Apples Apples and More Apples

 Last week was all about apples.  We started the week by reading the story How Do Apples Grow. 

Before reading the book, we shared our prior knowledge, or as Mrs. Wanke calls it, our schema. We wrote our prior knowledge down on Post-It notes and added them to the schema section of our chart.   After reading the story, we added new learning to our chart.  Mrs. Wanke explained that this new learning will eventually become part of our schema.  PROOF we are learning and growing our brains!

Later in the week we read How to Grow an Apple Pie and See the World.  

As we listened to this story we followed along on a map of the world.  It was fun to see all the places around the world. 

To end our week we made our own mini apple pies, apple turnovers! YUMMY!

First Day of First Grade

 We had a such a great first day in first grade!    Check out these super happy first day pictures!

We read the story Our Class is a Family.   You can listen to this story at home. 

After reading this book, we brainstormed a list of ways that we should behave and ways to treat others so that we can be a class family.  We signed our list to show our promise to our class. 

Later in the day we made friendship bracelets.

Guided Math...what do we do?

One of my favorite things to do is Guided Math!  This time is great for giving me the opportunity to really support your child individual needs.  

The "magic" happens at the table!  This is where I can break the lesson down for each group's unique needs and provide hands-on learning. I love our time together at the table and see the growth from each student!

Lots of collaboration takes place during this time as well.

While students are at the table, others are working independently on various tasks.  There are three other stations students rotate to in addition to coming back to the table with me. 

Independent worksheet

This allows us to show what we learned during our time at the table and provides insight into instruction for the group. This worksheet will provide extra practice for the current concept and a review for a previously taught skill.  

Group Game

The game supports the current lesson that was taught at the table.  This provides more practice in a fun way as well as providing opportunities to work together.

Technology Station

We rotate between Reflex Math, Zearn, and IXL.  All these sites help build our fluency and understanding of math concepts. 

Glow Day 2023

Welcome to GLOW DAY!  The kiddos were surprised when them came to school today to see our room transformed!

Everyone got a vest and a pair of glow glasses for the day!

Mrs. S. and I were just as excited to start the day!  

We played glow Jenga.  Students played this game with Mrs. S.  Each Jenga piece was covered in 1 of 4 colors of neon black light tape.  After the child successfully placed the Jenga piece on top, he/she had to take a math question card that corresponded with the color on the Jenga piece.  Every student had to write their answer to the question on their whiteboards.  

At the math table we worked on the make 10 strategy with our special glow thinking caps. 

I head many of the kids say, "This is the best day ever!" and "I love this class!"  This is exactly why I love my job!  They were sad to see this day end, but I told them you just never know when another special day will pop up! I have many more tricks up my sleeve!

We had so much fun and did so many glow activities, including finding evidence in the text with highlighter, which glow of course!  We used invisible ink pens that only showed up with our special lights from glow day.  We also played with our fun glow boards to practice writing our words.  We had so much fun, Mrs. Wanke forgot to take more pictures!  SORRY! Below are some more random pictures from our day.