First Graders are growing every day!

Teachers nurture the seeds, and tend to them each day.  Soon our first graders will bloom!  

This week in reading, we have been focusing on the Essential Question, "What changes over time?" with a focus question, "How do plants change as they grow?"

I added this to the Writing Center as an option, A Seed Packet!  You can find it for *free* on my www.teacherspayteachers.com page.  Click here!

I turned the student writing into an adorable hallway display!

I printed flower pot images on 81/2 by 11 paper, them laminated them.  I also printed our book covers and pasted them to popsicle sticks, just like seed packets in a garden!

I just love the last step here... "Then, give the flower to a person that you love!"  It warms my heart to see this writing!

It's a New Year in first grade!

Happy New Year activities for first graders.

The New Year is such a great time to make a fresh start!  We can always improve our classroom, too.  I start the celebration with a shared discussion about New Year's traditions.  Students come with great family traditions, from lighting sparklers to banging pots and pans, to watching the ball drop on television.

We watch video clips on YouTube of celebrations from around the world, and then recreate the countdown!  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I pour sparkling apple cider and we toast with "cheers" and smiles!

Vocabulary Mini-Lesson

Next, I introduce the word resolution, a promise or goal to do something better in the new year than we did in the previous year,  We add it to our list of growing list of WOW words (Wonderful, Outstanding Words) on the Vocabulary Vine.

I share a personal goal for the year.  This year (2015), my goal is to play more board games with my kids.  I use the word resolution as I think aloud about my goal and why my goal is important (because I let my kids watch too much t.v.).

Practicing Together

Next, we think about what we could do better as a class.  My class this year is notorious for acting up in the cafeteria!  Somehow we have been unable to even get close to the other first grade classes in earning High Fives!  We made a list of goals together, and then went a step further to talk about why the goals are important.  It's always amazing to me how tuned-in students are to what needs improvement!  Star Writers are our self-checking rubric for writing.  I was glad my friends knew our writing could improve!

Modeling

The key to having students write meaningful resolutions is to have them make a resolution about school.  What do they need to do to improve as a learner?  

The next step is to model writing a resolution.  I modeled on the ELMO projector filling in the organizer.  My New Year's Resolution is to challenge myself when playing math games.  This is important to me because I want to get better at math and show my friends how I figured problems out.

Students' Turn

I kept a small group that needs writing assistance in varying ways.  Some need help verbalizing, some just need reassurance that they are on the right track, and others need almost complete scribing with highlighter for them to copy.  Most students, though, worked on the graphic organizer themselves.  Then, I circulated and fixed any spelling errors.  Students turned their sloppy copies into final drafts!

Ringing in the New Year

Check out these resolutions by my first graders!

My resolution is to raise my hand to speak.  This is important to me because I don't want to call out.

What do you want to improve the most in school is reading.  My New Year's resolution is to read more than last year.  This is important to me because I write more than I read.

 This one might be my favorite of all-time, since she used a previous WOW word!  My New Year's resolution is to pay attention more.  This is important to me because I want to be industrious.

 My New Year's resolution is to work on my science journal, no looking around.  This is improtant to me because so I can work on science a lot.

 My New Year's resolution is to read to a partner because it's fun to read to partners.  Reading is important to me.

My New Year's resolution is to learn more about the moon.  This is important to me because (I want) to be an expert at the moon.

Sharing our Resolutions!

December Student-made Student-Centered Email

Dear First Grade Families,

     Happy December!  Even with the holidays coming, we are focusing on becoming better readers, writers, mathematicians, and scientists in class!  Here’s what we are up to!

     In reading, Evan shares that we’ve been learning the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  London shares that nonfiction books have photographs and show real information. 

     In our writing center, we have choices!  Akirah has made a choice to research owls on PebbleGo.com with Asiyah and Julia.  Lucas and Alex have turned their research into informational posters teaching others about dinosaurs—ROAR!  Jacob L. has been writing  imaginative stories with Luke A. about gingerbread men and a big, fat policeman.  Payton has been choosing word work and using her phonics words to practice spelling.  In writing, Gracelyn and Payton are working on a nonfiction book about tigers.

     Science has been super!  Jacob S. shares that we are working on models, and yesterday we made moon out of clay and phases of the moon out of Oreo’s.  Luke A. shares that today we measured how high the moon is using handspans.

In math, Mckenzie says we wrote numbers on sentence strips.  Chase adds that we are also are counting all the way up to 200. Here is Akirah’s counting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKpHjmxhf4s&feature=youtu.be

Happy Holidays and Feliz Navidad,

Mrs. Y’s First Graders

Teaching Nonfiction Text Features

Common Core Standards for Grade 1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.5

Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.

The Common Core standards for Reading Informational Text include having students know and use text features.  In this lesson, I begin building students' knowledge of text features. First,  we watch a video that introduces text features.  Who doesn't love a cowboy lassoing some text features?

Next, we read an article together and label the text features.  I love these adorable lightbulb sticky notes!  I chose an article on Animal Classification because it contained numerous features and also for student interest.  (Lately, we have been asking lots of questions about what makes a mammal a mammal, etc!)

