BACK to 1st grade...

After 10 wonderful years of teaching STEM, I am moving on to my next adventure—back to first grade!

When STEM was removed from our special-area rotation, I was asked what else I would like to teach. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to teach first grade. The incredible amount of learning and growth that happens during this year is something I have always held near and dear to my heart. I am excited to return to the classroom and begin this new chapter with my firsties!

Before I could welcome my students, however, I had to figure out where to begin with the classroom.

The room was a completely blank slate. After spending 10 years in STEM, it was tough to remember exactly what a first-grade classroom needed—or even what my classroom looked like all those years ago!

I knew I wanted a U-shaped arrangement for the student desks, a comfortable carpet area, a teacher workspace, and a dedicated table for small-group reading and math instruction. I also wanted to bring in my tall table and, if space allowed, add a round table.

The Samsung interactive panel would need to be a main focus of the room, with the carpet positioned so every student could see and participate. Then there were the bulletin boards! I had not planned or decorated traditional classroom bulletin boards in 10 years, so that was another adventure waiting for me.

Making this move came with an extra challenge because I had a total knee replacement in June. Thankfully, my principal gave me plenty of time to move everything from one building to another across campus and begin putting the room together at a manageable pace.

My STEM classroom had been a large, bright space filled with student projects, supplies, LEGO bricks, and technology designed to engage learners from three years old through fifth grade. Moving into a first-grade classroom meant rethinking the space while still keeping the creativity, exploration, and hands-on learning that I love.

It was definitely going to be a work in progress, but I could already picture the possibilities. There was a lot to plan, organize, move, and create—but I knew the reward would be worth every bit of it.

A blank classroom was about to become the home of Wright’s Rippers!

The 1st week of year 29

29 years of 1st days WOW 29 years has passed so quickly and they told me it would. I just didn't believe them. I am excited about the upcoming school year and it will be year 6 teaching STEM. 

I try to change things up each year. I am so thankful for all the blogs, tweets and FB groups that inspire me. Here is a quick tour of our room. 

First week was filled with rules and procedures and our 1st BUILD! Third through fifth grade completed the Name Tag Challenge and the kinders through second grade got to build with a variety of materials. More on those adventures tomorrow. I have to get up early to workout. Happy Sunday.

The Napping House

PRE-COVID

Teach Outside the Box has done it again! We read The Napping House and the kinders had a grand time with helping me retell the end of the story.

They are the cutest right? We then watched some QR codes on balance. Little did they know learning about balance was going to help them with the final challenge. 

First came the 1st build. They had to build a bed from thick popsicle sticks and clothespins. It was quite entertaining to teach them to use clothespins, safely.  It was tough for them to set up the headboard and footboard of the bed. There was a little bit of balance work here with the popsicle sticks on top of the clothespin sections. After all that the students had to work together to retell the order of characters. When they had the order they had to balance the cups of characters. Teamwork, communication and a few laughs later most partners completed the challenge.

Taking a leap

 Teach with Tech Conference has inspired me to test my boundaries when it comes to tech integration. I made this newsletter in hopes it would reach my families and create a path for us to communicate. My bigger hope is for families to see the magic I see in my classroom and have a point of conversation with their child about what they are learning day to day. Fingers crossed it works.

October Happenings

 Hard to believe the month has gone by so fast. It has been a busy month with kindergarteners learning about bats, spiders, pumpkins and monsters. We made monsters after reading I Need My Monster! We made spiders and even built gates for our little pumpkin. 

After reading Go Away, Big Green Monster Mrs. Novak's class used Duck Duck Moose's app Draw & Tell to make these monsters. Kinders never cease to amaze me with their talent. 

The Pigeon Has to Go to School

 Who doesn't love the Pigeon from Mo Willems? He is one of my favorites and everyone knows. Beginning the year for 1st graders is fun when you tie the Pigeon, an iPad and levers. I love getting to read to firsties and think it is great to tie a literature connection to a STEM activity. After reading we watch 

I give them a marker, a plastic soon, and a cutout of the Pigeon. They test where to place the marker and/or spoon while practicing how hard or soft to strike the spoon to launch the Pigeon. It is quite fun to watch as they learn from one another what works, what doesn't, what will get your Pigeon higher and watching with amazement as they launch all over the classroom.

 Then we work on aim and strength of the strike to get the Pigeon closest to the school. After we work through this we work on back to school puzzles and even learning how to draw the Pigeon and send him on our own adventures.

Ping Pong Ball in a Cup Using Teamwork

 Starting out the year I try to use Teamwork activities to get the kids to think and talk to one another. Communication is very important and teamwork can accomplish tasks beyond their wildest dreams. We meet Molly the inventor in this amazing GE commercial.

After seeing this we talk about team work being important. I give them sheets of paper, a cup and a ping pong ball. They have to figure out a way to get the ping pong ball into the cup from a distance of 4 feet or six feet and even 8 feet away. It is funny to see them using trial and error to accomplish the mission. 

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work... #ottersmatter