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Saturday, April 28, 2012

Whew!! What a week!!!

 First, let me announce the winner for the Making Words with Blends packet.  Congrats to Heather Salsman!!  You can see how the winner HERE on Rafflecopter.

This week, our specials and intervention time was cancelled.  That makes for a LONG day!!  I survived, I'm still in one piece, and was still up by 8:00 a.m. this morning---so I must have not been completely exhausted!!!  I'm so thankful I have a GREAT class!!  They were so well behaved, worked hard and stayed quiet (there are two classes on the other side of my wall that were testing).  I think they enjoyed their week too!!

This week we were finishing up our discussion on insects.  We read a story called Insects.

They loved the facts in this book!!  I have to admit, it was really interesting, and the kids were engaged.  We then used the computer to bring up some images of insects with the projector so they could see what they really looked like.  (Some of the pictures are drawn images in the book).  Then students wrote a sentence about something they found interesting from the story and illustrated it.
Here are a couple of examples.
 

(A few teachers in the building commented on what I'm teaching my class---there were words listed for them to choose from, but we do a lot of invented spelling....INSECTS was one of the words in our bank---ohh well?)

 We labeled parts of a bumble bee.  I had these cute bees from Teacher's Friend (I think that's where they came from) so I just typed up some labels for a little quick check. 
 We wrote on our anchor chart.  We hung it on the door and decorated our door with butterflies. (Pictures didn't come out as clear for that.)

Then Thursday we began our countdown for the last 26 days.  We will be counting down the days with a fun activity, or snack for the remainder of the year---from A to Z (when the zip up and zoom out!) These activities help keep my students focused, and then at the end of our day, for good behavior they earn their special "treat" for the day.

Our story for the week in Treasures was Little Bear Flies to the Moon.  We read and discussed astronauts and space.  So for the letter A, we did a picture of ourselves as astronauts.  (They also wrote space stories.)

 Friday, was letter B.  We did a quick little bird craft, and I gave them blow-pops (if they stayed on green--part of our school wide behavior management).  I can not remember where I found this idea.  The materials needed are paper plates (cut in half), paper bags (or napkins), glue, scissors, and construction paper.  Last year, with my 2nd graders, I used paper lunch bags. Here is an example.


I had a parent donate napkins (from a fast food restaurant), and we used them to make this:


In math, we are also working on graphs.  They really enjoyed their M&Ms graph. 

You can get your copy of my M&M graph by clicking on the image below.

So all in all, it's been a great week!!  One last thing I'd like to share with you an awesome opportunity from Learning Resources.

Learning Resources announces the sponsorship of a teacher grant hosted by WeAreTeachers. To apply, teachers must answer this question: “How would you use portable interactive technology to create collaborative lessons?” After the application process concludes, educators can invite colleagues to vote for their favorite lesson ideas. Each of the three top vote getters will win a set of three now!Boards and three GeoSafari Tuff Cams, a prize package valued at $2,000. Additionally, two merit-based winners selected by a panel of teachers will each win one now!Board and one GeoSafari Tuff Cam, a total value of $700. Teachers can apply for the grant online through May 22, 2012.

For more information and to apply for the grant, visit http://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-ideas/grant?grantId=102.

 

3 comments:

  1. Loved the invented spelling of insects! Too funny!
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your blog! I am also a 1st grade teacher and I have just started blogging. I have started following your blog, I hope you will follow me back!
    Dana
    www.funin1stgrade.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

First Grade and Fabulous

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