WHITE OUT!!!

What a fantastic day! Even thought it did not snow, we had a cool time! We started the morning after receiving a letter back from Frosty saying he would do what he could to help make our day white. We cut snowflakes and wrote about how we are all special. We made sugar cube houses (thanks to all the moms who donated). We had a winter weather clothing race. We had a snow ball fight with numbers, and ended the day by learning about temperature and enjoying a WHITE snack.

I hope your kids had as much fun as I did.

Andrew's Loose Tooth

Today was opening morning in our class. The play based on Robert Munch's book and adapted by Ellie and Avery finally saw an audience. The kids did such a great job writing the parts and designing the set that we performed it for 3 classes! This project was all student directed (Mrs. Johnson only helped with a few creative differences).

Reader's Theater!

Today we practiced our scripts and created our costumes and backdrops! It was a blast. See for your self...

We have so much to be Thankful for...

The holidays are in full swing. Today we enjoyed our families for the Thanksgiving Feast. I loved hearing what everyone was thankful for. Alexis was thankful for our country, Katie was thankful for our classroom, Devin was thankful for the soldiers, and Elaina was thankful she was not bald... I am thankful for a wonderful group of kids to work with everyday! Happy Thanksgiving!

Roller Coasters, Readers, and more...

Wow, we have been busy. We built roller coasters to learn about motion. Each student designed and built a roller coaster. Some learned that the car (a gumball) would not stay on the track if you turned the track upside down. We had a special treat! Ms. Snyder shared some great big books. Do you know what a googley glocker is? We do! We have a mystery reader tomorrow. We have learned 2 clues, but have 1 more to go - we can't wait till the mystery is solved! What a great week of learning!

Rising Actions and Falling Actions

Tommrow we are learning about rising actions and falling actions in a story! This is the video we used to trigger our schema!

Putting Science in Motion!

Today we learned about motion. Did you know that objects can be made to move by using a push or a pull? We used our aluminum foil boats to push and pull through the water. Some boats moved better than others. Friction is what causes things to stop or slow down. When a person's boat was not smooth on the bottom, the friction made it move slower. Look at our pictures to see our experiment!

a few thoughts about our fieldtrip

Avery said, 'I liked the power tower.'

Caroline said, 'the power tower was great!"

Andrew said, " I liked dodge ball because it was fun"

Ellie, Joseph, and Zach, 'on the bus it was bumpy"

Nicholas, Alexis and Will, "we got to build and race a lego car


Trichelle, Jack, and Devin said "We got to make a rocket, and blast it off!"

Ashley and Karime and Deacon liked the Superman racers.

Harrison, Katie, and Elaina connected pipes t8 make water flow"

What a Great Day!

We had a wonderful time at the Children's Museum. The day started with a crisp bus ride to Miller Outdoor Theater. The kids loved running and rolling up and down the hill. We had a great picnic and then headed to the museum. We were lucky to have a quite afternoon at the museum. Be sure to ask your child about the water works and power play. I even took a turn at climbing up (not as easy as it looks)!

I hope your student had as much fun as I did. Thanks to all the moms who helped today. It was perfect!

Just a few thoughts...from Mrs. Johnson

Parents,

I wanted to let you know that conference reminders will be in the Friday folder. For parents that were not at Curriculum Night, I have assigned times. There is a spot to sign and return to confirm your time. I am looking forward to meeting with each of you to discuss your student's progress!

One other new thing to look for. Your student will begin coming home with a big zip lock in place of their Purple Reading Folder. I learned quickly that the folders were not going to hold up to all the great reading we are doing. I am hoping this will be a better solution.

Thanks and have a terrific day!

Mrs. Johnson

Today was Johnny Appleseed Day - By Katie and Friends

We learned about John Chapman. His nickname is Johnny Appleseed. He traveled around the new land planting apple seeds. Did you known that an apple seed is a pip. We do!

This is what we did...
Avery - "We made applesauce"
Andrew "the applesauce was awful"
Trischell "It taste like cinnamon"
Alexis "we investigated the apple sauce, by using our senses"
Elaina "the apples sauce was the best - I had 3 cups"
Harrison, Nicholas and Zachary. agree with Elaina

We had a fun day learning and investigating! Mrs. Johnson is going to add the pictures later this weekend (because she left the camera cord at home!)

Words Their Way

I hope you had a great weekend! We enjoyed some nice down time with family. I am posting some pictures of kids working in their words-their-way (spelling) totes. This will be the last week that the entire class has the same list. We will be using their spelling inventory to place them in groups that directly addresses their needs! It is a great program, and provides a chance for every child to succeed at their level.

It was awesome - by Harrison and friends!

Today was awesome because we got to do math tubs and learned new centers. Mr. Whisper made a showing at our door. He is big and yellow and he is the BEST (per Devin). Thank you Mr. Whisper is was nice working in a soft sound (per Jack).- he made us talk softly! We have our first spelling test tomorrow. We are all going to go home and study, but we are ready because we have worked with the words all week.. And best of all we did our best (per Alexis)!

Putting the Pieces Together...

Wow! It has been a wonderful 2 weeks. I thought I would put a picture of the newly decorated 1st grade area. Here are a few quotes from some of the kids about the first week and our new (temporary)building. Keep checking back as we post summaries of our days events!

Will said, "Everything is new...I loved it all!"

Jack said, "I love the games that 1st grade has"

Trischelle and Avery "loved eating"

Katie and Joseph wishes we could find the Gingerbread Man!

