Jimmy Sawgrass @ Cypress Creek Elementary

Remember back to the Walk-a-thon in October. Our fabulous PE department takes the money raised and uses it to buy needed sneakers and sponsor students for field trips. They also use the money for school wide events like the fishing tournament under the Dunlawton Bridge and the much anticipated Field Day at the end of the year. This year they sponsored Jimmy Sawgrass to talk to the children about his Muskogee heritage. He was awesome! He taught the children words and showed various authentic skins. He talked about tradtions of hunting. He talked of a world without Wal-Mart and the using the woods to find the things you need. He even fired a musket so watch the movie clip below. The children really enjoyed the show and learned a lot! Thank you to the Walk-a-thon participants and contributors and thank you to our fabulous PE department-Coach Glover and Coach McLean.

1st week in December

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Our room is taking shape with all of our decorations. Don't forget to complete your Holiday Family Banner to hand in this week. We just finished ours and here is the picture. We had a grand time talking about our favorite part of the holidays. It is so cute to hear from the little people what they find fun and exciting. I can't wait for each student to share on Wednesday. We had our pictures with Santa, thanks to FFEA. If you didn't get a chance to have your photo, they will still take pictures with Santa the 11th and 12th this week. We have so many fun activities to come so be on the look out for the updates and invitations to come.

By the way, your children are turning into pretty proficent "texters". We used the ActivExpressions to text in the "s" blend to words we learned this week (snake, slide, skate). We also took a practice math assessment using the Expressions. They did a fabulous job showing me what they know about addition and subtraction so far this year. That same afternoon we took the district math assessment and the class average was 87%! WOW we are so smart!

Text in your answers...

We did something Friday I just did not think would be possible at this date and time. As a state finalist for Teacher of the Year, our awesome Promethean ActivBoard company gave me a set of ActivExpression as a gift.
If you remember back to Open House and we used the handheld voting devices to answer the questions. These are the next generation of those voters. Children can input numbers and even text answers that are read by the board. Well I thought I would wait until after the holidays to bring out that capability. We were reviewing out weekly high frequency words, focus skill, and language arts skill-verbs and took a short quiz with multiple choice and the class asked when we would be able to type in answers and so we tried it. I can honestly tell you they amazed me! By the way I taught a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds to text!
I can add that to my list of accomplishments! We text in our names-way cool!, spelling words, and even words in the -ake family. They begged me to text in November. It was amazing! I wish you could have been there to see it! I am so proud of them and asked them what they thought. I heard they wanted to do more and this was the most fun thing they had ever done. Needless to say I see more texting in our future. Maybe you child can teach you how to text...

Shhh!!! Don't let the hunter know where we are...

With Thanksgiving around the corner we decided to disguise our turkeys so the hunter won't know where to find us. Check out the coolest turkeys in town... Our families did a great job with just a turkey picture. We heard all about the fun when each child shared their family turkey. Can't wait to dream up the Christmas family project...

Election Day 2008!!

Tomorrow the USA will make history regardless of which party's candidates are elected. We had our own voting in the classroom. I belong to a wonderful Yahoo group filled with election ideas. I decided 1st graders needed something important to them and so we voted on the Best Cookie-homemade chocolate chip or Publix brand. Each child sampled both cookies (I made the homemade ones from the Toll House recipe on the back of the bag) and cast their votes. Mr. Butler, our principal, and Mrs. Culver, our assistant principal stopped by for the vote. After submitting ballots to Mrs. Weir, each voter received a "I voted!"sticker.

You can see the pictures of our polling place. We talked this week about it being our responsibility and duty as American citizens to vote for the leaders of our country. I hope this lesson reminds them one day that every vote counts! By the way, homemade chocolate chip cookies won 16 to 6. :)YEAH!! Please check out the SUPER COOL search me toolbar below. I have pieced together some favorite websites for you to visit with your child. You will find our reading series site, some interactive math games, Spelling City, and our new favorite the Pigeon!! I also included the Promethean Planet so you can look around to find out more about our fabulous ActivBoard your kids talk about. Just click on the page and it will take you to the website so you don't have to type in addresses. I tell you the technology we have available is amazing and just think how good your child is going to be-we are only in 1st grade. Enjoy! :)

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50s Day!

