St. Patrick's Day 2014

Check out the "Smilebox" slide show below to see all of the wonderful leprechaun traps we created!

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St. Patrick's Day and Rainbows

Leprechauns, rainbows, and pots of gold!  St. Patrick's Day just isn't complete without these traditional symbols.

 We incorporated some fun science as we learned how rainbows are formed.  Before we began our serious learning, everyone wrote down some things they wondered about in regards to rainbows.

Next, we watched a Magic School Bus video titled "Makes a Rainbow."

The students were amazed as I showed them how to make a rainbow on our classroom ceiling using a flashlight and a glass prism while reviewing how rainbows are formed.

         

Following this we read a non-fiction piece of text and answered some questions about it.  We used both the information from the video and this text to make a list of facts we learned about rainbows.

To help the boys and girls remember the colors of the rainbow they were introduced to "Roy G. Biv" (an acronym for the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) and they painted a rainbow with water color paints.  They had so much fun!  For many, it was there first experience with water colors.

 Our beautiful rainbows!

Of course, everyone knows there is supposed to be a "pot of gold" at the end of a rainbow, so, we took that theme and turned it into a writing project where everyone thought of a special person in their lives who was worth more than gold to them.  Then, they created a rainbow by writing down some interesting adjectives to help describe their special person. The kiddos created a pot of gold and wrote a sentence including some of their adjectives.

We read many books about St. Patrick's Day, watched a video, and in the process learned about some of the folktales and traditions of this Irish holiday, as well as, learning about the "Emerald Isle" itself.  

After reading several versions of a traditional Irish folktale, we compared the characters, setting, problem, and solution in each.  This story was about someone who catches a leprechaun, gets him to divulge the location of his gold, and then, as the main character returns from going to retrieve a shovel in order to dig up the gold, discovers that the leprechaun has played a trick on him.

We created an anchor chart as we compared the stories.

Each week we learn two new poems.  These poems are great for practicing reading with fluency, practicing expression, learning new vocabulary, and talking about rhymes, blends, digraphs, etc., in addition to just introducing students to a variety of poets and poetry styles.  We used our two poems this week to search for a variety of sounds.

Reading and learning about the traditional folk character of the "leprechaun" was especially intriguing to my 1st graders.  

After reading a couple of books in which the children were trying to catch a leprechaun, we talked about their upcoming homework assignment that included designing and building a leprechaun trap.  This was intended to be a parent-child project in which the family could have fun working together as they created their special trap.  Below are some pictures of just a few of these wonderful traps!

 

 This trap even had a light inside!

The boys and girls had two writing projects concerning their trap.  The first was to give reasons why the leprechaun should visit their trap.  They used a graphic organizer to write the opening sentence, list four things about their trap that would attract a leprechaun, and then write a closing sentence.

Next, they edited and copied their sentences to the writing paper below.

The second project was a sequential writing piece in which the boys and girls needed to tell how their trap worked.  They needed to use the following transitional words : first, next, then, and finally.

The kiddos "set" their traps on Friday, March 14 in anticipation of catching a leprechaun.  On Monday, March 17, St. Patrick's Day, they were surprised by the big mess the leprechaun made of our classroom, including tiny green footprints across their desks, all traps tripped with items missing, glitter sprinkled about the room, and chairs tipped over and tied together with green crepe paper.  

The leprechaun left a little note telling us he had fun messing up the room and playing in and around the traps.  He was too clever, however, and avoided getting "trapped" this year.  Kindergarten students visited all of the first grade rooms to look at the traps and listen to the first graders tell how their trap was supposed to work. 

 Later on in the day everyone feasted on "green" treats provided by our wonderful parents! 

 It was a very exciting day indeed!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

March began with a celebration with all things Dr. Seuss in honor of his birthday which was

 March 2.

                                 

My voracious readers enjoyed many, many books by this wonderful children's author.

 After reading several different titles, each student had to pick their favorite, which proved a very difficult task, as they loved all of them, of course!  Then, they wrote down three parts of the book they particular enjoyed.

The final and most difficult task was choosing one of those reasons and explaining "why" that particular part, or picture helped them choose that book.  Citing evidence from a text to support your opinion is an important part of the new Common Core State Standards.

We compared two of Dr. Seuss' books, "The Cat in the Hat" and "the Cat in the Hat Comes Back" talking about similarities and differences between events, setting, and characters. Comparing similar text is another one of the Common Core State Standards.

  The kiddos then wrote what they would do if "Thing One" and "Thing Two" visited their home. 

  

Another read aloud was the book titled "There's a Wocket in My Pocket." This book focuses on silly rhymes.

 

The boys and girls had to pick a real object and then create a Dr. Seuss-type character to complete their own silly rhyme.

We also read "The Lorax" which is a book about taking care of our environment.

Following this, the boys and girls wrote about something the Lorax had to say in the story and why that was important to our earth.  They also created a cute picture of the Lorax.

Another of the read alouds we enjoyed together was "If I Ran the Zoo."

The students were then asked to write what they would do if they could run a zoo.

The following read aloud was not a Dr. Seuss book, however, it contained some of the nonsense in the style of Dr. Seuss while teaching students about different animal body coverings.

The boys and girls had to pick an animal and tell why they would want that animal's hair. Again, giving students practice in citing reasons to support their opinion.

Whew!  Of course, in addition to the above, we practiced math skills, learned new sight words, and did all of the other typical weekly tasks. All in all, it was a very busy week filled with fun!