Now, it's time for pairs of students to give it a try!  Here are some pictures and videos showing the classroom and check-ins!

In closing, we come back to the rug for a discussion.  Here's how our discussion started:

Next, students shared questions they came up with and other text features they found!

As a home-school connection, students put these pages in their Study Buddy.  The Study Buddy is a binder that goes home each night and comes back each day.  The "Strategies" section of the Study Buddy has ways parents can support students at home with reading by reinforcing what we are learning in class!

Check out this free version on TeachersPayTeachers.com!

After this lesson, I post the article we read together and some descriptions of text features in our classroom library for reference.  Our next lesson will get into the purpose of text features!

STEM + Art = STEAM

Creating Connections between Science Curriculum and Families

~Creating an NGSS-aligned science curriculum for Betterlesson.com has inspired me to truly involve my first graders' families in our learning!~

Aligning with the NGSS Life Sciences standards for first grade, my unit revolves around external features and patterns of behaviors of birds.  Check out my unit on Betterlesson.com (coming November 2014).

At the beginning of this unit, I sent home a packet of bird-themed activities like recipes, art projects, and more, that families could make at home.  Here's a link to the free packet, on www.teacherspayteachers.com.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bird-themed-crafts-1518188

Here are some sample pages and crafts from the packet.  I pulled together most of the ideas from Pinterest!  Plus, some were ones I have fond memories of completing as a child~ like the peanut-butter-covered pinecone bird feeder.

It was so exciting as parents started emailing pictures of their children working on bird feeders and crafts at home!  Here is some of the astonishing work that came in!

STEAM projects also make personalized, meaningful hallway displays that students are proud to show off!

To create a hallway display, I first hung a branch with fishing string.  Then, I hung some of the unique bird creations, which truly "fly" when people walk by!

Next, I photographed and printed pages from student Science Journals.  I created a bulletin board that incorporated both the artwork and the science curriculum ~ a STEAM project!

This project was so meaningful to me because I love connecting with families!  I hope to work with a local nature center next and plan a birding trip on an upcoming weekend for first grade families!

Schema and the Common Core!

I had a major AHA! moment about schema and the Common Core today.  Like many educators, I reflected at length about the Common Core and how it relates to what I believe works for kids-- namely, metacognition strategies!  I looked to Debbie Miller for guidance and found this great interview.  And, I spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the first grade ELA standards to see how they fit with the various strategies.  

It really bothered me that schema was just not there!  I find schema-- connecting to your background knowledge-- to be such a valuable tool for understanding both fiction and nonfiction texts.  The ideas of what makes a meaningful connection have always been pivotal for first graders!  Meaningful connections help us comprehend what we are reading!

Here's the poster I have always used to show meaningful connections:

Today, my objective was, "We will use schema to describe the characters, setting, and major events in the story."  Here was the AHA!  How does schema help us?  Schema helps us understand the characters and events-- how they are feeling and what they are doing.  Schema helps us understand the setting!  It turns out that I've been teaching Common Core ELA standards all along:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.  Schema helps us master the standard!
Here is our final poster (after Day 2) of reading The Art Lesson by Tomie de Paola.

Here are some meaningful connections that helped us understand and describe the character, Tommy.  We made meaningful connections to our school art teacher, Mr. E, how we love to draw and paint at home, how we practice things to get better too, and how we always do our own work and don't copy.  :)

We made connections to the events too!  We made a text-to-text connection to a story called "Nat and Sam."  We connected to the character feeling disappointed.  And, we connected to making deals (don't we all make deals at home... if you finish your dinner, then you can have dessert!).

Finally, I feel like I am truly able to merge schema and give it focus by using schema to understand story elements.  This kept our schema more focused, so that we aren't having little firecrackers (connections that do not help us understand).  Success!

What did you do today, darling? "Nothing!"

I love having volunteers in the classroom, but it's simply not an option for some families.  Instead, I am sending videos and photographs to help them feel like a part of our day!  I also try to suggest conversation starters related to our classroom.  Here is a copy of today's email to families.

Dear Families,

There are just so many reasons to love first grade!  Here are a few of them!

We sing every day!!!  Here we are signing our poem of the week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYcenmwHrmM

We are creative!  Here is our hallway display for City Mouse & Country Mouse!  (PS—We also had to learn the word “suburbs.”)

We love learning!  Attached is the PDF version of the bird crafts.  Julia brought in the cutest hand-print paintings… and I hope more of you have a chance to make bird crafts at home too.  J 

We are scientists and engineers!  (No one knew what an engineer did—so talk about this career at home!)  Here is Scientist Carson going back to the magazine to help him spell “flamingo.”  Ask your child—why do birds have different size and shape beaks?  Which bird “beak” worked best in our experiment—tweezers (like a woodpecker), chopsticks (like a stork), or a spoon (like a pelican)?

Best wishes,

Mrs. Yablonski’s darlings

Children must have at least one person who believes in them.
It could be a counselor, a teacher, a preacher, a friend.
It could be you.
You never know when a little love, a little support,
will plant a seed of hope.
~Marian Wright Edelman~