Michael Jackson Has Nothing On Us!

We are connecting our study of Night and Day to physical activity.  I am sure your first grader has told you that we are studying the moon!  Yesterday we watched a couple videos of Michael Jackson moonwalking as well as two demonstrations of how to moonwalk on the big screen in front of the classroom.  Next,  we went to the gym for our first lesson. 

Today we had our second lesson and wrote the directions on how to moonwalk.  In Writer's Workshop, our Unit of Study is "How to" writing and so we were making connections among content areas.   

If you would like to learn, please ask your first grader to demonstrate and tell you the directions.

Walking On The Moon

We are learning about night and day in school.  One of the four essential questions in our study is, "Has anyone ever been to the moon?"  Yesterday I showed this five minute clip from Youtube set to the song by the Police, "Walking On The Moon."    Today they are pleading to watch it again.  I told them I would put it on my blog for families to enjoy.  The video features clips of astronauts tripping on the moon, the space ship blasting off from earth, the American flag flying, and a repetitive theme showing the footprint on the moon of the astronauts who landed there in 1969. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQX9KOCS7MA

We Went Shopping At The Holiday Fair!

Yesterday we shopped at the Holiday Fair.  I was impressed with how thoughtful your children were when they decided what presents to buy.  Thank you to Kimberly Gates and her army of volunteers.  "Thank you for opening your store for us."

"Sing Joy" Concert Tonight

Thank you to everyone who came tonight.  Our first graders were terrific and we should all be so proud of each of them.

My DonorsChoose Grant Was Filled!

Late last week I received an email from DonorsChoose.org stating that my latest project "Moving On Up," was filled.  DonorsChoose is a website that offers public school teachers the opportunity to write a proposal for a project that supports their public school classroom.   People from all around the world visit the website and choose a project to support by making a financial contribution.  If enough people pledge enough money for your project, it becomes reality.  

My latest project was for $280.00 and included materials to support our first grade curriculum here at Dike Newell.  As many of you know, after eleven years in kindergarten I moved classrooms and grade levels this past summer.   I wrote a project to support materials that I need for first grade and some bulletin boards for my new classroom.  All of these materials will be shipped the first week of 2012.  In the past four years, I have written eight grants and received materials totaling over $3500.00! 

On Friday morning, I used our projector to show my students the DonorsChoose website and read the actual on line project to them.  They are excited for their new materials to come next month!

Our Newest Volunteer

My mom will be coming into the classroom beginning next Thursday morning, December 8.  She used to work at Dike Newell as a teacher's aid when I was a middle school student.  She is very interested in reading to children and I am excited and thankful to have her help in my classroom.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Senator Collins Visited Us Today

Today we had a visit from United States Senator Susan Collins.  She read Antlers Forever, by Frances Bloxam to the entire first grade.  Dr. Manuel, our superintendent, introduced her to us.  Senator Collins also read to the second grade.  I learned that many of my first graders are familiar with this book.  Frances Bloxam lives right in Bath and is my neighbor.

Here are some pictures from her visit:

She showed the pictures to all of the children as she read the book:

The first graders were a captive audience:

Pumpkin Pancakes on Halloween Morning

We made pumpkin pancakes this morning!  We ate them with apple juice and bananas.  Here is a picture of the batter.  Look at all the patient first graders waiting to eat.

These are the pancakes on the griddle.

And these are the first graders who are eating the pancakes:

Everyone received a scary spider ring or plastic spider at the end of the day.  Here are some of the hand models:

Food Drive Findings

Yesterday was the last day of the food drive.  Thank you to everyone who participated.  I understand that not everyone is able to contribute.  We made a graph of the food that we collected.  We decided to sort the food by the type of container that the food is contained within:

Here is a picture of all of the food we collected.

Here is a picture of the student who worked very hard and collected all of the food from each classroom!

Thank you again for all of your help!

Seventeen Jackson Pollocks in Room Fifteen

Today we read Olivia by Ian Falconer.  Olivia is a headstrong little girl pig whose antics are well documented in several Olivia books.  Ian Falconer wrote the original book as a birthday gift to his niece.  In the book, Olivia visits a museum and views a painting by the renowned American artist, Jackson Pollock.  As you see in this post, he is famous for his splashy, drippy style of art.  Olivia sees one of his paintings in the musuem and says, "I could do that in five minutes."  We decided to give it a try.  Here are some photos.

Doesn't this look like fun?

Here are some of the creations.  They are all on display for parent teacher conferences.

This is a picture of the now deceased Jackson Pollock in action:

Apple Books

As part of our our study of apples, we made apple shaped books. The front covers of the books are woven colored strips of construction paper and have a worm made from a pipe cleaner sticking out.  The pages are an apple life cycle, two apple poems (including the one we learned at the field trip to Rocky Ridge), a cut away diagram of an apple, an apple words dictionary, and a page listing our favorite apple books.   The books will be on display at student conferences next week.

Right now the books are in their book baskets so that they can read them throughout the day. 

Wednesday is Guidance Day

Wednesday mornings bright and early Mrs. Brinkler comes to our room for a half an hour for guidance.  We are working very hard on communication skills, particularly communicating feelings without words by using gestures.   In this first picture, she said the word "broccoli" and  she and another student showed their feelings about broccoli without using words.

Here is how two students feel when they hear the words, "haunted house."

And two more students react to the words, "My friend won't play with you."

We are learning to express our feelings in many different ways.

It Was An Apple Butter Day!

      Today we tasted apple butter.  I picked up a jar from Cracker Barrel over the summer for $4.99.   It was a huge hit with 16/17 children asking for seconds! 

      We also wrote our thank you notes to Mr. Trippi for crafting our cubbies.  We used cardboard with lines drawn to represent the cubby shelves.  Each thank you note was two sentences long with the first sentence reading, "Thank you for the cubbies."  The second sentence was more descriptive - they had to add an original idea about why they liked the cubbies.  Finally, they had to draw a picture of their backpack located where their designated spot on the cubbies is and sign their name beside their backpack.   Here are some of the examples: