5th Grade Partners

Once again this year we are fortunate to have 5th grade reading partners.  Mrs. Ruark's husband is a fifth grade Math teacher at Chets Creek and so he brings his homeroom each Friday morning for an hour of reading with one of our first graders as a partner.  Sometimes the first grader reads and sometimes the fifth grader reads, but it's all about reading!

100 Points of Light

I posted earlier about our new word wall that is going to be on the ceiling!  In trying to orient the children in figuring out just how the wall was going to work (it's around the outside of two walls) we wanted to do something fun.  We had the idea of darkening the room and working with flashlights and letting the children find words with the lights, but... as with so many ideas, we didn't have 36 flashlights.  As we were considering raiding the hurricane stash, Williams' mom came to rescue and sent in 36 little flashlights with batteries!  They are the perfect size.  We used the lights today and the children could hardly stay in their seats.  They were so excited.  We had all the children, and then tables of children, and finally,  individual children, find letters and words.  I have a good feeling that the children understand the alphabetical order and where to find the words and they did it in such a novel way.  We plan to use the flashlights at least once a week, so... if you have any great games and ideas, let us know!

Word Wall on the Ceiling

As we were trying to find a space in our room large enough to host our massive 1st grade word wall, we decided to use some of the space in our room that we rarely use - the ceiling! We're going to see how the students do with looking for the words they want to spell high above. 

And how do you like that nifty little devise for getting the magnetic words from the white board to the ceiling without a ladder? This should be fun!  We'll let you know how it goes!

PTA Shirts!

We are so fortunate to have one of the best PTAs around.  They do so much for the school.  This year, for instance, they are donating over $20,000 for new Dining Room tables.  The tables are now 15 years old and were beginning to break and crack.  It's a huge expenditure and one the school could never afford without the PTA.

Another thing they traditionally buy is a theme-related tee shirt for every single student and staff person.  This year the shirts are read and white.  Students are encouraged to wear them each Friday for Spirit Day.  In fact, we give a little prize to each child that remembers.  This Friday will be our first school-wide flag raising so it's the perfect start to the Friday tee-shirt tradition.  Tee-shirts are also worn on field trip days.  I think we look pretty terrific in our new Recipe for Success tee-shirts.  What do you think?

Make sure to check out our picture on the Principal's blog!

Math Workshop has started!

Math Workshop has started - and we have the pictures to prove it!  The children are reviewing all of the calendar information that they learned last year.  They added the first numbers - 1 and 2 - to our 100s chart and have been spending time exploring all the Math manipulatives.

The Bug Chef!

The kids and the teachers were ready for the first day of school.  As children began to arrive early they were greeted by our new (and adorable!) 5th grade patrols.  As students walked into "The Candy Shop" they gave their teachers a hug and then greeted friends from last year and new friends in our classroom.

We had barely gotten settled when it was time for our first assembly.  Every year on the first day of school, Principal Susan Phillips wows the student body with an activity that has something to do with the year's theme.  The theme this year is "Recipe for Success."   She wowed us with the Bug Chef!  This guy actually has a cookbook that incorporates bugs!  He actually told us how good the bugs are for us!  Lots of protein, he said! Now I don't expect any of the children to be cooking bugs any time soon, but he actually showed us the bugs and then cooked them - tempura with meal worms, fried scorpions and shish kabob crickets!  Mrs. Ruark stepped forward to volunteer to taste one of the concoctions!  She had the fried scorpion, but I don't think she was impressed enough to be making scorpion for dinner tonight!

After lunch and recess we made our own concoction (without the bugs, of course!)  The class decided to name our recipe "First Grade Trail Mix."

And, then, of course we wrote about it.

 

Since our theme is about cooking, this is the just the first of many cooking projects this year.  And if this first day is any indication, this is going to be one delicious year!