This week we talked a lot about focusing even on small goals. We realized that small goals can help us get better and better in order to accomplish larger goals. For example: If our goal is to have better handwriting, that can seem overwhelming. If we focus on making one type of letter better this week, we can get to that goal one step at a time!
We added a goal to the top of our Published Writing page so that we could have a reminder of what to focus on while we wrote. This week, we were paying attention to our tall letters, and making sure we were writing within the lines. 
Math - I can find the sum of three addends.
Reading - I can read with expression! Writing - I can write a personal narrative. Science - I can explain that a system has many parts. Social Studies - I can tell how landforms affect how we live. 
Math - I can find the sum of three addends.
We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and talked about how the caterpillar ate one more fruit each time. Students chose three different fruits to make their own "Hungry Caterpillar" pattern. We wanted to figure out how many fruits the caterpillar ate in all, so we grouped two numbers to make the problem easier. We decided that if we grouped 1 and 2 it would make 3, then instead of having 1+2+3 we would have 3+3, which is a doubles fact!
We used this idea to group addends for the remainder of the week. We grouped doubles, and made tens to make solving a three addend problem easier! 
Reading - I can read with expression!
This fun Go Noodle video was a great way to introduce "Reading with Expression" we were able to tell the difference between sounding like a "robot" and sounding like we were talking!
Each child in my classroom has a "Poetry Journal" where we collect poems throughout the year. Each week we add poems containing words from our spelling pattern. We also add poems for special occasions and celebrations throughout the year. For every poem we find important words and highlight them in yellow, then we box our stanzas in blue.
If you are wondering where we got our fabulous word pattern poems check out susanjonesteaching.com/
This week, we read back through our poetry journals and practiced reading with expression using this handy dandy dice! The kids had so much fun focusing on HOW they were reading instead of on each individual word!
Click the below image to print your own "Read It" dice!
Writing - I can write a personal narrative.
This week students wrote about a vacation they took that brought them to a landform. We had some great stories about trips to the beach, islands, and mountains! This activity served multiple purposes as it hit on grammar objectives (past tense verbs), Social Studies objectives (telling how a landform affects our lives), and writing objectives (writing a personal narrative from a past experience).
Click on the image to download the Landform Planning Page! 
Science - I can explain that a system has many parts.
We read our Story of the Week "Beth and the Band". In this story, some children find a bandstand and create instruments to play together. We talked about how with just one instrument you could not make a band, so you need help from other instruments! All of these instruments together make a system, called a band! We learned that a system has many parts, while we applied our reading to make real-life connections!
The class made instruments just like the kids in the story, and tested their instruments to see what kind of sounds they made. We will extend on this project as we learn about sound energy and vibrations!
Social Studies - I can tell how land forms affect how we live.
We went on a "virtual field trip" around the world to visit each landform! We then recorded our findings in our Landform Photo Albums! The class had a great time pretending they were on a field trip!
On Twitter Check out @strongbobcats ! This week our teachers used the phrase
"Home of the free because of the brave." to make a play on words to describe our school. This was a great way to showcase our teacher's talents, as well as bring attention to our veterans this Veterans Day!
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 To jump start our math objective: To model how the setting can change a story:
To link Language Arts and Engineering:
To learn about Texas symbols:
 "If a problem keeps happening, try something different to change the result."As we talked about the Engineer Design Process we learned that sometimes our original plan just doesn't work out. The Three Little Wolves showed us that working hard and trying something different can create a new outcome to a reoccurring problem.    Math - I can tell if any number is even or odd. Reading - I can compare different versions of the same story. Writing - I can write a fiction narrative. Science - I can use the Engineer Design Process. Social Studies - I can find our state on the map and tell about its symbols.  We can tell if a number is even or odd!We counted the letters in our names and graphed how many odd names vs. even names we had in our class.  We sorted leftover Halloween candy to see if our handfuls were a fair share or not. We talked about how a "fair share" is an even number.
ON PUMPKIN DAY...We measured, compared, and described our pumpkins...
