Q-Tip Paintings

Today we finished up our mini unit on the season fall.

We began our day by reading There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves. I just LOVE this series of books. They have one for just about everything. The kids love them because they pick up on the patterned text quickly and enjoy reading aloud with me.

After the story we worked on our retelling skills. Each student folded a piece of paper into fourths and used the front and back to number the boxes from 1-8. In each box they were asked to write a sentence telling what the old lady swallowed and draw a mini picture. We focused on our sequencing words and they had to use first, next, then, and last.

As students finished up their retelling they got to begin working on a fun fall tree painting. I found this idea on Pinterest, but the original idea came from La Classe Della Maestra Valentina.

First students used a circle tracer to lightly trace the outline of the top of the tree. Then they had to use crayon or marker to draw the trunk, a few stems, and the grass below the tree. When that was completed they used q-tips and tempra paint to add dots to the tree as fall leaves. Some decided to have some leaves falling down as well. Everyone had a lot of fun with this!  I was cracking up at their comments about the q-tips. "Ms. McCormack! These are for ears, not for painting!" "Ms. McCormack, have these q-tips been used before?!?" hahaha

 Next week is going to be a super exciting week in first grade! Stay tuned!

Autumn

This week we have been studying the season fall. It seems a little out of place to do this unit so late, but since Thanksgiving fell so early this year we sort of had to squeeze it in when there was time.

We found that PebbleGo was a GREAT nonfiction resource to help us study this season. Each day this week we read one section on PebbleGo. After reading, we practiced retelling facts as a class and then each student was asked to record 3 facts on a special leaf shaped paper and illustrate. Yesterday, we completed our last page, created a cover, and stapled it all together to make a book.

Turkey Art

Oops! I just logged in to post about what we have been doing this week when I realized that I never posted pictures from our turkey paintings last week!

Last Tuesday, we ended our short week with a fun turkey project. Using one of our Draw, Write, Now books, we had a class directed drawing of a turkey. After the design was sketched, the students traced in black crayon and used their watercolors to give it color. I love how each student was able to add their own details or personality to make it their own even though they all followed the same steps.

Thankful

We started off our short week this week, learning about the Pilgrim's journey to America on the Mayflower. We read about the voyage and each part of the ship online, then made these cute Mayflower's to write some facts we learned. Each student was required to write 2 or 3 new pieces of information they learned from our reading.

After we completed our Mayflowers we put together this cute turkey craft:

Awhile back we made coffee filter monsters by making a tie-dye coffee filter and pressing the color onto paper. I saved the coffee filter, knowing we could make something cute and colorful out of it later. Those ended up being perfect for our Turkey tailfeathers! So cute!

Finally, we finished up our secret project we worked on all last week: Thanksgiving placemats for our families! We had a mini lesson on how to draw people correctly, then students were asked to draw their family in the center of the placemat. They turned out amazingly great! I just love seeing all the different families portrayed by each student. Here are a few examples (ignore the flash. I had these laminated so they could be used as a placemat):

And, as promised, here are a few pictures of our Quilt of Thanks from last week!

We had so much to be thankful for! I for one am thankful for this wonderful group of students who work hard every day and try their best. Their sweet personalities bring a smile to my face every single day. I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving holiday filled with family and friends. :)

A Pilgrim's Life

Sorry I've been so behind on updating the last 2 weeks. I promise I'll be better after the holiday this week. Is anyone else as ready for a break as I am?!?

After we learned about Squanto at the beginning of the week, we took some time to learn about the life of a pilgrim boy and girl. We read Samuel Eaton's Day and Sarah Morton's Day, which take the children through the daily chores a Pilgrim child would have been expected to complete. After reading each book the students were asked to write a short paragraph describing what the child had to do first, next, then, and last. Then we made cute little Pilgrim boy and girl faces to go on the top, just like our Squantos from earlier in the week.

Everyone was surprised to learn what a hard life the Pilgrim children had and how hard they had to work from such a young age. This led to a discussion of things that we are thankful to have in our own lives that the Pilgrims may not have been so lucky to have had. On Friday we created a huge list of ideas of things we are thankful for, then each of my friends created a square to add to our I'm Thankful Quilt. On their square they had to list things they were thankful for in each box and then color the pieces to make it beautiful like a quilt square. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of one of these. I'll see if I can take one today and post it later this evening.

Today, I am thankful that it is only a 2 day week! We have some fun Thanksgiving activities planned for the next 2 days to keep everyone busy before the extra long weekend!

Thanksgiving: Part 1

Yesterday we started our 7 day unit on Thanksgiving! This is always one of my favorite times of the year. So much to learn, and so many fun projects to complete with the kids!

We started out the unit reading a nonfiction text about the first Thanksgiving. We had a great discussion about how important it is to be thankful for what you have. The kids were shocked to hear that the Pilgrims had such a hard life. They completely understood why they wanted to have a celebration in thanks for what they survived and the life they had. We started working on a special project, but sorry parents, it's a surprise! I'll post about it at the end of the week :)

Today we used pebblego.com to read about Squanto. We wrote an informative paragraph about his life by choosing the most important piece of information from each section on the site and putting them together to create a complete nonfiction piece. To add something cute to the project we made a Native American head peeking out of the top of the reports. They turned out great!

