Apples, Apples Everywhere!

For the past couple of weeks we have been enjoying the approaching fall season with all that comes with it!  My kiddos have been bringing in bags of colorful leaves, acorns, seed pods of all kinds, and other "treasures" they have found.  Mrs. Nelson even brought in a praying mantis to look at!

We read many books about the changes that occur in the fall and wrote poems about fall using our five senses.  

We have also been learning about non-fiction text features as we read books about apple trees.

We learned about CAPTIONS.

We learned about BOLD PRINT.

 We learned about LABELS.

Of course, in honor of John Chapman's birthday (a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed) we read many books about this fascinating American folk hero and wrote our own favorite facts about him.  Students created their own picture too!

We spent one day in math measuring the height and width of apples, comparing the weight to our partner's apple, estimating and counting the seeds in the apples, sketching the pattern we saw in the middle of the apple, and after cutting the apple into fractions and recording those, everyone got to taste their apple.  Here are some pictures:

All in all, we had some fun and delicious first days of fall!

Inferencing and Brown Bag Book Club

This week, as a part of our Daily 5 routine, time was spent introducing and practicing the use of inference when reading to increase comprehension.  We have been unofficially practicing this since the beginning of the year while discussing a "Picture of the Day."  With this students are told to use any clues they see in the picture to try to interpret what is going on in the picture.  There are no titles, captions or any other words to use.  We practice making "smart" guesses like a detective would when using all of the clues we can find.  We took this one step further this week as we used the David Shannon book titled "No, David!" for these activities. First, we discussed two terms:  "schema" (what we already know) and "evidence" (looking at the clues).  Then, as we read the story, students used "turn and talk" to discuss what they were seeing in the pictures.  They used these clues to aide in making their inferences about the story.  We wrote some of these down on chart paper for later reference.  Afterwards, students created a "David" and wrote about one of their inferences and the clues they used to make it.  We will continue to work with the inference strategy all year long.

 

"Cheerleader" spelling was used to practice our word wall words.  Students took turns leading the class in cheers for each of the words.  They had fun showing off their best "cheerleader moves."

Everyone was very excited on Friday when we got to have our first "Brown Bag Book Club." We use this time to discuss a book we have read during the week.  Students complete a story map, or some other type of book response to glue to their bag.  Then, I fill the bags with a treat to munch on during our discussion.  Students are seated in groups and practice taking turns being the group leader/spokesperson for each question.  They also have to practice good small group etiquette such as learning how to take turns and how to be good listeners.  Most of all,they have to really dig deep and think about the story, the author's purpose, and what connections they can make.  Our first Brown Bag Book Club went very well and the kiddos are looking forward to the next one!

In math we continued working on addition, story problems, and graphing.  We also took our first "timed" test over the addition and subtraction facts.  This will be used as a benchmark assessment.

Lastly, I want to close with something one of my little boys said that just made my whole week! He is one who for the first several days of school kept asking when it would be time to go home, or when it would be time for recess, or lunch.  In other words, he just wasn't into the school routine yet. However, this week he came to me at the end of a regular full day of school and asked if it it was a half-day.   When I told him that it had been a regular, full day and that it was time to go home he said, "No, it can't be time to go home!  We have so much more learning to do!"  Joy filled my heart as I thought, "Wow, we have come a long way in these first couple of weeks of 1st grade! It's going to be a great year!"

Establishing Routines and Exploring Our Schoolyard Habitat

We have been busy establishing routines in our classroom these first couple of weeks of school.  Even though it has been extremely hot we did manage to accomplish quite a bit! We even practiced bus safety!

Our morning begins with "Wake Up" work.  Students settle in first thing and work on practicing their word wall words, math problems, handwriting, etc.

"Wake Up" Work

The majority of our morning is spent with the "Daily 5" where students are working on reading, spelling, and writing.  We are working on building stamina as we establish and practice the expectations for each routine.

"Read to Self" 

 

"Read to Someone"

Another important part of the Daily 5 is "Work on Writing."  Students choose any topic to write about in their monthly journals.  Right now we are working on developing an idea or topic.

"Work on Writing" - August Journals

 One of our word wall words was the word "as" which can be kind of tricky for 1st graders.  After we read the book "Easy as Pie", students wrote one of the sayings from the book and illustrated it.

 

We explored our schoolyard habitat using our five senses.  We discussed how scientists always record or document their findings and how they use special tools to explore nature.  Then, students used a special habitat booklet to draw what they experienced.  They even got to use magnifying glasses and binoculars!  Later on, back in the classroom the boys and girls wrote sentences about their pictures. 

Another part of our beginning of the year ritual is the school bus safety review.  The kiddos did a great job!  Here they are practicing exiting the bus safely.

As you can see we have been very busy!!