Fall Fun Stations

On Halloween we had fall fun stations. The first station was Pumpkin Pancakes. They were so yummy, we wish you had been here to eat them. Another station was making spider hats. The spiders eyes glowed in the dark!  We also made Pumpkin books. In the books, we showed how a pumpkin plant sprouts from a seed, makes a flower, turns into a green pumpkin, and finally turns into an orange pumpkin. Another station was decorating apple trees. We used paint to make leaves for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. The last station was making Fall cards. We gave the cards to people we love. If you were wondering how we knew how to make all of these things, we had parent volunteers helping out.

We thank all of you who helped by donating supplies and  donating your time.

Written by Mrs. Sullivan's First Grade Class

Friday mornings are an exciting time in our classroom. This is when our 4th grade Reading Buddies join us to listen to and help us read. It is a time that we can share a favorite book or discuss one we've 

just read.

Our First Field Trip

The Blacksmith

     Our first field trip was a great success! To demonstrate to visitors what life was like long ago, the Littleton Historical Museum has two working farms--one from circa 1860 and the other circa 1890. Our learning goal was to notice the differences in the way people live then and now. The children enjoyed roaming the grounds. Highlights were the blacksmith, the "secret" garden and the animals.

Free time before lunch

Taking a break in the secret garden

 Long line at the outhouse!

We were all very tired on the ride home

Last week, we began a reading unit on how to choose "just right" books. The purpose of this unit is to help us to become better readers by learning how to choose books that feel just right to read independently. These books should have only one or two tricky spots. This helps us to become fluent and competent readers. We are also learning to read for meaning, as we always read first for meaning. It is important that when your child brings home books to read he or she practices retelling the story in sequence after reading. Being able to retell the story will assure you that the books are right for your child. The content of this unit includes:

• thinking about what a "just right"  book feels like
• learning how to choose books to read independently
• understanding how independent reading helps us become better readers
• knowing that a "just right" book has only one or two tricky spots
• knowing that readers read fluently (smoothly--like the way we talk)
• understand that we read for meaning first 

Starting Tuesday, we will be choosing our own independent reading books during our classroom library center time. This means your child will have the opportunity to choose their own books every six days as that is how long it takes the entire class to rotate through the center.

Dancing Drum

Last week, our Specials were different because Soaring Hawk participated in the Dancing Drum Artist-in-Residency program. The program offers students in depth instruction in drumming which included drumming in Music, a "Family Drum Night" celebration on Thursday, and a drumming assembly on Friday. According to dancingdrum.com, their mission "...is to educate, entertain, and inspire people of all ages through interactive, percussion-based programs."  Steve Campbell and Lindsay Rush were our Artists-in-Residence. They were awesome, and everyone had a fantastic time!

During Music

Family Drum Night

Mr. Steve, Mrs. McTigue, Ms. Lindsay

At the assembly

Two exciting things happened this past week--we formally started Teacher's Helper and our invisible rug showed up Wednesday morning!

Instead of the traditional classroom jobs, we have Teacher's Helper. Every day a different child has the responsibility of helper. They become Line Leader, take the lunch count and attendance down to the office, take the black lunch tub to the lunchroom, and help in any way that I might need. We will go through one complete rotation every 25 days, so their will be plenty of opportunities over the school year for your child to help.

And

Even though you couldn't see it, we've been coming to the "rug" several times a day.
Well, Wednesday morning the rug finally appeared in our room. It caused quite a stir. As soon as they saw it, the kids scrambled to find their favorite animal letter. They were a little disappointed that they couldn't pick their spots, but were excited to find which animal letter their spot was on!

Wow, we've been in school for a week and a half already, and we've had a great time! Our focus these past days has been learning all about 1st grade and getting to know each other. To help learn everyone's name, we've played name games and sang name songs. Seems like the favorite was "Willoughby Wallaby Woo" by Raffi. (You'll find the lyrics below.) It's a silly rhyming song that's simply loads of fun. As each day passes, we are building our learning community and becoming more of a team. We are off to a fantastic start!

Willoughby wallaby wee

an elephant sat on me

Willoughby wallaby woo

an elephant sat on you

Willoughby wallaby Wike

an elephant sat on Mike

Willoughby wallaby Wenny

an elephant sat on Jenny

(and so on)

Thanks for signing up to receive this blog by email. It is currently under construction and will be a work in progress as the year progresses. At first, there will only be weekly posts. Later in the year, it might become daily posts depending on the feedback I receive from you.

What you can expect on this blog:

• Updates and pictures of what's going on in our classroom (be sure you've signed the permission sheet to allow your child's picture to be posted on the internet)
• Resources: links to fun sites for your children to enjoy while they learn.
• Up coming events

If there's something you think would be helpful on this blog, let me know and we'll see what we can do.