Free Friday

I love when we have time to do free centers!!!!  The kids love them too!  We had the time this past Friday to spend a few minutes doing what we love.  As I watched the little sweeties, I got a tad sentimental.  Here in this little classroom is our future.  I am so blessed and honored to be able to share a little bit of their lives with them.  They are all such a joy and the reason I ADORE my job!!

Future Educators......

Future Sculptors......

Future Artists.....                                                                                                              

 Future Builders......

Future Engineers........

Future Google/Apple CEOs.......

Better Late than Never.....

Here is what has been happining in room R1-4 the weeks before Thanksgiving Break!

Mrs. Clawson's art class from the High School came and helped us make some really cool recycled owls!!  Thanks so much to our "artsy" friends!

The Mayflower has arrived!  The Friday before Thanksgiving break the first grade made it's own "voyage" on the Mayflower.  Mrs. Smith's room was turned into the Mayflower and the kids experienced the events leading the Pilgrims to America.  Mrs. Vietch, Mrs. Barton, and Mrs. Richardson brought Native American culture to life by art, games and dancing!  The kids had a great time.  I hate I didn't get  pictures.  :( It was such a busy day!

Halloween was super fun!  We made edible spider!  Yummy! The kids looks all "spookly"....

Zookeeper Times 2!

I am doing double duty today and posting last week's and this week's Zookeeper.  Last week was the awesome Zane!  This week is the Super Kristofer!  Both these gentlemen are huge helpers to our class!  We are lucky to have them!

A Royally Good Time

It’s Yamboree time and we had a “royal” visitor today!  Queen Nan came to visit our first grade today!  Nan and her twin sister Ann were Yamboree Queens in 1979! Nan came and showed us her train and some super cool pictures!  She also showed us how to wave like a Queen!  The kids really enjoyed her visit!  Thanks Queen Nan….You ROCK!!!

FYI…I want to be Nan when I grow up!  J  She is a super woman!

Zookeeper of the Week

Zookeeper last week was Takoda!  Love him!  He is a great student and super friend!

Rebel Twinkies

Mrs. Veitch and I with some Rebel Pride!!!

Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly “Silly” Tales……

What a week!  We have been very busy learners.  I want to start out by saying congratulations to our Zookeeper of the week Sophia!  Way to Go!!

This week we used adjectives to describe ourselves.  Then we did some awesome self-portraits to add to our descriptive words. 

In Reading, we continued our theme of Fairy Tales with Henny Penny and Chicken Little.  The characters in both these versions have rhyming names like Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey and Foxy Loxy.  We thought it would be fun to create our own silly rhyming characters.  One of my favorites was Monkey Chunky….only because Chunky Monkey is my FAVORITE Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream!!   We drew our characters and used speech bubbles to come up with some dialogue.  We combined all of that greatness with a forest scene to create Henny Penny and Friends!

On Thursday we went to the Belcher Center to see the Stinky Cheese Man!  Oh my, it was fabulous!!  The kids (and grown-ups) had a blast.  Ask your little one to show you the Stinky Cheese Man Dance! 

We then went to Kidsview park for lunch and some out of this world Recess!! 

I have to give kudos to my class and the other first graders…they ROCKED that Field trip out!!  They used all their manners and had a great time!  I can’t wait for the next one.

Well, fall is here and it is my personal mission to decorate my classroom this weekend.  I am hoping if I put it in writing, I will get it done.  I really need a decoration committee!  HAHA!

Next week will be the beginning of the 2^nd Six weeks!   Report cards for the 1^st Six weeks come home on Wednesday. 

I loved Stinky Cheese Man so much I took my two darlings, Brooklynn and Brynn to the evening performance.  We had an awesome girls night out!!!

Here Comes the IPODs.....

Our project was funded!!!!!  Hip Hip Hooray!!  We will soon have our IPODs in our listening center!  I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to vote.  And a HUGE thank you to SONIC!!!!!

Zookeeper of the Week

Our Zookeeper this week is MASON!!!  Yeah!  Mason is such a great help in our classroom.  He is a super great friend!  Way to go Mason!

Manic Monday

I have been singing Mantic Monday in my head all day long!!!  It has been full speed all day long!  Wheww…I will sleep good tonight.  Monday’s are filled with weekend stories, new concepts to learn, and of course the Library!!  I am super excited I was able to get a camera from the library so I can start taking pictures again!!! 

