Honest Abe, a Shiny Penny and -ar Jars

Where does the time go? I guess we are just so busy learning that Monday all of a sudden turns into Friday! :)  This week we talked about Abraham Lincoln and the kiddos made super-fun Abe Lincoln portraits. They also wrote facts about him and most of them also chose to write about Mr. Lincoln on our Kidblog this week.

We did a science experiment with pennies in honor of Abraham Lincoln this week also.  We put the copper pennies into 4 different substances after making predictions about what would happen.  We found out that the mixture of vinegar and salt causes the copper to shine.

Our Phonics lesson on Friday was about the -ar "chunk" that is found in so many words.  After a brief explanation I sent the kiddos off with their partners to make a list of -ar words on a jar...those smarty pants had soooo many words that I didn't even think of! :)

 

Next week we will talk about dental health and then we will begin our month long unit on Dr. Seuss...my fave! :)

Stylish Blogger Award

Thank you to Suzanne at Diary of a First Grade Teacher for awarding me the Stylish Blogger Award! :) I really appreciate it as I have found sooooo many awesome (and stylish) blogs out there in the past few months to follow...including her blog! :)


Here are the rules for receiving this award:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award


7 things about me:
1. I love "blogstalking" other teacher's blogs and getting great ideas from them! :)
2. I love summer!! Spending time with my family, sitting on my pool deck reading, going to baseball games,  reading on my front porch...only 64 more school days! :)
3. My favorite sports are hockey and tennis. 
4. My favorite singers are: tobyMac, Jeremy Camp, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant. 
5. I am the youngest of 4 girls and my husband is the oldest of 7 children.  Phew!  I'm so glad we only have 2 boys.  I don't know how people raise more than that!?!
6. I have been married for 20 years and my husband surprised me last summer with a trip to Hawaii!! 
7. My fave TV shows are: Hawaii Five-0, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and anything on HGTV! :)


5 blogs I have recently discovered are:
http://1stgradelearningstars.blogspot.com/
http://whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/
http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/
http://firstgraderatlast.blogspot.com/
http://firstgradesmarties.blogspot.com/

Our Valentine's Day Fun

We had a really fun Valentine's day on Monday.  I put together this "glog" (using my favorite Web 2.0 tool, Glogster) with a few pictures from our day.  Click and hold down the mouse button to enlarge the photos.  We were excited to receive Valentines in the mail from our WebPals in Canada and our Blogging Buddies in Pennsylvania.  We sent them some, too! :)  We Skyped with our WebPals today and found out that they still have not received our valentines...hmmm?!?!  I wonder where they are? :(

We did some graphing with candy hearts and then answered some questions about the graph.  The first graders are getting very good at analyzing data on a graph!  We also learned about venn diagrams and used a special heart venn diagram to compare and contrast two things or people.  It is a really important skill for the first graders to develop for all subject areas.

You can click HERE if you want to view this glog larger.

Math Partners

We started what I call "Math Partners" today.  It is loosely (very loosely!) based on "Math Stations" by Debbie Diller.  I was getting tired of "DAP" and didn't feel that it was providing much for my students.  Our Math Partners time will provide them with extra practice to master the math skills we have covered in class.  I plan to have my kiddos do Math Partners 2 or 3 times a week...when time allows!! :)

Students play a math game with their partner while I rotate around the room observing the skills being used.  It's a great way for me to see who needs more instruction.  One game that the kiddos were able to choose today was Candyland-Math Facts version.  Thanks to Ryan's mom (and Brock and Grant :)) we have an addition and subtraction version of the game.  Players have to answer basic addition and subtraction facts before moving their game pieces.  They also have to write the fact on the recording sheet.  I got this great idea from Brooke over at  Primary Perspective.

