Our 100th Day of School!

Adding book title names to our "100 Books Read"

Wow! We can hardly believe that we've made it to the 100th day of first grade! We had a crazy and fun day of all things 100-related: we had a visit from the Queen of 10's and the Princess of 5's, built forts with 100 cups, made structures with 100 marshmallows, and created certificates of completing 100 days of first grade. Friday was Mismatch Day, and we had lots of first graders and students coming to school wearing all sorts of mismatched clothes--boots with shoes, tights with shorts, and stripes with polka dots to name a few combinations. We had tons of fun this week; I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Marshmallow Structures

The Award for Tallest Fort Built goes to....

The fortress

Reading, reading, reading towards those 100 books....

Future Engineers of America

Friday: Mismatch Day

100 Days Smarter....and Sillier?

Febrrrrrrruary!

Working on different kinds of penguins

Wow! January came and went, and now we are already in the middle of February! We've been able to do a LOT so far this month! Students have become expert observers of liquids, gases, and solids in science, they have become expert equation-solvers in math, and experts on bones in our health classes.

February is "I Love to Read" month, and in writing, we've been working on "All About" books for penguins and polar bears. We should finish up with them next week and have a celebration. The kids are excited for parents and guardians to see the finished products at conferences in early March.

Here are some pictures from our classroom activities during the past few weeks; enjoy!

Learning about where our bones are in our bodies!

Science!

I Have a Dream

"I have a dream that someday....little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the greatest peace-makers in all of American history was celebrated this week, and I hope everyone enjoyed an extra day off! This week, we spent more time working towards our active goal of 90 minutes of activity time during the school days in the month of January. We also spent some time commemorating Dr. King by watching part of his famed "I have a Dream" speech. Then the students took some time and wrote about their dreams and hopes that they have for peace in the world. Finally, we wrapped up the week by attending our school-wide P.E.A.C.E. assembly. We learned that Parkview will be raising money at a school-wide Art fair in May, and then using the money to donate an animal to a family in need somewhere around the world. This is through Parkview's collaboration with Heifer International. 

Looking forward to the last week in January and saying good-bye to the (usually) coldest month of the year!

Penguins and Polar Bears and More

What a cold week! Our freezing weather this week allowed us to easily connect with the two different animals we'll be researching in the next couple of weeks--polar bears and penguins! Students were able to spend some time looking through books on Thursday. We watched two short videos about both species, and after watching the videos and doing a quick book look, students chose which animal they wanted to research for the "All About" books we'll be writing. Surprisingly, we had just about an equal number for each animal!

With the news of Kristen's illness, we also spent time this week making get-well cards for her. I was amazed at how well the cards turned out and how one student said, "We should put knock-knock jokes in every card. Because they say that laughter is the best medicine!" In learning about CARES last week, I was touched by the amount of empathy these first graders have towards others.

A final highlight this week was finding out the winner of the Caldecott Award. Our very own librarian, Laura Givens, was a part of the committee that chose the winning book. Below, you can see both the winning announcement as well as the students' pleased reactions:

Welcome to 2016!

PEACE begins with me!

Students practicing Cooperation through
"building" letters

It was a busy week back! This week, we got back into math, did some writing of goals for the new year, and learned about CARES. CARES is an acronym for Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-Control. The students got to do some fun games and community-building activities for each of the letters, and we're learning what it looks like to use them in the classroom. Our week ended with extra Friday Fun time out in the newly-fallen snow.

Finally, we talked about what a Community looks like (The 'C' in P.E.A.C.E.). The students decorated hearts to show how THEY care for their own communities. They came up with great ideas--visiting the elderly, recycling, picking up trash, and taking care of others.

For those of you who are went back to work this week-I hope you all had a great first week back! We sure did!

Goals for 2016

How I help others in my community

Hard at work in writing new goals for a new year!

All about ART!

This week was full of art, art, art! We got to have art with Todd almost every day this week. Students learned about acclaimed artists, such as Romare Bearden. They also experimented with collage (Bearden's main medium) and pop art. Students chose a picture of a cow (steer) or a chicken to copy. They filled the inside with one pattern, and the outside with another. The results were so much fun to see, and the kids loved it.

Another highlight this week was taking the last week or so before Winter Break to focus on the idea of place value. Students learned about the hundreds, tens, and ones places and their values in the numbers we see in math. They got to experiment and explore place value using base ten blocks, which was helpful for all.

We look forward to a week full of more reading, math, and especially winter art projects in hopes that more snow will soon come our way! See you next time!

Pajama Day (and other things)!

This week, we have started our Writing "How To" unit, where students write and illustrate about different things they know how to do. We will continue this until Winter Break. We got a good start this week! We also finished another math unit on addition, and will begin a week of learning about place value next week. In health, we will concentrate on choosing a healthy diet of fruits, veggies, protein and grains. Students will go "shopping" for just the right foods for their own meal. I can't wait to see what they will come up with.

Next week, we will to focus a lot on the Community aspect of our classroom, and how that is a part of our school's P.E.A.C.E. project. We will also start up our intervention reading groups again, and we will experience Art with Todd from Monday to Friday. Todd is Parkview's incredible art teacher.













In sum, we had a wonderful week, learned new things, and can't wait to start our last full week before winter break. It will be jam-packed with new learning and fun! Until then, here are a few snapshots of our Friday Fun time outside (multi-grade) and pajama day!