Scientists...

Hello Everyone!  What do scientists do?  In first grade we work hard on taking on the role of Scientist!  First graders are naturally curious about the world around them.  What a great age to develop those scientific minds!  Each kiddo in the class has a science notebook where they collect any and all recording sheets from all of our experiments.  Every week we add to the chart which reminds them what scientists do. Some of the things included on the chart, are Scientists...examine, discover, hypothesize, predict, make conclusions, read, share, organize, ask questions, research, and many other things. Scientists also have fun!  I hope to instill a love for science in my kids!!

scientists

Thanks for taking a peek into our Wonderful World!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Good Writers Anchor Chart

Hello Everyone!  Just a quick post about what I am looking for in my kids' writing at this time of the year. The target skills we have zoomed in on since the beginning of the year includes developing "readable" pieces, using upper and lowercase letters appropriately, spacing, adding details, reading back over our pieces, including a hook in the introduction, adding adjectives and adverbs, and many other skills.  I keep an anchor chart up as a reminder to the kids, and to keep an eye on during our writer's workshop time!  As we work on new target skills, we add them to our chart.

 While working on writing with your kids at home, you can refer to this chart!
Thanks for stopping!!  Have fun writing!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Adding Adverbs

Hello Everyone!  Thanks for stopping by to peek through our Window on Wonder!  I wanted to take a minute to share a lesson on adverbs.  We had a lot of fun the other day growing our sentences.  We worked on adding three different kinds of adverbs to a very simple sentence.  Working with a simple verb, we grew our sentence with a  "how," "when," and "where."  We did a ton of brainstorming and then the kids experimented with their own.  The next step is to notice adverbs in our reading and including them in our written expression. 

Click for adding adverbs printable

Thanks for taking a peek! Keep Adding those Adverbs!!
Joyfullt!
Nancy

Good Readers

Hello everyone!
We have been working very hard on what good readers do.  We decided to brainstorm and come up with an anchor chart which will help remind us on a daily basis!  Today we got to add "Good Readers Make Inferences" because we have become very aware of the need to do that with many of the books we read! Most of the time it happens before we even know it!  Sometimes the author makes us work hard on inferencing!!  Here's a picture of our chart! 


Good Readers!

Some of the other things we wanted on our chart were Good Readers...use pictures, make corrections, use schema, make predictions, set a purpose for reading, reread, talk about books, and retell stories. We have room for more that we will surely add later this year!!  Keep up the great work kids!!!

Stay tuned for a post about a special reader we had, some wonderful work we've done with writing, and some cute word work!!

Till then...thanks for taking a peek! Hope you are enjoying the view!!
Have a wonder-filled tomorrow!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Not the color of our skin... and Inferencing

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for taking a peek into the wonder-filled  world of first grade!  After a three day weekend, it was time to get back to learning together. A couple of my favorite things from today? Using apples to help kids understand diversity and equality!  We continued a discussion we started last week about how we are all unique and special, and that we are alike in that we have loving hearts and curious minds.  Today I decided to extend that idea by showing the kids different kinds of apples.  We compared the shapes, colors, and sizes, and decided that people are a little like apples.  All the apples looked different!  I then proceded to cut the apples in half cross-ways to show the kids that each apple, no matter the shape, size or color, has a star on the inside!  They were cheering as I made my way through each apple!  We then cheered that each of us is a star!!  Valuable lesson for all!!

You are a star!


Another of my favorite things from today was our lesson on Inferencing.  Good readers use inferencing while reading to gain comprehension.  We use clues from the text (pictures and words) along with our schema to make inferences.  It is a little like reading between the lines.  Today we read the story "No, David!" by David Shannon, always a favorite of first graders.  We made our way through the book stopping to get the clues to make our inferences.  The kids took notes on what inferences they made (because sometimes our inferences are different from our neighbors') and they stuck them to our poster.  We discussed all the different ideas and then the kids had to pick out the ones they wanted to record for their Reader's Response Journal.  We are great Reading Detectives!!

For a free copy of our No David inferencing recording sheet, click here!

Stop by again soon as we continue on our first grade journey!

Have a wonder-filled tomorrow!