We cut up our class pumpkin and counted the seeds by 2's then 10's
We learned about the pumpkin lifecycle and made a pumpkin hat
At the end of the day, we decorated our pumpkins!The Three Little Pigs taught us about |
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After building, students tested their designs against the wind speeds - "huff", "puff", and "blow your house down". So many of our student engineers were successful in meeting the challenge to protect their little piggies!
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We wrote our own Three Little Pigs stories - Texas Style!
Click to download!
Their stories turned out AMAZING! They had so much fun putting their own spin on the story.
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Since we are talking about Texas symbols this week, we made friendship bracelets to symbolize how the word "Tejas" means friendship. Each student got a friendship bracelet that described the traits about them that made them a good friend!
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Rosie Revere taught us that the "only true failure can come if you quit!"
Engineering and Growth Mindset go hand in hand this week!
Engineering and Growth Mindset go hand in hand this week!
Math - I can use doubles to solve math problems quickly!
Reading - I can find details in a story to support my main idea.
Writing - I can write tall, short, and hanging letters correctly.
Science - I can think like an Engineer.
Social Studies - I can find my country on a map and tell about its important symbols.
Reading - I can find details in a story to support my main idea.
Writing - I can write tall, short, and hanging letters correctly.
Science - I can think like an Engineer.
Social Studies - I can find my country on a map and tell about its important symbols.
Me on the Map Project!
We are "zooming" into our world as we learn how to find our special place on the map.
Revamping a lesson that we do every year so that it is more engaging and organized! Can't WAIT to show my kiddos! https://t.co/Cpx0CZSmuA pic.twitter.com/vB0FvG4kcK
— Elementary Nerd (@ElementaryNerd) September 24, 2017
Thinking Like an Engineer
We modeled how engineers think by planning a "Playground Redesign".
We asked ourselves: How could the playground parts be even better?
We asked ourselves: How could the playground parts be even better?
What's the Main Idea?
We read an article that LOOKED like it was "All About Eagles",
but we learned how to use the details we read to find the Main Idea.
but we learned how to use the details we read to find the Main Idea.
Main Idea: The Bald Eagle is a symbol of the United States.
We collected details from the article to write our own facts about this national symbol.
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"I failed," said dear Rosie. "It's just made of trash. Didn't you see it? The cheese-copter crashed."
"Yes!" said her great aunt. "It crashed. That is true."
But first it did just what it needed to do.
Before it crashed Rosie...
before that...
it flew!"
"Yes!" said her great aunt. "It crashed. That is true."
But first it did just what it needed to do.
Before it crashed Rosie...
before that...
it flew!"
We took some time Monday morning to plan our week. We decided what was most important for us to get done (I will...), what we could do when we finished those things (I can...), and what we would like to remember to work on this week ( I should...). We talked about how it is always a good idea to plan ahead and make goals for yourself so that you can feel organized going into your week. We are working on being self-aware of our goals! We will keep our goal sheet in our "Stations Folder" all week to remind us while we work on our stations!
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This Bob books app is FANTASTIC! It is great for readers on a first grade level as it allows students to read AND participate in word work activities that appear straight out of their book.
The ABCya.com is a MUST for my students. It consistently offers rewarding and engaging games that link back to skills we are working on in class. This week we used "Number Grid Fireworks" to practice visualizing numbers on a 120 chart.
The Little Red Hen is a focus this week, so this read-aloud on Starfall.com was great for my students!
READING - I can tell the main idea of a story.
WRITING - I can write a descriptive paragraph.
GRAMMAR - I can use nouns and proper nouns correctly.
MATH - I can visualize numbers.
SCIENCE - I can observe changes.
SOCIAL STUDIES - I can describe my community and find it on a map.
We used our observation skills to observe changes:
Milk Observations:
OBSERVATION 1: We observed a tray of milk and wrote what we saw. [Scientists write many details like color, numbers, measurements and textures.]
