Holiday Crafts

Alex's mom came into our room today to make paper chains with us! We had a great afternoon making snowflakes,  coloring projects and creating beautiful chains!

Measuring With Popsicle Sticks

We are learning about standard units of measure by first using non standard units to measure objects in our classroom.

Peer Conferencing in Action!

Kids are learning how to listen to a partner's story and discuss what they notice about their writing.
We call this a peer conference. First graders choose a story to read to a partner. Their partner listens and then comments on something they noticed about the writing, such as this little boy's comment about his partner using periods in his writing! Then they check to be sure their partner has included Who, Where and When parts to their story using a peer conference checklist. If one of these elements is missing, it gets circled on the checklist for his partner to possibly include later in his story. These two boys did a great job!

Snow

We  play  in  the snow   a lot.  We  make  snowmen   and  snow angels.
We   have  a  snowball fight.
We  can build  a  fort.


by Brooke and Arwen

Having Fun in the Snow

When me and my friends play in the snow and have fun it's a dream because
you have someone with you.  It's fun.

by Anochie

I can't wait until I play in the snow.
 By Ethan

I love to play in  the snow!
 by Bertie

We like snow at school but we couldn't go outside on Monday.
  by Ryan


Outside  I  play in the snow with my friends  and I go over to their house.
 by Marcus.

Writers in Action

First graders do a great deal of writing. We begin the year writing personal narratives which we call "small moment" stories. Small moment stories are stories that capture one part of a child's experience that they wish to tell. We learn how to zoom in to an idea to make it a small moment story. A child might start with the idea that they want to write about playing in the snow. Then we zoom in to discover the child wants to write about playing in the snow with his sister. Then we zoom in even further to find out the child wants to write about playing in the snow with his sister building a snowman. This is a small moment story. It only describes building a snowman, not the child's entire experience outside in the snow. Kids have written many small moment stories since the beginning of the year!

Fun Math Workplaces!

While kids play math games each day they are practicing many skills. Race You to 25 Cents helps kids count money and also learn the value of coins. Ten or Bust lets kids practice adding to 10 and trying not to go over 10. Add and Compare has kids adding up the total on their cards and seeing who has more or less. Sea Creatures Sorting and Graphing lets kids design their own graphs. They have lots of fun while they practice great math skills!

Our New Pets!

We got gerbils for classroom pets! Mrs. Hanna, a friend of ours who breeds gerbils brought two little male gerbils to us right before vacation. We had a vote and named them Gumby and Brownie. They are very cute and fun to watch!

How to Cook a Turkey by first graders in room 131!

First you stab the turkey, take its juice then put it in the oven. Your turkey is done.
by Jasmine

Get a turkey at the store and put it in the oven for 2 seconds. Then you cut it, then you eat. When you finish make another one.
by Shreya

Buy 100 turkeys. Put 100 pounds of salt. Put it in the oven for an hour.
by Owen

A turkey can stew for 63 minutes. When you eat it,  it's good.
by Marcus

Cut a hole in the turkey then you stuff it. Put a dab of salt and you are ready to put it in the oven for 66 minutes but don't overheat it. Your oven will explode.
by Grady

The turkey has to get cooked for 10 minutes and then put stuffing in it.
by

Turkey, vanilla, spray bottle. Cook it. Eat it.
by Bert

First you drive to the grocery store and then you get the turkey and then you go back home. You cook the turkey for 20 minutes. You eat.
by Drew

You take it out of the wrapper then you put it in the oven for 5 minutes. Then you take it out. Then you eat it. It tastes good, real good.
by Anochie

Turkey: one cup of flour. Put it in the oven for 9 minutes. Take it out. Then eat.
by Rhea

First cook it for 10 minutes. Then get the guts out then get the fat off then eat it.
by Hayden

You have to put milk and dough then cook it in the oven for 5 minutes until it looks like a turkey. Mix it until the turkey is cooked.
by Arda

Eggs, sauce, bacon, water. Cook.
by James

Ingredients: the turkey, potatoes, tomatoes. Put the turkey on a tray. Put it in the oven. Take the potatoes and mix the tomatoes and mix it for a minute. Wait another hour for the turkey and when the turkey is finished leave it to cool.
by Ellie

Get turkey at the store. Lay it on a pan. 3 quarters of salt on the turkey. Cook in the oven 15-20 minutes.
by Brooke

Ketchup, lemons, red pepper, bacon, limes, salt, raisins.
by Izzy

First you get a turkey then you put some milk and then you put 25 stuffing then you put 100 mashed potatoes then you cook it for 25 minutes.
by Lucas

1 gram of salt. Cook for 30 minutes.
by Ethan

The turkey has to get cooked for 10 minutes and then put stuffing in it.
by Alex

First you buy 1 turkey then you put 1 gallon of flour on the turkey then put the turkey in the oven for 30 minutes.
by Spencer

We like work on writing because we can tell good things to friends we like.

by Brooke and Eleanor

Fall

I love Thanksgiving a lot .
I love food.
I love leaves.
I love to play outside.

FROM MARCUS

Gerbils

We are going  to get  gerbils and we're going to feed them and watch them and  take care of  them.

by Arda

Read To Self

Conferences- we read to Mrs Davies. We read to her then we trade in our books. Then we read a book in our classroom.

by Anochie and Drew

Planting

We       went       outside.       We      planted     in      a      garden.

by        Owen

Bulb Planting

With the help of many parents we made a trip to our garden today and planted bulbs that will come up in the spring. Each first grader planted hyacinth, daffodils, narcissus, crocuses and tulips. We used trowels to dig our holes and then nestled our bulbs in the holes. It was a lot of fun!

Things We Do in School

We    loved    the   Halloween   parade!
 by   Rhea                        


I    like   it  when  I   learn  in  math.
by   Ethan      

Halloween Party fun!

Halloween!

Daily 5

 We have a daily 5.

They are Read to someone and work on writing,
listen to reading, word work.
Daily 5 is fun!
by Arwen and Bert

When I  read  in the reading  area I feel so good to be reading.
by Anochie

I love when I do math with my friends.
 by Marcus

We have a bird feeder hanging on our window.
The bird feeder has seeds.   
The titmice are cute. 
They eat seeds and bees and flowers.

     Lucas + Jasmine's blog post for room 131
                                                                                                                                 

We write letters when we want to do work on writing. 

We can also write in our journals in work on writing.  

                        by Grady and Spencer.                                                                                          

Counting by 10's With Crabs

 

We made crabs to practice counting by 10's. Each crab has 10 legs-two legs with claws,

two swimmer legs and four walking legs on each side. 

Special Class

We    have   special   class   on   Fridays  and   Monday  no  special.

by Grady and James

Bird Feeder Visitors

We hung up a bird feeder on our window and after a few days we had some birds visit. We identified them as  titmice using our bird guide.

Junie B. Jones Play

Theatreworks performed a play based on the Junie B. Jones books at school today. It was a great show and afterwards the actors answered some questions from kids!