Blog Archives

SLOWLY BUT SURELY

8/31/2017

Figuring new things out always takes time, practice, and a lot of patience. This week we're getting to know our first grade routines, friends, and teacher. We're also remembering what school is all about. Today we practiced some literacy centers again. We reviewed the short a sound (like in apple) and some high frequency words. Even though this is an easy sound, it's important to practice working hard and working independently before we learn new things!

Rainbow writing the word said.

Short a spin. Silly or real word?

Short a silly story writing.

Good old fashioned reading.

Next we got one step closer to starting writing next week. We made a map of our hearts. Not like the four chambers, but the things we love! When we get stuck later this year, we can go back and get ideas for writing topics. When it's really snowy outside, it's easy to forget about that time you fell off your bike or that amazing camping trip last summer and how that roasted marshmallow fell in the dirt, but you ate it anyway.

And of course, we enjoyed some sunshine with our friends!

IF YOU'RE NOT MESSY, YOU'RE NOT HAVING FUN!

8/29/2017

Sometimes the best way to have fun is to get your hands dirty. We make a lot of messes in first grade, so we figured we may as well start out with a big one right off the bat. Miss Kylie loves the children's book author and illustrator Eric Carle. His artwork is especially cool! He makes large sheets of paste paper and then uses that paper to create the animals in his books.

a beautiful butterfly

Paste paper is made from: water, white flour, rice flour, Dr. Bronner's soap, glycerin, and of course paint. You spread the paste mixture on different colors of paper and then create texture with a variety of tools. We used our Wacky Wednesday afternoon to make a lot of paste paper that we'll use throughout the year! Check out the process below (the paint is washable).

And we heard from a few more friends and their All About Me Bags. We're finding out so many new things and now we have lots of conversation starters for lunch and recess!

Boti got two chocolate coins from the Tooth Fairy! He is a big fan of the Bearded Dragon and can't wait to get one.

Ella loves spending time with her sister. She likes to play with bouncy balls and collect shells, like sand dollars.

Bailey loves gymnastics and she's really good. She has visited Paris with her family and wants to go back.

Ana speaks Bosnian! She loves her family, her stuffed animal penguin, and she is a really good at the piano.

LEARNING LITERACY

8/29/2017

We started to practice literacy time in the classroom. We usually call it centers. During this time we're each working independently on different activities depending on what we're reading and what we're interested in. Today we each did the same activities, but we could work at our own pace. It was challenging to pace ourselves based on how much time we each need and not what our friends need. This is a skill we'll work on all year.

Here we are reading books, alphabetizing, responding to literature,
and reviewing short vowels.

And of course we heard from a few more friends and their All About Me Bags.

Max loves legos, transformers, cars, motorcycles, and Ninjago. He likes to build and share his cars with friends.

Kai loves books and is going to be the librarian of congress when he grows up. He has a kind and caring heart!

Andrew likes to play the card game War with his brother. He loves to build, especially with magnets and legos.

MATH IN FIRST GRADE

8/28/2017

Today, we got a chance to practice our math skills. Miss Kylie thought we'd be rusty after the summer break, but it turns our we're ready to jump right in! We played a few addition games with dice and dominoes and practiced what it's like to play math games in the classroom. Now we're ready for some real challenges.

We had the chance to hear from another six of our friends and their All About Me Bags.

Silas loves to learn about space, especially Jupiter. He has a UV light and likes to play checkers and chess.

Sloan loves spending time in Disney and Florida. She likes dogs and wolves and learning about animals.

Norah likes to read and loves making art. She is excited to learn about animals and she likes building and science.

Beck likes playing with his toys and stuffed animals with his mom. He likes camping and golfing with his dad.

Edy likes to spend time with her family, especially picking cherries. She is an artist and a shell collector.

Siri likes to make necklaces and melty beads with her sister. She likes playing with ponies and stuffed animals.

JUMPING IN HEAD FIRST

8/24/2017

Today was just THE BEST. We spent some more time getting to know each other and even had a chance to work as teams in a big challenge. Miss Kylie took a step back and told us we had to be the teachers to get this challenge done. The goal was simple. Stack six cups in a pyramid with your team. The challenge...don't touch the cups with any body part... We got to use:
six cups one piece of ribbon two rubber bands scissors two straws
We had to work in small groups to make it work. It was HARD, but oh so fun.

Working in groups is tricky and we're going to do it a lot this year. We have to take time to hear each other's ideas and agree or disagree. Check out these awesome videos of us working together and teaching each other.

We also had a chance to hear from three of our friends and their All About Me Bags. We can't wait to learn about the rest of our friends next week.

Yari wants to be a doctor when he grows up. He loves legos, has fun with his brother Vlad, and likes to paint!

Carter got to fly an airplane! He has a Rockies signed baseball and loves his toys and stuffed animals.

Coco like to remember her home in NY. She collects shells and rocks from Spain and speaks German!

WELCOME TO FIRST GRADE

8/23/2017

It's such an exciting time of year...new grade, new classmates, new teacher, new classroom, new friends, and so much new to learn. We're going to be very busy in the first grade classroom and this is where you can come and check out all the action. For the next couple weeks we are going to spend a lot of time getting to know each other, building a classroom community, and just figuring this first grade thing out.

Today, we read the book Rainbow Fish. It's a classic. We spent some time reflecting on what we can share with our first grade class to make our community a better place. We found out we're each pretty unique and we're going to have a lot to learn from one another. Together we created a beautiful first grade rainbow fish to help us remember this sense of community this year.