In math we spent our time learning about shapes.  We began our study with a poem by Shel Silverstein (my FAVORITE  poet) called Shapes.  We illustrated the poem using shapes.  We then talked about the number of sides and corners each shape had. 

Our Zookeeper of the Week is Makenzie!!!  Makenzie is a very hard worker and a sweetie!  Congrats Makenzie!

Don’t forget:

1.    Tuesday (tomorrow) Buy a pizza at Hunt Brothers and bring the proof of purchase on the box to school.  The school gets $1 for everyone we turn in.  Mrs. Orms and Ms. Smith along with some other familiar faces will be cooking those pizzas tomorrow!  This fundraiser will continue throughout the month.

2.   Field Trip $ due Monday.

3.   Send in those Sunny D UPCs!

4.   VOTE for our project at limadesforlearning.com

Field Trip

A First Grade Fairy Tale……..

Once upon a time there was a first grade class who studied the wonderful world of fairy tales.  They learned about Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and many more!  At the end of their adventure they were invited to meet these wonderful characters along with the Stinky Cheese Man!  What a grand time they will have!

The first grade teachers are excited about the upcoming field trip to see the play The Stinky Cheese Man on October 6th.  This play will be at Letourneau College at the Belcher Center.  The costs for the tickets are $3.  Each student will need to bring the $3 by Monday September 26^th.  We have to send in the money beforehand along with a head count.  Parents are welcome to come, but they must provide their own transportation.  Your tickets are $3 also and we need that money by Monday as well. 

 We are planning to have a picnic lunch afterwards.  The students will need to bring a sack lunch for that day. 

Manic Monday!

Yes, it was a Mantic Monday today!!!  We were busy busy busy!  My camera kicked the bucket, so I am sad I can’t post any pictures of all of our Math and Daily 5 activities today.  We are still graphing and today we graphed our favorite ice cream.  We also had a chance to do our math buckets (centers). 

Today everyone got their new reading group book.  We also got a chance to do 3 Daily 5 rotations!  It was Library day today.  Library day will ALWAYS be Monday, so make sure you send your child’s books back then.

Our Zookeeper of the Week is Pablo!!  Pablo is a hard working student.  He is also a great friend!  Congratulations Pablo!  (And Happy Birthday too!)

Zookeeper of the Week!

This short week has really put me behind!  Our zookeeper this week was Hailey.  Hailey is an super awesome young lady.  She is always willing to help her friends!  Keep up the good work Hailey!

Scholastic Book Orders

You can order now online books for your kiddos through Scholastic.  Everytime you purchase books through the website and use our class code, our class gets FREE book!  Yipee!!!

Our Class Code is: GTY9V

The first order is due on September 16, 2011

http://www.scholastic.com/bookclubs

Parent Meeting and Sunny D

Our First Grade Parent Meeting will be this Tuesday at 4:30 in the Elementary Library.  I hope to see you all there!

Don't forget to vote for our project at  http://www.limeadesforlearning.com/pages/search

I am going to begin taking Sunny D UPC codes.  If we collect 20 we can get some books for our classroom.  So, all you Sunny D drinkers...send me some UPCs!!  I will be collecting them for the next two weeks.

Mrs. Richardson

Working on Words Wednesday

Today we work on the third element of Daily 5: Word Works.  Basically during this time, students will work on making words.  They will be practicing their spelling words along with HFW with hands on activities.  Today we discussed making words with Play-doh.  They had a great time and did a fabulous job getting their words made.  We will also be using magnetic letters, wikki sticks, stamps, chalk, and lots of other cool things in this rotation!  I have a feeling this will be a favorite!

Have a wonderful rest of the week.  Don’t forget to go to Limeades for Learning and vote for our class project EVERYDAY!!!!

Mrs. Richardson

Limeades for Learning

YEAH!!!  Our class has their project posted on Limades for learning!  Go and vote EVERYDAY! 

*****Also, when you go to Sonic…ask for one of the Limeades for Learning stickers…you will receive 2 extra votes***

http://www.limeadesforlearning.com/pages/search

Search for Ore City!  There are two..one is mine and one is Mrs. Wingo's.  Make sure you vote for "It's All About Technology....using iPODS to enhance Literacy!"

Thanks!

Terrific Tuesday

Yesterday I was busy filling out our Limeades for Learning project, so I didn’t get a chance to blog.  So, please watch out for emails concerning Limeades for Learning.  This is a really awesome program that gives us the opportunity to get some iPODs for our listening center!  So cool! J

Back to Monday…..

