Poems,Poems, Poems!

April is National Poetry Month!

My first graders have been very busy writing poetry the last couple of weeks.  They began in March with an acrostic poem about the ocean and since then they have been writing poems about spring.  Using their five senses they created "sensory" poems of things we see, feel, hear, smell, and taste in the spring.  These were very cute!

Next, we learned about personification through our weekly poetry, and by learning about a famous author, born in nearby Galesburg, Illinois.  His name is Carl Sandburg and he wrote an interesting poem about Fog that we illustrated after reading.

Everyone then did a wonderful job of writing a "persona" poem about the wind in which the wind acts like a person. 

Another poetry style we learned about is called "diamante."  Each line of poetry has a different number of words helping to form the "diamond" shape.  

 

The last type of poetry we added to our study is known as "quatrain."  It consists of four lines of poems written in couplets.  This proved to be the most difficult, but my students persevered and produced some awesome poetry!

Needless to say, the walls outside our classroom were covered from top to bottom with all of the great work the kiddos have been producing during this unit of study.  I am so proud of my first graders!

Oceans of Fun!

 The last half of March we dove into learning about ocean habitats and the animals that live there. We began by watching a video that takes the view from the seashore, to tidal pools, to the coral reef, to the deep ocean discussing the creatures that inhabit each particular zone. Each student chose an ocean animal to research and completed an assisted research project. The kiddos poured over books and used printouts from Enchanted Learning to find facts about their animal and recorded them into a special report booklet. We used an online program called Tagxedo to create a type of word cloud to enhance the front cover of the individual reports. Students used words specific to their animal to type into the Tagxedo program and chose an illustration to fill with the words. They were amazed at the results!  The boys and girls took turns sharing their completed reports, so, everyone learned about a variety of ocean animals.

To help the boys and girls further understand the relationships between all creatures and plants we learned about food chains, first through a "United Streaming" video about humans and the food we eat, then, by viewing a Magic School Bus video titled "Gets Eaten" in which the characters become a part of the oceans food chain.  Following a discussion of the two videos everyone made an ocean food chain. We also read a book titled "Who Eats What?"  

Then, everyone made their very own paper replica of a food chain. 

Our book focus was a wonderful little story about a clever little fish named "Swimmy." 

We used this to practice story sequencing,

to practice writing a story summary,

to learn about fact vs. opinion,

to practice writing opinions,

to learn about character traits,

and to discuss during a session of our "Brown Bag Book Club" (see an earlier post about this).

We also had fun using various textures to create a picture similar to the illustrations in the book.

To begin a poetry unit, we learned about "acrostic" poems and brainstormed words to use to describe the ocean.  Each student had a variety of words to choose from to complete their own poem.  As you can see, each line of the poem needs a word that begins with a particular letter.

We had lots of fun learning about the ocean!

There will be much more poetry to come as April is National Poetry Month!  See you soon!

Puppets, Poetry, and Place Value

We have had a wonderful education major, Miss Lindley, helping us out in our room this semester.  As one of her projects, she worked with a group of students as they read fairy tale and folk tale stories.  The boys and girls picked their favorite story to perform and created a stick puppet show. After making the puppets, much practice went on for several days in order to get the voice and fluency just right.  This past week we had fun watching them "perform" their stories using a little puppet theater borrowed from another teacher in our building.

We also worked on using our voices to create different moods while reading the poem "The Storm."  Using an iPad to video record our practices, the kiddos were able to hear themselves and then discussed areas they needed to improve upon.  They really enjoy watching themselves on the Smartboard:

Here is the YouTube of our poem:

In math we have been practicing with base ten blocks, connecting cubes, and various math games to get a better understanding of place value.

Another activity that has become a favorite is "Roll and Write," a game to practice our spelling words.   

Also, after reading the story "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" by Trinka Hakes Noble, students discussed "cause and effect" and worked together to match a "cause" to an "effect" creating a complete sentence.

In writing we are practicing "persuasive" letter writing.  First, the boys and girls made a list of things they would like to have, places they would like to go, and things they would like to do.  After choosing an item from their lists, everyone completed an organizer containing the topic, a list of people to ask, and a list of things they would do if they were given their request.  The kiddos came up with some very interesting ideas!

We also began learning all about the weather with a thermometer activity, by making a little booklet on weather measuring instruments, and by learning about different types of clouds.  We will post pictures of some weather activities next time.

Thanks for taking time to read to the end of this long blog!  Until next time!