Monday Morning

Hello to all!

I apologize for being so remiss about posting new blogs!  Last week was incredibly hectic for many teachers.  We have new 6-week grading periods and so last week I had to create and distribute report cards as well as conduct the first round of parent-teacher conferences.  I have also been battling some kind of awful crud that just did not want to go away!  I lost my voice one day and had to call in a sub for the kiddos.  Thankfully, I think I am much, much better now.  I am ready to start a brand new week!

Last week in conjunction to our reading selection "Animal Park," we explored the continent of Africa and learned a lot more about the animals that live in the different habitats that it offers.  We read a super cute book called The Hungry Elephant to get the students to think about what kinds of food elephants eat in the wild.  We also had a great discussion on the difference between carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores.  I am impressed at how well some of my superstars picked up the difficult vocabulary!

 
    The students have also been doing lots of fun things with pattern blocks.  They have been exploring all of the different shapes and the different combinations of shapes they can use to fill in outlines.  I remember this was one of my favorite activities when I was in school, and I can see that they are having a blast also.

    Today I am excited because my mother is driving all the way from Greensboro to volunteer in my classroom all day!  It will be so nice to have another set of eyes, ears, and hands in my room!  It should be a really fun day!  

Well I need to finish getting ready for school!  I hope everyone has a great day!

xoxo  Mrs. Cook

Happy Birthday, Johnny Appleseed!

     Monday, September 26th was Johnny Appleseed's 237th birthday!  My class celebrated Johnny Appleseed by learning all about apples this week.  On Friday we had an "Apple Fun" Party where we graphed the different types of apples the children brought, used our fives senses to describe various types of apples, and we even made our own homemade applesauce using my slow-cooker.  At the end of the day we sampled various apple products including apple cider, apple pie, apple butter, and of course our apple sauce.  One of my students said that I needed to be on a cooking show, which made me laugh.  Our desks and fingers got a little sticky with all of those sweet treats, but all in all it was a great success!

 

     It was not just about eating tasty food though, we learned lots about Johnny Appleseed's life as well as about how apples grow throughout the different seasons.  During our math we played "Apple Pie Addition" using a dot cube and green/red "apples" (linking cubes).  We also practiced weighing different colored apples using bear counters.

     I think one of students' favorite things was when I read the story called "The Little Red House."  The abbreviated story goes like this... there was once a little boy who asked his mother for something to do because he was bored.  The mother sends him to solve the mystery of a little red house with no doors, no windows, and a star inside.  He asks a little girl, a farmer, and a granny about it without any luck.  Finally the wind points him to an apple tree.  He brings the apple home because it is red without any windows and doors, but he does not know how to find the star.  His mother then shows him how to find the star by cutting it in half.  I demonstrated how to cut an apple to find the star and the kids just "oooh'd and ahh'd."

It's hard to believe that we are already into the month of October!  The weather is becoming cooler and the leaves are changing colors.  It's one of my favorite times of the year.  It also means that our first six week grading period is quickly coming to a close... and that parent-teacher conferences and report cards are right around the corner.  I still have lots and lots to do before I am ready for all of that.  I better get busy!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Love,
Mrs. Cook

First Day of Fall

Friday marked the first official day of Autumn!  This is one of my favorite seasons!  I love the ripe apples, plump pumpkins, and beautiful leaves in the Fall.  In class we discussed the many different characteristics of Autumn and celebrated its arrival by playing some fun Fall-themed games on the SmartBoard.

Next week we are going to continue celebrating this wonderful season by starting a unit on apples.  Not only are apples delicious, but they are also great educational tools.  I have all sorts of fun things planned, including an apple product taste test.  

The weather has been pretty rainy for the past few days, which means that the students have not been able to go outside for recess.  Instead, I have been letting them have play centers inside.  One of the choices is quiet reading on the carpet.  I caught the students being really cute on Friday...

I turned around and found them in this cozy position.  It was too cute to not document. 

Folk Tales and Heroes

Hi there!

    We have had a great start to our week!  Today we began learning about heroes and folk tales during our literacy and writing.  The children were very familiar with modern super-heroes such as Batman or Spiderman, but were surprised to learn about one of America's most well known tall tale heroes, Paul Bunyan.  We learned some interesting facts about the larger than life lumberjack...

Did you know...

• Paul Bunyan loved flapjacks (pancakes) with maple syrup
• Paul Bunyan had a giant ox named Babe, the Blue Ox
• Babe was blue because he was stained from the Winter of the Blue Snow
• He also had 7 helpful loggers that were all named Elmer (we practiced calling for the Elmers in class)
• Paul Bunyan is said to have built many famous American landmarks such as Lake Michigan and the Grand Canyon (we viewed images of the Grand Canyon on the SmartBoard) 
• When Babe had to be shod by the blacksmith, Ole, it took an entire iron mine

     This week we will also learn about different kinds of farm animals by reading and discussing different books together.  Additionally, we learned about Habit # 4 today- Think Win, Win.  We met another friend from 7 Oaks named Lily Skunk, who taught us the importance of making a plan that lets everyone win in the situation.  We used our new knowledge to brainstorm how we might "think win, win" at school and the students came up with some great responses.  Many students contributed ideas on how we might share limited resources and materials amongst each other in a fair manner.  I am proud of them for displaying such wonderful leadership skills already!  

