Thanksgiving Frame of Mind...

The beginning of the week marked our yearly Veterans Day assembly when we celebrate and honor our military past and present.  This amazing school-wide celebration was full of patriotic music, special speakers and past/present military visitors.  It was fun gathering together to honor the service and sacrifice of so many! 

Students have been working diligently preparing for our upcoming First Grade Thanksgiving Program which will be on Thursday Evening, November 21st @ 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria.  You do not want to miss this wonderful yearly tradition here at Bear Creek!  Certain things get put on hold as we immerse ourselves in everything Thanksgiving ~ which can be a wonderful thing! One of the sweetest things I witnessed was many of our girls helping out the boys with creating their Pilgrim Hats.  The girls hats were pretty easy and they were done quickly, and soon I saw girls just lending a hand to the boys and so many working together and helping each other -- it warms a teacher's heart!!!  I am thankful for the kindness and sharing and caring I am seeing daily in our classroom!

Our daily Thanksgiving Program Rehearsals have been going great -- and I know I shouldn't do it - but here is a "sneak peak" picture & (uncut) video from rehearsals.   In the video - the students were waiting (patiently) for all the other classrooms to get their places on stage and for Mr. Sampson to come.  The students just started singing one of our songs (no prompting from teachers!).  It was so sweet!  When Mr. Sampson arrived, he was a little mortified that they were so "off-key" -- but I didn't notice!  It was nothing but sweetness! 

 

 

So there you have it!  A busy week full of all things that make America so great!  We have an EXTRA SPECIAL surprise that will happen at the Thanksgiving Program!  Don't miss it!  See you Thursday Evening -- November 21st @ 6:30.  Bring your child to the classroom!!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Short & Sweet

This past week was the beginning of our "real" practices for the upcoming First Grade Thanksgiving Program.  Please mark your calendars for Thursday Evening November 21st @ 6:30.  Please bring your child back to school for the performance following the PTA General Meeting.  Keep an eye on folders for additional notes coming home and details about what your child should wear.  If you cannot come back to school that evening - please let me know as soon as possible!  The students are working very hard on the program and are very excited to perform for you!

In Math students finished up a PicCollage (app) activity.  This was a combined activity where students gathered data, created a graph within Doodle Buddy (app) and analyzed the graph. Here are just a few that I corrected.  One of the big things I am noticing with graphing is students will forget about the number "0" being the least!   I will be reteaching this concept to quite a few students in the upcoming week!

Fall Festival was a perfect day on Saturday and it was good to see a few of my students there having fun!  I was working very hard at the ticket sales booth - practicing major math facts and giving change! Here are a few pictures of my kiddos who I was able to see:

And last, but not least, here is a splendid picture of the class out observing Fall outside!  Have a great week!

Farewell to October!

We ended the month of October elbow deep (literally!) in pumpkins, Fall, graphing, KidBlogging and composing math problems.

Early in the week I set out a pumpkin & carving tools.  I asked the students  to examine these clues and make "inferences" as to what we were about to do.  When we make inferences, we use what we already know (schema - background knowledge) &  clues to figure things out.  So very quickly the students knew we were going to carve a pumpkin!  In fact, every First Grade Classroom carved one and put them on display at the end of our hallway.  Each jack-o-lantern was labeled with a number and our students were able to use their iPads to ask 10 friends which jack-o-lantern they liked best.  (Collecting Data).  Each student then analyzed their data and created a graph within the app "Doodle Buddy".

 

 

 

This was a great way to practice vital data collecting & graphing skills! 

 

Other exciting news:  Our students learned how to use KidBlog this week.  Let me tell you, they are excited and pumped!   Actually, Kidblog can be accessed on a regular computer as well as an iPad if you download the app.  Kidblog is a safe way for our students to learn the proper way to use blogging as a tool to share their learning and thoughts and to have the freedom to write appropriate comments on other people's blogs.   Why did I underline this?  Because right now, we are in the process of learning what is OK and what is NOT OK to write about.  For those parents who are presently writing very nice and appropriate comments on this classroom blog of ours -- we are using you as an example!  So thank you!  Your child is allowed to access Kidblog at home and write a post.  I do ask that you monitor this and check to see what they are blogging about!  You can easily access it through my website - look on the left side where it says "Classroom and Student Blogs".  See below for the link.  Right now I told the students I do not want them "commenting" on other student blogs just yet.  We are still in the process of modeling that together in the classroom and learning what is appropriate and what is not appropriate!  Thank you!

http://www.gcisd-k12.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=12984

 

One more thing parents - you are encouraged to "comment" on student blogs (your own child or another childs.)    Please be a great example and write a  positive, encouraging comment!  We are reading them all!

 

Students are also learning addition strategies by "composing" (or building) equations.  They are learning ways to make different numbers and learning about "equal quantities".  An example of  equal quantities (or balanced equations) is here: 

 

3 + 2      =       4 + 1

 

Let me tell you, these can be a little tricky and it can be something you practice at home!  Basically it is teaching them different ways to make one answer. 

 

Here is a video sneak peek into a Math Lesson where students are working with a partner to build equations!

 

 

Goodbye October!