Longed...Mended...Shocked

If you haven't visited our kidblog lately, you should! The First Graders each have new blog posts where they used one of our "magic words" (longed, mended, shocked) for this week. Our "magic words" are part of our Robust Vocabulary instruction that we have been concentrating on this year in every classroom. Now go...check it out!! :) http://kidblog.org/morningsunfirstgrade/

Searching for -ed

Today we went on a hunt all throughout our classroom. We were searching for words with the -ed ending. Here's Brantly and Jacob looking for words and writing them in their journals:We are paying close attention to the sound that the -ed ending makes in these words and we are putting them into groups according to that sound. We are comparing the words to our three "magic words" (Robust Vocabulary!!) this week: longed (d), mended (ed) and shocked (t). Here's Zek and Sonya finding some -ed words:

Long e

Rainy Day

A rainy, inside day today...

check out our new class photo above...

crazy first graders...

Aren't they awesome!! :)

Earth Day

We have been talking a little bit about "being green". For a first grader to understand that we really have mostly talked about reducing what we use (paper, electricity...), reusing things (paper, plastic containers...) and recycling what we can (paper, plastic, cans, glass...). Today we also went outside and picked up trash on our school grounds. Several items we found could be recycled. I love the kids' enthusiasm and hope that by teaching them these things, they will remind us to do them too! :)

Lunch Music

The Pre-K, Kindergartners and 1st graders sang "Home on the Range" at lunch today.

Here they are:

Frogs and Toads

Click on pictures to view them larger.

Time Flies!

Wow! We have been so busy here in First Grade that I haven't had a chance to write on our blog for a few days.  Plus, the time is just flying by...it's definitely just like the old saying-"Time flies when you're having fun!"  We had some special visitors from Louisa County Conservation on Monday.  They talked to us about frogs and toads.  Here are some pictures:

Yesterday several First Graders worked on their blog for the week.  They are writing about frogs.  Be sure to check our kidblog out and read what they have posted.  They would love for people to leave them some comments too! :)  We will continue adding to that this week.  

Today in Math the First Graders learned how to add 3 numbers together.  They caught on quite quickly. I'm very impressed!!  Speaking of Math...they are working hard on Math Facts in a Flash, too!

Thanks for visiting our blog!  I will be adding more pictures to our website (wiki) soon...so stay tuned!!

Compound Words

This week we have been learning about and searching for compound words. Yesterday, the first graders made lists of compound words in their journals with their partners. Then today we used our Promethean board and our wireless keyboard to type our compound words into Wordle. Here's what we made:

And here are Caden and Levi typing their compound words!

Spelling/Sight Words

Are you ready for our spelling test tomorrow???

(Created using wordle.net)

What's your favorite book?

What's your favorite book?-click here to see my wall.

Today I showed the first graders how to use www.wallwisher.com . It's a really cool Web 2.0 tool that we will use for our "Question of the Week". You can go to my wall and see our question and read the first graders responses. It's like one big bulletin board and everyone puts a "sticky note" with their answer on it. It's a great way for the first graders to practice their reading and writing.

Thank you for coming to Parent/Teacher/Student conferences! It makes such a difference when parents are involved! Happy Easter!! :)