It Was a Feast!

Thank you to all our families that came to our Family Holiday Lunch on Wednesday. We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed seeing all our families. We hope that everyone had a chance to talk to other families and get to know each other a little better.

The next week will be busy as we are finishing up some reading assessments as well as reviewing before the holiday break. We will be sending home books with the kids over the break so that they can read when they have some free time.

We will be having our Winter party on Wednesday morning along with Chick - fil -a for lunch. We would love for any parents to join us if they are available.

Make sure you check the blog before break for pictures from the week's events.

POW WOW centers

POW WOW centers on PhotoPeach

POW WOW

POW WOW ceremony on PhotoPeach

POW WOW week

POW WOW week on PhotoPeach

Mrs. Phillips is Stuck on Reading

Now that is what I call stuck on reading! This week Mrs. Phillips was duct taped to the wall in honor of reading. In an effort to make sure that all kids reach their Million Word Campaign this year, she has plans to celebrate each 9 weeks in a way to motivate kids. All students that reached his/her goal this 9 week period were treated to seeing Mrs. Phillips duct taped to the wall for 2 hours. Of course she made good use of her time by reading! We can't wait to see what the reward for reading will be for the 2nd nine weeks!

Pumpkins Pumpkins Pumpkin

Last week we finished our Pumpkin Unit in Science. What a great couple weeks we had learning about them. What colors can a pumpkin be? What are some names of pumpkins? How big do pumpkins get? How do pumpkins grow? Do pumpkins sink or float? We also used math as we learned about pumpkins. We made estimations on the circumference of our pumpkins and measured things using paper pumpkins. We even carved a pumpkin out to see what it looked like on the inside. We ended our unit with a 5 senses unit on about pumpkins. Here are some highlights from the unit. '

Fall Party

Here are the highlights from our Fall Party after Literary Parade. The kids had a great day filled with fun Fall activities.

Fall Party on PhotoPeach

Math Centers

Last week we began our Math Centers. This is a time that students work on previous lessons that reinforce what they have already learned. Students work individually but complete the same game as their friends at their table. The best part about centers is that the kids don't even realize they are learning! Here are some highlights from our centers.

A Special Guest

Last week Mr. Dygan, our Speech Pathologist, brought a special guest to our room. Tiger, a Kenyan Sand Boa, was actually familiar to Mrs. Harbour. This Kenyan Sand Boa was actually her son Matt's snake for many years. As Matt became older he realized he would not be able to take care of Tiger and would be leaving for college so he asked Mr. Dygan, a well known snake lover, to adopt her. The kids were able to learn a little bit about this type of snake, come up to touch her, as well as how to be safe if they come across a snake. Thank you Mr. Dygan for a great teachable moment!

Reading Strategies

Although many kindergarteners are not ready to read at this point of the year, we are learning new reading strategies that support even our beginning readers. This last week we focused very hard at looking at the pictures as our first strategy. Students are learning that whenever they are reading a book, simple or hard, that the pictures are important. Pictures support our text. In early emergent books the pictures directly tie to the words on the page. As students grow as readers, the pictures don't tell what is on the page, they support what text is on the page. When they begin reading chapter books they will know how to create those mental images of what the illustration would look life if there was one since they have grown to associate the pictures with text over time. Students will learn to describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear. Make sure that when you are reading with your child you take a picture walk prior to reading. What a great way to engage in conversation about what will happen in the story.

Blending sounds

One of favorite activities in skills block is blending words. Last week we played "Guess that Word". Kids listen to a set of individual sounds and blend them together to make a word. Then they find the picture that matches. You can play this game even without pictures. Here are some examples of words you can use:

p-a-t
r-o-d
t-i-p
s-u-n
g-r-a-ss
s-t-o-p
b-i-k-er
t-a-b-le

Science All Around

Last week we started our new unit in Science - Our 5 Senses. This is an exciting unit as kids learn how to make observations all around them. We began our unit with a simple piece of popcorn. The kids were able to see, smell, and touch their popcorn. Then the best part of all came when they were able to taste it! That's when they could finally hear the popcorn too. As a group we discussed all the ways we could describe one simple piece. This is a fun activity that you can do at home with your child! Now that we have learned about all our senses, ask your child what their senses are and what part of our body we use with them.

Open House

Thank you to all the families that joined us last night for Open House. It was so nice to see many moms and dads (and grandma's too). We hope that it was informative yet fun. The kids were very excited about showing your their work and around our room. We look forward to a great year!

Back To Football Friday

Tomorrow is Back to Football Friday. Students can wear their favorite team clothing. If students buy lunch tomorrow they are able to choose from grilled hamburgers and hotdogs from the cafeteria. There will also be free cheese sticks for all students sponsored by the Dairy Council.

Can't wait to see everyone's football spirit!

Skills Block

Well we are starting our 3rd week of school. By now the kids are starting to really get settled in the routine. In our Skills Block we are heavily working on phonemic awareness (how do sounds work together to make words). We are working on our nursery rhyme unit and so the kids are learning a new nursery rhyme each week. Last week we finished Jack and Jill. We also work on this through our Star Student activities. Make sure you ask your child who was Star Student for the day and what words begin with that same sound. This is a great opportunity to reinforce what letters / sounds we are working on in class at home each day.

And We're Off!

What a great first week of school we had. We were busy getting to know our friends, learning our way around the school, and focusing on our rituals and routines. Our first day was exciting with our special guest Omegaman. Last week we began our Star Student in our Skills Block. During this time we celebrate the students in our class through phonemic awareness activities.

