Summative Maps

Here is a sampling of the great work completed in class.  You can see the students created very different types of maps.  I love the way they made a theme for their maps and used that to spark their imagination.  Way to go, Superheroes.  This work will become a part of their Student Portfolios. 

Summative

We are finishing our planner this week and the students are working on a summative.   Students will be required to create a map that shows a path to a destination.   They will be using a rubric to guide them through the process and make sure they have all the important parts of a map.  Good Luck, Superheroes!

Time

The Superheroes have been learning to tell time to the hour and half hour.  We have practiced with analog and digital clocks.  For more practice go to the homework WIKI and click on the math chalkboard.  That will lead you to a math page and games for practice.  Or have your Superhero do the above activity.  Think of two activities you have to do or would like to do (or more) and then record what time you go.

Face Map

As part of the planner:  We We Are in Time and Place, the students have been exploring maps.  We have noticed that maps need a map key and a compass rose.  There are many different types of maps...  we created a map for the story Rosie's Walk and today we created a map or our faces! 

Writers Hard at Work

The Superheroes have been busy learning the writing cycle.  The most important thing for a writer to do is to reread their work.  It is even better if they read it out loud to a friend.  I love that everyone is hard at work writing.  I can hear the sound of the pencils dancing across the papers!

Morning Meeting

 We start everyday with a Morning Meeting.   This is a time for the students to greet each other by name.  As you can see we like to start the day with a smile! 

Happy New Year!

The Superheroes started 2014 with a BANG!  We worked on learning goals for ourselves and for our class.   We lost one student, but received another.  What I love is how our class took care of the new student.  They welcomed her, invited her to play and made sure she knew what to do!  I was so proud of how they exemplified The Learner Profile with our new Superhero!

2014!

Well, Superheroes, you have been out of school for eleven days (not counting weekends)!  

What do you miss the most?  Can't wait to see you in 2014!

Love, Ms. Musters

Pajama Day in First Grade!

Well, it is the last day before the winter break.  How much fun can a Superhero Take???  Today our fifth grade buddies came to visit us.  They brought books to read and props to make.  The fifth graders read to their buddies and then completed a reading comprehension activity with them.  It was a great experience.  Thank you to our fifth grade buddies!  I wonder when we will see you again!

Retelling Box

I am sure you have heard of the now infamous retelling box.  Well, it was beginning to experience a lot of wear and tear and I knew it wouldn't last much longer.  I thought that one lucky Superhero might like to take it home!  So in the days leading up to field day, anyone exhibiting the learner profile could earn a ticket.  One half of the ticket would go in a bucket and at the end of Field Day I would pull out the lucky number. 

In the last few minutes of Field Day... I pulled out  a ticket and started naming the numbers (there were a total of six) and the winner was:  Maria!  The Superheroes were so excited for her.  

What a wonderful end to a truly spectacular day!

LET'S GO SUPERHEROES!!

Field Day Action!

Field Day

It's Time for Field Day!!

Here come the SUPERHEROES!!

Time for the Field Day Banner!

We are so excited!  The Superheroes came up with the design and then worked together to create it!  

Great team work!  

Gifts for the World

The Superheroes decided to give gifts to the world.  Each student created a unique design using symbols that represent various winter holidays.  Here are a few of the gifts: 

I wish that everyone had friends.  by Jenny

I wish for everyone to have a home.  by Rowan

I wish for the whole world to have a great day!   by Camryn

I wish for the world to have food to eat and parents to live with.   by Maria

I wish that all the people have water and shelter.  by Nora

I wish for everybody to be healthy.  by Ayden

I wish everybody in the whole to stop the wars.   by William

I wish for people to treat others like they want to be treated.  by Merrick

Holiday Party!

The holiday party was a HUGE success!  The Superheroes were excited the moment they saw the doorway!  Next, they saw the penguin display with the snow and that was just the decorations for the party.  We had so many exciting things happening.  Snowflakes, hot chocolate, and gingerbread houses.  The room smelled delicious.  What a fun afternoon!  Thank you room moms and everyone who helped put this event together.  

Symbols around the world

Today, The Superheroes explored the symbols of different cultures.  I set up stations around the classroom and the students worked in cooperative groups to complete the activities.   I think the favorite station was adding glitter to the cinnamon ornaments.  I really liked how they worked together and helped each other complete the projects.  Way to go, Superheroes!

Cinnamon Ornaments

Today we tried a new recipe for making cinnamon ornaments.  Unfortunately, it did not work very well!  Either the dough was too wet or too sticky.  But, The Superheroes kept on trying and eventually we made it work!!  We finally cut out enough for everyone to have one.  However, we ran into another problem - the ornaments would not dry because it was too cold in the classroom!!  So I took them home and baked them in the oven. Next step, glitterizing them!

Art A La Cart

Today Amelia's mom came to do Art Ala Cart with us.  The lesson was about patterns in art.  We used that information to create ART CARS!   The Superheroes really enjoyed working with the jewels and feathers! 

Holiday House

Our homework assignment this week was to create a holiday house.  Students created the assignment by cutting several shapes of a house and discussing a holiday that they celebrate at home.  The Superheroes then presented the information to the class.  It was interesting to see the pictures and symbols that were used for the different celebrations. You can find the holiday houses posted on the first grade bulletin board

 (close to the kindergarten hallway).

Where We Are in Time and Place

We started our new planner by exploring Mark Twain and looking for symbols and pictures that are used to communicate.  We walked around the school and discussed and recorded the meaning of the symbols. 

The central idea of our new planner is: A universal pictorial language connects people around the world.

We will be looking at the following lines of inquiry: 1.  communicating with symbols, pictures, and gestures.  2.  Geography and place.  3.  Symbols and patterns in problem solving.