Pen Pals

Earlier this year, a fellow teacher asked if I wanted to be pen pals with his class.  I thought this would be a fun and great way to teach my students how to write letters.  We have written back and forth 3 or 4 times each and the students just can't get enough of it.  

We are writing to another first grade class, which helps the students relate easily.  There are often times that students write about something I have no clue about, but they always know what the student is referencing.  Thank goodness!  This is one of the many reasons I love writing these letters.  It is ALL about the students!  They write what they want and often add their own opinions about the topic!  I love seeing this side of my students!

Of course, I need to relate this back to the standards in some regard, so my main goal with these letters is working on conventions.  My students now know what a comma and question mark is.  In every letter, they must start with a greeting followed by a comma.  At first, they would write a period because that is what was most natural to them.  Now, I often catch them using commas in other writing assignments.  Granted they are not always used properly, but at least they are trying!!  

As for question marks, well, they knew what they were, but never really appropriately used them.  I would say that now most students use them correctly at least 75% of the time or at least can recognize when they should have used one before I ask them to check it.

All and all, I am loving this project and plan to continue and start earlier in the school year next time!  I can't explain how much this has motivated my students!!

Here are some sample letters from a while back!

Dear Jessica, I like to read books.  My favorite book is Magic Tree House.  Did you do Jump Rope for Heart?  Do you have a dog?  From, Aspen

Dear Aleah, No, I don't have an iPod.  I like dogs.  What is your favorite movie?  My favorite movie is Sponge Bob.  Your friend, Mya

Dear Jonathon:  I used to have a dog.  Her name was Dolly.  I do not like rain.  What do you do when you are sad?  Your friend, Damian

State Testing

Our school started our state testing this week.  Although testing does not take place in my classroom, we are all very aware that testing has begun.  A few weeks back, I read a post somewhere (can't find it now), about how the primary students who are not testing provide the intermediate students with a small note on each of their testing days.  I thought this would be fun for my students to do with our 5th grade reading buddies.  Since I couldn't find my original source, I decided to create my own.  Here is what I came up with...

My students were so excited to complete this project!  They surprised me with their good wishes for their reading buddies.  I just assumed they would write something like 'good luck' or 'do your best.'  Instead, here are a few messages my students will be delivering tomorrow morning...

I still haven't come up with the second card we will use, but on their final day of testing my students will deliver a card with the saying "Yay! You are O"fish"ally done!"  I will attached yummy swedish fish to this tag.  I sure hope this will inspire these kids to work hard and relax during their testing!!!

Colleen

Long Time No Talk

I know my last entry was similar in that I hadn't posted in a loooong time.  Well, I don't have excuses to explain my absence other than time is flying by and life is quickly changing!

On the school side...

As you all know, I LOVE my class this year!  They work hard and have come so far as little learners.  Not only do my homeroom students work hard, but my reading group has also been a ball to work with.  While I loved having them to myself, it was time to change it up.  

As we returned from spring break this week, I began working with both our intensive and strategic/benchmark groups.  It has been a change for me in that I had daily 5 up and running so well I almost didn't need to be there.  While I am transitioning, my team has been a wonderful support!  I am excited to introduce and work through Daily 5 with our strategic/benchmark group.  Once they are ready to work more independently, I will be able to pull kids and develop more individualized skills.  It will be a blast to get these kids up and over the hump!!

As for the intensive group, well what a 360.  I was teaching schema and text-to-self connections to my advanced kids.  With these intensive kids, we are back to basics - letter sounds, vowels, etc.  I may not sounds thrilled for this change, but I am!  I think it will be good to change it up and dig in deep with these kids!  I will keep you posted with my progress!

As for home...

We have been busy cleaning and getting life reorganized for our BABY who will be arriving in August.  So far, we have been very fortunate and moving through this pregnancy fairly easily!  We have chosen not to find out the sex of our baby, leaving it a surprise to the end!  Nate and I are so excited and thrilled to be taking this next step in our life!

Hope all is well with everyone else!  I promise to try to post more often as we wrap this last trimester!

Colleen

February, where did you go?

Well, it has been a LONG while since I have made time to sit down and write about school.  I guess I have been too tired, that I just don't want to think about school once I'm home?!?!  Maybe I have just been lazy?!?!  Either way, February is almost over and we accomplished a lot this month!!  Here is a brief synopsis of our month in 1st grade...

Groundhog Day:  Since the 2nd fell on the weekend, we simply read books and talked about the exciting news that spring is coming early this year!  Exciting stuff, huh??

