Day Ten Complete

Just thought I'd post a brief recap of the first ten days of school, beginning with day one and the making of "Jitter Juice" which washed those first day jitters away yet again.. For the past couple years, I have read "First Day Jitters" and identified with the fact that the teacher is usually the most nervous one of all!

 In conjunction with a camping theme, we went fishing for goldfish in math...

 We're finding that dance breaks are necessary throughout the day to release the pent up energy.

 We went for a hike in the woods behind our school, stopping here to pose for pictures until a swarm of mosquitoes changed our minds. Prior to that, however, we had a nice little snack at our "campsite", and made discoveries along the way that we recorded in science journals.

 We are exploring the terms "predictions" and "hypothesis".  In this experiment, predictions were made as to what would happen when Dawn dishwashing liquid is added to food coloring and milk...

 While studying insects (including mosquitoes) students created their own imaginary six legged, three body part creatures and gave them scientific names and described their habitats.

 And yes, moths really do have feathery antennae.

 Everyone's favorite part of first grade...the playground....

 In last Friday's experiment, the question was "What will happen when you add a dropperful of colored vinegar onto a pan of baking soda?"

 Mini explosions of course!

I am enjoying getting to know a new class. I have to constantly remind myself that while I have now repeated first grade for 17 years,;) it is all new to them. I try to see the world with the wonder in which they see. I know that the growth between now and the remaining 170 days will be phenomenal, and I want to appreciate every step along the way. Despite demands of assessment schedules and outside pressures, our classroom is a place of curiosity and discovery. Hopefully it will be a place of happy times and good friendships as well.
     Thank you to all who have helped us have a smooth transition from kindergarten. I look forward to seeing what this year holds and to making wonderful memories.

Names on a list

    Just last week, I received my roster. As I do each and every year, I look over each name and try to decide which ones I know, and what the dynamic of the class might be like. I look at how many children I have, try to figure out where I'm going to put them all, and decide how I want to arrange the classroom. And I automatically have a little pang of nostalgia for last year's class. Because at this time last year, they were all names on a list too. By the end of the year, however, they felt like family. I think about them and wish them the best in their new classrooms, and I miss them.  Each child I have taught becomes a part of my life for a duration and a part of my heart. I want to see them all succeed, but mainly I want them to know that I care, not only while I have them, but for always.
     The names on my list represent a myriad of potential. As I scan the list in August, I see names and ID numbers and birthdates. By the end of the year, I will see loose teeth, funny stories, character, and growth. Each name will take on new meaning. Most will make amazing progress. All will grow and mature. A few will make me want to pull my hair out. (Those are usually the ones who come back to visit years later:) Sometimes I will have an off day. Sometimes it will happen to them too. It happens to the best of us.
     If you are a parent reading this, I want you to know that I will care for your child. It might take us a few weeks to learn each other and to establish a rapport. There might be tears in the beginning, and that is common for a few. First grade is a big jump from kindergarten. There is more responsibility and more independence. What your child will learn about me, is that I am on their side. We will spend our days together in close quarters, doing LOTS of reading, small groups, math, science experiments, culture days, outdoor science, readers' theater, social studies, snack, assessments and more assessments, and then more assessments still... writing, and we will all WORK but with some play each day too. Some days will be fun and some days won't be, but through it all, I want them to know that I care about them. Not just about performance on assessments, but about them as individuals. They will learn to be on a team, and to encourage one another. They don't enter first grade on the same level, and they don't leave on the same level. It is my job and theirs to see to it that they grow as much as possible, without comparing themselves to others. Mistakes are a part of growth, and we will all make them. I want our classroom to be a safe place to try and where we can all be supportive of one another.
     I look forward to meeting each child. If last year was a struggle, this one is a chance to start over. Each name on my list is a person whom I will both cherish and hopefully challenge. As I scan the names, as I write them on desk tags and cubbies and charts, my hope is that each one will be a successful learner and will be part of a learning environment that supports growth of character, independence, responsibility, and inspiration.

A Seussical Kind of Day

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

 "Today was good. Today was FUN. TOMORROW is ANOTHER ONE."

"UNLESS someone like YOU cares a whole awful lot, NOTHING is going to get better. It's NOT."

 "Today you are YOU! That is truer than TRUE! There is no one alive that is you-er than YOU!"

 "From there to here, from here to there, FUNNY things are EVERYWHERE."

 "A mean one??" nah.... "the real meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of ten grinches plus two."

 "...a person's a PERSON. no matter how small."

