Our fall party! We made bat and spider pumpkins. Thank you to the room parents for all your planning and organizing! Thank you to our parent helpers! We had sooo much fun and the kids were sooo excited to take their pumpkins home. : )
Have a wonderful long weekend!
Be safe!!
Love,
Ms. Carter
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Week 9 - Last full week of 1st quarter! (My how time has flown!)
Heard in Ms. Carter's classroom... The kids LOVE the duck songs. Below is the 2nd version of the song. After we listened to this song for the first time one of the kids said: I can't believe they don't have any grapes. It's a corner store! :)
Heard during guided reading: Do you think the kids are listening to what we say? (Said in a thick Southern accent): That's like Paula Deen. They took my restaurant away. And finally... One of the kids expressed her disgust while we were reading a picture book: "If I have to hear about love one more time I think I'm going to be sick!"
They're honest, aren't they?
Pictures from week 9:
This is one of our science lessons from the week where we've been learning about force and motion. The kids had to use the die, cubes, counters and play doh from their math toolboxes to show how objects could roll, spin or slide. They also sorted their objects into categories based on what motion they discovered. They kids really enjoyed doing this and seemed to be very engaged with their learning. There's nothing like hands-on science!
It can spin!!
Towards the end of our force and motion unit I read the picture book, A Wolf's Tale, which is a little different than the original version of the story, The Three Little Pigs. In the new version we read, the wolf really is trying to be nice to the pigs and tries to bake them a nice surprise party birthday cake. That's definitely different from the story we all know!
We decided to recreate the pigs' houses. The materials? aluminum foil, play doh, construction paper, popsicle sticks, and toothpicks. The kids had to create pig houses that could withstand the force of the wolf's angry breath (or really just Ms. Carter's hairdryer!).
We made quite the mess! But the kids LOVED building their houses. It took us a couple of days to do it, but they were so excited to work!
Pig houses awaiting the angry wolf...
I'll huff and I'll puff!!
Marshmallow measurement!!
As part of our nonstandard measurement unit we used mini marshmallows to measure different lines. The kids learned to measure by using the same sized units and to line the marshmallows up the same way, end to end.
Silly Sock Day!!
Measuring around the room with Inchy the Inchworm. : )
During the month of October we've been visited by a friend! This is Shadow the bat. : )
He likes to sleep in quiet classrooms and can be found in different places in the classroom each morning. He leaves us messages each morning but there is one problem... Shadow is not a great writer! So we have to edit his messages before we can read them correctly. Sadly Shadow will leave us at the end of the quarter, but who knows who will visit in the month of November!
Playground fun! The kids asked to have this silly picture taken. : )
We get to go to the playground on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. On the other days we play on either the grass or the bus parking lot. With so many kids at our school, we've learned to share our recess space. But the kids definitely like the playground the best! I think not getting to play on it every day makes it even more special for them. : )
Book character day!
Comparing our princess dresses
Princess Ariel
Birthday cookie fun : )
Birthday girl Fancy Nancy is right up front!!
Silly faces : )
Maverick is ready for his first weekend out with the birthday girl Fancy Nancy! He got to take a ride on the Magic School Bus for his weekend out - Ms. Frizzle got to visit our classroom on book character day by they way. : )
That's everything for week 9 - we accomplished so much and had so much fun!! Get a good night sleep, kiddos. We have a lot of fun to have in Week 10. Love you, firsties! Ms. Carter
Monday, October 27, 2014
October 27, 2014 Twilight over the playground
Friday, October 17, 2014
We have a class mascot! His name is Maverick the cat and each of the kids will have the opportunity to take Maverick home for the weekend. They'll write in a journal about their adventures with Maverick and they could also include pictures if possible of their time with Maverick. Below is a video I created to show the kids about one of Maverick's adventures to give them an idea of something to do with Maverick. Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Lazy 5 video!!
