Projects and a Skyping For Information

A happy little class of smart first graders.

Eli's mummy project

 Eli and his mummy!
Eli's Presentation 

 Everyone wanted to see the sarcophagus with the mummy inside!

We were all excited! 

Katie created a project and brought it in to show us.  

She was very proud!

On Wednesday, we skyped with our fabulous Iowa friends in Morning Sun.  We were so excited to hear about what the first graders had learned about arctic animals.  Mrs. Hilton's Class shared their entries from their journals about what they had learned.  It was very fascinating.  During the session we practiced taking notes.  It was hard to get all of the information but we drew quick sketches and only wrote the important words so that we could remember the information.

 Here is what we see when we skype.

 Here is a first grader's journal entry about penguins and Mrs. Hilton is pointing out a sketch in the diagram with a caption.  Sorry I couldn't remember what it said.  Nice penguin.

 Here's what the Morning Sun's Classroom looks like.  We can see the beautiful Mrs. Hilton helping out one of her students.

 More great information is shared about walruses, polar bears and arctic foxes.  Fascinating information.

Here we are very attentive to the information on the screen.  We love learning from other first graders.

Here is our class sharing the Matter Rap.  Our plan is to make a video of ourselves performing it.  Maybe next week.

Thank you Mrs. Hilton's Class for being our skyping buddies.  We loved sharing and learning.  Maybe next month we can all share a little love <3 

Claire

Contraction Action :)

On Friday we read the book David Goes To School by David Shannon. I have multiple copies of this book so everyone could have their own copy to read from.  It was very easy for most my kids to read with little text and the text being very large.  There are about 5 different places where David Shannon added contractions.  After reading it independently, discussing the dialog of the teacher, and the voice. (This book has great voice.)  I passed out 3x3 post it notes.  Each child went through the book again and placed a stickie note on each page where they found a contraction.  At first no one remember what a contraction was so I gave them a hint that it has an appostrophy.  Several still were not sure.  Then together we went through the book finding each contraction.  Next, I sent each child back to their desk to write out the contraction and the two words that make it up onto the stickie note.  It was great to watch how my class went right to work and helped each other figure them all out.  I sent the book home for homework.  They were to try to find those contractions in other books.  It was a great lesson.  Kids can really relate to David and it's an easy read.

Claire

Chickens To The Rescue

 

This week I read the book Chickens To The Rescue by John Himmelman.  We were looking at this book and of course enjoying the story and illustrations but taking it in as writers.  This book is so fun and draws in my kids with it's chant of "Chickens to the Rescue!" for each problem.  I had the kids think about 3 problems that they might have.  After sharing with elbow partners the kids went off to create illustrations of their problems with paper and pencil.  The next day we practiced making chickens to add to our stories.  This week we will start to add text and maybe even some color as well.  In the computer lab on Friday, I had the kids illustrated one problem with chickens to the rescue in Paint.  Some of their pictures are just terrific.  We will add them to our kidblog this week and write the text to go with the fabulous pictures.

What do you think of their work so far?

 It always amazes me how well kids can draw on Paint with just a mouse.
Enjoy the week!

Claire