Friday was the 49th day of school and we celebrated with an almost 50s day. We enjoyed hula hooping, a bubble gum blowing contest, drinking a root beer float, dancing, and making a 50 necklace. We learned the hand jive and got pretty good at it. We watched the candy factory episode of I Love Lucy. The class had a blast! Make sure to watch the new slideshow to see first hand the fun you missed out on. We had a busy end to the month with our pumpkin day. Each child "guesstimated" the circumference of the pumpkin and we arranged them from smallest to largest. Jordyn was exact! and won the prize. We scooped out the 298 seeds and I roasted them at home for the class to sample. It was great fun and we want to thank Mrs. Weir for helping us out! We celebrated Spider Day with Mrs. Garver's class visiting to make "yummy" spiders-our favorite kind! The spiders were the cutest and tasty. It is hard to believe it is November but we are eagerly awaiting Thanksgiving.

Marine Science Center

We had our 1st field trip today to the Marine Science Center. Make sure to watch the slideshow. We had so much fun and learned a lot about turtles, the bird sanctuary, and the jetty. We got to see a Screech Owl and a Falcon up close. There were baby turtles in the turtle hospital/rehabilitation center. We learned about toothed vs. baleen whales. It was quite the interesting day. A HUGE thank you to our parent chaperones that went-Maria, Jenn, Chris, Ashley, Paul, and Michelle. We LOVE ya!
David's dad even got the Ponce Inlet Fire Department to make a visit during lunch. The firemen talked to the kids about what to do in case they are ever caught in a fire. Thank goodness for Fire Prevention Month. We even had a fireman dress in full bunker gear to show the kids so they wouldn't be scared if a fireman had to enter their home. We really are lucky to be a Wright's Ripper!
Mr. Zebell sent in a huge pumpkin for us to do some extra fun math this upcoming week. Thank you!
Ivy Grace was our Ripper of the Week and we learned she wants to be a veteranarian when she grows up. She is a very good artist and is such a good friend to us all. We enjoyed writing about Ivy Grace and even got a special treat from her mom. Mom made a movie for us to watch Ivy Grace grow from baby to now(even a picture with SpongeBob at the Nick Hotel from last month.) Next Ripper of the Week is Jacob.

Morgyn-Ripper of the Week

Morgyn was our Ripper of the Week. She loves to dance and wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She shared her favorite bears with the class and I read a fairy story written all about her. It was great getting to know Morgyn a little more this week. The class wrote sentences about what a wonderful friend she is to everyone and we made them into a book for her to read over and over. Our next Ripper of the Week is Ivy Grace so check back to read a little about her next week.

OREO project

Our class participated in the OREO project with our special helper Mrs. Woods. OREO stands for Our Really Exciting Online project. Each child got to stack OREO cookies as high as they before they came crumbling down. The towers ranged from Jacob's 12 to Jordyn's 21 cookies. (Caleb-15, Connor-18, Dallas-13, Daylan-13, Alex-16, Nick-20, Gabi-15, Trey-16, Tymothe-18, David-14, Preston-14, Vincent-13, Jordyn-21, Brianna-17, Jacob-12, Ivy Grace-20, Morgyn-14, Mrs. Woods-22 and I stacked 23) Our class average was 17. After that was done we each received a plate of cookies and made sculptures. The class was so creative so please take a look at the slideshow to see our original works of art!

Fire Prevention Week

October 5-11 was Fire Prevention Week. We enjoyed an assembly from the Port Orange Fire Department on Monday. We sang song and talked about what to do in case of a fire. In class we talked about the importance of firefighters in our community. We brainstormed a list and made a book to let them know how much we appreciate their hard work! Families were encouraged all week to work on their fire escape plans and hand them into the local fire station on Thursday night. I took Kaile and Carson Thursday night to hand in their plan. The firefighter gave Kaile and Carson a cool water bottle and some other goodies. I gave the firefighter our class book and he told us he would share it with all the firefighters. He loved it! Vincent and David were especially proud of their pages since their dads put their life on the line everyday they go to work as one is a Fire Marshall and the other is a Fire Chief. Remember to practice your escape route at least once and month and change the smoke detector batteries when you change your clocks-which will be soon.! :)