Eventually I hope to be able to pull small groups of students for short guided math groups in areas that they need extra work on during this time as well.  They loved to first day of Math Partners and I even heard a first grader say, "Oh I get it! You're letting us play games but we have to do Math and think!"  Aren't they cute??!! :)

What We Love

Today during computer lab time we used ImageChef.com to make word mosaics of people and things that we love. Then, we put our word mosaics into a Kidblog post. The first graders did a fantastic job! Happy Valentine's Day! :)

Super Smart!

I just have to say that I absolutely love the second half of the school year.  The first graders are so much more independent at this point and we can do so much more now than those first few months of school.  It seems like every year at this time I start thinking about what little time I have left with these kiddos and I start getting worried (because we have so much material yet to cover!!) and a bit sad, too (because I've grown attached to the little buggers!!).

Speaking of what these first graders can do...I started 2 of my guided reading groups on CHAPTER BOOKS this week! Do you know how exciting that is to a first grader?  They think they are "big stuff"! :) We'll see how many more we can get to reading chapter books by the end of the year.

Soon we will be starting "Math Partners" a few days a week.  We have been learning some of the Math games that will be used.  Here are a few pictures of the first graders trying them out:

This is called "Toss and Tally".  It's an addition game with dice, markers and a chart.

This is "Four in a Row" and it gives the kids practice in addition and subtraction. It looks like they're just coloring, but they have to do a math fact first, then find the answer on the grid and color it in.  

The object is to get four in a row.

This is the Py game.  Players add and subtract and use strategy to win this game! :)

I have been working this weekend on converting my plain, old Candyland game into a Math facts game.  (Thanks to an idea I found on Primary Perspective.) Anyone have a Candyland game at home that is going unused?  I'd love to make another one so more partners can play!

Seals and Walruses

Here is a collection of facts about seals and walruses written by the first graders in their journals.  We uploaded the pictures to Voicethread, then recorded ourselves reading our writing. Did you know all of these facts? You can listen to our Voicethread and leave us a comment or two! :)

Scurrying, Trudging, Presently

Our vocabulary story this week is The Mitten. I read a version that the kiddos were unfamiliar with since they had already heard Jan Brett’s version. The first graders had to listen for 3 “magic” (robust vocabulary) words while I read the story to them. After learning the meaning of all three words, the students wrote sentences in their journals using those words. Today we posted those sentences on our Kidblog.  Scurrying (moving quickly) and trudging (moving slowly with heavy steps) were fairly easy and familiar words for them. Presently (right now) was not so easy...we may have to revisit that one in another story! Head on over to our Kidblog and read their sentences.  They are getting soooo good at finding the letters on the keyboard when typing and remembering their capital letters and punctuation, too! :)

Valentines and Fact Families

All day long I just couldn't get used to the fact that today is Friday. But, it is (or was!) and with almost everyone back and healthy, we worked on some important items today. First, we created valentines for our Blogging Buddies and WebPals.  Since we mostly use the computer and webcam to communicate with them, I thought it would be fun to use "old-fashioned snail-mail" for a change! :)  Both teachers (Mrs. Kruger in Canada and Ms. Blazosky in Pennsylvania) thought it was a great idea for our kiddos to exchange home-made valentines.  The first graders did an awesome job decorating and addressing their valentines.  We will get them finished up on Monday and send them off in the mail.  Then, we will anxiously await the arrival of valentines from Canada and PA! :)

 

This afternoon we worked on fact families during Math.  We reviewed what we had done on Tuesday before the snowstorm hit.  We did several together on the "magic board", then the first graders did some on their own in their journals. So smart!! :)

Confession time...I have become quite the "blogstalker".  Don't worry parents, it's a good thing! :)  There are some really great teacher bloggers out there (all over the country...and more) that I have been getting super fun ideas from for my classroom.  They have inspired me to do some reorganizing in my classroom and take different approaches to the same old topics.  Thank you to my new blogging friends! :)  Have a relaxing weekend!

Friday...already??

What a strange week this has been! So much for those lesson plans...We will hit the books running tomorrow and then continue next week with more hard work! Same sight words for next week as we had this week. Hopefully we will have everyone healthy and ready to go! :)