50th Day!! (already? no way!)

Yesterday was the 50th day of school...I can hardly believe it.  (Christmas will be here before we know it and I, being the procrastinator that I am, have not even thought about shopping.) We celebrated in our classroom by having "fifties day". I purchased Cara Carroll's mini unit from TpT, and it was FULL of ideas.  In fact, we did not get to all of them, so we also celebrated on day 51:).

We began the day by watching a portion of "Leave it to Beaver". We talked about televisions in the 50s and how televisions began in black and white. Without cable. (and I told them how in the 70's I learned "southeast" by the direction I had to turn the antenna on the roof.) They think I'm ancient. I am, in fact, feeling a little ancient.

We also discussed fashion.  That is a word my class understands!

We did a "craftivity" paired with a Venn diagram of kids in the 50's and kids today.  Most of them wrote about the 50's kids not having to wear seat belts.  They were shocked at this news.

Below is a record player.  It plays vinyl records.  Records are like vinyl CDs. Even kids in the 70's listened to records. And ones in the eighties.  These kids had NEVER seen a record player. They were astonished. And they were interested in how to change songs....they studied the grooves on the records and the needle on the arm. We listened to Fats Domino, Patsy Cline, and of course Elvis.  I had to explain who Elvis was. I had a life size poster on the door.  They noticed him the minute they walked in, and asked me repeatedly "Who is that man?" and"Why is he on our door?" One little person informed them that he was a king.  And that she knew how he died.

Next we made root beer floats.  I did not tell them that I thought root beer is disgusting.  I did not want to bias any opinions. (but I did have Pepsi on standby) Then we did a survey. 16 liked root beer floats, and 5 did not.

We also wrote shape books entitled "How to Make a Root Beer Float".

Next, we went outside and timed our partners doing various "fifties fads" for 50 seconds. This girl blew about 10 bubbles in a row!

And these kids can hula like nobody's business!

Then we put fifties words in ABC order.  Words like "greaser" and "jukebox".  That one was as fun to explain as "record".

Then we doubled our burgers and answered with fries:)

It was a really fun day and I think the kids really did get the concept of how the world is changing...and they are thrilled that it's all in color now:)
They are already asking for a sixties day and a seventies day!

And a little less retro...this was last week.  We, like the rest of the world, have been studying spiders and bats.  Several teachers have used this freebie from Pinterest. It was interesting to see what 600 mosquitoes look like...

 As cute as I think bats are, I'm glad I won't have to see any with 6 ft. wingspans!

And the kiddos created some of their own creatures of the night. But these are special because they eat rhyming words. (another freebie from tpt)

And thanks to the "Teeny Tiny Teacher" for this idea.  This is the quiet creature. The quiet creature only comes out when it is quiet. Suffice it to say, he hides in my desk drawer quite a lot.  But today the kids asked if he could come back out...and they promised to be really, REALLY quiet.  Because the quiet creature hates noise as much as Harry Hat Man does.  He never, ever opens his mouth.  He only nods and shakes his head.  (and wiggles his ears) And then they argued over whether the quiet creature was real or whether it was just Mrs. Raby's hand. They can be a little skeptical at times. But the quiet creature got to come out and he checked on everybody's quiet working skills....

 it worked for a little while

If we have eighties day, maybe the quiet creature can teach the rock and roll sign. Just kidding. sort of.

Check back soon for news on our "Pete the Cat Rockin in My School Shoes" talent show act update!

County Fair

      What feels more like fall than a county fair?  For the past couple of weeks, my students have been learning about farm animals, their importance to NC, and have been busy doing some writing activities as well.  I guess I got all excited thinking about cotton candy and funnel cakes, so my family and I took a little field trip of our own.  

Research, I called it......

Because I hadn't been to a fair in a really, really long time....

 Neither had my girls.  The last picture of them at the fair was, well..maybe when they were still in a stoller.  It was hot. And crowded. But it was a fun day, and there were a LOT of animals.  The pigs were adorable. And there was a whole section called the "mooternity" ward, for pregnant cows. obviously

I have found some free ideas from tpt that I wanted to share with other teachers. (Although, at this moment, the site is having a technical glitch, so I will add the links as soon as I can.) I am reading Charlottes' Web to my class and went in search of some first grade supplemental activities.  I found these Blue Ribbon Vocabulary words that we put on a bulletin board and are listening for in the story.

 

We've also worked on describing words for pigs and made up our own poems with the following framework: 

 

 

 

We even ate "piggy bread" for snack....

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we talked about cows, we read "Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type" and talked about the cows' point of view.  Then we designed our own talking cows and came up with questions that a cow might ask the farmer...

And finally we worked on labeling the parts of a farm, as well as various farm animals...

This week, our "theme within the theme" is "apples".  We are beginning to learn about Johnny Appleseed, uses for apples, apple math, apple writing,  and a few facts about NC apple orchards.

And I really REALLY needed this today.  A mom gave this to me last year, and I LOVE it. I take a deep breath and relax each time I look at it:

Keep calm, everyone:)

A Teacher's Assessment

Lately, I've had a little change of attitude.  School has felt like a hobby this year.  Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day, I am not exactly wishing for extended hours, but I just feel happy and renewed.  I am ENJOYING what I do.

     There have been a few years when I dreaded going to work each day. And I had the Sunday blues every single week. I felt bogged down more and more, as state demands grew. (and paychecks diminished)These past two weeks, as we have been "assessing" right and left, I realized what the difference is this year.  I have been so busy in the past few years making sure my professional evaluations were completed on time, that I got my students grouped in the exact right ways according to DIBELS, that my class profile was filled out and all the testing portions were complete, that my other endless school "to-dos" were checked off, that I pushed the lesson planning to the end.  It was what I did AFTER I worked on all the important stuff.  YOU know, the stuff that comes with deadlines. I put the minors before the majors, so to speak.