Johnny Appleseed Day-Sept. 26th

Sorry this post didn't make it over the weekend. I had a FABULOUS time at the FSU vs. Colorado game in Jacksonville this past weekend. It was a good day to be a Nole! Our class had an awesome day eating apples and learning about Johnny Appleseed. Yes we share the same birthday but like your children came home to tell you I turned 29 on Friday-for the 8th year in a row :) Seriously we started the day with an apple tasting. Which apple tastes better-red, yellow, or green? A HUGE thank you to the cafeteria, they were gracious enough to donate an entire case of apples! The green apple won by 1 vote! They like the sour apples. Later in the afternoon we had another apple tasting but this time we sampled apple chips, dried apples, freeze dried apples, Apple Jacks, apple cider, apple juice, and apple pastry. The kids loved it! The BEST part of the day was the smell from the back of the room as we let apples, cinnamon, and sugar cook in the crock pot. It smelled so yummy people stopped into our room to take a whiff that leaked out into the hallway. They tasted as yummy as they smelled. We had a wonderful day and look forward to the next learning experience-maybe Johnny Broccoli day? :)

Famous Authors!

This summer I watched a teaching video about motivating students to write. We write every day (almost everyday) in Writer's Workshop. I spend about 5-10 modeling writing out loud. I talk to the class about what is running through my head while writing and things good writers do. They have to give me a topic they want to write about before I hand them paper to write. I have pulled aside some students and "published" their writing. I help with the spelling. Amazingly enough I have not had to talk to them about staying on topic. They are really loving the writing. Here is a slide show of the 1st 5 famous authors. I will post more as we "publish" more. Stay tuned because Ivy Grace went to the Nick hotel on Friday and we are anxiously awaiting her story. Enjoy. :)

Open House

Open House was awesome! Thank you to all the parents that came out for the special event. We had 16 out of 17 families represented! From your checklists you completed a lucky family won the big prize. The big winner was Jacob's family. Enjoy your gift bag filled with goodies. I hope you enjoyed the Promethean ActivBoard demonstration. As you can see the class is up to date with the latest technology and your kids love it! We are right at 50% for parents that have joined PTA. We are trying to be the 1st class with 100% so we can earn the TOP prize of $100 for the classroom budget. Maybe you want to sponsor a family in these hard times. We would welcome the offer. Contact me and we will work it out. Johnny Appleseed celebrates a birthday on Friday so check back for the festivities I have planned for all my chickens.:)

FABULOUS US!

OK so think back to the first art class and how impressive our self-portraits were... Well, we have outdone ourselves and Mrs. Francis too. With a lot of love and patience here are our completed self-portraits. Aren't we the most talented 1st graders you ever saw? I am so proud of all of you. Last time Nick's picture did not make it to the slideshow and so I made sure to put it as the very 1st picture. Way to go kids! This is just a sneak peek into our Open House that will be this Thursday, September 18 starting at 6 pm. Please come by and see your child's home away from home. I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday evening. :)

Remember September 11

I want to take a moment to let you know we discussed the importance of September 11th today. We watched a Reading Rainbow and watched some children from PS 232 that experienced 1st hand the love and generosity from others around the world. The kids made a music video singing a song of how thankful they are for the support and love they felt through such a tragedy. I hope you too feel thankful today for all those before us that helped make America what it is today. My father was in the Air Force for 22 years and I feel a sense of pride when I share with the class the importance of our Armed Forces. Last week we talked about freedom and your child completed the sentence "Freedom means..." I am oh so proud to let you know that our very own Brianna placed 2nd in the AM VETS post 911's Freedom Walk Essay contest. Way to go! We are so proud of you! Talk to your child about what they learned-you might be surprised. Thank you for all you do!

Check out our cool puzzles!

