The Last Day of First Grade (for teachers)

And then they were gone...  Good-bye to the Amazing Superheroes!

What a year we had.  Creating mosaics, telling stories, writing poems, planting plants and becoming friends.  This was a great year!  Thank you to the Superheroes for all your inspiration (we had some fun times didn't we?) Thank you to all the parents for your help and support. 

The Last Day!

The Garage Sale on PhotoPeach

The Superheroes Save the Words

Sharing, reading and watching the amazing stories and poems that we created our first grade year!

The Award Day Finale!

The cumulation of a year of storytelling: THE ANTHOLGOY!!  We are so proud to present our stories, poems and story-acting videos in this book.  The best part is the title: 

 The Superheroes Save the Words.  

Poem Presentation

What I love about this performance is that naturally evolved from a student idea.  One day someone wrote a story that had storm troopers in it. (obviously a Star Wars connection!).  When it came time to act out the story the students developed this stomping walk for an entrance.  We then connected it to one of our favorite poems and VIOLA! 

Awards Day

First, a performance of a poem with dialogue added by The Superheroes.  

Costumes created by The Superheroes. 

Memory Cards II

It was so exciting to see the Superheroes sharing their first grade memories with each other.  The cards this year were amazing.  Some were even two part cards!  The students used their knowledge from the current planner:  How We Express Ourselves to come up with truly one of a kind pieces. 

Memory Cards

We have finally reached the moment when everyone has completed their memory cards!!

Skyscraper Part II

Click on picture to enlarge.  

Here is a small sampling of the writing that evolved from the Skyscraper visualization exercise. 

Skyscraper, Skyscraper

Today we used our thinking to connect to words and create a visual image.  I read a poem by Dennis Lee, entitled Skyscraper, Skyscraper.   As I read the words, the students used visualization to imagine what the author's words meant.  Next, we tried a new art medium, oil pastels.  The final step was to write what we were thinking or feeling while creating our art piece.  

How we Express Ourselves with Lines

This week we studied the art of Paul Klee.  He uses lines in interesting ways.  Straight, wavy, thick, thin and curved!  We were inspired by this idea of using lines to create images that help us to express ourselves.  The end results were quite interesting.