Fire Bear's Visit to Clays Mill

 

Have you ever heard the story, "Why Rabbits have a Short Tail"?  After our visit from Fire Bear today, we have and it was quite a tale.  Clays Mill was delighted to host a Native American by the name of Fire Bear this week.  Students learned about the Native American culture from Fire Bear.  He is a member of the Choctaw Nation from Oklahoma.  Take a look at some of the interesting things we learned today. 



We learned about the instruments Native
Americans make and use, like this rattle.



                                        

                 



Fire Bear used these flutes to demonstrate pitch.  He compared the pitch of a long flute to the pitch of the short flute to see which one was higher. Students were surprised by the results. 



   





Fire Bear taught us about keeping a steady beat.



 

We really enjoyed our visit from Fire Bear!



One of our students earned a special shell for
being the best listener during the presentation.



Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mrs. Sowers and Miss McAteer sporting their fun St. Patrick's Day outfits

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Mrs. Sowers K/1 Class!  We had a wonderful day sporting our green this St. Patrick's Day.  In fact, Leprechauns tried to create some mischief in our classroom while the children were out of the room.  Apparently, they knocked over some chairs and moved some things around.  The children were shocked to find their room in that shape after specials, but the little guys did leave some coins and candy at their seats. We read several books about Leprechauns and St. Patrick's Day today.  The children also wrote in their writer's notebooks about "How to Catch a Leprechaun".  There were some very interesting ideas shared.  They are becoming quite the creative writers.  We always enjoy holidays in our classroom and the children really get into the festivities.  As you can see from the pictures, everyone dressed in their green. Hope your St. Patrick's Day was as productive and fun as our day!   

Book Reviews - by our first graders

"Take a look.  It's in a book.  Reading Rainbow. Reading Rainbow.  I can go anywhere. . . "  You know how it goes and if you are like me, then you were probably singing along.  Reading Rainbow was one of the inspirations for our latest first grade writing project.  We wrote book reviews and published them as a video for our class to enjoy. 

As part of our new writing standards, students are asked to do "Opinion" writing.  What better way to express their opinions than to do book reviews on some of their favorite books?  Our first graders did just that and came up with some very good ideas. 

Here's a breakdown of our project:  First, we read a funny book together about a field trip gone terribly wrong.  We talked about what the book was mostly about by giving a summary.  Then, students gave their opinions about the book and discussed what we liked about the book by picking out specific parts that were funny.  After that, we wanted to suggest this book to our friends and told why.  We recorded the information students shared on chart paper and published the writing by hanging it in the hallway for people to read. 

Here's the exciting part. . . I shared with students my idea to write book reviews and video them, just like the show "Reading Rainbow".  They were thrilled to hear that they would be on video doing their book reviews. Our next step was for the students to go home and look for a book they'd like to share with others.  We discussed how it should be one of their favorites and something they've read a lot, so they would be an expert on this book.  It was interesting to hear their conversations as they were deciding which books they'd bring.  After they brought their books to school, we had a "book talk" where we just simply went through these questions during our share time:

     1.  What was your book about? (summary)
     2.  What did you like about this book? What was your favorite part?
     3.  Why do you think someone else should read this book?

These questions sparked a lot of conversation and interest for each others' choices.  It was also nice to see the excitement in their faces as they shared their own books with others.  After a few days of our book talks, we then went into our "Writer's Workshop" and wrote about our books.  Each student answered those questions in their writing and added details to interest the reader.  After we revised, edited, and published our writing; it was time to video our work.  We used the CME Library as a background and went into production of our video.  During filming, students worked on projecting their voices, reading fluency, and looking up from their reading to see the camera.  The video was a hit!  Here are just a few book reviews for you to enjoy.  "Happy Reading!" 

 

Read Across America

CME Read Across America Celebration

Friday, March 4th

We had a great day dressing up as our favorite book characters to celebrate "Read Across America".  In our room, we had Harry Potter, Curious George, Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Captain Underpants, Lilly, David, Gabby the Cat, Nancy Drew, Ramona Quimby, Junie B. Jones, and several Cat in the Hat characters.  Our teachers were dressed as Fancy Nancy, the Grouchy Ladybug, the Grinch, and Viola Swamp.  Students had a fun day reading stories, writing about their characters, and seeing all the interesting characters that were roaming the halls of Clays Mill today. 

Here are some of our favorite book characters.

We were thrilled to see Mrs. Smith and

Mrs. Flemming dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Looking very fancy, Mrs. Carrico

and Mrs. Bruggeman both dressed

as Fancy Nancy.

Our Curriculum Coach, Mr. Davis,

dressed as Paul Bunyon.

Mrs. Pleasants and Mrs. Pickard

looked mean as "the Grinch".

Mrs. Dowd (Horton) , Miss Bathalon (Olivia),

and Mrs. Sowers (Miss Viola Swamp)