Grinch Day

Grinch Day was a blast! Such a great way to kick off our big Dr. Seuss study for first grade!

Gingerbread Decorating

We have been reading, writing, and comparing gingerbread men stories all week.  We ended the week with a very sweet treat! Special thanks to our moms who donated the gingerbread men and decorations!

Character creations

Students are creating characters for their writing!  First graders can be very creative with a box of scrap paper!

Shaving Cream Fun!

Fun Fridays can also include practicing our sight words and other things we've been learning using shaving cream!  This is a very exciting a fun way to practice skills. Mom and Dad, It's also fun to do at home in the bathtub!  They are only allowed to use one hand so the hand stays in the air when they are ready to remind them. This keeps one hand clean for itches or other needs.

Fun Friday Fun!

On Fridays, students get extra choices for early finishers. When they finish their morning work on Fridays they get to choose from the Friday book shelf. The shelf is full of games, puzzles, play dough, coloring books, LEGOS, and more. A big push with the new Common Core Standards is to push students to have interactive conversations. These choices set students up for discussion. It is so exciting to see first graders play/argue/learn to get along while interacting in the fun constructive activities like the Friday choices!  There are many standards that address this but on in particular is... 

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

1. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
2. Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
3. Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.

I'm glad to give the students the opportunity to grade in comprehension and collaboration daily but Directly focused on our Fun Fridays! 

Thanks to PTO and our Innisbrook sales due to our participation... With $100 we were able to add more games to the Friday shelf. They love playing Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Connect 4, and Guess Who now! (Pictures to come from camera at school)

Go Vote!

Go Vote!  We learned how to vote today using some fun character books!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

Mrs. Berry even got some visitors at her house!

Pumpkin Investigation

Special thanks to the 3 moms who took time out of this busy day to help make some pumpkin memories. You would be surprised how many students have never carved a pumpkin before. No they can say they have!! 

READ to SOMEONE

We ❤️ READ to SOMEONE. Students share reading with friends in our class.  

They sit EEKK (elbow to elbow, knee to knee) and share their books with each other!

Read to Self in 1st grade

Read to Self in 1st grade

Click on the link above to see our Read to Self video!

ELA Rotation

ELA Rotations 

Monday through Thursday we do ELA Rotations as a part of our ELA block. The rotation strategy was created by teachers who blog on "Made for First Grade."  The (most) students have a partner and move through the room to our different rotations using a nametag that shows them where to go according to the specific day.  Each student will go to 4 rotations each day (Guided Reading, 2 rotations, and desk work) in varying orders so that all groups are busy doing something different.  There are 8 different "centers," each student will go to 2 a day including something at their seat (usually some kind of writing activity) and the main purpose of this whole thing... Guided Reading.  While the students are working in the rotations or at their seat I am able to meet with students according to their reading ability to work specifically on reading strategies to make them better readers.  This keeps all of my students challenged and focused for a more specialized reading lesson. 

Below are pictures of our name tags and rotation order list.

 Here is a little tour of our rotations...

WORD WORKS- Working with words using the white board, magnetic letters, keyboards, and many other things here.

The SCHOOLHOUSE rotation changes every week. Sometimes it will be a hands on activity, others a puzzle or Legos, many times a new fun app on the class iPad

Computer Rotation

(Pictures to come...)

APPLE ROATATION- Students work with our class iPods. 

STAR rotation- listening to books on tape on our back computer. 

WRITING TABLE- students use scrap paper and paper to work on writing

READING AREA / BARNES and NOBLE- reading from our class library in the comfortable chairs. 

CRAYON ROTATION- changes occasionally from Math manipulatives to reading our unit study books. 

Bubble Gum Writing

We worked very hard last week brainstorming describing words to make our writing more interesting to readers.  Check out all the steps we took to create our finished product!

OUR CREATIONS!!!

 

First Week of 2013-2014

It's been a great first week of First Grade at Pine Street School!

 

 

For Open House, the students created life size versions of themselves to surprise their parents!

 Samples of Postcards mailed back to Mrs.Berry from her summer mailing!

 

My First Week of First Grade Books!