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 Busy, busy, busy!! It's been awhile since I've posted... Here's what we've been working on with the firsties:
Reading: We started our guided reading groups last Thursday and so far these seem to be going really well. In my room I am alternating 5 groups of kids at a time. Each group sees me every other day so that we can have an extended amount of time to read. We're gradually working up to doing all of our Daily 5 activities (which include word work, listening to reading, reading to self, reading with a partner, and writing) and this is what the other kids are doing while I am working with a small group.
We've also been learning about animal habitats. Last week we read a story about the red-eyed tree frog that lives in the rain forests of Costa Rica. This week it's all about deserts. We're focusing our brains on thinking about how animals survive in the desert, especially with little water and hot temperatures.
Writing: After going to Lazy 5, we wrote about our experience by writing at least 3 sentences and drawing a picture. We're now in the process of revising this work and then publishing our work so that we can share with others. The revising is a difficult concept because most of the kids want to just write their story and move on rather than reading over it and making changes (which is VERY hard for the kids to be willing to do).
Math: We started measurement this week during our math block. Yesterday we got to use cubes to measure different things in our desks, while today we scooped cubes out of the math tubs and then built towers so that we could order them from smallest to largest. Science: It was Play-doh fun today! We've started a unit on force and motion so today we broke out the Play-doh and then made different objects that would either roll, spin, slide, or move back and forth.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Week 6 in Ms. Carter's class...
This is the behavior chart I have been using since the beginning of school:
I got the graphics off of teachers pay teachers (love that website) and then I added the colorful octopii a couple of weeks after school started when I realized that the kids don't exactly have a visual about what color they are on. I wrote their names on clothespins and now the kids can pull their "clips" up and down based on their behavior. When the kids move up to blue from green (where they start at each morning) they are allowed to pull a treat from the treasure box (which they love!). This is actually difficult to do and I try to only move up kids when they have done something exceptionally well. This past week one of the kids was upset because she had her clipped moved down. I let her have a moment and then went to her to try and explain about making wise choice. I asked her how she was feeling and she said, "Sometimes I don't like the woman I'm standing beside very much." I couldn't contain my laughter after this comment. She started laughing and all was fine and we agreed that tomorrow was a new day.
They also get to pick a treat when it's their birthday! As you can see from the pictures, Wednesday was one of the kiddos birthdays. We were treated to some delicious cupcakes and the kids enjoyed them so much that they didn't realize they were getting more on their faces than in their bellies!
Calling all dentists! We've been having some tooth loss in Ms. Carter's class. The first picture is on Monday morning when one of my girls lost a tooth. The second picture is of 4 girls who all ended up losing a tooth by Tuesday morning!!
A new room arrangement! I rearranged the room when we did the Oreo stacking challenge. I like this arrangement, but I think it will move soon just so we can change it up a bit.
Below is a graph that we made as a class after completing the Oreo Stacking Challenge. The kids were treated to 4 different kinds of Oreo flavors and then they voted on their favorite. This is a graph of the results. As you can see, chocolate was the overwhelming favorite. : )
Monster writing! Aargh! We are pairing with a 4th grade class as reading buddies this year. We've started off our friendship by writing monster descriptions for each other. Both sets of kids drew their own monsters and then wrote paragraphs about their creations. The 4th grade reading buddies then helped us to edit our writing. They have our paragraphs and they will try to draw their own versions of the monsters without seeing the original drawings. Below is my example drawing and paragraph. The kids helped me write it.
My monster drawing Ms. Vaughn's version
My PTA gift basket - thank you PTA!!
Our fun run sign. Our band name: JC and the 1st grade Band!
Things I learned this week: 1. Never leave rubber bands for 6 year olds to put up a game with... you will NEVER see them again! 2. Dry erase markers + sitting on the floor to do math = NOT GOOD! Thank you to our WONDERFUL custodian for making my floor look beautiful again! Remember our field trip coming up on Wednesday to the animal park! "Help me to make my classroom a secure and stable place, where the children know what I expect of them; and what they can expect from me. I pray that it might be said of my classroom that nothing was ever promised that was not given, nothing was ever threatened that was not carried out, nothing was ever said that was not true, nothing was ever taught that had to be unlearned."
