congratulations!!!

We have a winner! This drawing brings to life this year's theme, The Story of Twainland, and best depicts Mark Twain children in a friendly neighborhood setting that they all treasure, our Twain Spider. Even more amazing is that this artwork is a collaborated effort of our classmate and a 5th grade friend! In addition to winning the cover contest, both will receive a free yearbook. Be sure to get your orders in! Way to go, SH!!!!!

new friends

Meet Green Bean, Brownie, Oreo and Cheeto. Thank you for the contributions! I will send their usernames/passwords home soon so that you can play with them at home, too. My favorite math game, "Booger Makes an A" can be found in the arcade at the Webkinz website! (Be aware that only one person can play with each animal at a time).

Booger Makes an A

Last week I introduced a new game that can be played in class, Booger Makes an A. It is found on Webkinz in the arcade section. This game is SO helpful with learning addition facts, problem solving and fact families. I love this game...and so did the kids!

Here's a quick lesson (the kids can probably show you!) on how to play...try it at home. Really. Booger is thinking of a number and it will appear in a bubble above his head. There are rows of numbers in the boxes to the left of him. All you simply need to do is click on the numbered boxes that add up to the number he is thinking of. Any correct combination works. It’s simple! BUT…and there’s always a ‘but’… as Booger is thinking more tiles appear across the top and eventually they will fall down, adding more tiles on the bottom that you can choose from. This means that the rows of tiles start layering on top of each other. Don’t let the tiles hit the top or the game is over. As you play along stickers will appear throughout the tiles. Try and use these stickers as they all have a purpose. The ‘time-out’ sticker pauses the game, the ‘eraser’ sticker clears a row of blocks, and the ‘goal’ sticker removes sums that you need to do.

*** The Webkinz account we are using is from last year and I am sure it will expire soon. Would anyone like to donate a new class Webkinz (I would love to have 4)?

Mixing Colors

Today we mixed primary colors together to make secondary colors. It seemed like magic to them!

Henri Matisse

Today we had our first official Art a la Carte lesson. Thank you to Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Dong for presenting such a fun and exciting lesson on Henri Matisse. The kids especially enjoyed experimenting with their own positive and negative creations! We read all bout Matisse and the children were fascinated with the fact he didn't discover art until he was 20 years old in law school when someone gave him a box of watercolors!

reading

Nice to have almost a full week of reading groups!

Peace Update

Last week on International Day of Peace we participated in the Global Art Project Exchange, Let's All join Hands, by tracing our own hands and wrote our wishes for the world on them. This is an ongoing project, and to date, they have received thousands of submissions. Our class was no different. In their spare time this week they did what they could and today we counted 79 hands to contribute towards the cause! When you participate, your hand is joined with others, creating a tangible representation of the people around the world who join their energy together to create a peaceful future. I will send our contribution when we hit 100!

Global Art Project for Peace Exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art

spanish

Having fun while learning our color words in Spanish!

complementary colors

Today we talked about complimentary colors (colors opposite one another on the color wheel) and made some beautiful artwork at the same time!

breaking news...

I'm sure you heard the news...we finally finished The Trumpet of the Swan and watched the movie yesterday. The kids loved it! Be sure to ask your child how the movie was different from the book.

Just a squiggle...

I see a snail, apple tree, octopus, apple, tornado, flower, clown, hermit crab and a sun! It's neat to see how differently they each saw a squiggle...

Mondrian

In art ancillary the children learned about Piet Mondrian. They explored straight lines, primary colors, rectangles, squares and grids.

color wheel

Today we made our own color wheels to help us learn the difference between primary and secondary colors.

jars needed

Is there a baby in your house that eats baby food from a jar? If so, we could use 2 more jars to complete our class set! We use them for painting in class and don’t quite have enough!

Matthew's Dream

Today we read Matthew's Dream by Leo Lionni. After being inspired by Matthew's Dream, we listened to classical music and painted our own "dreams." When I get a chance...I will display them in the hallway.

watercolors!

Today we broke out the watercolors for the first time! We will be using these often and it is important to get the rules covered so that we can keep them looking great all year long! When we are done with them, they have a "sleepover" at the writing table to dry overnight so they don't get mixed together and all turn brown!

balancing act

During reading groups, one of the "jobs" assigned was to weigh various things from our classroom using our pennies as a unit of measure! We had fun using the balance to see how many pennies equals a pair of scissors, marker, glue stick, etc.

reading groups

We finally got back to our reading groups today! With LDC the past 2 weeks and TPRI testing looming over our shoulders...it was nice to get back into the swing of things!

Penny Grab

Today we played a new game, Penny Grab. Basically, the game was a fun way to add pennies together and to reinforce the idea that one penny equals one cent. Later this week, we will play Penny and Nickel Grab...same idea but with nickels added to the mix!

penny investigation

Can you believe our official Everyday Math lesson today was on pennies? What luck...we have thousands of them at our disposal! We took a few minutes to take a closer look at them using our own very own loupes. We discovered a lot of neat characteristics of a penny. Have you seen the new penny design? Very cool!

Millionaire Club

Apparently, we have quite a few millionaires in our class this year! I'm so happy to see so many of you were so rich with books over the summer. Thanks for taking the time to turn in your reading lists. Well done!

Fun with Pennies!!!

Who knew counting pennies could be so much fun! The kids took turns counting the pennies into groups of 100 to make $1. By the end of each week, I imagine everyone will have a chance to count pennies! We decided the bags could hold $10 without breaking.

We found out what 100 pennies looks like...

they didn't quite believe it was a dollar!

We found out 20 nickels equal a dollar.

We found out 10 dimes equal a dollar.

We found out 4 quarters equal a dollar.

We even found a golden Sacagawea dollar coin!

By the end of today's lesson we counted 3 groups of 10...AKA $30!!! Not too shabby 1st graders...job well done. We still have MANY more pennies to count!

Dominoes

Today we used dominoes to help us with our additions facts up to 9. It was interesting to see how differently the children organized their facts...using all the same manipulatives!

progress reports

Progress reports go out tomorrow. Since this is the beginning of the year, everyone will receive one. Later in the year I will only send one out if I see the need. FYI...our grades will be available online SOON. If you would like a little tutoring on Gradespeed, two sessions will be available to parents. One was today at 9:00am and the other is next week on September 30th at 6:30pm. I will be getting your child's official HISD school ID number to you soon OR you can simply look on your child's report cards from last year! I'm learning right along with you...

telling time

We have been learning to tell time...only by the hour right now. As the year goes on we will add to our repertoire of telling time skills by telling time on the half hour, quarter hour, etc.

International Day of Peace

Today is the International Day of Peace. Mrs. Blakeslee's 5th grade GT students initiated their wall of peace outside her library classroom. They invited all students to add something to her wall. We shared what peace means to us and our wishes for the world...

calculators

Today we used calculators for the first time...it was a bit crazy at first but eventually everything settled down! We know how to take the cover off, turn them on, enter a number or two and how to clear them! Baby steps...

journal helpers

I posted a sign-up sheet for journal helpers on the bulletin board outside our classroom door for the month of October. Sign up for as many or as little days you wish. Email me if you would like to be added to the calendar but cannot physically get to the sign-up sheet.

art

The children experimented with watercolors and crayon resist in Mrs. Cowan's art ancillary class. Next week we will be starting our new art planner... "How We Express Ourselves Through Art." Be on the lookout for more details on this FUN planner!

2 fisted penny addition

By playing Two-Fisted Penny Addition, you are helping your child learn the basic addition facts. Later on, these basic facts will be useful when your child solves more difficult addition and subtraction problems mentally. We worked on the sum of 10...kinda tricky at first but I think they finally got it!

LDC

This week we went to LDC for the first time with Mrs. Diaz. We will be going this week and next week...remember, no reading groups/jobs during these days. The children usually listen to a story, have a class discussion, work on a writing project, go to various centers and participate in writer's theater every single day of LDC!

Numblers

We had a lot of fun with this! After we read Numblers, we decided we could hide number's, too! Enjoy our first slideshow of the year!

Open House

I look forward to seeing everyone tonight at Open House. Meet in the cafeteria at 7:00PM for Mr. Baker to introduce the teachers. We will continue the evening in our classroom! Mrs. Norris will be meeting at 6:30PM in her classroom next door to the library.

Rolling for 50

Today we played "rolling for 50." It is a game to better familiarize ourselves with the 100's chart and how to move around the board. It was very much like the game, Chutes and Ladders! We learned that if you go forward 10 or backward 10...you will end up directly above or below your starting number! I think playing "Give Your Dog a Bone" (link is on the very bottom of this blog...scroll down) online during reading group rotation helped us to play this game with better ease!

Grandparent's Day

Thank you to the grandparents that came to school to eat lunch with their grandchildren today. The cafeteria sponsor's a day each year to the grandparents of our students. Mark Twain likes to have a more festive day for Grandparents in the spring...be on the lookout!

Noun Markers

Remember articles in grammar class? In 1st grade we simply call a, an, & the noun markers. They are color-coded red to warn us (like a stop sign or stop light) that a noun is coming! These will help us to be better equipped in writing full and complete sentences!

daily edit

The kids LOVE to find mistakes! I write sentences using simple sight words, words using recent spelling rules and words that can be easily sounded out. I like to also include spacing problems and lack or misuse punctuation/capitalization. Try this at home...they think it's a game!

Quote for the Day...

“My heart is singing for joy this morning. A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and, behold, all things are changed.” - Anne Sullivan

dates to remember

Get out your calendars, we've got a busy few weeks ahead of us...

September 15 -GT -Open House with Mrs. Norris 6:30-7:00pm
September 15 - 1st grade Open House, meet in cafeteria first
September 17 - Intenational Potluck 6:30...LOTS OF FUN!!!
September 18 - Sally Foster/Entertainment book sales due
September 23 - 5th grade coffee with Mr. Baker...I am asking someone (or a group) to
watch the class for me while I attend. The children will be doing journals.
Sometimes it is hard to be a teacher AND a parent at the same school. Let
me know if you'd like to volunteer your time.
September 23 - progress reports will go home for everyone
September 28 - Gradespeed will go LIVE...and you can look up your child's grades online!

911

I didn't mention 911 but I was prepared to if someone in the class did. Nobody said a word. Even still, we made flags. Today was a good day to introduce US national symbols...Statue of Liberty, US flag, bald eagle and the Liberty Bell. The whole lesson about the number of red and white stripes, stars, etc. went over their heads a bit...it was evident when we got 22 DIFFERENT looking flags! Some got it. They're cute...all in their own way.