The First Grade Parade: Veteran’s Day

The First Grade Parade: Veteran’s Day: I just found this idea! I LOVE it!! I plan on using in tomorrow in my class. Thanks for the great idea!

Writing Workshop

This year we are starting a school wide writing workshop.  We have been reading:  http://books.heinemann.com/Shared/onlineresources/E00604/LaunchingSession1.pdf

This is a great read!  :)  Teach students to write about things they know.  You'll see this teacher write about something she does. . . This encourages students to share things about their life during writing time.  I'm excited to try it with my students tomorrow.  :)

Boat Float

We have been learning about solids and liquids.  We experimented with testing many objects in water to see what would sink and what would float.  We also tested all kinds of plastic bowls and cups to see which one would make the best boat:

dollar section at target several years ago

 "the winner" -  We decided it must be because it is wider and has straight sides.

This really helped the students see why a boat must be balanced.

Next, the students made their own foil boat! 

Each student recorded how many frogs their boat held.

They also recorded this in their Learning Log!

The winning boat!!

It held 164 frogs!!! 



Pumpkin, Pumpkin . . .

This week we read the story Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington. 

After reading the story we talked about how a pumpkin grows from a seed, to a sprout, to a flower, to a green pumpkin, then a small orange pumpkin, and then finally a full grown PUMPKIN!  I wanted the students to be able to share this story at home.  I gave each student to paper plates to paint orange. 

Then each student colored and cut out the life cycle of a pumpkin. 

After each student had colored and cut out the parts we stapled them to some fun, root looking yarn.  Next, we stapled the end of the yarn that was attached to the small orange pumpkin to the plate.   (This allowed the students to pull out each phase of the cycle as they told the story.)  We then stapled the two plates together to make a pocket and added a stem

pumpkins start as a seed

 then they grow a stem and a flower

after the flower, comes a green pumpkin, and an orange pumpkin

The students LOVED the craft and they were excited to take it home to share it with their families.