Happy 2014!

January brings a very busy month for First Grade!  Teachers are  doing mid year reading, writing & math assessments on all students and checking to be sure all kiddos are on track for end of year expectations!  It will be here before we know it!  Students are also busy working on a huge PBL (Project Based Learning) activity showcasing America for "Bear Creek Around the World".  Be sure to come to see the big event this Thursday evening in the gym.  We have been integrating lots of state standards into this project -- USA Symbols, research, survey taking, data gathering, graphing, place value, patterns, skip counting, cooperative learning, listening & speaking, writing... and so many more I can't remember them all!  Big projects are always a great way to really develop first grade skills that students must have before entering 2nd grade.  I did put together a little (5+ minute) iMovie when the kids were creating a USA flag in small groups this past week.  We used this activity to introduce place value (understanding tens & ones) and we will continue working with place value for the next several weeks.  If your child does not know how to skip count yet by 10's, 5's & 2's to 120... please practice this at home!!! Yes - to 120 (that was not a typo!)   Enjoy a little patriotic love:

Holiday Greetings & Reading Comprehension Practice at Home!

The couple of weeks leading up to Christmas was a busy time for First Graders.  A HUGE thanks to our Homeroom Mom - Angela Hall - for organizing & implementing a fantastic Holiday Party for your children.  There will be a 2nd classroom party coming soon (February 14th) - so please lend a hand to help in some way when she contacts you all!  It will be here before we know it.  Here is a gathering of pictures & video made into a little iMovie for your enjoyment!  (Loving the iMovie app on iPads!)

Just a reminder that the first day back is January 7th for students (Tuesday) and please help them to return their Friday Folder (Red) signed by you!  Report Cards will come home Wednesday, January 8th.   There will be mid-year Reading & Writing assessments done during January during the regular school day (no early dismissal days for this testing session.)  Please understand that expectations and academics begin to increase rapidly for your child this 2nd semester of school.  Continue to work each night on reading and asking comprehension questions about what they are reading.  Your child can write out the answers or verbally tell them.  Some ideas are:
Fiction Comprehension Questions
l) Retell the beginning of the story.
2)Retell the middle.
3) Retell the end.
4) What was your favorite part - why?
5) Who was your favorite character - why?
6) If there was a problem in the story - what was it and how did it get solved?
7) Did you make any "connections" with this story?  (Connect to self, text or world?)

NonFiction Comprehension Questions/Activities
1) Ask your child to write/tell 3 new facts they learned from the book.
2) Ask your child to write down any words they did not know and to try and guess their meaning by using text clues or picture clues.
3) Ask your child to write their own nonfiction book about a topic that interests them.  Include "captions" for pictures.

Happy New Year and can't wait to see the kids again on January 7th!

Snow Days, Telling Time & Happy Birthday!

I know we will hate having to make up those Snow Days... but it really is kind of great to experience real "winter weather" down here in Texas!  I hope everyone survived safe and sound!  Besides talking  A LOT about snow, ice, sledding, snowballs, etc.   we did find some time to begin to learn about telling time both digitally and with an analog clock. We are practicing time to the hour, half hour and beyond on our classroom analog clocks, "Tell Time" iPad app, and good 'ol fashioned partner games with a classmate. Here are 2 short videos of students in action telling time!

Also this week we had a "dual birthday" - mine and Ayah's on December 12th!  I don't usually advertise when I turn "39" each year (haha!) ... but had to send out a big Thank You to Ayah's mom who not only sent in cupcakes for the students to enjoy, but a giant sheet cake for all the teachers and staff to have a slice on my behalf!  I never received so many "Happy Birthdays" before in 1 day!  Thank you to Ayah's Mom and everyone for making #39 (again, hahaha!!) such a fun day for us!

We have a fun and exciting week coming up and I will be sure to post on this blog over the holiday break.  I hope everyone has a safe, happy Winter Break - and to those of you who celebrate Christmas  - I hope you have a very Merry one!

Hello December!

It is still the season of Fall -- and First Graders were supposed to go outside on Friday (December 6th) to observe and take pictures of a late fall day around campus --- but instead everyone was home with our first Snow Day in several years!  WOW!  You gotta love Texas!    So, since I was stuck in the house all day,  I decided to play around with "iMovie" and created a little something from our Gingerbread Project.  Enjoy!

Students are learning to really explore the world around them and to group things into solids, liquids and gases.  They are learning to describe the "properties" of things around them -- (color, size, shape, texture, etc.) -- and this is an excellent skill to practice at home!  

We are also measuring items with non-standard units -- and we made a candy cane art project -- discussed how this is a "solid" type of matter and they used different nonstandard units to measure their candy canes. They took lots of pictures and are working on a slide show using the iPad app 30 Hands.  Here are a couple pictures of ways we measure in First Grade:

Students know that if they do not have a ruler or tape measure around that they can always use "units" of some sort to measure -- as long as the units are the same type and size!  (This is another great skill to practice at home!)

And here are a few RANDOM pictures from the week:

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!