Holiday Gift Ideas

Holiday Gift Ideas

It is that time of year to buy gifts and I love these ideas for our creative first graders!

This age should be filled with lots of free play, drawing, creative and imagination play!

 

Students are still excited to have their families read aloud to them.  Many are beginning to read on their own and these are the books series I love to encourage first graders to read on their own or to their families!

  

Games that help with critical thinking and math!

 

First graders are excited about jump ropes, puzzles and plenty of time outside!

Wishing you a holiday break with less technology and more creative play and family conversation!

Celebrating Our Learning

Celebrating our Learning!

People practice and anticipate many different special events in their own lives.  Whether it be memorizing lines for a performance or practicing extra for a special sports events.  Fox Creek believes that celebrating learning is just as important.  

First graders persevered to practice for a high quality Celebration of Learning.  Students shared what they have learned about reading fiction books and retelling.  From there, first graders wrote a personal narrative to include all of the story elements.

Finally, students had the opportunity to write a special memory down for a local grand friend.  Students also persevered to draw a high quality portrait of the grand friend.

The most important learning we celebrated was the importance of stories and relationships we can build with others, especially our elderly community members.  

Students dressed up and presented all of this hard work to their families and other community members.  Students are gaining presentation skills and learning the importance of their learning.

First Grade Adventures

Anytime we can get out of the classroom, I am all in!  Students have been working so hard to learn all about stories and the story elements.  What better way to celebrate all of this hard work than by going on an adventure.

Students dressed in their best and traveled by light rail into the city.  We decided the adventure could not be experienced on the regular school bus.  First grade students exceeded my expectations by showing all of the Habits of Character while venturing to the city.  The excitement was contagious!

The students loved the big city!  They had so many questions!  We stopped to look at so much, collaborated to cross busy streets and admired the amazing art of the city.

Once we ventured into the big city, students were content with our city picnic as we enjoyed our sack lunch in the performing arts area.

Lastly, we got to see an amazing show of many of Ezra Jack Keats beloved stories (The Snowy Day, Googles, etc)

Students were model audience members.  After reading these stories in class, students were inspired how the stories came to life through theater.

This is a first grade adventure that will not be forgotten!

Grand Friends

What a special and unique opportunity we have as a first grade crew!  As the last part of our learning expedition, Everybody Has a Story, first graders become friends with a local "grand friend".

We work hard to share our own personal narrative stories.  Then we interview a grand friend to record a special memory for him/her.

Students are active listeners who show our Habits of Character of respect and compassion.  We return back to school to write the story down and reread the story to record any wonderings we still have.

Students return to visit with their grand friend and to revise the grand friend's story by adding details and feeling words.

Students are also persevering to draw a high quality portrait of their grand friend.

This is a special relationship that connects our community!

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween party!  Thank you Kelly, Greta and Sue for making our day so fun and special.

Students enjoyed traveling to different centers.  Students made their own Halloween cookie.

Students created a skeleton using Q-tips.

Family readers read Room on the Broom while students ate their healthy snacks.

The orange slime making was a hit!

Students played BINGO!

What a fun day in first grade to celebrate Halloween!

Calm Down Strategies

We had an amazing time at crew! 

Today we learned about different calm down strategies we can use when we get upset. These are the ones we talked about:

Deep breathing 

Counting up or down

Positive Self-Talk 

Calming Thoughts - “Happy Place” 

Our crew is practicing these strategies not only when we are feeling mad, sad or overwhelmed, but throughout our day.  Each day after lunch recess, we calm down with PEACE OUT.  These are guided relaxation for kids.

I hope you continue to make relaxation and mindfulness a practice at home too!

Stories, Stories, So Many Parts

In our 2nd Case Study, we are learned all about the parts of a story.  We firmly believe that readers aren't just people who can read the words, but rather people who read the words, talk about the story and think about what is happening.  Our first step has been to practice retelling.  We have worked hard to learn all about characters, setting, problem/solution and beginning, middle and end.  

Students have collaborated in small groups to read a text over several days and describe each of the story elements in a note catcher.  After a week of becoming familiar with the books and all the story elements, students embarked on the journey of story acting.

Students collaborated in small groups to practice parts and design costumes.  Each group presented to the class.  

What an exciting way to teach others about our stories and a fun way to remember what we read!

Field Day

We enjoyed our Star Wars themed field day put on by our fabulous P.E. teacher, Mr. B.  We had fun while getting plenty of exercise.

Students collaborated together to complete various Star Wars missions.

What a great day of fun and sunshine!

Students showed respect by listening to all the volunteers including our 6th grade crew who helped out for the day.

Problem Solving

As a crew, we are working on solving problems.  We talked about how different kinds of problems require different strategies to solve them.  As Seth Godin says "The only way to get good at solving problems is to solve them."  The Great Thinker is our inspiration to continue to think "How can I solve this?" throughout our day.

We are thinking on how to solve problems with our friends.  We use a protocol of CFRR.

C stands for communication...

"I like it when....."

"I don't like it when...."

F stands for feeling

"It makes me feel....."

R stands for request....

"Please keep doing it"

"Please stop doing that."

R stands for response....

I understand.

I am sorry.

Thank you.

We are also working on problem solving during teaching time so students are not coming to me, but instead looking to solve problems on their own.  When students come to me, I say "I trust you to solve that problem."

In math, we are using strategies to solve addition and subtraction story problems.  Students are using count all or count on/count back.  Students are recounting to check that their equation is accurate.

In reading, we are problem solving during reading by thinking about the story and asking "What makes sense?".  Making meaning during our reading is our top priority.

Prompts for readers:

Look at the picture.

Can the picture help you?

Look at the beginning sound, what makes sense?

Think about the story, what makes sense?

I hope these strategies can be useful to you at home.