     Of course I have KNOWN that the children come first.  I am there for them, not the paperwork.  This year, my TEACHING is coming first.  The state will still get what they need from me.  The data will be collected, measured and I will use it as I see fit, realizing that data does not measure a whole child.  Data is a number that represents a testing experience of which a number of extraneous factors must be considered. (In first grade, the factor could be a fly zooming around during the one minute timed assessment:)

     I guess what I'm saying is, that I am in the process of restructuring my priorities in life.  My priorites at school are those precious little six and seven year olds who come to my classroom every day and look forward to what we get to do and learn each day.  They look to me to provide them with interesting learning experiences, not stressful data collection. And if I enjoy school, they enjoy school:)

Whole Brain Rule #5:  KEEP YOUR DEAR TEACHER HAPPY!:)

In amongst the assessing going on, we have begun a "County Fair" theme for September.  We are reading the book Charlottes' Web, learning to ask and write QUESTIONS, (as opposed to "One time, I..." comments), we are comparing fiction elements to nonfiction ones, learning some "blue ribbon" vocabulary words, learning farm animals and how to "label" parts of a farm, we are learning to discuss character point of view, and comparing/contrasting farm animals to forest animals.  And of course we work in a few craftivities:)

In math we are continuing to work on number sense to 20, specifically combinations for sums of 7, 8 and 9. I am still getting used to Math Investigations.  It moves a little more slowly, and is a little more "active" than what I've used in the past!

Next week we'll do some apple activities and of course, talk about Johnny Appleseed.  I will do my best to post pictures soon.  When the testing is finally over....

Speaking of Whole Brain...any teacher friends out there using it with good results?  We've tried "Class/Yes", "Whisper/Release"(that one is my fave)"Teach", "mirror", and the "rules".  I haven't had training on Whole Brain Research, but I've been watching videos and thought I'd experiment with a few techniques.  I do think it helps students stay more engaged, perhaps. The kiddos really like the ten finger "Woo-hoo":)Leave me a comment if you are trying some Whole Brain techniques in your classes....

Enough of my rambling...thanks for reading:)

Fun Friday at Camp Raby

Last Friday, we went on a "hike" behind the school to observe animal habitats and types of plants.  To continue our camping theme, this past Friday we took a walk to the butterfly garden and observed types of insects we found there. (We used our "magic binoculars" and went back to class and wrote about our findings.)

We also had a picnic, where we found plenty of insects unintentionally...probably not the best idea I've ever had, but it was fun for a short while:)

For snack, we had "campfire" cookies and sat around the lantern reading camp stories for rest and digest time.

 We also did a sequencing activity on "how to make a S'more".

We've survived the transition to first grade well, made new friends, and had fun learning about each other.  We'll have one more week of "Camping" and I'll let you know this week what our theme for September might be!

Camping Out with Common Core

So I've been a little nervous about pulling the Common Core through my thematic units, but not having a specific pacing guide this year is actually a bit freeing.  This week we are working on story elements and writing about them.  We are also looking at nonfiction and tying it in with science, specifically focusing on the animals we would see if camping.  Here is a glance at some of our projects and literacy in action.

The "hiking legs" project was a Cara Carroll idea.  I read Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping aloud, and we talked about the word "literal",  and how the same phrases in language can be used to express different meanings. Students wrote about their favorite Amelia moments from the story underneath the boots.

This was a small group activity that I downloaded for free on TpT.  It is a camping board game that we used to practice Unit 1 Letterland words.  The game cards are tents and S'mores....way cute and made practicing those word cards a little more fun.

These two drawings are AMAZING...the directions were to identify the characters, setting, conflict, and solution through illustrations of the Harcourt story "The Hat."

This one was just for fun.  Students designed a tent on the very first day of school and described where they would like to camp. They are on display around the mirror in our classroom with the heading "Happy Campers".  We also did a survey on how many class members have actually gone camping.

Two more bulletin boards...one in the hall and one in the classroom.  This one says "Hiking to New Goals in AR." The little people above the board are students' representations of themselves.

Last week we also went on a hike on our trail through the woods.  The kiddos thought we were going on a real field trip...they were super excited, even when they realized we were just taking a walk. They made pretend binoculars, got out the field guides, and identified types of plants and trees on the trail, as well as looking out for animal habitats and bugs. (I can't believe I forgot my camera that day.) For literacy centers, we set up tents in the classroom using sheets and read Kevin Henkes' books in honor of the first week of school. Students learned how the mouse stories began and the process through which Henkes creates books.
     Students also made some super cute portfolios to look like sleeping bags, which will hold all of their "camping gear" (work) for parent night next week.  I'm not sure what September's theme is going to be, but it will be hard to leave the campsite.:)

Before and After

     This is my 19th year of teaching, and I can honestly say that I believe this was the best first week yet! My new firsties are responsible, smart, and eager to learn.  This was what my classroom looked like before....

and this is what it looked like AFTER my new kiddos arrived in their sparkling new shoes....

(The sticks and rocks in the middle made up our "campfire" and went along with our opening theme of CAMPING.) I just love their colorful little feet:)

     On the first day, we read The Kissing Hand and ate kissing hand cookies made by me the night before school started. I am always such a bundle of nerves the night before that first day, that I can't sleep.  So I make cookies...(and I eat chocolate...lots and lots of chocolate:)

I feel so fortunate to have such a sweet class this year, and supportive parents who turned in 100% of the paperwork and supplied us with lots of extra "stuff" for our class.  I'm excited about a great year and look forward to posting lots of photos here.