Father's Day

Before we left for summer vacation, the students had an opportunity to celebrate their dads.  We enjoyed Donuts with Dads as each student shared his/her poetry books.

 It was so special to see all the kids share some quality time with their dads.  Thank you for sending me such courageous thinkers this year. Enjoy your special day with your family!

School's Out for Summer

We are second graders!  What a great year we had in first grade.  We learned a lot, laughed a lot and I loved having each student as part of Schumacher Crew this year.  I hope each student continues to read lots this summer....15 minutes a day.  I highly recommend these series of books:
~Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
~Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant
~Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant

Here is a link for a list of books to take to the library:
Just Right Books for end of First Grade

Here are some 1st grade educational websites:
Instructional Links

Need more resources...visit FCE website and go to Student Links!

Have a healthy, fun, relaxing summer!  Make sure to stop by my classroom to say hi!

Celebrating Learning

"I knew by instinct and training that students would learn more, and with more joy, if adults from their home lives shared in their school lives. I wanted to welcome families into our first grade classroom in ways that would engage them and allow them to appreciate the children's accomplishments.  I kept searching, asking myself: What's the most important thing our classroom community can share with adult visitors? The answer I arrived at was "our learning"—which is, after all, the heart of all we do at school!"

by Leigh Weaver

Responsive Classroom Newsletter: 

February 2009

 On the last day of first grade, our CREW members became the experts by teaching their parents all about the case studies from our 2nd learning expedition, The World is our Garden.  Students confidently spoke to their parents about their investigations and experiments as scientist.  Each child shared their recordings in important science journal.







 Parents asked questions as students clearly presented information they had learned and inferences they had made.  Students went through the scientific processes and showed pride in their hard work towards high quality work.

  

Students discussed which FCE Habits of Character they used throughout the 12 week expedition.  The kids were truly the experts as teachers stood in the shadows as the coaches and facilitators.   The excitement during this Celebration of Learning was contagious. 

As readers and writers, we researched multiple sources of information to include experts, i-Pads and non-fiction texts (books and articles) to help us with our research.

 Students led parents through experiments and scientific conversations that included findings the students had and questions they answered.

We hope you can visit the FCE outdoor classroom with your smart phone.  We created an audio tour which includes important information about healthy vegetables and unique garden organisms that help our garden thrive!