Did you see the numbered envelope in the take home folder? Your child made a 100 chart puzzle for the family. Each child took a chart and cut it into pieces to see if you could put it back together. I hope you found the task easy. We had a lot of fun making them. Some of the children really got into cutting the charts into several pieces. :) Please make sure to put all the pieces in the envelope and send it back tomorrow because we are going to trade envelopes and put each other's puzzle together over the weekend. Watch the video to see Alex and Tymothe put a puzzle together. This class is fabulous! :) By the way, I updated www.spellingcity.com with week 3, 4 and 5 words. Make sure to find the list by using my name. Starting Monday, September 15 we will use week 4 words. Thank you so much for all your lovely comments! I have shared them with the class and we love hearing from you! Have a great weekend. See you on Thursday night for Open House from 6-6:30 in our classroom.

End of week 2 already! :0)

Hello all! I hope the Golden Folders made it home. We had a fabulous week working with the -ad, -an, and -ack family in phonics. We are still working on counting forward and backward starting with different numbers. We did some work with greater than (>) and less than (<) this week. So if your kids start talking about the alligator eating the bigger number of M&MS you will know where it came from. Please know it takes a lot for a Seminole fan like me to use a gator positively in the classroom. HAHA Just kidding. Your kids were begging for harder math and bigger numbers! You would have been proud! :) We learned and even touched all kinds of science lab equipment. We talked about the technical names of things and their purpose. Ask you kid what they learned because there will be a quiz next week.
Remember Sunday is Grandparent's Day so make sure to call the grandparents and wish them a happy day. I hope you enjoy our slideshow of our favorite things to do with our grandparents. It was a joy to make and put together. Do you enjoy the blog? Add a comment. I changed the options so anyone can add a comment and I will share them with the class. We love to hear how well we are doing. Have a great weekend and next week it is the short i that we will work with.:)

Spelling City.com

Hello parents and students. I hope you are enjoying your long Labor Day weekend. I would love for us to try out a new website. There is a link below that will take you to spellingcity.com Find the tab Find a List and type in Jeanne Wright as the teacher and week 2 list will pop up.
I have made the word list to help out with phonics study this coming week. Remember we are working on the -ack, -ap, and -ad pattern. There are also 2 review words from last week's pattern-man and mat. We have 2 high frequency words to practice too and over. Log in and have the computer help teach you, test you, or play a game. I really like play a game. You can search for the word, unscramble, or even play hang man with the week 2 list. Have fun and let me know what you think. See you on Tuesday. :0)

Back to school-1st day again

Well, after 4 days we finally got back today. We had an awesome day. Your child took home the same phonics patterns for this week. Remember we are learning the pattern so discuss other words to fit the pattern that are not on the list. Practice the high frequency words throughout the week and point them out if you find them in public or in reading you do nightly for your reading log.

Practice counting with your child. Count the number of steps you take from one place to another. Have your child count items or practice skip counting by 10s and 5s. We are really working on place value for the next 6 weeks. Give them a number and ask what number comes before and what number comes after.

We went to art for special area and I was amazed at the art work Ms. Francis got out of your child. Please watch our photo show below. Thank you for all your hard work.

We decorated our journals today and will unveil those one day soon. A HUGE thank you to Wal-Mart for donating 10 journals and to Connor's family for donating 5 to the class. They look awesome and we can't wait to write in them each day.

Have a great week! :)Mrs. Wright

Look at us!

Macy's Florida Teacher of the Year Gala July 2008

Another Day with no school

Better late than never right? I am new to this whole blogging experience but I will give it a try. Volusia County started school on August 18, 2008 and I opened my door to a new group of children. Sixteen young people walked in and took their seats. We had a great day! I introduced the new reading series with our very first whole group lesson. I assessed some students on kindergarten high frequency words. I even got a math lesson in before special area. I did more than I thought I would on the first day. A nd the BEST part?? I got everyone home on the bus or parent pick-up. Mission accomplished. :)

Then we got the message school was postponed due to Tropical Storm Fay- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then even on Friday. It is Friday night and I am starting a blog.

Hopefully, we will all get back to school on Monday morning. I have watched the news and seen the flooding on the west side of our county. I only hope things get better for all those affected by the flooding and power outages. I can't wait to see what else this year brings because we have definitely started in an unusual way. Keep dry and I'll see you Monday morning for another 1st day of school.