99 days of First Grade So Far...

I'm sorry for the short notice, and I also put this notice in backpacks today: 

Today (Tuesday) is our 99th day in first grade-- which means that our next school day will be the milestone 100th day! If your child would like to bring in a collection of 100 small items to show/share/count in school tomorrow, he/she may. It could be something edible (cheerios, raisins...) or something else like pennies, paper clips, hair bands, etc.-- anything that is easily contained in a bag in a backpack. I have a few other fun 100th day activities planned for us as well. Thank you!  

99 and counting

 

We're Reading, Researching, and Writing!

I took a course last year (along with many teachers in our district) called Reading, Writing, and Research for All. The premise was that even very young students should have age-appropriate experience with researching a topic, getting to know it well, and writing about it to teach others (which is informational writing). We all know that we can't write about something unless we know it really well. 

For the last few weeks we have been engaged in a project that goes along with our science and literacy standards. We started with a class-wide research question: How do animals use their noses to help them survive? We read the book What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. Then we read it again, discussing vocabulary and sentence structure and things, making sure we really understood it. Then we reread the section on noses one more time in order to collect evidence to answer our research question. (One of my biggest "aha!" moments from my course was the power of carefully choosing a good book to share with the class and reading it multiple times for deeper learning.) These are our shared notes.

Then we had a making-meaning discussion where we had to really talk about each animal in detail and explain in our own words what the brief notes meant. This was hard work and helped us to really learn and remember this information.

Finally we were ready to talk about the big idea from our research and we came up with the focus statement: "Animals use their noses in many different ways to help them survive."

We copied down the class focus statement, then each worked to write two sentences to explain each piece of evidence from our notes. We each ended up with a really high-quality writing piece to teach others about some interesting uses some animals have for their noses! These will come home soon.

But then, our work was not done. Currently, we are practicing this whole process of becoming an expert on a topic and writing about it again-- this time in small groups in which students are using the same source (but another section of it) to research another animal body part of their choice. We have a group for eyes, tails, mouths, and feet. Here are the note charts ready to go for the small groups:

We had to work together in our small groups to reread the appropriate section and discuss it and tell the teacher what notes to write about which animals. Then we had to discuss what these notes meant and make sure we really understood them.

And now, we are in the process of writing in these small groups each day. Soon we will have these small group pieces done and display them on the wall for everyone to see our hard work-- and great drawings that go with the text to help readers learn about our topics. 

Valentine's Day

 

We will have a class Valentine's Day party on February 14. I will bring in a snack to share that day. If students would like to bring in cards for their classmates, they are welcome to. Please include one for everyone. There are 14 students in our class. I sent home a list of first names today in folders if students wish to write names on them.

Youth Art Month Flag Design Competition

In Art class this week, Mrs. Broderick told students about this competition for Vermont students. Here is a web site if you want to read the details:

http://www.vtartteachers.org/youth-art-month.html

This is optional, so students can illustrate a flag at home if they wish to. Many of them brought home a 10 x 6" piece of white paper this week. If not, feel free to use any white paper cut to this size. The main requirements of the artwork is that it include these words somewhere on it: 

Vermont

2018

Youth Art Month (or YAM)

Linked In

I know we have some enthusiastic artists  in here who want to participate. Just send in any flags students make and I will pass them on to Mrs. Broderick. Also, feel free to email her with any questions: brodericka@hartfordschools.net 

Nonfiction Read Alouds

In Reading Workshop, we are wrapping up our unit focused on strategies for reading nonfiction. To celebrate our hard work and learning (and to show it off a bit!) I had students choose one of their books, practice and practice it, and gave them the chance to read it aloud to kindergartners. All students were eager to do this! We have been practicing these strategies to really sound great-- like experts-- when we read our books aloud:

-We identified and practiced explaining and thinking about the key words in our book that were super important in being able to learn about the topic.
-We marked with sticky notes interesting parts to remind us where we wanted to stop and have kindergartners examine and picture, or where we wanted to remember to explain what a key word meant.
-We practiced showing the feeling in each part in our voice. We noticed some parts of our nonfiction books were pretty serious and needed to be read in a serious voice (like owls needing to find food in winter), while other parts were sweet and could be read in a sweet voice (like baby owls hatching). Other parts we read in a slow, sad voice, or in an excited voice. 
-We figured out how our books were organized. Some were "all-about" books and some were laid out more like a story. 
-We practiced using drama to bring our book to life-- using a gesture as we read to help listeners picture and understand a part of our book. This last strategy was a lot of fun!

Some of us have already ventured upstairs to Ms. Cerasoli or Mrs. Trombley's rooms to read aloud and some of us will get to do so soon! 
 
 

Flannel Friday, Take 2

Our original attempt ended up being a snow day, so THIS Friday, January 26 is Flannel Friday! Remind your child to wear a cozy flannel shirt to school on Friday if they would like to.

Shields

In math we did a checkpoint today. This was a mid-unit assessment to see how students are doing with our work on number lines. When we have occasional written assessments like this, we use these privacy shields to help us keep focused on our own papers and so that I can see exactly what each student can do on their own and/or needs more help with-- even though there are so many other times in our school week when we work together or when students are encouraged to help each other and share ideas. While this may look awfully serious for first grade, the students seem to love the privacy and importance of getting to use these shields. :)