After the students finished with their report they made their own Native American headdress. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of these. We talked about how the Native Americans did not write using letters like we do; they used symbols to represent different ideas. We looked at some examples of Native American symbols and each student choose some to draw on their headband. We completed the headband by adding 4 different colored feathers. Super cute!

Apples!

Sorry I've been MIA from the blog the past week. Wednesday I left straight from school to head to the airport for the Reading Recovery conference in Dallas and it's taken me a few days to get back into the swing of things. Here is a quick catch up of what we have been working on:

On Wednesday we used Pebblego.com to do some research on apples. We learned about the different parts of the apple and made these cute apples with labels to show each part:

On Thursday the students read Apples by Gail Gibbons with the substitute. After reading they had to make a flow map showing the stages of an apple tree, then they made an apple using construction paper and recorded 3 facts they learned from the book.

On Friday they read some more nonfiction books about apples, practiced retelling facts, then made these cute tear art apples:

When I got back on Monday I found a great report left by the sub! I'm so proud of everyone for working so hard and showing the sub such respect. :)

Election Day

Today was a fun "election day" in first grade! For the past few weeks we have been talking a lot about the election and the importance of voting. We participated in the FBISD mock election, though I felt that a lot of the kids didn't quite understand what they were voting for. Some of them asked their parents and voted with them, but some simply looked at the pictures and picked based on looks. A few students made comments such as, "I voted for her because she's a girl". Given that they are 6 or 7, this is expected, but I really wanted to make the idea of voting for leaders more relevant for them.

We started off our lesson today reading Grace for President. After reading, someone in our class asked why we didn't have a class president. I reminded the students that we have something similar, though it changes every week: our Star Stallion. We talked about how Ms. Coburn and I usually pick the weekly Star Stallion, but because it was election day they were going to have a chance to elect their next class Star Stallion.  We began the election process by brainstorming a list of characteristics we felt a Star Stallion should have. This included traits such as: respectful, honest, caring, hard working, a good leader, etc. Next, each student had to choose one candidate from our class that they felt met the criteria of a Star Stallion and create a campaign poster. On their poster they had to include at least 2-3 traits that friend had that made them a good candidate. I love all the thought they put into their posters.

I have since tallied up the votes and our next class Star Stallion will be announced on Monday during the morning announcements. Everyone cannot wait to find out who it is! What an honor to be elected as the Star Stallion by our very own class!

Quick side story: later in the day I pointed out that one of our friends was doing something really great. Another student leaned in over and whispered, "that's why I voted for him for Star Stallion". I love how the kids really understood that an election isn't about popularity or friendship, that it's about issues and who makes the best leader.

Hopefully some of our friends are watching the election coverage with their parents tonight. I'm sure we will have lots to discuss tomorrow!

Describing Pumpkins

Today we finished up our pumpkin unit by reading The Bumpy Pumpkin. This is a great book to teach adjectives! After reading we did some brainstorming of words that could describe a pumpkin and made a list.

As an extension to this lesson, each student created their own "bumpy pumpkin" using crazy scissors. After they put their pumpkin together they were asked to write 3 clues describing their pumpkin. We talked about what makes a good clue and how you have to use describing words to differentiate your pumpkin from someone else's. They totally got the concept:

Tomorrow is our field trip to Dewberry Farm and we all cannot wait! Should be an extremely fun day!

Pumpkin Day!

Yesterday was Pumpkin Day in first grade! I absolutely LOVE pumpkin day; it's so much fun for the kids every year!

This year we started off our morning by carving our big class pumpkin. We sat in a giant circle on the carpet and the kids helped me figure out the order of steps I would need to take to carve it. It was obvious quite of a few of them had some schema on this subject, because they knew exactly what to do. We took off the top, checked out the goop inside, cleaned out the pumpkin, carved a face, and then lit it up using battery powered tea candles.

After we had gone through the steps to carve the pumpkin, I challenged students to use a flow map to record the steps we took. I encouraged them to use the words first, next, then, and last to help them describe the order.

Once students had a completed flow map, I gave them a piece of handwriting paper to transfer their work. Thus they created a how to paragraph on carving a pumpkin.

To finish things off students used their watercolors to paint a pumpkin. Their paintings turned out fabulous! I love any day at school that we get to paint. Everyone works so hard and their work turns out amazing every time.

Once the paintings were dry we put all the pieces together. Here is an example of the finished product:

When the students went to Ms. Coburn's class in the afternoon they got to use their own mini pumpkins to do a variety of pumpkin day activities such as a sink or float experiment, measuring, and comparing. What a fun day in first grade!

Spookley the Square Pumpkin

On Tuesday we read one of my favorite pumpkin stories: Spookley The Square Pumpkin! If you haven't read this book before, it's an adorable story about a square pumpkin that doesn't fit in with all the round pumpkins. One day there is a huge storm and a hole is torn in the fence. Round pumpkins are rolling out the hole into the sea until Spookley wiggles himself over to the hole and blocks it. Because he is square, he does not roll out the opening. It's a great story to teach the concept that everyone is unique and has their own talents to share with others.

After reading the story we made connections to the story by making a class book. Each student had to design their own creative pumpkin and write one sentence describing something about it. Their pages turned out so cute it was hard to choose just a few to share here.

 a heart pumpkin

a skyscraper pumpkin 

a gingerbread man pumpkin 

 a candy corn pumpkin

a bat pumpkin