I can't...

WAIT for the pups to share their ocean fun with you all next week!

Here's your sneak preview...haha...doesn't look like much right now...BUT just you wait! We have two amazing room moms working on getting ready to showcase our some ocean "CREATURES"...
"SEA YA AROUND SCHOOL" Thursday night!

So curriculum wise...we are working on Ocean research, Letter Writing and Ocean research! We continue to study measurement.  Time: "how long it takes to do something!" We are ordering events according to duration.

And it's catch up time!
Some of my favorite TWINS!

TOP DOG

Monday: All about Me!

Tuesday: My Favorite Book

Thursday: Mom came and ate lunch and READ a poem to the class...Isabella was excited! Mom did not want to be videoed...she did agree to a photo. HOWEVER, as I was uploading ocean photos I somehow deleted that one! I am so sorry!

Enjoy your evening!

Monday Monday...

Monday!

We had a good day.  We continue to work on our research project. This takes up most of our morning.  Please do not be alarmed if your child does not bring home a guided reading book. I am meeting with most everyday to revise and edit their drafts.  We have several in the final draft stage! WOO HOO

Today we did introduce letter writing.  I asked how many had ever received a letter in the mail. Very few had! (That may have to change over the next few weeks!)  We learned that a letter is a way to communicate with someone.  As first graders we need to include 4 parts on our letter page.  The date, the greeting, the body and the closing.

We read With Love, Little Red Hen by Alma Ada.  It had several good examples of letters.

Measurement:
We continue to talk about different types of measurement.  Today we read The Grouchy Ladybug.

After reading this book...I told the kids that we were still talking about measurement and then asked them why I might have chosen this book to read.  Several said we were measuring the size of the animals...one even said we were able to compare the size of the animals to the grouchy ladybug! All good answers...Someone did come up with TIME! ( I knew they would) We decided that time can be measured on a clock and on calendars!  One amazing pup even talked about using the sun and a sundial before we ever had clocks and calendars!  WOWZIE...

As first graders we will be focused on time to the hour, half hour and introducing quarter hours!

The Coral Reef
Did you know it is endangered?

We are discovering that what we do as humans can affect the ocean's ecosystem.  Again...WOW!

Top Dog:

Have a great evening!

Short Week

and boy did it fly by!

We are doing a great job on our expository text. I have met with everyone and their flip books.  Notes look good.  I have met with almost everyone on their "sloppy copies"...AND some are almost done with their final draft and ready to publish!


TOP DOG:

Yesterday Matthew's family came in to lunch with him and then read his poem!

Today, Matthew told us all about his Batman motorcycle!

Math Measurement...

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Glad to be BACK...

with my pups!

Yesterday was a long day being in school without my sweet little pups!  But it made today a wonderful day!  Picture day and all of it's challenges! I hope I "found" everyone's picture money. After several reminders this morning to check folders...I still found some this afternoon.  We sent it to the office and I'm sure it will get to the right people in the appropriate amount of time!

This week we are going to focus on answering our questions about our SEA animal and starting our sloppy copy! During Reader's Workshop the pups will be using the resource books and the computers to find facts and then during Writer's Workshop they will use the facts to write about their animal!  I will be pulling small groups during BOTH workshop times to work on this project.  We will be reading and writing...I may not send home new books!

We continue to work on measurement in math.  This week we will focus on weight...(Oh boy, one of my favorite topics...not) We will read who sank the boat and discuss why the boat sank.

Camouflage: Here is the definition from dictionary.com...

cam·ou·flage

  [kam-uh-flahzh]  Show IPA noun, adjective, verb, cam·ou·flaged,cam·ou·flag·ing.

noun

1.

the act, means, or result of obscuring things to deceive an enemy, as by painting or screeningobjects so that they are lost to view in the background, or by making up objects that from a distancehave the appearance of fortifications, guns, roads, etc.: Was camouflage used extensively on fighteraircraft during World War I?

Camouflage: Here is the definition as written by the pups of 313

1. to blend into its environment (area) to stay safe or unnoticed from predators

Looks UH-MAZING to me!

Mrs. O'Hearn came in and talked to us today about what happens when we don't follow rules or talk in nice appropriate ways.  To demonstrate she used pepper in the water as all the kids.  Then a DAB of soap as the person (not so nice). The pepper moved away FAST...Then she added some sugar as the sweet person and the pepper was supposed to come back...GREAT GREAT visual! If you try it at home don't use to much soap!

TOP DOG

Have a wonderful evening!  (Yes, we ran out of time and I forgot to give the spelling pretest AGAIN)! We will do it first thing tomorrow and I'll send it home! Words are on the I cans (right sidebar)

A 3 day...

weekend! (for you guys)...enjoy!

On Tuesday we have Spring Pictures and Class Pictures...It is also PE day!

Our Top Dog sharing his "Bumblebee"!

We celebrated a special pups birthday this afternoon! YUM cookies!

Some first grade research on the COMPUTERS!

Enjoy your weekend!

I LOVE

...my pups!!!

Top Dog Lunch!

Thank you for making Aidan's day so HAPPY!

Mayson was showing everyone what he's been learning!

Create your own free slideshow

Thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed our afternoon with us!  A special thanks to Mrs. Sheppard and Mrs. Snow for being here {almost} all day preparing for this special time! Thank you to all my valentine pups for being wonderful and thoughtful today (and every day)! It was a great day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all my special PUPS! Enjoy this day!

