First Quarter Done! Check!

Wow! I am so sorry I haven't posted in a while. I am beyond exhausted. I've had this on my to do list all week & I am posting no matter how tired I am. So here is what we've been up to...... 

Here is a peek into our 90 minute literacy block. We spend at least 45 minutes rotating through different stations for Daily 5. 

Here are some students during silent reading time or "Read to Self" during Daily 5. 

Here are some pics I snapped while these students chose to go into "Read to Someone". It's all about letting them choose where they want to go. They love it! 

Here we are decorating our covers for our first writing journal. They also created a heart map of topics to write about. They chose topics that are close to their heart.

 They LOVE sticker stories!

This is the ONLY time they are allowed to write notes in school....LOL! First of all, they are so sweet to each other because I do look at all the notes. Quite a few are written to me & go in my special mailbox. This is a great way for them to practice writing & they get to use these cutesy little clipboards.

 Here are some students in the listening center. This is a great model for fluency while targeting the comprehension skills for the week. 

This next station is usually one of the favorites....WORD WORK. Above they are playing a word game called "Plinko". Lakeshore Learning had me review this product for them & the kids got to test it out & it was ours. 

Here they are "playing" a connect four game with a twist. They have to read the CVCC word & then use it correctly in a sentence in order to mark their spot.

 Are they playing Candy Land? Yes, but with a twist. They think they are "playing" but they are learning. Here they are playing a Parts of Speech game where they have to read the word & then say if the word is a noun, verb, or an adjective BEFORE they can move.

This game was ready to get pitched but I thought I'd see if they liked it first. Guess what? They are making me keep it. 

Finally, during writing we wrote letters to "L's" dad who is a firefighter. I really loved reading their notes to him, thanking him. It was too cute & "L" really got a kick out of it! 

I have so much more to share but my eyes are getting blurry...lol. Your child has until Friday morning to "WHISPER" to me that I owe them a BIG FUZZY. 

P.S. I can use some help teaching them how to whisper. Can you help a teacher out? PLEASE 

Halloween & more!

I'm finally getting around to posting some recent pics from our very exciting Halloween partaaaay! The room moms did a spooktacular job! The kids had sooooo much fun!

                                         Decorating their treat bags!

               The Michael Jackson vampire!

 Trying to get them in a circle in the gym...tons of fun :o)

                                       Playing pass the pumpkin!

                 More spooky & fun games :o)

                 The Mummy Wrap....always so popular!

Isn't this the cutest ballot box you've ever seen?? We will be learning about the presidential candidates next week and the whole first grade will vote.

 After I read the touching story....Thank You, Mr. Falker we discussed the main characters of the story. The story is about a little girl that wasn't reading as well as the other kids. There were many kids that made fun of her and picked on her because of it. She was very frustrated and was ready to give up until a teacher named Mr. Falker came to her school. He completely changed her life and helped her "light bulb" come on. The author wrote this book about her own life.  After we filled out our author's purpose graphic organizer we discussed and shared our stories of being bullied then we got to destroy our paper!

We discussed hurt feelings, bullying, bucket dipping, etc. They all shared stories and none of you were the bully or bucket dippers :o) I then had them crumble up their papers! They were told to stomp on it, kick it and step on it. This lesson had quite an impact. I had them try to straighten out their papers & get out all the wrinkles (scars). The paper represents what happens when you are bullied or bullying someone else. No matter how hard you try those scars (wrinkles) will never go away. I had them apologize to the paper, it was still destroyed. Even though they have smiles on their face in the picture below, it really impacted their hearts after the picture.