 "Look at me! Look at me!  Look at me NOW!  It is fun to have fun But you have to know how."

 "I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have Lots of good FUN that is FUNNY!"

 "You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

 my favorite- "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

 "You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And YOU MAY!"

 "The more that you READ, the more things you will KNOW.  The more that you LEARN, the more places you'll GO."

"The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day"...actually it was raining. Then it snowed. Then the sun came out after all. Then it snowed again....it really was a Seussical kind of day!

Interesting fact:  Dr. Seuss was turned down by multiple publishers after writing his first children's book, "To Think That I Saw it On Mulberry Street" only to later become one of the most beloved children's authors of all time.

Happy Birthday Ted. Theo LeSieg. Theodore Seuss Geisel. The world became a little more imaginative and interesting because of you.

The Countdown

Do you count down the days in your classroom? Or count them "up"? We do.  Every day a fish goes into a big giant fishbowl on the wall. We change colors after every ten.  And every now and then we have a special celebration.  We have always celebrated on the 100th day. Bringing collections of 100 items, drawing portraits of ourselves as 100 year olds, all the normal 100th day activities. Last year, I ran across a unit celebrating the 50th day of school fifties style, and it was so much fun, that this year we celebrated the eighties as well.  On day 87 to be exact.  I happen to be an expert on the eighties.:) I found a 300 page unit on TPT, all aligned with Common Core, devoted to the eighties. It was like, totally radical:)

 I recently watched a clip of a news anchor from 1982.  She was talking about how one day in the near future the public would be reading the morning news from our own PCs. It is astounding to me how fast technology has evolved and continues to do so. And kids today are so savvy when it comes to their devices, from gaming to texting, music listening and video viewing... So when I brought in my Atari and my Merlin (anyone else remember that??), plus Pac Man, Frogger, and Donkey Kong, for our "museum", along with Cabbage Patch dolls, Member's Only jacket and Gasoline jeans, they were just in awe. As in we had an AWESOME day.  Because we talked about music, listened to cassette tapes, danced to Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Duran Duran and watched a couple of videos from when MTV actually played music! We talked about how telephones have changed, compared the boom box to ipods, did  Rubik's cube activities, did some surveys and graphs, created a nonfiction book, and ate neon cupcakes. We even did a little moonwalking:)

 Our literacy small groups were centered around eighties themed words...we divided syllables, worked on parts of speech, punctuation, verb tense and more. The entire unit, for those who are interested, can be found here: Totally 80's

 

 Did I mention that we danced?? A lot? Which was great indoor exercise because it happened to be freezing cold outside, and cupcakes plus kids trapped indoors are not always a good combination.

 Aww...look what we found in the Cabbage Patch:)

See the shirt with all the zippers?  I want you to know that I rocked that sweatshirt in high school. I bought it on a school trip in London..1985. It was my absolute favorite shirt of all time, and I always knew I would need it again someday:) (Yes, I realize it is tacky. As is the Swatch that I thought was ultra styling back in the day.) Swatches, big hair, Aquanet, skinny jeans, leg warmers, neon sweaters, jelly shoes, the metal bands that stuck around and the one hit wonders, the bazillions of cassette tapes (anyone else remember those Columbia music clubs??:), plastic jewelry, mullets, arcades, Sun In, tanning oil, and NO cell phones. Best decade ever. I miss it and I am glad to be able to teach that little bit of history to my firsties, firsthand. Such nostalgia...

And even further back....I should have posted much longer ago, because I have field trip photos, gingerbread projects, and sooo much more.  I hope to do much better about keeping up to date from here out.  Here is the class on the fiftieth day of school: Again, they were amazed at the record player. But the quote of the day was "Mrs. Raby, do you have one of those players that plays the big rectangular DVDs?"

 Record players, poodle skirts, phones with rotary dials (ohmiword...I brought one in to show and they cannot keep their hands off it.  They love to dial their phone numbers.) black and white tv, Leave it to Beaver, hula hoops, soda floats, bubble gum, Elvis, they did love fifties day too.

 The greasers...

If any teachers are interested in the unit we used, I recommend. It, as with Totally 80's, had way more activities than can be done in a day, and is great fun. Next year, for each unit, I plan to take at least a week to explore the activities in more depth. Here is the link for the 50th day unit:  Cruisin' through the first 50 days of school.

     The kids asked me why we didn't do the 60's and 70's too, and then they said "What do we call these years? You know, 2014...What will we call it one day? And will there even be school as we know it when we have grandkids?" I'd say those are excellent questions.