A Walk on the Wild Side!

Our new theme for 2013-14!

Summer activities

If you're wondering what to do with your child over the summer, take a look at these wonderful activities!

New Second Graders Welcome to the Summer Academic Resource Center for Upcoming Second Graders Language Objective: Identify and complete punctuation correctly in sentences. Punctuation games Periods & Question Mark practice Objective: Identify nouns and verbs. Noun practice Verb practice Noun & Verb games Grammar games Objective: Use common language rules and letter combinations to read unknown words. CVC word games Consonant Cluster games Long Vowel sound games Vowel Cluster activities Objective: Recognize and fluently read commonly seen words. High-Frequency word Game 1000 Sight words to know (you should be able to read each sheet in ONE minute or less with ZERO mistakes!) First Hundred sight words.pdf Second Hundred sight words.pdf Third Hundred sight words.pdf Fourth Hundred sight word.pdf Fifth Hundred sight words.pdf Sixth Hundred sight words.pdf Seventh Hundred sight words.pdf Eighth Hundred sight words.pdf Ninth Hundred sight words.pdf Tenth Hundred sight words.pdf Reading Objective: Read everyday by yourself, to someone, and have someone read to you. Just Read, Florida! Recommended Summer Readling List Duval County Recommended Summer Reading List Chets Creek Recommended Summer Reading List Objective: Understand what you are reading and hearing. Comprehension practice 1 Writing Objective: Write often. The more you read, the better you write. The more you write, the better you read! Writing daily builds stamina and increases success in all subjects. It can be as simple as creating lists: shopping lists, "places to go" lists, "things to do" lists, "people to see" lists, etc. Objective: Record your thoughts and adventures in a journal. Get a cool notebook or decorate a composition notebook. Write the date at the top of each page before you begin writing for the day. Creative Writing Journal Topics Objective: Write neat and clear. Make your own handwriting practice sheets Know how to write your full name, address, and your birthday in your best handwriting Objective: Write all different genres. Personal Narrative: a story about something that has happened to you, a "small moment" Fiction: a make-believe story Realistic Fiction: a make-believe story that could really happen Non-Fiction / Report: tell real and true information Functional: teaches how to do something, a "how to" Persuasive: convince someone to do something you want Objective: Edit your writing Your writing should include: a title capital letters for your title and other titles in writing capital letters for the names of people, places, months, or days capital letters at the beginning of sentences periods ("full stops") or exclamation marks at the end of statements question marks at the end of questions sentences that do not start with 'and' or 'but' no capital letters in the middle of words Math Objective: Always work neatly Handwriting is important, even in math. Taking time to organize work will allow you to focus on the math involved, preventing the opportunity for careless mistakes. Objective: Always double check your work You should try 2 strategies for each problem in order to check your work. Objective: Show all of your thinking on paper This will help you keep track of what you are thinking and doing. It also helps the teacher to see what you are thinking. Objective: Represent numbers up to three digits (hundreds, tens, ones) with a strong understanding of place value When working with a number (such as 258), ask yourself questions such as, "What digit is in the tens place?" (5) and "What is the value of the 5 in this number? (5 groups of 10, or 50) Play the game "Build a Number"- Use a set of number cards. Choose 3 cards from the deck. Arrange the cards to make the largest three digit number possible using all three cards. Now arrange the cards to make the smallest three digit number possible using all three cards. Place Value Game Objective: Know and be fluent with addition and subtraction combinations with sums to 10 and related subtraction combinations Do not worry about memorizing! Instead, practice relating combinations together. For example, practice doubles combinations together (a number plus itself like 3+3). This will help you see patterns in numbers and work to build your number sense. Other combinations to know include adding and subtracting 1 & 2, and combinations of 10. Play the game "Tens Go Fish." This is just like playing "Go Fish" with number cards. Instead of making matches of the same number, you are working to make combinations of 10 for a match. For example, If I have a 3, I would ask my partner for a 7 to make a combination of 10.) Ten Frame game Lines of Ten game Objective: Continue repeating and growing patterns, fill in missing terms, and explain your thinking by using the hundreds chart as a model. Use a hundreds chart to become more familar with number patterns. Choose a number and place a game board marker (bingo chip, coin, etc.) on it. Ask a partner to give you directions to where to move the marker. For example, start on 13. Add 3, subtract 1, add 10. What number did you land on? Play the game "Guess My Number." Using the hundreds chart, have a partner give you a clue about a number, then you guess which number they are talking about. Example #1- What number has 6 tens and 4 ones? Example #2- What number is three more than 27? Example #3- What number is even, has three groups of ten, and is two less than 32? Give the Dog a Bone game Objective: Extend number patterns by skip counting by 2's, 5's, 10's Practice skip counting daily. Use objects to help you. You can also say them out loud to a friend or family member. When skip counting, you don't have to start with the number you are skip counting by. For example, when skip counting by 10's you can begin with 7 and say "7, 17, 27, 37" etc. The pattern is adding 10 each time, not counting by 7's. Count backwards- this will help with subtraction. The Counting Game Skip Counting with pictures Objective: Identify, combine, and compare values of money (penny, nickel, dime, quarter) up to $1.00. Record using both a dollar sign and cent sign. Practice identifying coins when out paying for items or counting coins in your piggy bank. Play a shopping game. Place a price tag on an item like a pencil (example $0.27). What coins would you need to purchase that item? How many different ways can you make $0.27? How can you make $0.27 using the least amount of coins? Counting Coins game Finding Coins game Science Objective: Observe the world around you Be sure to pay attention to the little things throughout your day Objective: Use the process skills Be sure to observe, measure, infer, classify, predict, and then communicate the results. Objective: Be safe Always make sure to ask an adult for help and supervision when experimenting. Objective: Experiment Try new things. Determine how things work, grow, and change. Experiments for Kids PBS Kids activities

