Penguins and Chickens

Here's our Penguins and Chickens Venn Diagram.  We compared the two birds and put the facts in the appropriate "snowball".  It worked great on our "magic board"!!  It was interesting to see how the two birds were alike and different.  We will continue to do more venn diagrams this semester.

First Grade Bloggers

Yesterday and today the first graders spent time blogging!  We took pictures of their penguin drawings, uploaded them to our blog and then the first graders typed their sentences onto our blog.  They even got to use our wireless keyboard to type on.  Everyone did an excellent job remembering capital letters and punctuation and a few even used "talking marks".  We were using verbs from our Penguin PWIM (and other verbs, too!), so ask your first grader if he/she can tell you which word in their sentence is a verb.  Be sure to let us know what you think of the pictures and sentences! :)

Chance's Penguins

The mom swims to get the fish.

Ananya's Penguins

"I love my baby and my baby likes to sleep," said mom.

Zek's Penguins

A penguin likes to swim.

Brantly's Penguins

Penguins move when they swim in the water.

Sonya's Penguin

There is a lots of penguins in the water.

Jacob's Penguin

I went to the zoo and I  saw  a  penguin  swimming.

Erin's Penguins

I  like  swimming  like  a   penguin.

Tanner's Penguins

Penguins love to swim in the water and they also jump in the water and they jump out of the water.

Dawson's Penguin

A penguin can swim fast. 

Dalton's Penguins

I like penguins they are fun.

Abbie's Penguins

I  saw  a   penguin  in     real    life   they  were   very    very    cute.

Dustin's Penguins

The  penguins  mom  feeds  the  baby  and  penguins  like  to  slide.

Christopher's Penguin

Penguins eat fish and seals eat penguins.

Genna's Penguins

I like penguins because they are good at sliding.

Hannah's Penguins

Penguin babies moms go to get their food.

Kyndal's Penguins

Big penguins can swim in water.

Levi's Penguins

  Some penguins are big and small.

A Virtual Field Trip to Antarctica

Today we took a virtual field trip to Antarctica using Google Earth.  We found out that Antarctica is an island at the bottom of the Earth!  It is so cold there that no one lives there permanently, but scientists do go there to watch and study the animals that live there.  We watched a National Geographic video about Emperor penguins and saw one penguin escape its predator...the leopard seal! 

ai words

Today we learned about the long a sound using -ai-. We read a book called Snail Mail and watched the Between the Lions episode entitled: Trains and Brains and Rainy Plains.  We also made a list on our "magic board" of words that have -ai that makes the long a sound.

Our New Pets

Yes, today we did educational things like reading, spelling and math, but we also had some fun and adopted some pets!  Each first grader was able to choose a pet, name it and then we added it to our class website.  Perry the Penguin on the right side of this blog is an example of one. Click here to see our new pets.


To all of you who have been reading our class blog...thanks for checking it out!  We are excited to show you more of what we are learning in first grade in the weeks and months to come!  Have a great weekend!

Congratulations Christopher!

Congratulations to Christopher for being the first one to pass all of the levels on "Math Facts in a Flash" in the 5 minute time limit! He will now move onto 4 minutes! This may be the fastest that any first grader has ever done that!! Awesome job, Christopher!

Snow Day...#5!

Another Snow Day...or should I say Ice Day!  We will now be having school on Monday, February 15th to make up this day.  I sure hope the weather cooperates and we can go back to school tomorrow!

Penguin PWIM

Today we continued working with our Penguin PWIM (Picture Word Inductive Model).  Last week the children had to "shake out words" that go with our penguin picture and after adding to that list we have now begun to work with those words.  Using our Promethean Activboard (or "Magic Board" as we like to call it!), I circled words that could be grouped together.  Then, the first graders had to guess why those words go together. (Example: color words, words with -ing, words with the long a sound.)  They were so good at figuring my groups out that I gave them a chance to do the same. Here are pictures of Caden and Dawson putting words into groups for us to figure out!

We will continue using our PWIM words for more vocabulary development, reading and phonics practice and eventually to do some writing.  The first graders are very curious to know more about penguins so we will investigate further and find out more about them, such as where they live and what they eat.  Maybe we'll even take a field trip to see some...with Google Earth!  We'll be sure to let you know what we learn!

A Dream

Today in first grade we talked about Martin Luther King, Jr. since today is the holiday in honor of him. The first graders had a really tough time understanding how things used to be, especially the segregated drinking fountains and bathrooms. We read the story The Crayon Box That Talked (by Shane DeRolf) and talked about how each of us is unique and important in making our world colorful!

We also read this poem by Cynthia Cappetta:

Martin Luther King had a dream

For people everywhere

He wanted them to get along

And show how much they care

By helping one another

And by always being fair

So remember Martin Luther King

And help his dream come true

By always treating others

As you'd want them to treat you!

Talking Snowmen

Today we used Blabberize to make our snowmen illustrations talk. The first graders wrote in their journals what they wanted their snowmen to say.  Then they practiced reading it with fluency so that it sounded like their snowmen were really talking! Click here to see our talking snowmen on our class wikispace. Be sure to leave us a comment here on our blog to let us know what you thought of our talking snowmen!

The Py Game

Today the first graders learned how to play "The Py Game". It is a math game that uses addition and subtraction to build a pyramid. Playing the game gives the children extra practice on their basic addition and subtraction facts. The winner is the player who puts his/her piece on the top of the pyramid! Click on the pictures above to enlarge them.

Snow Fun!

Math Facts in a Flash

What an exciting day we had in first grade today!  The first graders took their first test on Math Facts in a Flash!  They had to type their first and last names and their password in to be able to log in. They were very excited and did an excellent job remembering all of the steps to follow! Now they will be able to work on passing the levels and getting better and better at their basic addition and subtraction facts!  Great work First Graders!! :)

Zek

Abbie

Genna

Caden

Chance

Another Snow Day!

Oh no! Another Snow Day! I guess we will have to finish our stories and pictures on Monday!! Have a great weekend!

SNOW DAY!

Snow day today!  We will have to finish our animal stories and post them on Friday! See you tomorrow! :)

Brantly

Erin

Dalton

Jacob

Sonya

Levi

Ananya

Christopher

Dawson

Dustin

Kyndal

Tanner

Hannah

ActivPrimary Pictures and Stories

As the first graders become more familiar using the ActivPrimary software that we have to go along with our Promethean Activboard (a.k.a. "Magic Board"), we will be posting their pictures and stories. They would love to hear what you have to say about their creations. Feel free to post a positive comment under the pictures!