Native Americans, Thanksgiving, and Countdown to Christmas

     I so meant to get this posted two weeks ago.  Better late than never, so they say...

     So before Thanksgiving, our class learned about Native Americans.  I always try to teach the Thanksgiving story from the point of view of the Native Americans as well as our classic one we all remember.  Although these are firsties and they don't need an in depth study, I still want them to maybe see past the traditional "feel good" story of that first Thanksgiving.

  And we also read about Sarah Hale, "The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving". 

     It is always fun teaching about the natives who lived in America for thousands of years before white settlers ever found their way here.  And first graders always think the wildest stuff.  They get Christopher Columbus all confused with the Pilgrims (because we talk about him in October) and they have no concept of time.  After all, they have only been on this planet since 2006!

     So I invited my friend Bill, who is Choctaw, and his wife, Sonja to come teach our class about Choctaw customs.  I had the students prepare some questions ahead of time, and contrasted "asking" to "telling", so they wouldn't all raise their hands and tell stories about themselves.  My first graders had all kinds of questions ready.  Questions such as "Do you live in a teepee?" and "Did you know the Pilgrims?"  It was entertaining. 

     So when Bill and Sonja came to visit, they had lots of artifacts to show and interesting things to talk about :

 Did you know that if children were disrespectful to their elders, the tribe would tie the parents to a pole for a whole day?  Because it was the PARENTS' job to teach their children respect, and if the children weren't respectful, the parents were punished??!!

 This is a pouch made from a tortoise shell, used to carry medicines, etc.

 

 

                                                                  The peace pipe....

 

Pottery and beads

 

We all learned a lot and I appreciate Bill and Sonja for taking time out of their day to come share with us!  I am thankful for each little sweetie in this class and I look forward to the next three weeks, which are chock full of activities...

Soon to come...Gingerbread houses, Pete the Cat auditions, "Mooseltoe", and Christmas Around the World festivities!  I love December!  (Hopefully, I will have it all posted before January!)

I hope everyone is able to slow down long enough to enjoy the season and reflect on how blessed we truly are:)

Halloween, a Werewolf, and a full moon

I knew Halloween would be...eventful.  I knew it before I saw the beautiful full moon low in the sky yesterday morning.  But I did not expect to be greeted by a howling werewolf crawling on all fours through my classroom door at 7:30 am....

We really did try to do Letterland for an hour.  But while we were waiting for the trick-or-treaters from kindergarten to come through our classroom, a little spontaneous dance party broke out....

there is supposed to be a video HERE.....it refuses to upload:(

The quality is not the greatest, but aren't they just the cutest? 

Prior to Halloween, we had done pumpkin activities.  We measured, we scooped, we estimated seeds, we counted seeds, we read about pumpkin growth, and we wrote pumpkin poetry.

Normally only the kinders at our school dress up for Halloween.  But these guys begged.  They pleaded.  They wore me down. I'm a pushover, I admit. And it's not like much work occurs on the best candy day of the entire year anyway. Even though it was only Wednesday, and we had two more WORK days to go...

We had a great party, thanks to our parent volunteers who braved our classroom of werewolves, monsters, and pirates.  They were the superheroes who brought great food and prizes and spent fun time playing games with the precious little goblins!

And what would we do without our batty assistant?  She is the QUEEN of Halloween and she is the one who keeps us on track...she is the money taker, the timekeeper, the bus driver, the paper checker, the copy maker...no wonder she's batty:)

As fun as it was, I'm glad it's over. I put up a giant turkey in place of the giant spider web before I went home, I took down the spooky decorations and I hid the party music.  After all, we still have to get some work done up in here;)

Happy November!

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!