Valentine's Day...

We are so excited to celebrate this day of love and friendship.  I promise you...in all of my years of teaching...I find that kids get more excited about this party day than any other!!! And I'm not sure why...but I enjoy it just as much! I love all the colors I think...well...maybe it's the chocolate !

Don't forget to dress your pup in some red, pink, white and or ALL of the above. (Yes, one pup asked if they could wear them all!)

Our valentine pockets have been painted...Bacon and I glittered 11 of them last night! The rest will be completed tonight! Those pups that bring valentines for all 20 of their classmates will be allowed to pass them out tomorrow.  I will be sending them home in the pockets.

We have a game and a snack planned as well!

So...we are really DIVING into our ocean research. Today we looked through books to see if they could answer our questions!  The excitement is overwhelming! So much fun to watch.  Not only are we doing ocean research but in science we are learning about ocean food chains!

The past few days we have talked extensively about the following words.  Can your pup tell you what they are?

consumer, producer, predator, prey and energy

We continue to work on ordering and comparing objects by length and area.  Question for your pup...

What would it take more of to measure the length of his or her bed?  shoes or crayons?  why? 

We are working on our addition and subtraction strategies as well. I heard a lot of great strategies for solving 68+11 today!  I love listening to them explain how they got the answer...It always amazes me!

Have a wonderful evening!

ONLY...

16 weeks of school left...That sounds impossible to me! 

Last Friday...Sea Ya Later...

We had a wonderful time! Thanks to the PTA for bringing this wonderful program to our classrooms!

We also had a birthday!

Last weekend...Looks like several pups spent some time at the Dr. Pepper Center!

Legends

Tornadoes

Top Dog Monday:

Language Arts:

It's that time of year! OCEAN research...just in time for Open house...March 7th.  Between now and then your first grade pup will be coming up with 6 important things we want to know about our animals.  Then...they will be using nonfiction text and the internet to research the answers.  We know that our research needs to be facts.  So...here we GOOOOOO!

Math:

We continue to use non-standard units of measurement to find distance and area.  Today we read a version of the Three Little Bears.  When we were done we each got  a baby bed, a momma bed and and daddy bed and a HANDFUL of tiles.  We had to find the area of each bed.  Our beds happened to be square.  We discovered we could use several strategies to get the final number of tiles it took to cover (not fill in) the bed!  We could count by ones, use repeated addition and sometimes use our doubles strategy! 

Science:

Today we finished up our zone flip books! We added the properties of each zone and somethings we might find in each!  

I think these pups are LOVING marine biology!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Some extra SPECIAL pups!  Daddy Daughter Dance Night

Thanks to Austin for my pretty in pink Vera Bradley! (my first I must add)

WOW!

First off...let me tell you...I had a WONDERFUL, long birthday weekend.  Maybe it wasn't the most relaxing but wonderful none the less!

We DEFINITELY went to Maggianos...and YES...I ate that chocolate cake!

The 100th Day and 101 year old SUPER GRANNY made an appearance
with all the other first grade super heros!

To 100 AND BEYOND!

This morning we started our day with a little how to writing.  (in keeping with our non fiction) How to make Derdnuh! 

We started with our ingredients and then moved onto the procedures.  

First get a lunch bag.  Next open the ingredients.  Then put 10 of each ingredient in the bag.  Finally, shake the bag and ENJOY!

Each student was given a bag to design for his or her Derdnuh.  (a little lesson in advertising)  I love the bar codes on some of the bags!  

Jack's presweetened Derdnuh for only 1.00!

Austin's I see includes fish and m&ms!

And "of course yummy" is the WORD!

Then after specials this morning and lunch we came back and started making our Derdnuh!  Don't forget 10 of each of the 10 "snacks" went into their mix!  Everyone was very careful to make sure they got just the right amount.  I have videos of our "amount checks" but they are not loaded to youtube yet!

The finished product!  I think we are ready to put it on the market...OOOPs
most of it was eaten before we got out the door!

It was then time for MEASUREMENT... Once again we worked with items in groups of ten.  We were to measure 10 tiles, 10 chain links, 10 alphabet letters, 10 stickers, 10 paper clips, 10 50 cent pieces, 10 beans, 10 thumb prints, 10 cubes and 10 fish! We measured and added them to our super hero headbands...an easy way to compare and order our measurements!  We all agreed that 10 beans was the shortest and then there were several other items that were pretty close in length!

I heard a lot of measurement conversation going on...

One other thing we did was discuss why all of the first grade teachers 100 steps did not end in the same spot in the hallway.  I assured the pups that we all started in the same spot...Any guesses why we didn't end in the same spot?  We were a little stumped...But then we looked at the giant's foot and the baby's foot and discovered that the baby's foot was so much smaller it wouldn't go as far! OH...so all the teachers do not have the same size foot!
We then got to order them from Greatest (longest) to Least (shortest) AND guess who's foot belonged to who!  GREAT FUN!

We had a great 100th day!

Some CATCHING UP to do:

NON FICTION reader's workshop.  Learning about something and recording interesting facts!

My guided reading girls!  Loving their chapter books!

HIPPEST IN THE HOUSE for Confidence: Congratulations Owen!

Have a wonderful evening!