These students are working hard!

Here are some pictures of my students working in school.

These are two students reading books on line.

These two students are reading together in the library.  That nice, big bean bag was given to us by donors who supported one of my DonorsChoose grants.

Here is a student reading a book that connects to our guidance lessons.

This student is reading independently at a table in the classroom library.

These two students are reading from their poetry and math binders.  The poems in these binders are duplicates of those we read in whole group.  The math section at the back of the binder contains hard copies of examples of math skills they are expected to master in first grade.  For example, there are copies of skip counts and doubles facts. 

These four students are also reading from their poetry and math binders. 

We have been studying the features of plants and animals that help them survive.  This student is massaging an aloe plant to feel the aloe within the plant. 

Measuring Sunflower Heads and Counting the Seeds

There is a measuring strand in our Everyday Math curriculum.  In science today, we decided to do some measuring.  To connect what we are learning to real life, we measured some sunflowers.  Here are the sunflower heads that came from our garden.  (The background is a black trash can liner.)

There were a lot of sunflowers in the garden!

First, I divided the children into pairs.  Each pair chose a sunflower head to measure and recorded their results.

Here are two children measuring their sunflower.  Most of the sunflower heads were 4 or 5 inches wide.

Next we counted the seeds of one of the sunflower heads.

 

 

This is the sunflower that we counted the seeds from.

We put ten seeds in each cup.

These are the cups with 10 seeds in each cup.

Then we counted the seeds by tens.

There were 731 seeds.  That's 7 stacks of ten cups, one stack of 3 cups, and one tiny seed!

The Hive is On Its Way!

We have been waiting for the cold weather to set in and all of the wasps to die in the hive that we found in our yard.  Last weekend my husband and son took down the hive.  These are the pictures. 

This is the hive in the tree.

Here is my husband shearing the hive off while my son is holding the branch back. 

Here is my son holding the hive.

 Now it is hanging in our garage and my husband is putting several coats of shellac on it before the hive is moved to the science center in our classroom.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving with Mr. Henrikson and Mrs. London

Today we had a very special surprise - Mr. Henrikson came to school and carved a pumpkin!  He is an expert pumpkin carver because he carved countless pumpkins for our three children.  I invited Mrs. London's kindergarten class to join us.

This lesson connected to the science standard in kindergarten - identifying the five senses.  Kindergarteners were able to experience first hand what a pumpkin smelled like, felt like, looked like, and they listened to the hollow sound of the pumpkin after the seeds and pulp were removed.  We decided not to eat the raw pumpkin!

For first graders in Mrs. Henrikson's class,  this activity was used as a review of the five senses.  In addition,  my class has been learning about the unique external features of plants and animals (which is aligned to the science standards that are coming) and so we used this experience to talk about what is unique about pumpkins.

This is Mr. Henrikson all set up and ready to go.  He brought a blue tarp so he could keep everything neat and some pumpkin carving tools.

I walked around with the carved out pumpkin and showed it to all of the students.  They were so patient while they waited for their turn to see inside.  They also knocked on the pumpkin to hear the hollow sound.

The children were very engaged during the presentation.  Mr. Henrikson asked who had carved a pumpkin and this is their response. 

If you look to the top left of the picture, you can see some kindergarteners feeling the pulp and seeds of the pumpkin.

Here is Mr. Pumpkin Head all carved out!

When we were finished, we put it in the garden. 

Sunflower Science

We each pulled apart the heads of some sunflowers growing in the garden and examined the seeds we found with magnifying glasses today.  We also found a few little worms living in the seeds. 

I gave each child a piece of clear packing tape so that they could take their seeds home and show their families.

Literacy Work Stations

We have been practicing what literacy work stations sound like, look like, and feel like in school.  They had the routine down so perfectly that they did not even know I was walking around taking pictures!

Science and Our Trip to The Maine Wilderness Park

On Thursday, October 10, all of the first graders at Dike Newell went to Gray to The Maine Wilderness Park.  Thank you, especially, to the five chaperones that helped us:  Donna Johnstone, Jessie Knowlton, Tonia Blake, Molly Delan, and Brittany Tucker.  I couldn't have done it without you all.