OBSERVATION 2: We observed a tray of milk with two dots of food color in the middle. We made a labeled diagram of what we saw. [Scientists use diagrams to communicate their observations. They label the important parts!]
OBSERVATION 3: We observed while a drop of dish soap was added to the tray of milk, right on top of the food coloring. We recorded our observations again! [Scientists may have to do the experiment multiple times to get good observations.]
OBSERVATION 2: We observed a tray of milk with two dots of food color in the middle. We made a labeled diagram of what we saw. [Scientists use diagrams to communicate their observations. They label the important parts!]
OBSERVATION 3: We observed while a drop of dish soap was added to the tray of milk, right on top of the food coloring. We recorded our observations again! [Scientists may have to do the experiment multiple times to get good observations.]
More Milk Changes:
OBSERVATION 1: We observed a bag of milk mixed with sugar and vanilla extract. We made "wonders" to help us continue with our experiment. [Scientists experiment because they want to figure out the answers to their questions.]
OBSERVATION 2: We put our baggies into a bigger bag containing ice and rock salt. We sealed up the big bag and took turns shaking it. We observed every 5 minutes for changes. [Scientists have to make observations over time.]
OBSERVATION 3: We opened the little baggies and observed how the LIQUID milk had changed into a SOLID. We used our sense of taste to make one last observation - YUMMY! [Scientists use all of their senses possible when they make observations, but safety comes first.]
OBSERVATION 2: We put our baggies into a bigger bag containing ice and rock salt. We sealed up the big bag and took turns shaking it. We observed every 5 minutes for changes. [Scientists have to make observations over time.]
OBSERVATION 3: We opened the little baggies and observed how the LIQUID milk had changed into a SOLID. We used our sense of taste to make one last observation - YUMMY! [Scientists use all of their senses possible when they make observations, but safety comes first.]
We made real world connections to our reading
as we learned about prepositions!
We made more connections as we learned about maps!
We explored maps of our community and
used them to write a paragraph about our town.
We talked a lot this week about helping friends in our class using kindness. We brainstormed ways to lift each other's spirits and talked about how sometimes people's actions may be confusing to us, but that there may be reasons that we are unaware of for why a person is acting the way they are. We decided that giving compliments would be a good way to show someone we are supportive of them in order to break them out of their sad or mad mood!
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www.abcya.com
www.mathplayground.com
We say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning...
This week, we learned what we are really saying!
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Click on the image below to download this unit!
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...like apples! We added an "I can" statement to the tree in our classroom every time we learned something new this week. A lot of new learning was going on, and those BRAINS were getting TRAINED!
www.getepic.com
Pebble Go:
This sweet first grader in Ms. Kirkman's class came in her classroom and told her teacher that "this was the first day [she] was excited about coming to school". It is so uplifting to hear that students are enjoying their time learning and growing! Ms. Kirkman tried to get the reenactment for Twitter!
Call me Mrs. Appleseed! My favorite seed to plant is the love of learning. “I’m gonna have a fun time in first grade!” #beverlylearns pic.twitter.com/6g10Adp0gf
— AnchoredInElementary (@AnchoredinElem) September 26, 2017
Our amazing counselor used the story "Beautiful Oops" to teach that mistakes can be made into something beautiful.
Before: "The Oops"
After: "The Beautiful"
www.mathplayground.com
www.abcya.com
www.fns.usda.gov
- I can use complete thoughts when I write.
- I can sequence events in a story.
- I can keep my body safe.
- I can use different strategies to subtract.
- I can tell the difference between rights and responsibilities.
In First Grade we have a ton of fun crafts and activities that could be tweaked for any classroom or curriculum. I would love to share these activities by showcasing my favorites during my Make-It Monday showcase. Join me for my first Make-It Monday as I take us to one of my wonderful teammates blogs to show you the...
My teammate Ms. Kirkman is a new blog owner, and she did a great job sharing one of my favorite back-to-school science activities, the "Healthy Me" Doll!
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I'm just an Elementary Nerd sharing my excitement for the classroom!
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