The Last Day

We finished our last half day with a little Musical Chairs!  It's always hard to let go of a class after two years.  You have watched them come in as babies.  You have watched them learn to be big kids!  You have watched them learn to read!  You know their likes and dislikes.  You know what makes them mad and sad.  You know what they worry about.  You know what makes them happy.  You know their mom and dad (and way too much about their business!) and their brothers and sisters.  In most cases you've met grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins.  You know about their dreams.  You have prayed for them on a daily basis...  It's hard to let go of those relationships.  Some of them you will follow for years and a few of them you will never see again.  You just have to hope that your time together has had as much impact on them as it has on you.  Good luck little ones.  May your journey be filled with love.

Shaving cream clean!

What a day!  But... the tables are clean!

Principal's Summer Challenge

Your child has worked hard at reading this year.  According to research (from Reading is Fundamental), students who do not read over the summer can lose as much as 22% of their reading level!  That would mean two months of school down the drain!  You can prevent this summer reading loss by encouraging your child to read over the summer.

At our last Readers-to-Leaders celebration, Mrs. Phillips challenged the children to read 100 books this summer (for children reading chapter books, this means a chapter counts as a book). They received a pamphlet (went home today) with 100 stars. Children that return the competed chart will earn a special treat from the Principal when we get back to school in the fall.  So... copy the chart below if you can't find the one we sent home and put the chart on your frig so you can encourage your child to reach the goal!

The Art of the Last Week

Sidewalk chalk and water colors!

 

 

 

 

 

Native Florida Plants

Mrs. Shannon, a 5th grade Science teacher, has planted a garden of native Florida plants outside, beside our 5th grade "condos." Today we walked the path and talked about those plants that are common to our state such as lemon, limes, oranges, nectarines, sunflowers... We talked about why these plants grow so well in Florida.  What a wonderful gift to our children.

 

2nd Grade Tour

It's such a big deal for first graders to move on to 2nd grade because it means they go upstairs! Today we traveled up the stairs to Mrs. Langford and Ms. Harkin's 2nd grade classroom. The teachers did a little mini-lesson of calendar Math and had individual children talk about different parts of their day. Next each 2nd grader took a 1st grader and gave him a tour of his desk and answered questions. The second graders did such a nice job of talking to the first graders!  The class came back together to talk about 2nd grade behavior.

The 1st graders really liked the fact that they would have a desk of their own! Having been a tables for two years, this is a very big deal!  They were concerned, however, about not having a bathroom in the classroom and how and when they would be excused. The students explained about their system for using the bathroom.  We think the students will feel much more secure on their first day of second grade.  Thank you Mrs. Langford and Ms. Harkins!

