Frosty 4 Square Writing

by Bailey

by Braden

 by Marisa

by Cadden

by Kailen

by Ben  

 by Tori

 by Ava

Frosty the Snowman Readings for Fluecy

We have been doing repeated reading in our classroom to enhance our fluency. This week we worked on the words to Frosty the Snowman.

Part 1 

by Faith, Kaleb, and Camryn

Part 2 

by Tori, Willow, Ava, and Kaden

Part 3

By Michael, Kayla, and Fred

 Part 4

by Ben, Kailen, Marisa

Part 5

by Braden, Landen, Destiny, and Bailey

Native American Presentation

Today we had a man present us information about Native American Indians.  Here is some of the information we learned from his presentation to us.

• He played an wooden flute.
• He showed us a rock that was 2500 years old.
• The rock had a picture of a girl on it. Her name was Kokopelli.
• He let a girl play a drum.
• He told us an story about an Indian playing a flute.
• He made a wolf howl.
• He told us that the Native American Indians had different kinds of fish traps.
• He told us about different types of houses that Native Americans lived in.
• He told us that the flutes were made of different kinds of wood.
• He made an owl sound.
• He said the woodpecker taught an Native American Indian how to make a flute in a story.
• People went up to dance with the drummer.
• He taught us that some made blankets and houses out of grass.
• He showed us some pictures of  Native American Indians.
•  Some Indians carried their babies on a board.
• He showed us pictures of them riding horses.
• He played a song from Pocahontas the movie.

Veteran's Day

Veterans came to McKinley School today. They told us about what they did. They showed us cool things. We saw a wooden gun used to perform a routine with. They passed a flag around respectfully. Some showed us pictures and money from other countries. A woman veteran had a jeep to help guard in the woods and in a town. Mr. Davis worked on tanks in the desert. One time dirt got into a tank's cannon and it exploded and the end was gone. No one was hurt. We love our veterans and Veteran's Day!

Halloween Parade 2015

Our Opinions About Pumpkins

First graders must learn to write an opinion piece with a sense of closure.  This is our first opinion paper we wrote this year. 

Pumpkins

 by Bailey

I like pumpkins.   I like eating pumpkins seeds.  I like carving them.  They are pretty.  I love Halloween pumpkins.

by Marisa

I like pumpkins because they have faces.  They are fun to carve.  I like the seeds.  They are yummy.

by Desiny

I like pumpkins.  I love to eat the seeds.  I love how pumpkins are pretty.  I like to carve them with my Mom and Dad.  Pumpkins are awesome.

by Ben

I like pumpkins.  I like them because I like to carve them.  I like pumpkin guts. I like to eat them.  Pumpkins are awesome.

by Kailen

I like pumpkins.  They are gooey.  I like to carve them.  I like to eat them.  Pumpkins are awesome.

by Landen

I like pumpkins.  I like to carve them with my Mom and Dad.  I like to eat pumpkin pie.  I like to go to the pumpkin patch.  Pumpkins are fun.

by Faith

I like pumpkins.  I like to carve them with my Mom and Dad.  I love pumpkins because we can pick them.  I love pumpkins.

by Braden

I like pumpkins.  I like to pick them.  I like that they glow.  I like to carve them.  Pumpkins are awesome.

Catching Up with Odds & Ends

We have been so busy I haven't posted much for a long while. I have been taking photos to document the student's hard work and thinking. This will be a rather random selection of photos to show you some of the hard work going on in our classroom. 

Using the Letter School app to practice sounds and writing letters correctly.

 Playing the Penny Plate game with our partners.

 Computer work station during our reading time.  They are working on "Buggles and Beezy" which is the phonics program that came with our reading program.

 Listen to Reading work station 

The students are listening and learning sight words to become more fluent readers.

 Getting ready for our Friday spelling test.  We have our mini offices up to protect our work.

 Combinations of 10 using a 10 frame.

 One way to practice our spelling words during our Word Work station.

 During intervention we played an interactive game practicing sight words, beginning sounds, and vowel sounds.

 Students get to choose their own stickers after the spelling test if they got their words and/or dictation sentences correct.

 Sequencing numbers in the correct order from 1-50.

 Reading 3-D informational text rocks!

 Sequencing and writing numbers from 1-50.  We go in the hallway to do it from memory during the mastery test.  This way they can't use the number-line in the classroom.

 Charting true and false number sentences.

Students chose from some of the books we have read in the classroom.  They illustrated the setting and characters from the book. 

 Making "10 Bean Sticks" to practice counting groups of 10 and recording our data in the correct place value column.

 Sharing our book box finds with our friends.

 An informational text on cooking.

 Using the county purchased reading program called Lexia.  It gives each student a pretest to level their lessons so they can practice exactly what they need to be working on for reading.

 Sequencing groups of 10 to 90.

 Students sorted their books our of their book boxes.  They had to analyze each book and decide if it was informational or literary text.

Working with a math partner to solve a word problem in their math journal.

During one of my small reading groups.

 This is an intervention competition we have worked on the past 2 weeks.  Students try to get 100% accuracy on a 5 and 10 frame ipad game.  If they do, I record their times.  We compare the data looking at the numbers in the tens and ones place and decide a winner.  They love this game.

 A few of the tools we are using in math to work on groups of 10.

 My other intervention group and their times for the day.  The winner gets a WOW coupon seen in the back.