Mismatched Socks!

I read the students the story, Bullies Never Win! After reading the story, I showed the kids a big red paper heart. I asked the kids to tell me some of the mean and hurtful things that the bully in the book said. Each time they shared something mean, I folded the heart a little bit. I used this folded heart to illustrate that bullies can say mean things and they hurt but their words don't break your heart. You can stand strong and unfold those hurtful words and still be YOU!

Make a Difference Day

Our class wore mismatched socks last week to take a stand against bullying and to make a difference. I held an assembly and talked to first graders and Kindergarteners about how special and unique each of them are. They also learned about standing up for themselves and others who are in a bullying situation. I talked to them about how we are all different but that doesn't mean that we are not to accept each other. I know the value of this lesson will last beyond one day. A sweet little Kindergartener told me on the playground the day after I presented the assembly, "I remember you...You told me Bullies Never Win!" That is an awesome feeling to know that these life lessons are laying the foundation for what type of person these young students will become later in life and how they will treat others for the rest of their life.

Literary Character Parade

Literary Parade on PhotoPeach

Planting radish seeds

Our class planted some radish seeds a week and a half ago. Each student got to plant a few seeds. We'll be anxiously awaiting their harvest!

Our Literary Pumpkin

Here's a picture of our Literary Pumpkin. Our class is in love with Kevin Henkes books and characters from our current author study! The students chose to make our pumpkins into Chrysanthemum the character and the flower. You can see all of the creative literary pumpkins on display in our front lobby this week!

Math Journals

Math journals are used to build a student's number fluency. By the end of first grade, we want students to be able to take a number and be able to identify how to represent the number using tally marks, place value (groups of hundreds, tens, and ones), greater than/less than, money, use the number in story problems, as well as addition and subtraction equations. The pictures below show a chart that outlines what the student's should do for the number of the day in their math journal. Also, you will see a hands-on tool that students use to help them with creating addition and subtraction equations ( 20 linking cubes strung together-10 of one color, 10 of another color).

Different ways to fill in pattern blocks!

Students have been using triangles, trapezoids, rhombuses, and hexagons to fill in outlined shapes. The goal is to try to fill the shapes many different ways!