in the face! Then he pushed her down. Oops!

August 29th: The kiddos took their first spelling test today! They did quite well too! After school, I worked on getting organized and putting some spreadsheets and other organizational materials put together. There are a few more things I need to do, hopefully I'll still remember on Tuesday! Getting home around 9:30 pm was not part of the plan!

August 28th: After checking the tracking, I found out that the new listening center was waiting for me in the office, wahoo! I set it up this morning, and the students absolutely love, love, love it! There are 6 books with CDs for them to choose from. They were happy little clams the whole rest of the reading time. Also, I added three more books with CDs to our growing collection! We now have at least 5 books with CDs to choose from each month. Due to popularity, I may make a student rotation schedule!

Update: Having so many choices makes a mess that they don't seem to be able to keep cleaned up, so I have given them two to start with. They'll have two each week and that should be good! So far it's working much better!

August 26th: I love it when everything starts coming together and things that I didn't fully understand start to really make sense. I love that I have the gospel in my life and that the atonement is real. I love the analogy of the yoke where Jesus Christ becomes our partner and helps us bear our burdens. I love how the Holy Ghost guides me throughout the teaching process so that I can see my students as He sees them, so that I know how to teach them what they need to learn. I love that even though I work at a public school, I can still say a silent prayer for help and guidance. I love having been able to visit with good friends this weekend who also hold these beliefs and learn and understand more from our time together.

August 19th: Day 1 of 180 done! It was a good day. Several super nervous little ones decided that they are now happy about first grade. That's the biggest success of the day! Some also really, really wanted to go back to Kindergarten (half day). One of the little boys kept telling everyone that they had to stay at school for 6 hours before they got to go home, and it hasn't been 6 hours yet! Plus, once we got past the "I want _______ as my teacher." when asked what they want in a teacher (misunderstanding the question?) they answered, "you!" "I just want YOU to be my teacher!" Aw, I accept. I also saw several of my students from last year, and they've gotten SO tall over the summer! They were super cute saying hi as we crossed paths.

Scientists

To go along with science, we finally made our scientists! They turned out super cute!

scientific method listed inside

Reading Workshop

Originally posted 10/15/14

Although I've had most of the reading workshop pieces in place for awhile, it's also been in need of smoothing out. The question was how do I make it more about the students rotating themselves and knowing where they should go without my keeping track of up to five groups rotating between five centers along with teaching reading groups! Craziness!

So, I took an idea from one teacher who use to use color coded cards and containers, but the students chose a random card, which could make reading groups difficult to fit in as well as odd overlaps in the rest of the time? Another idea is that last year, everyone rotated between three activities while I pulled back the reading groups. I like and dislike the idea of keeping the reading groups together throughout the rotations. So far, it doesn't seem to matter much with the groups this year since they mostly get along well and work well together. Therefore, I've been rotating them with their reading groups most of the time, but it's been messy to keep track. I want them to be more in charge of knowing what they need to do, so I put these two ideas together and...

viola! (Recently, I changed game to writing. It's great!)

The group color doesn't mean anything other than it's arranged by who has reading groups 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Other than that, the rotations are really the same. In the mornings, I have three rotations and in the afternoon there are five rotations (now four rotations). The students' names are listed under the card with their group's rotation. 

These were going to be for each student, but then I realized that they didn't all need their own card, so I put one of each card on the board. Now I just say, "switch," and they can check to see where they go next! They love it and it made everything so much easier today!

The other change is using these posters:

Part of the students' education is being able to reflect on their work/behavior. At the end of each day, students think about how they did and write the number corresponding to their behavior and effort* on their calendar page. Then they think about what they need to do to have a good day tomorrow. At first they were all giving themselves the highest rating, but now they're starting to be more honest.

Update: I began using Class Dojo (instead of tickets) for behavior and the whisper bell to help with volume control. I love the positiveness of both! The students understand and it's quick and simple.

*I'm going to change the posters to reflect the whole day instead of just reading workshop (I still haven't done that!).

Georgia O'Keeffe

This week, we are learning about and being inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's art. The students enjoyed listening to the short children's version of her biography, Georgia O'Keeffe by Linda Lowery and viewing some amazing full color copies of her art work in the four main areas for which she is known: Flowers, Cityscapes, Bones, and Moodscapes. Yesterday, everyone was excited to get started! Here are some amazing examples of student works in progress:

4th grader

4th grader

4th grader

3rd grader

3rd grader

2nd grader

2nd grader