Spring has SPRUNG!!!

Spring is FINALLY here, and we are taking ALL KINDS OF advantage of this warm weather!!!! We continued our poetry lessons, and created two more forms of poetry...CINQUAIN and HAIKU...We used the WARM WEATHER as inspiration and took our poetry writing OUTSIDE to bask in the sun's glow...

Cinquain Poetry...

Class constructed poem..."Babies" 

"Horses" by Brianna

"Mommy" by Julia

Class constructed Haiku Poem..."Butterfly"

"Summer" by Julia

"Winter" by Kaytlin

We also celebrated EARTH DAY this week...we had a presentation given to us by Mr. Hakler...he taught us the importance of keeping the Earth clean, and even brought in a real-life TARANTULA to teach us how spiders are great for the environment...

We also have CATERPILLARS visiting us in our class...we are watching and observing the life cycle of a butterfly...

Also, this week we learned all about HOMOPHONES.  We learned that HOMOPHONES are two words that sound alike, but have different spellings and meanings...we created a little crafty "Buzzing Homophones" to practice using the correct word in a sentence...

I have HAIR on my head.

The HARE is hopping.

WHICH one is my sweater?

The WITCH is in the air.....

Gotta love the EYELASHES/MAKE-UP this bee is sporting...LOL!!!

We completed EARTH DAY themed centers this week...

"ABC order" sort

"Earth Day ten-frames"

"Read the Room" subtraction sentences based on recycling garbage

"Earth Day Homophone" matching

Let's hope the frost is finally GONE...and the warm weather is here to STAY!!!

A "Quintastic" Week!!!

We had such a great week learning all about the sound /qu/ this week...and our sound lesson even spilled over to all of our learning lessons!!! The students incorporated the quints into all aspects of our daily routines, and had so much fun learning!!!

Quints learned how to add tens using ten rods...

Quints watched over us as we created a

 noun/verb/adjective chart

But, as in life, all good things must come to an end...so we had an ice-cream sandwich birthday party for the quints...

and gave them a kiss good-bye...

can I just say oh.my.word how precious is this????

We continued our learning of plants, with plant themed Math and Language Arts centers...

Adding and subtracting...

Sorting plant themed cards in ABC order

Flower synonym matching

We also created a graph on 

"Which Type of Plant is Your Favorite?"

We analyzed our results using a bar-graph, tallies, and completing number sentences...

Bye Quints...

Meet the QUINTS!!! :)

Sorry for the delay in posts...I have been computerless for the last WEEK!!! I am figuring out how to post from my iPhone!!!:)  Anyway...here's a look at this week...


This week in First Grade, we are learning all about the sounds /qu/ and /wh/....so we are welcoming some visitors to our class for the week...The QUINTS: Quincy, Quinn, Quigley, Quinton and Queenie..

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Each group will be in charge of one of the quints for the week, and will also be responsible for creating an invitation for a birthday party for their quint (invitation writing is our writing prompt for the week).  Today, the students met their group's quint, and began to plan their invitation by completing an invitation planning sheet...answering /wh/ questions....

We also started learning all about PLANTS, beginning with a silly story "Tops and Bottoms" by Janet Stevens...

The story is about a savvy rabbit who needs to find land to plant his vegetables.  Bear is a lazy bystander who attempts to make a profit from Rabbit's farming adventure by sharing his land and splitting the profit.  They decide that they will split the profit 50/50, tops or bottoms.  Bear unknowingly chooses tops and is surprised to find that the bottom is where the profit is.  Rabbit tricks Bear when he plants crops that grow underground like radishes.  bear is upset when his top half of the harvest is all the leaves.  He demands the bottom half the next time.  Rabbit slyly agrees and plants crops like cauliflower, yet again, outwitting the bear....  We used this story to anchor our learning by creating a chart of "How does the food grow?"..

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Also, we continued our learning of POETRY by completing an -ing Poem and List Poem...

Spring Break is OVER & We've Hit the Ground Running!!!

After a much needed SPRING BREAK, we are back to school and boy are we BUSY!!!  We started talking and learning all about the Earth especially how to take care of it...especially because we celebrate EARTH DAY this month.  We created a project on what our PROMISE to the EARTH is...

 Class projects on display in the hallway

 "Recycle old toys, recycle bags you don't use, and don't litter!"

 "Don't litter. Recycle old toys"

First Grade hand-prints promising to keep the Earth clean!!!

This month is also POETRY appreciation month.  This month I plan on introducing all different types of poetry to the class, and have them try to create their own.  We started with a Poe"tree" anchor chart brain- storming what poetry is...

We learned about ACROSTIC POEMS today...we viewed a PowerPoint presentation of different examples of acrostic poems...

Then, we created a class acrostic poem all about APRIL...all of the students had an input as to what what we should write...here is our final poem...(they are SO clever!!!)

Finally, with our new knowledge of ACROSTIC POETRY, the students then had to create an acrostic poem using their names...here are some final drafts...

These are the beginnings of our "Pocketful of Poems" project...each poem that the students create will be put on display and then later compiled to make their own poetry book!!!   Happy APRIL!!!!

"A Poem in MY Pocket"

A poem is like a daydream-

It can take me far away;

or bring back a little memory

of a very special day.

A poem is like a party-

full of fun and sweet surprise;

and every poem I read is just 

a present in disguise.

A poem is like a mystery-

and I'm waiting to unlock it.

I'm never bored when I'm alone;

a poem is in my pocket.