Eating the Plates

We have been reading an interesting informational text to help us learn more about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving.

We have been engaged and grossed out by some of the things we learned about regarding the trip on the Mayflower and the food they ate.
We created a graphic organizer to help us collect our learning into one place.  We started with putting on our schema (what we already know) about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving.  After listening to several chapters in the book we added some facts we learned.  We will be reviewing our schema and deciding if what we thought was all true facts or we need to move them under the "misconceptions" column.
We are busy creating a "How To" book with some of the information we are learning.  Stay tuned to this post because we will be adding pictures of our books!

These are some pictures we worked on together to add to our display.

Young Illustrator Winner

 One of our very own won first place in the Young Illustrators Festival in Parkersburg.  Out of all the 1st graders in the county TaNaeyah won with her entry from "Pat the Cat".  This book is a class favorite that was introduced when we reviewed the short /a/ sound. 

Her artwork will hang in the Parkersburg Art Center for the month.  I am so proud of you TaNaeyah!

 This is the book that inspired her win.

C.O.P.S. Club

The class has spent 6 weeks working on capitalizing the beginning of a sentence and putting punctuation at the end of the sentence.  Even after a year of kindergarten working on this skill, plus the past 6 weeks,  half of my class forgets daily.  Since I hear so many upper grade teachers still lamenting the same problem, I decided I was going to try and do something about the situation.  I started the C.O.P.S. Club during the beginning part of our second recess at McKinley.  I set up the club giving the class 2 weeks of warning.  I told them no one wants to be in the club and everyone will want out of the club and to please try to remember our C.O.P.S. saying when writing sentences.  C.O.P.S stands for Capital, OK (does the sentence sound and look OK), Punctuation, and Spelling.  

My students are to use this acronym every time they write a sentence, or during the rereading, or editing of the sentence.  Even after the reminders, 10 of my 20 students are in my club.  They can get out of the club by proving to me they know how to write sentences properly.  I give them 3 sentences to edit daily during the start of recess.  Each one they get correct will earn a tally mark by their name on my "Club" list.  They must get 10 tally marks to get out of the club. 

They can be put back into the club if they don't write sentences correctly during the school day.   I hope this motivates the students to take more care and attend to the proper way to write a sentence.  So if you child tells you they are in a club at school, and they don't like it,  you will know exactly why they have become a member.

Thankful Turkeys

What I Am Thankful For.....

Turkeys

Veterans' Day at McKinley

Veterans' Day at McKinley
The PHS band marched over to McKinley school and they played music with their instruments.



Mr. Jones and Carter are telling us "Words of Wisdom."

Waiting on the veterans to enter the building.  We cheered and yelled  "USA" for the veterans.

Mrs. Boyd you did a nice job!  She organized the celebration.

Thank you veterans for coming in and talking to us about your life as a veteran.

Trinton's dad has coins from countries he worked in.  Thank you for sharing your coins with us.

Trinton's Coin Collection

We are saying our parts about Veterans' Day during the program.

They are doing the flag ceremony.  They are paying respect to our flag.

Daily Read-to-Self

Read-to Self time in the classroom.  This is when students read "good fit" books they have chosen, books we have read together in guided reading, decodable books returned for homework, and we just added our first textbook reader that we finished to their box.  They are allowed to choose where they want to read around the room. We talked about making good choices and not distracting others that are practicing their reading.  We have increased our reading stamina time to 30 minutes.  This is such an important part of our day.  They are immersed in literature they have chosen and that they can read.  In first grade there are 3 ways to read a book...

1) Read the pictures.

2) Read the words.

3) Retell a story you have heard before with the book.

Halloween Costume Parade

Every year our school has a Halloween costume parade. The students love showing off their costumes to each other and the parents that come to watch.