Oceans of Learning and Activities!

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break!  It always goes too fast!  The past two weeks just seemed to fly by, but we did pack quite a lot of learning into our schedule.

All of the girls and boys are working very hard on their ocean animal reports.  First, we spent some time just browsing through books before choosing a topic.

While doing research and collecting facts, we learned how to write acrostic poems.  Students wrote the name of their ocean animal down the side of the paper and created a phrase beginning with that particular letter sound.  Facts about their animal were included in the poem.  It took awhile for most  kiddos to catch on, but searching through the facts for those "just right" words really helped to enhance the learning.  Everyone really got to "know" their ocean animal by the time their poems were completed.  Here are some examples:

During our study of the ocean I always like to focus on the various habitats that make up this amazing environment.  We took a close look at tidal pools last week.  After watching a video, reading several books, and looking at images from the internet, students colored tidal pool creatures  and constructed a diagram.

We read books about fish and labeled a diagram.

We also learned about the ocean food chain by reading books, watching a Magic School Bus video, and constructing our very own food "chains."

     

Math games are a regular part of our week and we had fun playing a couple of 3 number addition games.  

And finally . . . our PBIS celebration for the month of March was a visit from Ronald McDonald. Needless to say, the students were very excited when he walked in the building!!  He spoke to the boys and girls about giving their time and talents to help others through a program called "Giving Back".  

Have a great week!

PBIS, Penguins, and Tests! Oh, My!

Our first week back to school after the break just flew by!  We reviewed PBIS expectations by visiting stations throughout the building where we had demonstrations and practiced proper behaviors.  Our class did very well with behavior this week considering the long time away from the school routine.  In fact, we earned the most "stars" of all the first grade classrooms and received a prize!  The entire building celebrated reaching our goal in December when students were treated to a hip-hop dance program performed by a local high school dance group. 

This week students also took the AIMSweb standardized benchmark tests in reading and math.  We will be looking at these scores, along with other data, to help plan our curriculum and interventions for the remainder of the year.

In our classroom we began a study of the animals and habitats of the polar regions of the earth.  The non-fiction connection this week was everything "Tacky." He is a funny, odd penguin featured in a series of fun stories.  

 

                     

  

We discussed and made character comparisons, worked on story maps, wrote story summaries, and created some cute, original "Tacky the Penguins" to brighten up the bulletin boards in the hallway.  

We accomplished a lot for the first week back!  We are off to a great start for 2013!