Each week we will be celebrating our class through the blog. We will periodically post pictures, write students ideas and thoughts, display student work, and relay what we have been doing in the classroom. I will try to update you through email that the blog has been updated but you can also sign up for it to update you automatically.

This week we had hoped to post pictures from last week but we am having trouble getting them through. We will try to post them again this week so make sure you check back frequently.

We look forward to a great year together as we get to know your child.

It's the end of the year...

As always, the end of the year quickly approaches. With that comes the busy schedule to finish testing, finish teaching every bit we can, get grades organized, squeeze in Parent's Brunch, get ready for end of the year awards celebration, along with 20 other things. Therefor the one thing that takes a back seat is blogging. We hope to see all of you on Tuesday, June 7th for our awards. It will be a memorable event and the kids are looking forward to it. We hope you have had as great of a year as we have.

Bye Bye Ladybugs

On Friday we release our class ladybugs. It was great to see how they grew from a larvae into a beautiful ladybug. Here are our last pictures of our ladybugs.

Spring Celebration

What a great time we had Thursday with our egg hunt. It only took 20 minutes to find 432 eggs. Here are some quick pictures of the hunt.

Earth Day Celebration

First Graders Love Kevin Henkes

What a great day we had on Friday celebrating one of our favorite authors - Kevin Henkes! We started off our day making purple plastic purses with some nifty ties for the boys. We also made some movie star glasses! They all turned out great. Then we went and had cheesy snacks while we watched a Kevin Henkes video of three of his books. Next we did all kinds of fun worksheets about his books. Our last station was bingo. We had a blast finding different answers on our bingo boards about his books and his life. We could have played forever. For lunch we came back to our room and had cheesy pizza and chips - our favorite. For our afternoon we had a great performance of Reader's Theatre for all our parents and one set of kindergarteners. The kids did a great job and the performance went off perfectly. Thank you to all the parents who have supported us through this 5 week unit of study. The kids have learned so much. Here are some highlights from our day.

Reader's Theatre

Friday is quickly approaching and we are very excited for our Kevin Henkes Celebration Day. Just a reminder that you are invited to join us for our Reader's Theatre performance in the media center at 1:15. We look forward to seeing you.

Kevin Henkes Author Study

Throughout the author study we have been reading as many of his books as we can. One of the great things through this unit are retellings. We practice these through many different ways. Making puppets and retelling stories with them is so much fun for the kids. They love being creative and putting their own thoughts into the puppets. They were great! In class we have used them to do retellings with their friends. These stories are the same ones that many of them have done a retelling on in Writer's Workshop as well. Here are a couple of our friends with their puppets.

Computer Math Games

Looking for some fun games for your child to reinforce skills we have been working on in class? Check out these websites that focus on number words and time.

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/match/dragflip.asp?filename=donofrio-numberwords

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/match/dragflip.asp?filename=donofrio-numberwords2

text to graphic match(o'clock): http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/StopTheClock/sthecR.html

hour and half hour: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/StopTheClock/sthec1.html

15 min intervals: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/StopTheClock/sthec2.html

5 min intervals: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/StopTheClock/sthec3.html

Barnyard Bingo

Did you hear about the Bingo Party on Thursday? All students that met their reading goal for the 2nd 9 weeks were treated to Barnyard Bingo with Mrs. Phillips. Each student was given a bingo board with farm related pictures. Then our own Mrs. Phillips would call out the name of the pictures. Each child walked out a winner with some chosen prize. The kids had a great time and even wrote Mrs. Phillips thank you cards for the great party. Here are some highlights:

Aren't they cute?

Last week we were treated to a special visit from some newborn chicks. The 5th grade team took part in the incubation of the chicken eggs over the course of a couple weeks. Once they were hatched they shared their new babies with our classroom. The kids had a ton of questions and our patrols did a great job of answering their questions. Here are some pictures from their visit with two of my previous students.

First Graders Making Connections

This week we started our Kevin Henkes author study. In Writer's Workshop, we have been making connections to his books. Today we read Owen. Here are some of our favorite connections:

Simran:
This book Owen reminds me of when Owen doesn't give up his blanket and always wants his blanket Fuzzy. I remember when I was almost four years old and I was still on a bottle and my mom and dad said that O needed to stop the bottle and now I am six and I stopped the bottle. Then I am going to turn seven on April fifteenth and that is how Owen is.

Jennifer:
Have you read the book Owen by Kevin Henkes? That story reminds me when I was a little girl and I had a stuffed bunny. He was pink and white. It was my sisters. She got to big for her so she gave it to me and now it is mine. In the part of this story when Owen didn't want to give it up his blanket because he loved it.

Prabhmeeka:
This book Owen by Kevin Henkes reminds me when Owen did not want to give his blanket away because Owen was to big for the blanket and my sister giver her shirt because she is too big for her shirt and now I am wearing her shirt like Owen. The end.

It's the 100th Day of School for First Graders

WOW! What a fun and exciting day we had for our 100th day of school. We had a great time dressing up as if we were 100 years old. I am not sure if the kids or the teachers had more fun. Our day was full of 100 day activities such as writing 100 words we know, completing a 100 day book, reading lots of 100 day stories, making hats, doing 100 exercises, and eating 100 snacks. We even had a quick surprise visit from Zero the Hero. Here are our little ones dressed up as 100 year olds.