Characters, Retelling, and Pete the Cat

We have been working on characters in stories and key details.  One of our classroom's favorite characters is Pete the Cat.  We have read many of his books and they have become our "old friends."  The students got to make Pete the Cat character puppets and joined in groups around the room retelling the stories of their choice.  You will notice them singing along with the text in  one of the books.  

 

 

 

 

 Pete the Cat: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Intervention Group on Short Vowels the Secret Stories Way

Both of my intervention groups are reviewing our short vowels.  We use a method called "Secret Stories" by Katie Garner.  They have the trifold porta-pics in front of them.  They have all the stories on them for the students to reference.  http://thesecretstories.com/products/porta-pics/

                                             

Intervention Group for Rhyming

I have 2 intervention groups working on rhyming. Each group wrote their own rhyming poem using the "at" sounds. We are practicing their fluency with the poem they wrote. Enjoy.

Welcome to Our Classroom

This is our room if you haven't had a chance to visit yet.

 Writing Wall

 Our Word Wall

 Our Small Group Table

 Our Book Boxes

 Reading Corner

 Computers and Word Work Station

 Interactive Whiteboard

 Secret Stories and Classroom Library

 Reading to our stuffed animals in the morning is fun.

 Expanding our vocabulary is important in first grade.  Fancy Nancy helps us tune into interesting words.

 

Word Work helps us with our reading, writing and spelling.

 Read-to-Self is a very important part of our day.  This authentic reading helps us by practicing our fluency, reading strategies, and builds our reading stamina.  We have built our reading stamina up to 20 minutes so far this year.

 Students choose their own spot to do Read-to-Self.

 They read from their own book box.  They will be allowed to "book shop" soon for books of their own choice in their boxes.

 One of our favorite "brain breaks" is recess.  It is good for the body as well as the brain!

At the end of each day we check our classroom scoreboard.  If the students have earned more "smiles" than "frowns" they get to have a one minute celebration.  During the first week of school we had this paper "snowball" fight.  This past week we added sight words to our snowballs and the students had to read the word before they could throw their snowball!  Who says learning can't be fun?

Genius Hour Update with Pictures

Genius Hour

We are winding down our projects.  The students have conferred with me and know what direction they need to head to finish up their projects.  They are still fully engaged for each Genius Hour we have in the classroom.  We have ours every other Friday.  Each time I announce today we will have Genius Hour a cheer arises in the classroom. Yes, they love it!

Solar System Puzzle with a Helper

  Art Group

  Dogs and Cats

These 2 wanted to learn new math games.  They are going to teach them to the class.

 Research on the solar system.

 A helper teaching a student a new math game.

Zebras

Seals and Polar Bears

This Key Club member worked with 6 students that wanted to learn more about seals and polar bears.  We had done a unit on the "Arctic" in January and this group was inspired to continue the research.

 More Seals and Polar Bears

Helpers were there to read text too hard for 1st graders.  They were wonderful.

 Crafts

Train Book

 Cat book in progress.

Space

 Tigers with a helper.

 Artists Drawing

 Look at mine!

Crafts

Resources

"Express Yourself" Art Reviews

We are experiencing the arts this week.  One of our work stations is looking at art transparencies.  The students have to chose one they like or dislike and state their opinions in a "triple whammy" sentence.  This is the how they begin to learn how to state a topic sentence.  This type of  topic sentence can eventually become the beginning of  five paragraphs of writing.

The students are also learning how to film each other with the ipad.  The videographer can not begin the filming until they have heard the three reasons that support the reviewer's opinions.

Emma's Review of  "Jonathan and Lorraine"

Tyler's Review of "First Steps"

Destiny's Review of "Court Ladies"

Review of "Little Alphabet" by Emily
I like "Little Alphabet" because it has letters, a girl in it, and flowers.

Olivia the Pig and the Artist Jackson Pollock

 

We are reading "Olivia" this week by Ian Falconer.  The theme of the week is "Express Yourself".    Olivia visits an art gallery and just doesn't get this painting by Jackson Pollock.  We watched a film about how Jackson painted this type of "action" painting.  We practiced the technique before trying it with real paint.  We went out on our school lawn and made our own "masterpieces" as one of my students called them.

 

Here is the video we watched of Jackson's style of painting.

If you want to have more fun learning about Olivia the pig go to Settle On In at
 http://settleonin.blogspot.com/2014/04/51-olivia.html .