Literacy Character Parade

Common Core

Our first grade students will never take the FCAT!  However, they will be the first to take the new assessment based on the Common Core Standards.  We have been studying the Common Core, which has now been adopted by 41 states, for a couple of years and one of the things that we realize is that the expectations are rigorous.  If you think we are expecting more out of students today than when you went to school, then you're right.  We are now expecting our American children to be able to compete internationally when they graduate from high school.  We are expecting that they will be college ready - that if they want to go on to a higher education that they will have the background and knowledge to do ao.  The 3-minute video below helps explain how the new Common Core will make a difference in the lives of our first graders.
Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards from CGCS Video Maker on Vimeo.

It's Dirt-y Work!

As you know, we won a $250 grant from Slow Foods for a raised garden bed.  So, not only are we planting in the school garden plot (we're watching our radishes grow), but we are also planting in our new raised bed near the 5th grade condos.  This is how the area looked after 5th grade Science teacher, Mrs. Swidosky, and her crew got rid of all the grass and tilled the soil.

Last week Mrs. Ruark covered our area with a black paper to keep the grass and weeds at bay and put the bed frame together.  Today the dirt arrived from Davey Nurseries.  The nursery makes its own soil from a large compost of tree chips.  We understand that they make many donations to school gardens across the county.

After the wheelbarrows of dirt were poured into the bed, the children loved going through the dirt and removing any big roots.  Now really - how many children get to play in the dirt in the name of Science?!  

Mrs. Ruark INSISTED that we needed to add a few worms to aerate the soil.  Some of the children got very excited, but others wanted to know where the gloves were to pick up the worms and a few absolutely would not touch the worms.  No way - no how!

Next week we begin planting in this bed.  We're thinking about a salad garden - Yum!  Now doesn't that sound delicious?!

To the Garden!

We were in the garden today planting radishes.  Can't wait until they are up.  Want to make a bet on who tries the radishes?

Attributes

In Math we are learning about the attributes of shapes.  How many sides? angles? vertices?  How are shapes the same and how are they different?  Today we worked with a partner to make a poster, sorting our shapes into different attributes.

Readers Response Notebooks

 

 

 

A Reader's Response Notebook is a place for readers to write about their thinking during their reading.  We are learning to make different kinds of responses.  Most recently we have been writing responses about characters in our books.  First we practice by writing about characters in our Kevin Henkes author study and then we go to our independent reading and write about the characters in our independent reading books.

 

The Blends Project

 

Yes, the parents complained, BUT this project was a huge success! After giving the Words Their Way assessment, most of our students fell into the category of needing work with blends.  We have been completing blend sorts in class for about three weeks, but the home project was a way to get in some extra practice. Families had two weeks to complete a project that included finding four pictures for each of 16 initial blends.  The pictures could come from magazines or they could be googled on the Internet.  The projects were very well done but the most exciting part was that after completing the projects, we gave the blends assessment and the lowest grade was 80% with many students scoring perfect!  Woo hoo!  Thank you parents for a win win!