Picnic with Pops

"My dad is awesome."
"My pops is nice and funny."
"My dad is the best.  I love my dad."
"My papa is number one."
"My dad is cuddly.  I love him."
"My dad is handsome and cool."
"My uncle is silly."

No matter what students shared about their dads, grandfathers, and their uncles; you can tell that they really loved them.  Thank you to all of the visitors for taking the time to come to our "Picnic with Pops" on Friday.  The children looked forward to the event and were thrilled to see their special visitors.  These are the times they will always remember.  Thank you for making this a special day.

Alien Fingers?

You may have seen some of these "alien fingers" come home from the treasure box.  They are a big hit and have an academic purpose.  In fact, the kids love them so much that we started using them in our guided reading groups.  These silly alien fingers help keep students focused and on the right line while reading.  The alien fingers also help us track the words from line to line as the text moves down the page.

Look at how focused students are during guided reading, even as their teacher snaps pictures.  They were able to use the alien fingers and hold an interesting discussion about what they were reading.    

Our students are becoming excellent readers.  Remember to keep reading at home each night.  Students can improve on fluency by reading aloud daily.  First graders are expected to be able to read between 60-70 words aloud per minute by the end of the school year.  We're hoping that our "alien fingers" will help students become even better readers as we approach the end of the school year.  

We are Writers

Writing in kindergarten and first grade?  YES!  These students are writers.  We write every day.  We write about what we read, field trips we go on, special events, everything.  Recently, students wrote personal narratives.  These are stories about an important event in the writer's life.  As you can see, our first grade students are wonderful writers.  Each writer used interesting details and showed how they felt during the event.  We discussed how important interesting details were for the reader.  Students really worked on providing sensory details along with dialogue, thoughts, and action to engage their readers. We are learning to be great readers and writers in our K/1 classroom. 

Forces in Motion at the Bowling Lanes

Our field trip to Southland Bowling Lanes was on Friday, April 15th.   First graders have been studying Forces and Motion in Science.  What better way to see forces in motion than to knock down some pins at the bowling alley?  This was the first time bowling for many students.  Others were old pros.  Either way, the smiles were wide and the cheers were loud.  Everyone had a blast bowling, whether they knocked down two pins or ten. 



We had the bowling alley all to ourselves. They put up the bumpers on the lanes to make it easier for the kids and for the last few frames they turned out the lights.  With the lights out, the disco balls were going and they played some great music.  Of course, that meant it was time for a dance party. . . As you will see from the last few pictures.

We all had a wonderful time at the bowling alley on Friday.  The children will always remember this as a special day.

Spring is Here!

Spring is here and we had our Spring Egg Hunt the Friday before Spring Break.  As a craft, we made our baskets using milk jugs, foam stickers, and ribbon.  Although it was chilly, it was a nice day for our hunt.  After lunch, we all headed outside to hunt for our eggs on the front lawn.   The children lined up on the sidewalk and waited for the signal to begin.  They raced around stuffing their baskets until they were full with ten eggs and then they came back on the sidewalk to see what treats were inside. 

 

We had a wonderful time hunting for our eggs and enjoyed the treats.  There were two rules to our hunt:

1.  Find only ten eggs.

2.  Once an egg is in your basket, it's yours. 

Our class was very honest.  They recounted their eggs on the sidewalk.  When we were done, students got one more egg for their baskets.



Our class with our full baskets.  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed our treats.



After everyone found their ten eggs, the children lined up outside the building to take a group picture.  They said thank you to everyone for their treats and thanked their teachers for hiding the eggs for their hunt. What a wonderful way to send us off for our Spring Break!  Happy Spring everyone!