The purpose of our trip was tied to the following question which was taken from the science standards that are being explored for implementation in RSU1.  This is the question that all volunteers helped the first graders answer:

How do animals use their external body parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs?  

The new vocabulary that we learned "external body parts" and "survive" helped us understand the question.  Here are some of the answers that the children were able to give today in their own words:

1.  Moose have antlers to fight off other moose.

2.  Foxes are camouflaged so their prey can't find them.

3.  Male peacocks have feathers that are lots of colors so  

the female peacocks can decide which male they choose.

4. Bears are brown and black so they blend in to the forest.

5.  Owls' feathers blend in to the leaves in the woods.

6.  Moose have tails that they can swat bugs with.

7.  Raccoons have hands so they can pick up food and eat it.

And here are some photos of our day.  

Moose have antlers to fight other moose.

Bears are black and brown so they can hide in the woods.

We had lunch!  There were hornets everywhere and they were trying to eat the jelly in our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Our picnic lunch was delicious!

When we came back, we labeled a paper with the names of the animals we saw. 

 

$996.00! Thank You!

Earlier this week I received an email from DonorsChoose letting me know that the grant that I wrote for almost $1000.00 was filled.  We will be receiving four bean bags, a new listening center and headsets, a new small table, and Mo Willems books.  Thank you to my family and friends who all together donated almost $700.00.  The parents of two of my students and U.S. Cellular finished the final $300.00.

Last year I reorganized, remodeled, redid my listening center with about 30 new books on CDs.  Of course, the first week of school this year, my CD player broke!  We are currently without any CD players in the classroom so I am especially relieved about receiving a new one.  It is so important for students to have a choice of books to listen to because they are more engaged listeners when they have a chance to choose what they would like to listen to.  In addition, listening to accomplished readers read fluently is great modeling for their own developing fluency.   The ten headsets will go a long way over the next few years. . .it seems one or two is always broken. 

There are seven Mo Willems books in the grant.  Mo Willems is a favorite author of our class.   His books are written at levels just beyond the current independent level for many of my students, and so they are perfect for pushing their reading forward, and as students become more capable readers, the books become old favorites that they can read to help develop fluency.

The table is going to be used in an area of the classroom that I collect and organize lessons to be taught.  I am currently using a table that I bought for $4.50 at a yard sale fourteen years ago and it is about time I replaced it.  

Since 2008, DonorsChoose has funded thirteen of my projects totaling $6882.27.    

We can't wait to receive our new materials!  Thank you to everyone for your generosity.

Our Trip To The L.O.C.A.L. Garden

Today we went to the L.O.C.A.L. garden to plant garlic and kale, pick peppers and eggplant, and put some of the gardens to bed.  Special thanks to Mr. Henrikson and Mrs. Johnstone for volunteering to help.  Mrs. Burhoe was the L.O.C.A.L. garden volunteer who helped us while we were there.

Here are some pictures of our morning.

First I went to Shaw's very early to pick up a couple of loaves of garlic bread to surprise my students with after we came back from the garden.  But they had no garlic bread at Shaw's!  After explaining that I was a desperate teacher and wanted two loaves for my class who would be coming back from planting garlic later this morning, they whipped me up a couple of loaves. They even let me go into the bakery to take the pictures!

The person who works in the bakery is spreading the garlic and butter on one of the loaves I bought.

Then off to the garden we went to plant.  First, we planted garlic.

Garlic bulbs are planted 2 or 3 inches deep.  Many of the bulbs had little tiny starter seedlings growing to help us know which end to plant up.

Then we spread dirt over the garlic bulbs that we had planted.

And we covered the bulbs with hay to keep them warm for the winter.

Mrs. Burhoe directed us every step of the way.  That's Mr. Henrikson beside Mrs. Burhoe helping out.

These are some of the garlic bulbs.

Cute, cute, cute garlic sign!

Some kids picked peppers and eggplant. 

Here are the pepper and eggplant pickers and their bounty!

This is a close up of the peppers and eggplant we picked.  Check out my boots!

Back to Dike Newell for our garlic bread!

Everyone had a delicious snack!

Special thanks to Mr. Henrikson who drove our car back to Dike Newell to get my camera which I had left in our classroom!