Kona Ice Keeping It Cool

One of our amazing room mom's, Jackie Weaver, was very gracious in donating a Kona Icy to every child in our classroom. She called the company and had them bring their icy truck out to the school and allowed each student to pick their very own flavor. From strawberry kiwi to very cherry the kids slurped up every last drop! Thank you Jackie we really appreciated the cool drink on a hot day.

Play Doh

What is it about play doh that is so engaging?  I'm not sure, but on this day the children were full of imagination and creativity.  They loved this activity!

POP!

So, my new favorite tradition in the last week of first grade is to hang balloons from the ceiling.  In each balloon we put an activity such as playing Bingo, blowing bubbles, playing with play doh, eating popsicles, wearing no shoes and socks in class, lunch under the pavilion, movie and popcorn, cleaning the tables with shaving cream, etc.  Each morning a table gets to choose a balloon and then they have to decide how to pop it.  They have used a pencil, a fork, and scissors to stab the balloon.  They have slammed the balloon between the pages of a book and stomped on it.  They have smushed the balloon between two white boards!  The fun is watching them try to come up with a new way.  Tomorrow, I think we'll see if they can pop the balloon with no hands! 

Kickball

We had our first annual Ruark-Timmons/Barnhart-Daniels kickball game this morning. My husband, who is a PE teacher, was laughing this morning on the way to school when I told him what we were going to do... and I have to admit he was right!  Most of our children had never played kickball before and a few didn't come prepared (LOL! - see left) but what we didn't know in rules, we made up in FUN! Lots of the kids complained about the heat and wanted to quit after they had their turn kicking so it was a great lesson on how members of a team support each other!  We also did a lot of laughing together!  I'm not really sure who won the game but we declared ourselves the winner at fun!  Special awards for Great Sportsmanship went to Cameron, Hailey and Cohen!

 

 

We finished the day with cool, refreshing popsicles!

GeoCities

A real testament to a class being able to do group work are projects that require the children to work together. Such was the project this morning.  The students started by naming and planning a city. The class brainstormed buildings they would need in a city and then each table chose a name and then decided on and drew the specific buildings that they would need in their city.

 

Next the children used geoblocks to build their city.

The finished products were delightful.  The children had built museums with water fountains, roads, theatres, Chets Creek, Infinity gymnastics, skyscrapers, restaurants, airports...  Each city was as unique as the builders themselves.  Below are some of the projects.  Each group shared their project with the class and then walked around all the other projects.  Finally the children voted for their favorite city - lots of awesome choices!

 

Final Awards Day

We had our final Awards Day Friday.  We are so thankful that so many parents were able to join us. We gave the usual awards, of course, but were also thrilled to announce that Asher and Abena had Perfect Attendance for the entire year!  We also had many students who received the Superintendent's Award for reading their 25 books for Readers-to-Leaders every single nine weeks - beginning the lifelong habit of reading every day!  We will be celebrating the students who met the goal the last nine weeks on Wednesday when the children will be guests at a food festival, choosing from cotton candy, a pickle, popcorn or a pretzel.  The children also received a wordle of the words that their peers had used to describe them.  The children used words from handsome to smart to chatterbox and trickster to describe their friends.  It's always amazing to see how the children describe each other and it is such a nice memento of their family of first grade friends.  We were also thrilled to announce that the last nine week's Soaring Eagles were Blake, Porter and Asher - three amazing young men who have added such character to our classroom this year!   We closed the Awards with a video of pictures and music that Mrs. Ruark assembled, capturing the best moments of the year.  The ceremony ended as the 1st graders closed their eyes to remember their year and the parents sneaked in with silly string and confetti to welcome them as new 2nd graders! It's just hard to believe that this is our last Awards Ceremony as a first grade family... but we still have a week of FUN left!

What does the sun do to our skin?

Our last Science lab had to do with what the sun does to our skin.  Each child was given ten white beads to string on a pipe cleaner and turn into a bracelet.   

The students were told that the sun's UV rays would penetrate the beads.  Depending on how much of the sun's rays were absorbed, the beads would turn colors - the more rays, the darker the color.  The children were so amazed as the beads turned bright colors in the bright sun.

Next we put some beads in clear bags and covered the outside of each bag with a different SPF sunscreen - from a 4 to a 60

The students made predictions and discovered that the sunscreen did block the sun's rays.  The higher the sunscreen the lighter the beads.  We hope that the kids will bug you all summer about remembering the suncreeen!