Our “Zookeeper of the Week” is LAYNE!!  Layne did an awesome job last week!   Congrats Layne!!

“Read to Someone” was introduced today.  They did wonderful.  Here are some pics of their partner reading.  My goal is to have all the 5 components of Daily 5 introduced by Friday.  This way we can start Daily 5 and reading groups on Monday. 

When we start reading groups next week is when I will begin to send home reading books for them to read.

Our first spelling pre-test is THURSDAY!  If they make a 100 on Thursday, they don’t have to retake on Friday!  We are shooting for 100%!!!!  If you noticed, I send checked papers home on Friday.  Some papers will have grades and others just a sticker or a smiley.  The ones with grades will go in the gradebook.  The smileys are just practice.  Sometimes it’s just simply if they are following directions.

Well, we are bound to have another great week here in First Grade!   .

Mrs. Richardson

Fantastic Friday

We ended the week with Fantastic Friday!  And boy was it Fantastic!  We did “a little” work and “a lot” of FUN!!!  We played with legos, blocks, and had some computer fun.  We also played Alphabet Hits the Spot!  It's like an ABC twister!  So much fun! Today was a reward for an awesome first week!  I introduced “Read to Self”, part of Daily 5.  Daily 5 is the program the class will use as workstations.  There will be 5 activities the kiddos have to complete during our reading time.  During their Daily 5 rotations, I will be working with small reading groups.  We won’t begin for a few weeks, but we are practicing what to do in each Daily 5 station so we can be prepared when the time comes. 

With “Read to Self” the students pick a “good fit” book and read by themselves for an allotted amount of time.  We talked about building our stamina in reading.  We made it to 7 minutes of “Read to Self”!  I was so proud of them.  They challenged themselves to make it to 10 minutes on Monday!  I have complete confidence that they will make it!  During “Read to Self” they can read three ways: Read the pictures, Read the Words, or Retell.  

Next week we will begin “Read to Someone” and “Listen to Reading”.  All three of these activities will help your child become proficient readers.  After all, practice makes perfect!

I want to thank you all for sharing your kiddos with me!!!  I can’t brag on them enough.  I want to also brag on their parents!  You guys did a great job filling all that paperwork out and sending it back promptly.  Thanks so much!  You make my job easier! 

Mrs. Richardson

Finding the "Right Fit"

Well it was another great day in first grade! Today we talked about finding “good fit” books.  We learned that not every book is made for everyone.  Just like Mr. Robby’s (my lucky husband) size 14 shoe doesn’t fit me, some books just might not “fit” you!  Finding a “good fit” book involves the steps of I PICK.  Below is the picture of our I PICK anchor chart.

The kiddos then got the chance to pick 5 “good fit”.  They had a blast finding just the right book!  I was so proud of their choices.  These are the books we will use when doing our Daily 5.  (I will blog later about Daily 5) 

We were blessed again today with a little bit of rain which the kids didn’t like so much since it interfered with recess!  Hopefully the rain will continue, but on “first grade’s schedule!”

Mrs. Richardson

My Cup Runneth Over.....

With GLUE!!!  My goodness….how did you know my biggest fear at the beginning of school is a shortage of Glue?  Thanks so much to everyone who sent extra!!!  I heart glue!!!



What a great first day!  I can't even begin to describe how utterly AWESOME this class is!!!!  I am leaving this school on cloud nine!  We began our day by drawing pictures of our summer vacation.  Let me tell you, these kids had an awesome time!  We also got to know one another.  Of course, we had to practice procedures and go over rules.  I have a good feeling this class is going to pick up quickly on everything first grade! We also read, The Kissing Hand.  We made our own “kissing hand” which hopefully you got!  We also talked about how we felt on our first day of school.  You can see that most were a little nervous!  By lunch I assure you everyone had went from nervous to excited!  Here is our “hand” (and yes I am NOT an artistic person, but the kiddos assured me as long as I did my best it was ok!):

I am so blessed with such a wonderful group of kids!  I just can’t stop smiling!  To top off this great day it is finally RAINING!!!  Yes, as I type, I can hear the pitter-patter of rain!  Thanks for sharing your darlings with me!! 

Mrs. Richardson
 

Team First Grade

Our AWESOME 1st Grade Team!  Mrs. Veitch, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Richardson, and Mrs. Barton