    As a reminder, tomorrow will be a half-day for APS.  See everyone bright and early! 

         Love, 

      Mrs. Cook   

Friday!

Well, we finished up another week of school and I think I managed to teach the children a couple of new things today :)  This week we read several stories about pigs eating chocolate... who knew there was more than one book?  We really focused on discussing how some fiction stories can be realistic, whereas other ones are fantasy.  The kiddos really did a great job talking about the fantasy elements of our stories--- such as how pigs can't make pudding, pigs can't walk on their hind feet, or pigs can't talk.  Today we finally got to learn about some real pigs though!  We learned why pigs like to roll in the mud (to keep cool) and how much food they eat a day (about 8 lbs).

To go along with our mini-unit on pigs, we got to do a lot of chocolatey activities!  Our Hershey Kiss math was a big success as well as our writing activity with chocolate pudding.  The students wrote step by step directions on how to make pudding using vocabulary words like FIRST, NEXT, and LAST.  We also talked about our ingredients and the tools we needed to use (mixing bowl and a whisk).

Mmm Sugar Free Jell-O!  The folks at Harris Teeter are used to me running into their store at 6:15 am to pick out random items like pudding, hershey kisses, and marshmallows.  

In math, we started talking about using greater than and less than symbols when comparing numbers.  The students are learning that the "crocodile" (< or >)  loves to eat the bigger number.  We even added in some crocodile snapping motions with our arms to help us learn about these new symbols.

I have added some new pictures from our classroom.  Take a look-see!    

This is our "Compliment Chain."  If another faculty member gives our class a compliment then I add a chain link.  Right now we only have 4 links... we are working on getting more!

These are our Tattle Can Rules.  Students must tell an adult if their "tattle" could be dangerous and they must not use the Tattle Can if they have not tried to work it out using nice words. 

This is our Tattle Can.  Students can write down trivial tattles on a post it note and put them in the Tattle Can.  This is to prevent unnecessary disruptions during my instructional time.  I try to address the tattles at a later time, but mostly encourage the children to work it out on their own.    

This is our APS School Pledge.  Students recite this every morning and our class rules are largely based on this pledge.  It is also called R2S2.


Next week we will begin a unit on farm animals and folk tales!  I can't wait!  Have a fabulous weekend, friends!

Love,
Mrs. Cook   

A Glimpse Into My Classroom

Hi There, Folks!  I posted a few pictures of my classroom activities since the start of school.  I will hopefully get many more uploaded before too long.  We are really rockin'-n-rollin' with our studies!  Tomorrow (Friday) we have some special activities planned... including writing step by step directions on how to make chocolate pudding and then making it!  MMM!  I can't wait!!  

"I Spot 7 Healthy Habits"-- my Healthy Habits display to go along with my polka dot theme in my classroom. We use the 7 Habits to build leadership skills in our students.  

This is our "Kiss Your Brain" jar.  If students do something really exceptional, I will tell them to "kiss their brain" and go get a kiss from my desk jar.  

"Check Out Our Fresh Batch of 1st Graders"-- This was my classroom display for our Open House.  Each cupcake has a child's name on it.  

These are our "Kissing Hands" that we made to represent the diversity in our classroom.  We were inspired by Aubrey Penn's popular children's book  The Kissing Hand, which is about going to school for the first time.

This is a Hershey Kiss mat we used during our addition game for math workshop.  We roll a die 2 times, then put the corresponding number of kisses on either side of the mat.  The students count how many kisses they have to complete their number sentence.


That's all for now!  I must get some rest to finish up the week strong!  :)

Love,
Mrs. Cook 

Getting Into the Swing of Things

Hi Friends!

I am not sure if any of my families have checked out our classroom blog, but I am determined to get with the program and start blogging about our days more consistently!

We have started doing some really cool stuff in our classroom!  We started our literacy centers based on the 5 Domains of Literacy (phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) last week and the students are really starting to get the hang of it.  We are working on becoming much more independent during our center time so that I can meet with my small groups to work on reading skills and strategies.  I am amazed at what good writers I have!  Some of my folks are ready to write their own novels :)

We read Wellington's Chocolatey Day as a part of our Writer's Workshop.  The kiddos wrote some great sentences about the piggy who loves chocolate!  It's a super cute book that incorporates some fun math!  Plus, first graders love reading, writing, and eating chocolate!  

We have been busy with our math curriculum as well.  I am working on pulling small groups during our Math Workshop time to have more one-on-one instruction.  Today my small groups got to play "Hershey Kiss Addition" with me since we have been talking about chocolate.  We rolled a die 2 times, and then added the numbers together using Kisses.  Then we got to enjoy a sweet treat after all of our hard work!

We are continuing to work on our 7 Habits of Healthy Kids by Sean Covey.  These habits are designed to help students realize and fulfill their leadership potential in and out of our classroom.  So far students have discussed how to Be Proactive ("you're in charge!"), Begin With the End in Mind ("make a plan!"), and Put First Things First ("work first, then play!").  They have impressed me with their maturity and knowledge of these seemingly "grown up" topics!

I plan on adding some pictures tomorrow of student work and of our updated classroom!  Come check it out!

Love,
Mrs. Cook