Chinese New Year:  Again, this fell on the weekend, but my teammates and I just couldn't completely pass this one up.  We read several books about the traditions of Chinese New Year, completed a few simple classroom assignments and of course, made rice to eat with chopsticks.  I was so impressed...all of my students used the chopsticks to eat their rice without complaining!  Yes, I cheated and helped them by using a rubber band and the wrapper to make them kid friendly, but really who cares!  Of course, the big hit was giving them a fortune cookie for dessert.  Always fun!!

Valentine's Day:  Where to start???  We did the typical candy heart math (sorting, graphing and comparing), but it was also my observation!!  My students rocked it!!  They were engaged, participating in discussions and all around just awesome!  Of course, we did a few art projects and writings, but wrapped up our day handing out valentines to our friends!  The best part of the day was at dismissal...one of the boys in my class said to me, "I wish everyday was Valentine's Day!"  When I asked him why, his response was "because I like getting notes from my friends."  I was shocked!  Totally thought he was going to say because of the candy heart math and cookie, but NO it was simply about friendship!  He absolutely made my day!!

100's Day:  Well, our 100th day of school was the 15th of February.  That's right, the day after Valentine's day.  The only thing I could do was embrace it and move along.  We did all sorts of fun things...wrote 100 words and numbers, read 100 books, made a 100 day snack, 100 tally mark crowns, 100 fruit loop necklace, and probably something else I have forgotten about. :)  Here are some pictures from the day.

Presidents Day:  We celebrated the various birthday's throughout the month when we were able to fit it in.  The students enjoyed learning about Honest Abe and how he kept his important papers in his tall hat.  They also thought highly of George Washington and his fun pets!

Dental Health:  We had a visit from a local dentist, who happens to be one of my students father.  The students enjoyed acting as teeth while the dentist and hygienist flossed out the plaque bugs.

In between all of these special events, we squeezed in some wonderful learning!  I am looking forward to slowing the pace down a bit in the months to come!

Hope you are not overwhelmed by all of this!  I will be better as we move forward!!

Colleen

Work Harder, Get Smarter

I know I have told you all several times how wonderful my students are this year, but today it was proven to me once again!

We have been working on our "Number of the Day" packets for a few months now, but today I challenged my students a bit more.  As we started back to school in January our new number of the day packet include: place value, skip counting number patterns, greater than/less than, 1&10 more/1&10 less and tally marks.  

All and all my students have done really well with these concepts.  The 2 areas my students have struggled a bit with are skip counting number patterns and place value.  They have been able to work through these whole group, but when it comes to completing them individually, my students lack confidence and are hesitant!  I have all of the confidence in the world that they are capable of doing this! So, today I challenged them.  

Together, we talked through these two areas and even completed them on the front board together, but when it came time for my students to complete their own packets, I erased our work!  As you can imagine, my students were not happy about this!  It sparked a conversation about working harder to get smarter.  I know this is one of those cheesy sayings, but it just came out!  Anyhow, my students were extremely motivated by this!  They fell right into my little trap!  ALL of students happily completed their number of the day independently!!!

While my students were working, one of my less motivated and low achieving, but very capable students starts telling his table neighbor, "No, I don't want to copy your paper anymore!  I am smart!" Of course my ears perked up and I started listening.  He continued to tell his classmate how he can do it on his own and that he doesn't need to look at his work.  I am so very proud of this student!!  He is finally beginning to believe in himself!!!  Don't get me wrong, he does not regularly copy his friends work, but there have been times that I have stopped this from happening.  I was just thrilled to hear and witness that he is recognizing his skills!

It was absolutely one of those days reinforcing the positive impact I can make on my students!

Nate the Great

Hi there!  

I sure hope everyone had a great holiday season!  Mine was fantastic!  I am clearly still adjusting back into my regular routine!

My reading group was working through detective stories just prior to the break and really enjoyed them.  While reading these stories, we were specifically working on story mapping skills - characterization; setting; plot; beginning/middle/end; and even making text-to-self connections.  My students were really impressing me!  So, I created a mini unit of my own for Nate the Great.  

After completing book talks on the various Nate the Great books, each student chose their own story to work through.  Once they have completely dissected their stories, they will be presenting their book to the group.  They are very excited to present their information to the group.  We have had very private work sessions as not to "ruin it" for the others.  Haha!  My students crack me up!

Here is a link to my unit, which is compatible with any Nate the Great story.  I hope you enjoy!