Andrew liked when we made a graph

Elaina liked the cookies that he Gingerbread Man left us!

Ellie likes art!

Nicholas thinks "we have come up with some great ideas about scientist"

Harrison, Karime, and Alexis "liked everything"

Come on Monday!

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After a few long and HOT days. I am ready and EXCITED to start class. We all have worked hard to make the new site a loving and fun place to learn. I hope you enjoy the pics of our room. It turned out great. I am looking forward to seeing all the smiling faces and starting a wonderful year of growth! See you in the morning.

Rainy Day Fun!

Today we spent the rainy day on a fun project for our classroom. My very sweet dad helped me make a paper mache tree. I am going to use it to decorate our wonderful t-shack!

11 Tools Reflection

This has been the best professional development. In thinking about my class I see so many opportunities. First I am very excited to have a blog that I will continue to maintain to communicate with my parents. I love the idea of having kids work at the end of the day to create a summary of the day, and being able to use this as a place to post pictures of learning. I would like to spend more time playing with the different mashups and resources that are available for generating ideas (flicker books). Lastly, I will definitely be using the photo stories and would love to see my class make their own, utilizing the microphone. I can see book reviews and reports on different things we study (for example American Symbols). The possibilities are endless!

Tool # 11

Digital Citizenship is a new age form of manners. Just as important as it is to teach children manners, safety, and simple "getting along" techniques - we now need to emphasis the importance of rolling those lessons over into all the things they do with the computer. Teaching 1st grade, I think we need to focus on Safety. I would use the comparison of not talking to a stranger, and that on the computer there are lots of strangers. In that same path of thinking, I would emphasis that passwords should not be shared - like their lunch number, if you were to give out your number others could by lunch or check out books on your account. Lastly, I think it is very important for children at an early age to learn that what they type is there for anyone to see. Constantly reminding to make good choices. I really see this as an extension of socialization with our classmates and take it very serious.

Tool #10

I have already been using an I-touch in my class. I love to use it in small group reading instruction. I love the sight word apps and doodle draw. I like to have the kids use the doodle draw to write the spelling patterns that they hear. This is a great motivator for children to stay connected to the lessons. I also see how this could be used in a center. I can't wait to have them in my room.

Tool #9

Skype and Jing! I have used Skype before, and think it would be fun to hook up with other classes in other places. I love the idea of virtual field trips and even meeting authors from the comfort of our classroom. I can see many ways to use these and hope to do so!

Tool # 8

This would be a fun way to introduce one of the American Symbols and rhyming words for word families.

Tool # 7

This is my photostory. Every year I have made something like this and showed my kids at the end of the year. I used a half broken microphone I had at home so it is hard to hear but I love how easy it is to use. I think the kids will have a blast telling reading their stories and bringing them to life!

Tool #6

After learning about Wikis, I see that there are different uses. I love the idea of being able to edit it. In 1st grade, I think it would be great to use a wiki for shared writing. I see it working with the active board and becoming real life. It would allow parents to see what we are doing in our class.

Tool #5

Social Networking...I think that I would use this best by allowing students to access different web sites with out having to bookmark them on all classroom computers. What a time saver! I like the way delicious.com lets you file your bookmarks (that makes it very clear to students, ie games, research sites, etc) I also looked at the diigo site. I see where this would be helpful to collaborate because of the annotative tool. I like the idea that you can see something and then come back to that information (in the past I have lost the spot and spent so much time not being able to find where I saw/read something). Both these tools will be a great time saver!

Tool #4

I have spent the afternoon exploring google documents. I had heard people talk about it before but was never 100% sure what it was. I think this would be a great tool to use for our team. I see weekly newsletters that everyone could have access to creating each week. I used google docs to send out our curriculum packet and have my team go through and read. For kids, I love the idea that students could comment on others' work and add feedback.

The google reader helped ease my frustration with trying to stay connected to all the wonderful information that is out there on blogs. I see that helpful for collaboration with other professionals is a very simple way (almost mimicking e-mail)!

Tool #3

This tool has shown to be endless. I see so many possibilities with the word bubbles and different applications. I can see that kids who are resistant to write might find this to be very motivating. I used the flicker books. Wow, what a great tool. I wrote a true story of my husband wanting me to pull him in the boat while he wake boards. I am not the best driver and the story will show what happen. I had trouble going back to edit something after it was published. I will have to keep playing with that. I also wonder if there is a way to use your own pictures, instead of flicker. Often times I have kids bring in pictures of things they have done to help jog ideas as they write - if we could plug their pics in and they add the words I see kids motivation and interest rise greatly!

Tool #2

Wow! Thinking about all the possibility's of blogs is mind blowing! I feel best when I can work with fellow teachers to learn different ways to hit the needs of all my kids. This technology opens that up to not just educators I see daily, but to a whole world of teachers and learners. I see how commenting is the key to the dialog and the learning.

I loved how the "cool cat teacher" shared the comment from the 3rd grade student. What a great reinforcement of positive self-esteem. For children who are shy, commenting can really build self-esteem in a more protected environment.

I spent time visiting other sites - It can be a little overwhelming. I made comments ont he following blogs:
TeachPaperless
alwayslearning
iLearnTechnology
The Blue Skunk Blog
2cents Worth

Tool #1

It has been a fun day in a quite house playing with this new technology. I can see so many creative ways to use these tools. It just takes a little time and a chance to play!

This is my first attemept to enter a post. I am excited to be building something that can be used in my class to help parents stay connected. This will be a great use of professional development!