The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round....

"The wheels on the bus go round and round," sung the children as they made edible school buses from graham crackers and yellow icing. Earlier in the day we had read stories about school, talked about school bus rules and created school bus pictures.

 

 

 

Popcorn Snow Flurry

First graders' five senses were tantalized as a popcorn snow flurry occurred right before their very eyes. The students' eyes were as big as saucers as popcorn popped out of the pan and landed on a bed sheet. Seventeen little noses sniffed the oily hot aroma of freshly popped corn. Thirty-four ears perked up as they heard the sound of dancing kernels go, "POP! POP, POP, POP!" I told the students, "No touching, no tasting...not yet." I encouraged students to use words to describe the popping corn. I recorded the adjectives on popcorn shaped paper. 

 

 

 

 

Once all the popcorn popped out of the pan, I prepared another batch for students to touch and taste. This time I put the lid on to catch the popcorn and redirected the class back to naming their five senses and using their senses to describe popcorn. When it was all over, the students asked if we could do it again.

 

 

Learning Dough

On the first day of school students in my class knead playdough, nick-named "Learning Dough" in a Ziploc bag to reveal a colorful surprise. I have made playdough with my first grade students for years. Playdough is highly engaging with students and in the early weeks of school when teaching classroom rules and procedures it is great for transition times. It keeps early finishers busy, exercises small motor muscles and allows students to create. There is no limit to the children's imaginations while working with playdough. I'm always amazed at what they will form from their dough.

 

 

 

 

One of my students made ten bowling pins and carefully placed them in a triangle array. Then rolled the rest of his playdough into a bowling ball. He made an alley out of his pencils and crayons. His classmates watched in awe as he bowled knocking down playdough pins. The students exclaimed, "We want to do that!"

 

 

My students showed such high interest in playdough bowling I thought there must be a way to use this interest to a teaching avantage. In math the students learn what number combinations make ten. "That's it!" I thought, "I can use bowling to teach what number combinations make ten." So the next day, everyone made bowling pins and balls during math. The students recorded how many pins they knocked down and how many were left standing on a worksheet I found on Pinterest search. Hey, why reinvent the wheel, right?

The Talking Stick

Students listened intently as Mrs. Ladinsky and Mrs. Baugh introduced themselves to the class. Mrs. Ladinsky is our school Reading Coach and Mrs. Baugh is our new Guidance Counselor. Each of the ladies took turns telling the students about their jobs. Then Mrs. Ladinsky read the book, "Timothy Goes to School."

 

 

 

Once Mrs. Ladinsky was finished reading, Mrs. Baugh introduced an "Indian Talking Stick" to the group. No, the talking stick doesn't talk, the person holding it does. The stick helps maintain order during a discussion. In order to talk, you must be holding the stick, otherwise you listen empathically. Mrs. Baugh and Mrs. Ladinsky modeled how to use the talking stick. Then they allowed the students to try as the students made text-to-self connections with the character Timothy from the book Mrs. Ladinsky read.

 

 

 

The "Indian Talking Stick" will be introduced to all students at Cracker Trail Elementary School as part of the newly adopted, "The Leader in Me" program.  It will assist our students and staff in practicing one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit#5 Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Check out the following link, as Stephen Covey himself explains the rationale behind the "Indian Talking Stick."

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUxi-Zc45tA

 

 

Celebrating Names with Chrysanthemum

 A sweet little mouse named Chrysanthemum gets made fun of at school because of the length of her name and the fact her name is that of a flower. It is a wonderful story to read during the first week of school when meeting and making new friends.

 

Here are some the projects we did after reading the book, Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes.

 

In math, we graphed the number of letters in each student's name.

 

In writing, we learned the word "WILT" can mean sad and the word "BLOOM" can mean happy. Each student wrote about something that makes him/her "WILT" and then wrote about something that makes him/her "BLOOM."

 

 

 

I can't take credit for these lesson ideas, I found them on TPT, click HERE. They made a beautiful display.

 

For a culminating activity, our class made homemade pretzels. Each student mixed and kneaded his/her own dough in a Ziploc bag. My daughter Emily is an intern and assisted students with measuring water.

 

 

Once the dough was mixed, each student formed it into a letter shape for the first initial in his/her name. We have a convection oven in our classroom that I received through a classroom makeover grant I won a year ago. While the pretzels baked each student took a turn sharing with the class how he/she was given his/her special name.

 

 

 

Meet YourTeacher

Orientation Night

Cracker Trail Elementary

August 12th, 2013

As you can probably tell from the name of my classroom Blog, I do a bird theme in my room. This year my school has begun, The Leader in Me Program, by Stephen R. Covey. As I was brainstorming bulletin board ideas to promote this program. I came up with the title, Leaders Soar to Success. My idea grew from the title. I googled eagle art projects and found this one at http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/animals/birds/bald-eagle.asp  Anyway, the eagle's wings are handprints. I decided I would display eagle bodies on the bulletin board and have each of my students complete the eagle by tracing his or her hands on brown paper, cutting the handprints out and stapling them to his or her eagle's body orientation night. I wrote a letter addressed to each student inviting him or her to join me in completing this board as a team player. The letter included instructions for completing this craft and a poem about hands.



The project went over better than I expected. The children graciously got busy making handprints as they entered the room, while their parents completed paperwork. I had an opportunity to see how parents work with their children and observed which of my students could trace and cut on their own. An added bonus, I could look at the board and tell who was in attendance that night.

First Day of School

August 19th, 2013

For a fabulously fun following directions activity my students made edible eagles with a giant marshmallow head, frosted with vanilla icing glue, covered in coconut feathers, a cashew beak, a creme filled chocolate cookie neck and 2 semi chocolate chip eyes. The students had a blast making them. I thought they turned out great! Did you know a marshmallow is a cylinder and a cookie is too? Seems like we are playing, but lots of skills in addition to following directions were covered today.

 

 

One of my students had so much fun cooking the eagle snack that she made her own version of eagle snacks at home for her family after school. Her mom posted the above picture on Facebook. With the following, "Shelly... Brooklyn insisted on making the eagles you guys made in class today:-) Thank you for making her first day amazing !!!!!! "

How exciting is that! I think hers turned out absolutely adorable.