Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe I did not take a single picture of this! Not even before we started! First time ever! Usually I pass that camera off to someone..thank goodness for parents-here is the video of the event-your kids are so cute!

Here is a link to the play video:

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/c48f3d5d6991c18cf0d981aaf364a8e5/video/7415894

A link to the poems:
http://sharing.theflip.com/session/c48f3d5d6991c18cf0d981aaf364a8e5/video/7415947

Our First Field Trip...

was great! Awesome weather, outside all day, fascinating animals, wonderful volunteers...who could ask for more? We went on an organism scavenger hunt and checked out the various habitats. The children enjoyed the petting zoo, and of course the lions and tigers were a big hit. We saw a lion enjoying her lunch right after we ate ours!

Can You Find Your Little Turkey?

Tomorrow we will be putting up our turkey projects, but I thought I would give a sneak preview...they could not stop giggling as I took their photos!

Shared Reading and Reading Aloud

In first grade we engage in a variety of reading opportunities. Shared reading with a big book allows a focused introduction on reading strategies and sight words as well as other skills. The enlarged text allows all of the students to "share" in the reading of the text as well as makes it easier for the teacher to model. These texts are read and reread. The children also read to these stories to the class whenever we have a transition.
Author studies are a focused way for me to direct the read aloud with the children. These stories are used to teach higher level thinking and skills with stories that they are capable of understanding but not necessarily reading independently yet. Our first book study from the author Susan Meddaugh-the Martha series. They are great books that the children love and PBS has even made series out of it. We then did a nonfiction book study on the topic of pumpkins to talk about different purposes in reading and different ways texts can be organized. Now we are enjoying the Strega Nona series by Tomie de Paola.

Needles and Other Living Things

First grade science has a heavy emphasis on organisms. To further enhance this study we check out animals on a rotating basis from the district's Science and Health Resource Center. The day before the animal arrives I give the children clues about our "mystery organism." They have a great time trying to figure it out and have some very good debates about their selections. The organisms stay for two weeks for us to observe them and collect data for ongoing organism chart. Our first organism was "Needles" the hedgehog. (One morning he was particularly active on the wheel much to everyone's delight!)We then followed up with "Tarantula 15" and now have two parakeets whom the children have named as "Blueey and Snowflake."

Rock Solid

We have begun a unit of earth science titled "Pebbles, Sand and Silt." We begin by looking at rocks, their properties, and how they can be sorted. The children examined them with a hand lens, rubbed them together and collected rock dust. With our fifth grade buddies we went out and collected rocks from the school grounds and will now categorize and sort them.

Lovebug Authors

At the end of September we had our first publishing party. Each child selected a piece to revise and publish and then share in our class. We shared our favorite part whole group, then divided into small groups to read our entire pieces. Finally we toasted our great work and had a special snack. Our next party will be with our reading buddies to share our small moments. Eventually we will work up to having parents participate!

Word Work

Word work is one of the children's favorite language arts activities. The kiddo's can use dry erase boards, playdough, wikki sticks, magnetic letters and alphabet stamps to practice word wall words, explore word families and spelling patterns, and apply endings or practice blends. We work on developing word power and making generalizations we can apply to our reading and writing!

Tie Dye!

Our first grade tie dye party was a success! The children loved using all the colors and seeing the vibrant results. We all wore our t-shirts for the first time during Red Ribbon Spirit Week. We will wear them next on our first field trip to the Austin Zoo on November 17th. Thanks to our many wonderful volunteers for setting everything up, twisting shirts, guiding children, cleaning up and washing t-shirts!

Scientist of the Week

We had our first Scientist of the Week demonstration! C. demonstrated the Bernoulli Effect which explains how airplanes fly. He used a ball and air blower. The air blower created low pressure air underneath the ball while the air in the classroom was high pressure keeping the ball from completely flying off. He also demonstrated this principle with running water and a ping pong ball. He then showed us with a diagram how this applied to airplanes. Great job C.!

Happy Halloween

The lovebugs had a blast wearing our costumes all day and celebrating Halloween together. We started the by lighting all of our pumpkins and working by pumpkin light. After lunch, fabulous parent volunteers helped us with Halloween centers: facepainting, toss a ghost, witches brew graphing, spooky hand cookie decorating, spooky bingo and arts and crafts. Later we joined the rest of the school for the Monster Mash!