'Tis The Season!

Our hand and feet reindeer

Christmas tree crafts

Pom-pom wreaths and candy canes

Snack time!

Winter scene painting

A crooked Christmas tree.

Star Santa

Sanddollar art.

 What a cute elf!

Maps, Maps, Maps!

The students have had an amazing week with Miss Sheehan!  They have been so busy working on learning their addresses, exploring maps and observing various art pieces.  I'm afraid they don't want me back!  Here are a few photos of one part of the class map project.

Love the floating heads!

The whole class

Bunch of Turkeys!!

Today we made turkey headbands.  I gave them bits of different colored paper and a large piece of oaktag for the headband.  Check out the results!

One turkey!

Turkeys in progress.

A turkey with earmuffs!

Another turkey!

A bunch of turkeys!!!

Relaxed Reading

Sometimes we just need to take a break from all the hard work we are doing!  We call this relaxed reading (shhhh, don't tell them they are still working hard!).  The students choose a comfortable place in the room to read quietly to themselves.  Many like to use one of the cushions or pillows I have available and others love to sit in the teacher's chair.  Relaxed reading provides a great time for me to listen to a variety of students whisper read their books to me.

A very relaxed reader!

Looking comfy!

Cushion reading and the rocking chair.

The teacher's chair!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween in the middle of the week is not what every first grade teacher hopes for!  So, I decided to just go with the very high level of energy in the room and do lots of fun Halloween themed learning activities.  One of the things we did today was a counting, sorting and graphing activity with M&M candies.  Our third grade buddies from Mrs. Giroux's class came down to join the fun and help us out.  The students loved the activity and I love that they didn't even know they were learning in the process!

Happy Halloween everyone--stay safe!

Working hard!

This is fun!

One graphing strategy.

Sorting and counting.

One way to sort....

and another...

and another!

Behavior "punch" Cards

The first graders were given their punch cards today.  They can earn hole punches for listening, following directions, participating, using their manners and being on-task.  They are very excited to fill up the card (20 hole punches) and be able to choose a reward from the reward catalog.  There are choices like, bring in a stuffed animal, have lunch in the classroom, swap desks with a friend, read a book to the class and wear only your socks in the classroom for the day.  They are very excited to start!!

Boy 

Girl

Read The Room

Today we tried a new activity called "read the room."  Students were given a clipboard and a sheet of paper numbered 1-10.  Then they walked around the room looking for pictures with 'at' words on them.  The pictures also had a number on them so students knew where to write the work once they found it and read it.  Students reported that this activity was "awesome," "like I spy," and "like an Easter egg hunt!"  It was a hit and we will be doing it again for sure, maybe next time with math problems!

Hard At Work

I put the students in pairs and gave each pair a bag of number tiles.  The tiles were numbered from 1-100.  Their task was to put the numbers in order and it was up to each group to decide how to do that.  As you can see from the pictures below, some partners put their numbers into a hundreds chart while others created one long line of numbers.  One group even had a bend in their line!  It was fascinating listening to the conversations that arose during this activity as well as the different strategies that different pairs used to find the numbers they needed.  The students loved this activity so much, they volunteered to give up their free time so they could complete the task!  I love when that happens!!

UVEI

Emily Sheehan is our intern teacher from The Upper Valley Educators Institute (UVEI).  She grew up in Plainfield, NH and attended Bates College in Maine.  Emily is the third intern I have had from the UVEI program.  It is a wonderful resource in our area for those choosing to enter the field of teaching.  You can learn more about UVEI here.  

Having Emily join us is a wonderful opportunity for the students and myself.  The students benefit from having two teachers and it is a great professional growth opportunity for me as a teacher.  The collaboration and learning that takes place between mentor teacher and intern is ongoing and so valuable to both of us.

Emily will complete 7 solo days, 2 individually and 5 consecutive.  I will let you know in advance when her solo week is approaching.  I hope that your child is enjoying having Miss Sheehan in the classroom.  I know that I am.  It will be a sad day in December when she leaves!

Pete The Cat

If you haven't read Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes, you must read it soon!  The book has a fantastic message about not giving up in life no matter what you might step in.  The students loved the book, but loved the song even more!  We all had a great time singing along with the song many times!  I found a youtube video of the book as well if you would like to watch that too.  I haven't shared the video with the students yet, but I am sure they would love to see it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

What Do Plants Need?

Check out the video we used in class to help us learn the 5 things plants need to grow.

The kids LOVED singing along with this!  I hope you enjoy it too!

Goodbye!

We have said goodbye to two of our Monarch Butterflies!  We release them out on the playground and watch them fly to a tree or plant to rest.  The students love to watch them fly and are always excited to watch them but there are also several cries of "good-bye, good-bye, good-bye!"  No one cried this year about it though, yet!  We have one chrysalis left in the butterfly net, but it does not look healthy.  I'm afraid that it may not come out.  I have discussed my concerns with the class but will wait until Friday to see what happens.  I meant to have a photo to share with you as we released the butterfly but I was just as excited as the students and forgot!  Sorry!

Fair Fun

We had a great trip to the fair!  Below are just a few photos from the day.  Thank you to everyone who came along with us.  It is so nice to have small groups to manage in the crowd!