Our Year at a Glance

 

 

 

 

 

     As I sit here on a snow day, organizing photos and reflecting on all my little first grade sweeties, (and I admit that they do seem sweeter as I am having a nice, calm, quiet day:) I realize how much each one has grown in a few short months. And in just another few months, they will transition on to yet another grade. I truly am thankful for each one of them and for the opportunity to spend my days surrounded by such energy! I wanted to share some of our highlights of the year with you.

 

Beginning where I left off in October?

Below are banana ghosts and popcorn hands. We eat really well in this class!

 

                      Skeletons made from Cheetos: I'm not sure they are proportioned exactly...

 

Sink and float experiment with a pumpkin. Of course we had to gut it and count the seeds. By tens and ones:) Then we toasted them and ate them.

 

 

 

We talked at length about bats and spiders. We also went on a spider hunt, which was great fun.  We sprayed the webs with water to identify the type of web.

 

 

And then there was the day of the tornado warning/watch...not once but twice.. and school was dismissed late. The kids were great, considering how long they had to sit still in that hallway! (and yes, they did assume the "tornado position" until their legs started falling asleep!)

 

 

 

Halloween!

 

 

                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then we had the fiftieth day of school!!

                                                      The greasers....

                                                      The sock hoppers....

                                                      Doesn't get much cuter...

                                                  Reading some "Dick and Jane"

                                       I guess he just prefers the ice cream in his root beer float:)

                                                     Cheerwine floats must be better!

                                                            NOVEMBER!
November is always fun, We learned about Native Americans, early NC history, and made some pumpkin bread in the Crockpot. We talked about Sarah Hale, the woman who never gave up on persuasive writing, and basically saved Thanksgiving as we know it.

 

And we made turkey cookies. I knew we ate a lot, but I'm not sure I realized how much we celebrate with food in this class!!

DECEMBER


 

 

What did we ever do before the elves started making themselves visible??

In December, we did Christmas Around the World activities, and did some themed activities with the books "Mooseltoe", "Gingerbread Baby", "Gingerbread Goes Animal Crackers" and "Polar Express". The pictures below were taken on our pajama day when we watched the movie of "The Polar Express" and had a chocolate fountain in our room.

 

 

 

    


















                             I only had myself to blame for the high um..."energy"...that day!

 

 

 

 Gingerbread house making is always a special time, and we had plenty of help, thank goodness! I know the kids really enjoyed this activity and having their parents and grandparents help!







 






 
 

 

 

 

Such creativity!

 

 

And a finished product to be proud of!

 

JANUARY

 We began January with days cold enough for delays and a hot chocolate bar. We also turned it into a math opportunity with marshmallows and hot chocolate themed calculations and graphs.

 

                               And then there was 80's Day!!

 

 We listened to eighties tunes, compared technology and tv shows, clothing, hairstyles, and did an entire unit based on radical vocabulary words and Pac Man math.

 

 These two were vintage...wearing their parents' clothes! PARENTS people...from the eighties!! I'm feeling really OLD.

                                                       Adorable.

                                                                   

 FEBRUARY!

And then we took a close look at the moon. We identified the phases using Oreos (I'm starting to feel a little embarrassed about the food activities at this point:) We took turns taking home the "Moon Bag" and charted our observations in a notebook.

                           This was a "moon mobile". Can you name all the phases?

We explored magnetism.

                                               We took a break and made a little music...

We played a math game called "Stack Em Partner" to compare numbers and find differences.

 And then we had a Valentine Party. I so love Valentine's Day with the firsties. Everybody gets cards, everybody gets candy, and everybody feels loved. And the valentine boxes were outstanding!

 These were only a few of them. I wanted to add every single one, because they were all precious.

 And this sweet girl missed our party because she was sick. So I wanted to include her and her Rapunzel tower...so cute.

 GUNG HAY FAT CHOY! We learned all about Chinese New Year and things about China that even I didn't know. (like Cormorant fishing..yuck!) We learned how rice is grown, about the Great Wall, Mt. Everest, animals of China, New Year traditions, and best of all, how to eat with CHOPSTICKS!

 Coming up next....Dr. Seuss Day...March 2nd! There will be food. And fun. And a little chaos and a whole lot of noise. And we will learn in the process:) But for now, I shall sit by the fire and enjoy the rest of my snow day in my fuzzy socks with a book!