Hello June! Hello Summer!

Goodbye to First Grade! Time flies and here we are on the brink of closing another school year. It has been a fun, learning year for me and the kiddos. So very proud of all of the students growth and accomplishments. I know every teacher says this, but please have your child read over the summer! Make visiting the local library a regular event. They need this one simple skill to be encouraged by every adult in their lives! Reading is the one singular thing that will make or break their school success! So help your child make a reading goal this summer. Read 20 books? 30? Kids can read books online too. Go to the BCE library page for links to on line catalogs like Tumblebooks. Thanks for a really great year! Here are some snapshots from our final weeks:

 

Future computer scientists. Exploring computer coding apps like Kodable, Daisy the Dinosaur.

ABC Countdown !

Career Day!

 

 

 

Garden Fun!

 

Trying a "Google Hangout! With multiple classes.

Thank you for a great year! Over and out!

 

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Goodbye April...

Time Flies when we have so many exciting things going on.  We cannot believe it is almost time for Ms. Musgrove (student teacher) to leave us!  Her last day is Friday May 2nd and we have really enjoyed having her for the last 2 months.  She will be missed and we wish her the best of luck!  She will be a great teacher!

Congratulations to recent Bear Brag Award winners!  The kids vote on who deserves this outstanding student, citizen of our classroom award!  I have to agree with the students - very good choices!

More EGGciting news!  As I am sure your child has told you --  4 out of 6 eggs hatched into baby chicks last week!  Students have learned all about the life cycle of a chicken and are now learning a lot about baby chicks and their needs!  They are growing very fast and we have found the perfect home for them too!  We will give them away to a wonderful person who will take really good care of them and continue to send us pictures on their growth!  Can you see the first crack below?  Then all the fun began!

Once they were all rested and dried off... we had some pretty cute chicks!  Here is the first born:

Here are all 4 chicks in their brooder!

In honor of our chick hatching we celebrated with "Chicks and Salsa" ...  I mean "Chips and Salsa"!  We made queso, salsa and danced the chicken dance with Ms. Gelles' class!   

Oh, and we also planted a Salsa Garden !!  Tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and onions!

Goodbye April!  We learned so much!

Spring Forward!

March was exciting with lots of family time over Spring Break, the coming of the season of Spring and our 1st Grade Field Trip to the Fort Worth Zoo.  Thank you to all the parent volunteers who helped to manage our kiddos at the Zoo!  We could not do this without you!

In Math we began learning about 2D and 3D figures. We began our study by using a web based site called "Today's Meet" where students used their iPads to type what they already knew about 2D and 3D shapes.  They knew a lot already!

We also are so fortunate to have an amazing Student Teaching Intern - Jenna Musgrove - with us for the next 4 weeks.  She will be taking over a lot of the teaching with me and on her own over the course of several weeks!  She has fit in really well with all the kids!  She comes from Dallas Baptist College and will graduate in May with her teaching degree!  Welcome to Bear Creek Ms. Musgrove!

And finally, we are hatching real chick eggs as part of animal life cycles.  We have 6 chick eggs in an incubator that, hopefully, will hatch into baby chicks in about 3 weeks!  Follow us on Twitter to keep posted!  

March Madness

Be sure to take a look at the iMovie below that I put together to showcase a few major events of the last few weeks.  I know many of you were not able to make it to Open House/Student Showcase - so be sure to watch the iMovie so you can see all the hard work our class did!  Highlights of the last few weeks (and the iMovie) include:
~Skyping with various classrooms to practice number concepts (Mystery Number Skype)
~Skyping with Ms. Smith's 1st Grade (Illinois) and learned how to do "MadLibs" - great for grammar and Language Arts practice (very challenging!)
~Skyping with children's book author Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen during Read Across America (part of our celebration of Dr. Seuss)
~Celebrating Dr. Seuss & Read Across America as we did a fun grade level rotation and read many of his crazy books, plus his biography.  We also created our own eatable "hat" in honor of The Cat in the Hat.
~Texas Animal PBL & Art Gallery - We spent many weeks involved in the process of a PBL (Project Based Learning) as students worked together to research a specific animal of Texas.  They also created a painting for the "Texas Animal Art Show" which was on display the week of Open House.  Students presented their creations to the class.  Students also accepted donations to help the Texas Wild! exhibit at the Fort Worth Zoo.  This was a very rewarding process for our 1st Graders!

Enjoy your Spring Break!  Enjoy the iMovie!

Winter, World Connections, Mysteries & LOVE!

First Graders have been learning so much about weather lately -- thanks to our wonderful winter we have been having!  We took advantage of these cold days and really put our weather tools to work.  We took temperatures outside and inside, we observed our windsock and even Skyped with our first grade friends in Chicago & Oregon to see how they were surviving the winter months. (They get to have outside recess if the temperature and wind chill are 10 degrees or above!!!)  Click on the few samples below of student's winter weather PixNTell slide shows:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d91cemjcfo77yu0/Awinter%20Day.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a89ma5ebolw8l07/Snow%20Day.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mi0xha8lxecjv8y/Winter%20Ellie.mp4

We have also been busy working on comprehension connections as we read.  Recently students read a story about Cesar Chavez and immediately make a "text to world" connection comparing how he worked to better the lives of farm workers just like Martin Luther King, Jr. worked to make laws more fair for African Americans.  They are getting so smart!  Students created slide shows using PixNTell to explain their connections. 

 Click on the couple of links below to hear/see a  few of our connections:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1omm1hajt7w3th/Text%20To%20Word%20Coneshin%20With%20Mlk%26cesh%20Caves.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zerz7y3yqn60x11/Good%20World%21.mp4


This past week we also began to do a few "Mystery Number" Skype sessions with our First Grade friends at Grapevine Elementary.  We used the iPad app called SchoolKit  Math (100's chart) as we  listened to clues to solve their mystery number.  Then we got to give clues and have our GES friends solve one from us!  Great practice for all of our number concepts and a great way to practice at home too!

Last, but not least... we ended the week on a LOVE note!  We had such a fun Valentine's Day Party.  Thank you to our homeroom Mom, Angela Hall and all the parent helpers who contributed to its success!  We LOVED it!

Goodbye to January!

January was a busy month for teachers and students.  We completed all of our district and state required middle of year assessments.  And in the mist of all of that hard work, students worked on their PBL (Project Based Learning) event which was to create a USA table for Bear Creek Around the world.  We really hope everyone was able to come to that yearly event to enjoy all of the different cultures we are lucky to have here at Bear Creek!   First Graders focused on learning about America through a select set of symbols that represent liberty and citizenship in this great country of ours.   They wrote about their favorite USA symbol, created Pic Collages on their iPads and blogged about what they were learning using their KidBlog iPad app. They even blogged about a famous American -- Martin Luther King, Jr. and learned how he was a man that made great changes for our nation in a peaceful way.  Be sure to check out your child's posts on Kidblog on this link:
http://kidblog.org/MrsSimmonsClass-5/
Your child can help you navigate in KidBlog and please comment on their hard work!!

Here are a couple of pic collages showcasing our busy month of January!

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: