Happy Hallowe'en!

Here are some pictures of our cupcake decorating this afternoon:

First we put icing on the cupcakes.  Then we added oreos for the eyes and Reese's pieces for the  beak.  Half an oreo was used for the tufts.

I'm a Little Pumpkin

Here is a little video of the poem we learned this week called "I'm a Little Pumpkin".

Have a great weekend!

Owl Pellet Dissection

Our class was a very exciting place to be this afternoon!  Grade ones were investigating owl pellets.  We began by examining the pellets to determine where they might have been found.  Then we used wooden probes, magnifying glasses, tweezers (and gloves!) to dissect the pellets.  It was very interesting to find a wide variety of bones and other objects inside the pellets! 
We used bone identification charts to see if we could figure out what kinds of creatures the owl had eaten.  We found bird skulls and rodent bones too!

October 17

We had an exciting day today!  Zero the Hero visited our classroom overnight and left enough Fruit Loops (he loves anything that looks like a zero!) so each student could count up to 30.  It  was the 30th day of school!

We practiced counting forwards and backwards and counting by 5s up to 30.  Then we got to eat the Fruit Loops!

We did our first Making Words lesson.  We spelled different words belonging to the -an and -ap families by changing one letter at a time.  First we spelled can...

... and then we changed the beginning sound to spell man!

This afternoon we had a special visitor.  Greg came to perform magic tricks for us and also to taught us about how we can be Cool Kids who Care.  He showed us how we can be a HERO:  Helpful, Encouraging, Respectful and Outspoken.

We ended our day by doing some owl research.  Students worked in groups to look at nonfiction books to find interesting facts about owls.

They drew pictures and printed words to represent their findings.  We also talked about how fiction and non-fiction books are different.  Non-fiction books have many text features like:  Table of Contents, Index, charts, maps, headings, glossaries, diagrams, photographs and labels.

Owl Week!

This week we are learning all about owls!  Yesterday we read the wonderful book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.  We listened for interesting words so we can expand our vocabulary.  During Art, we looked at different pictures of owls and then drew and painted owls. 

Our focus in Science is  investigating owls.  We wrote down what we think we know about owls and then we started our list of "wonderings"  - what do we want to learn?

Daily 5 in Action!

This morning we practiced doing the Daily 5 activities.  Students worked on different activities at the same time.  We are trying to build our stamina so that we can work independently for 12-15 minutes at a time.  I was so proud of everyone!  They could all stay on task, work quietly and everyone knew what to do!  Next week we will start our Reading Groups.  I will work with a small group of 4 or 5 students while the rest of the class works on Daily 5 activities.  I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Read to Self - students read "just right" books from their book baskets.

Work on Writing - students find words around the classroom for each letter of the alphabet

Listen to Reading - students listen to stories on the iPad

Word Work - students practice spelling our sight words by writing, then stamping the words.

Word Work - students practice spelling words using the magic pen and glove

Read to Someone - one student reads and the other(s) listen and "check for understanding" by telling what and who the story is about.

Read to Someone

Word Work

Word Work - students use magnetic letters to spell words

Dot Cards and Subitizing!

One of the outcomes in our Grade One Math curriculum involves students being able to recognize familiar arrangements of 1 to 10 (as on dice, ten frames) at a glance without counting.  (This is called subitizing in teacher talk!)

Here are some pictures to show some of the activities we've been working on to practice this concept:

Students were quickly shown this arrangement of counters on the Smartboard.  They were given 2 or 3 seconds to take a quick mental picture while thinking about the different groups they saw.  For example, some students saw the group of six in the middle with two on the top and two on the bottom.  Others saw a group of eight with two on the side!

Then, students had to "build" the same arrangement of counters on their desk using their linking cubes and tell how many cubes they had.

After lots of practice with this activity, students then used small dot cards to practice identifying "how many at a glance" with a partner.

This afternoon in Science, we practiced sorting animals according to how they move.  Students worked in small groups of three or four to decide if their animal walked, ran, crawled, swam, hopped or flew.