Open House

Open House is always a wonderful evening to meet the parents and let them see a glimpse of our classroom.  The room was packed!  We had 16 families out of the 18 and the kids were wonderful tour guides.  I started the evening with a quick video featuring the students shouting we are readers, mathematicians, scientists, thinkers, and building our minds. The children led their families around the room on a scavenger hunt.  I ran around and took family pictures.  It was so sweet to see so many grandparents present adoring their grandchild.  Thank you for a fabulous evening and one lucky winner was chosen from all the scavenger hunt entries.  Congratulations to the Tevaga family for winning the book, What Good Brothers/Sisters do Best and popcorn. Just in time for the new baby on the way.  Enjoy the scrapbook show.

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Fabulous week!

Some kids wonder what do teachers do on the weekend away from school?  Well anyone that knows me, knows I LOVE FSU football!  My son Carson is playing Pop Warner football for the Port Orange Hawks and this weekend was our only bye week for the season.  Thanks to a friend we scored tickets to the FSU vs BYU game on Saturday.  It was our 1st family game.  Kaile and Carson had a blast!  We were so excited to see the FSU Seminoles beat the BYU Cougars 34 to 10.  Check out the slideshow I put together.GO NOLES!

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How can we move?

We talked about all the ways we can move and the class came up with a pretty lengthy list.  Our weekly reading series had a picture of a sack race and I was somewhat surprised as to how many kids had not been in a sack race.  Well, I jumped at that and we enjoyed some time outside racing one another.  It was fun and I am sure when it gets cooler they will want to sack race one another again.

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Science is so cool!

Everyone loves science because you can ask question after question and think of fun ways to experiment! First you have to know your lab equipment. Make sure to check out the Smilebox for the photos. We had a ball touching and playing around with the lab equipment. A few days later we experimented with Steve Spangler's fizzy colors. Today we played with eggs. I had the children gently shake 2 eggs (1 hard boiled and 1 raw) and ask how they felt different. Then I showed them, me squeezing the egg with all my might, and big muscles! They thought the egg was fake, frozen, dried up, hard boiled, and even empty. Then I told them to hold the whole egg and squeeze-to their surprise the egg did not crack! Believe me they tried to break the egg. We then talked about the hard boiled vs. raw egg. We experimented with the eggs to find any similarities and differences. Make sure to check out the Steve Spangler experiment. They loved every minute of it! I can't wait to plan another experiment.

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1st day of school

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Make sure to check out our 1st Smilebox of the year. Aren't they the cutest class ever!

School Year 2010-2011

Let me begin by saying-I am so excited for a FABULOUS year! This week has been so busy I didn't really find time to sit much less post on the blog! My new batch of friends are the cutest ever. We enjoyed learning about one and other and we chased Chester the raccoon from the Kissing Hand all over the school. Along the way we did get to meet a very special person, Dr. Holli Newnam, our new assistant principal. We just love meeting new friends and better yet she LOVES the FSU Seminoles! Chester did leave us a treat and it sure was yummy. We talked about scientists, science equipment, families, played war with cards to practice our numbers to 10, and read stories. We learned about expectations during literacy stations and practiced those stations. I think the class enjoyed the great word race and computers the best but stamping was pretty close.

Our daily journal is our morning starter and we decorated the covers this week. I want to thank Ms. Cindi and Mr. & Mrs. Creech for coming in to help the children cut, glue, and apply contact paper to seal it all up. They are BEAUTIFUL. At the end of the year it is priceless to see the progress each child has made as well as favorite memories from 1st grade. I have so much more in store for this class so I hope you visit and comment often.

Trying something new...

I learn from so many blogs from all over and I just love the sticky note wall. I found it from a wonderful Chet Creek teacher. I was just thinking what can I do next year to make the blog a little more interactive. I think it is great that kids and parents can respond to a question-and the responses look like they are really on sticky notes. I hope you give it a try. I can't wait to hear what you have to say. Let's give it a try. http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/USinEfzlUn