Exploring magnets

The children had a great time rotating through magnet stations today!

Veterans Day Program

Our class would like to say "Thank you" to Veterans. We appreciate the sacrifices you have made for us and our country. 

So glad that we were able to have some special Veterans here for our program today. 

Fall Party

The kids had a great time at our Fall Party yesterday. Thank you to the moms who were able to help and to everyone who sent treats and goodie bags!

Patterns

We are learning about patterns this week. In kinder, your child learned about using colors and shapes to make patterns. In 1st Grade, we explore new ways to make patterns, such as the way an object faces, growing patterns (which we call additive patterns), number patterns, and more!  It's so much fun to see the children realize that patterns are so much more than just colors and shapes!

Who Let the Vowels Out?

Caving!

Earlier this week, we read the book "Stellaluna".  When we reread the book the next day, a note from Stellaluna fell out!  She's asking for our help. See the note below. 

The students are so excited to help Stellaluna!  

Before we can help her, we have to learn as much as we can about caves. Here's a few pictures of our cave explorers wearing their "spelunker" hats while working on our cave books. So cute!

A Day in the Life...

Just a typical morning in First Grade. 

A little graphing with Lucky Charms. 

In reading, we've been learning about author's purpose. We used book order forms to sort books into two categories: entertain and inform. 

Freedom Parade

This week in Social Studies we learned about some of our nation's symbols and we learned that the Constitution is the set of rules for our country.

Today, to culminate the end of this unit, we celebrated with a "Freedom Parade".  We walked through the halls of Cline shouting "USA!" while wearing liberty crowns and holding torches (made from paper, of course).

The children enjoyed showing their patriotism and displaying their love for the US.  And I think they REALLY enjoyed being allowed to shout in the classroom and hallways!

You may want to turn your volume down just a tad before viewing the video :)

Thank you!

I received the sweetest surprises this morning!  Thank you all so much for all of the goodies, chocolates, candles, and especially the sweet cards. As I told the kids, "My bucket is full!"  

Wonderful Wednesday

Wow!  We had a wonderful day in 1st Grade today.  Your children are amazing!  They worked very hard at following directions quickly and controlling talking.  They were eager learners and this made my teacher-heart happy, happy, happy!

The first week of school, we read "Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids".  This book is all about having good character - it tells us that everyone carries around an invisible bucket and all day long, people are either filling your bucket (by doing nice, caring things) or dipping from your bucket (the not-so-nice things).  After reading the book, we discussed that Cline, and especially our classroom, wants to be full of bucket fillers.  We use those words (bucket fillers) quite a bit here at school.

Today, I introduced the children's "buckets" (these are actually clear plastic cups with the children's names on them).  When a child is being a bucket filler, I add a marble to his/her cup.  When the cup is full (about 15 or so marbles) that child earns a trip to the treasure box.  Children earn 1 marble for being on green and 2 for being on blue (no marbles for yellow or red).  They can also earn them periodically throughout the day by following directions and setting a good example and just being a bucket filler.  They were SO excited about the buckets!  Be sure to ask your child about them!

Tuesday homework

Tonight's homework is math!  The paper I am sending today does not have clear directions on the paper, so I put a picture below that should help when your child does his/her homework. We did a couple of similar problems together in class this morning, so the children should know what to do, but just in case...  The paper has two sides.  Please be sure he/she does both.

If you haven't "followed" my blog, be sure and do that so you will get notifications when it is updated. 

Monster Goes to School

Ask your child to retell you the story of "The Day the Monster Came to School". This paper is coming home in your child's Friday Folder today. 

First day pictures

First day!

Welcome to our 2013-2014 Wilson Class Blog!  I hope to update 2-3 times a week with happenings from our 1st Grade class!  Be sure to "follow" me to receive email notifications when the blog is updated.