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!
                                                           

Caterpillaralooza

I found 3 Monarch caterpillars over Labor Day weekend.  We shared one with Mrs. Burriss' class.  Miss Sheehan found 2 more on Tuesday night and we shared one of those with Ms. Parker's class, leaving us with 3 caterpillars in our butterfly night.  The addition of these creatures to the classroom has encouraged a lot of great observations, questions and insights from the students.  When I left the classroom tonight, there was one chrysalis, one caterpillar hanging in a "j" ready to make a chrysalis and the third caterpillar was crawling around the top of the net.  I expect they will all be in the chrysalis stage by tomorrow morning.

The chrysalis.  This amazes me every year!

Incredible Equations

The * indicates more than one student gave that equation.

Every morning at calendar time, we write incredible equations.  We use the date for our number and the students are responsible for coming up with equations that equal the date.  Here is a picture of our incredible equations for September 6th.  The students are working on understanding that adding is putting numbers together and subtraction is taking some away.  There are many models in our classroom that students can use to help them come up with their equations and some are able to think these up in their heads.  Each morning you could help your child think of an equation to share at that morning's calendar time.  Tomorrow will be 7!!!

Checking In...

The first "week" is over.  I am sure you had some tired kids on your hands each night.  I know I sure was!  I wanted to take a moment to check in and see if you have any questions now that you've had time to read through the Friday folder contents, the first grade newsletter and my email messages.  You can write your question in the comment section here on the blog or if you are more comfortable, you can message your questions to me.  Thanks for all your support through the first week.  The students did a great job and I am looking forward to next week!