Joyfully,

Nancy

Reading and Writing anchor charts

Hello Everyone!
I thought I would share a couple of our classroom anchor charts.  These were created at the beginning of the year with the kids' help.  We started brainstorming all the different things we read during the day and came up with an amazing list!!  Sometimes I think we forget about the print all around us (environmental print).  Kids are often able to read words like "WalMart" and "Skittles" before they even know many of the sight words we work on daily!  We also made an anchor chart (through the same brainstorming process) about all the things we write during our day.  Again, we take for granted all the writing involved in our daily lives!  It's good to have this visual as a reminder of how important writing is!! Kids have more schema for reading and writing than we realize.  Helping kiddos make connections is so important!


What do we read?

What do we write?

I have so much more I want to share with you!!  Stay tuned!  Thanks for taking a peek into our Wonder-filled classroom! 
Joyfully!
Nancy

Brag Tags

Hello Everyone!  One more post for today! 
Did your kiddo come home telling you about his/her brag tags?  We had a wonderful awards assembly today where kids were awarded with brag tags to add to their chains.  These are sweet litle momentos of things your kiddo should be very proud of.
Our students earn brag tags for things like Perfect Attendance, Outstanding citizenship, Science Fair Participant, Setting Goals, Birthdays, Reflections Contest Entry, Summer Reading, etc.  The chains are kept here at school for kids to continue to add to, and will go home at the end of the year. Some kids save them from year to year.  I know some older kids who have thirty tags or more!!  So proud of my kids who earned tags today!!  Keep it up!

OH!  We also were tied for having the best attendance in first grade! YAY! And congratulations to Brie for getting our Kindmess and Compassion Award and to Jaydan for getting our Hard Work and Dedication Award!!!  Way to Go Everyone!!
Thanks for taking time out to peek into our Wonder-filled world!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Melting Ice Cube

Hello Everyone!  Our SCI FRI today was a quick, easy, inexpensive experience with ice.  After enjoying Jan Brett's books The Mitten and The Hat, I wanted to incorporate a mini science lesson using mittens.  I decided to find out where the kids were with simple scientific thinking.  I asked them to hypothesize whether they thought an ice cube would melt faster sitting on a mitten or held in your hand. We talked about how scientists use what they know to help them with each hypothesis. The class was split on their ideas. Many thought that because they keep our hands warm the mitten would also cause the ice cube to melt faster.  Ask your kiddo what he/she thought!  Even when we don't hypothesize correctly, we learn!  Incorrect ideas are sometimes even more valuable!

recording sheet

Which will it be? The hand or the mitten?

Tah-Dah!

We may have some future scientists on our hands!

Thanks for taking a peek into our wonder-filled classroom!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Dr. Martin Luter King, Jr. Day

Hello Everyone!  One of my favorite things from today was talking about MLK.  We had a grand discussion about the impact Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had on the world. He is a big reason we are all able to go to school together.  We talked about and compared our skin tones and decided not one of us has the same color skin!  What is important is what is in our hearts!  I am constantly amazed at the honest and beautiful hearts of first graders!  This is why I come to school every day!  After our valuable discussion, we decided we wanted to show others what was important to us...That we can all reach for our dreams and it doesn't matter what color your skin is.  The kids and I traced our arms on what ever color paper we wanted. We glued them all together in a bouquet and added a heart shaped message. Love is packaged in all colors but we all love in the same color!! I hope the kids will go home and continue this conversation with families and friends!!  Thanks Parents, for sharing these amazing kids with me!!

We all love in the same color!

Thanks for taking a peek into our wonder-filled day! Have a colorful tomorrow!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Snow Globes

Hello Everyone!  Do you know anyone who collects snowglobes?  Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live inside a snowglobe?  We read a wonderful story today called "Snowglobe Family" by Jane O'Conner.  The author portrays a family living inside a snowglobe.  The family wishes someone would come and shake the snowglobe so they could have a blizzard and maybe have some snowhills so they could go sledding!  Sweet story!
We decided to make our own paper snowglobes and use what we know about adjectives to describe what we would put into a snowglobe.  After creating the paper part and finishing the writing, I laminated the work to make the projects look like "real" snowglobes!  The kids worked very hard on these and really came up with some interesting things to put in their snowglobes!!  Way to go VIK's!

A circle, a base, and some snow

New York

Snowman and trees

A girl building a snowman

Fireplace


I love how these turned out!  Come by and see them hung up in the classroom!
Joyfully!
Nancy