Sunday, September 30, 2012

Apples, Apples Everywhere!

Since Wednesday was Johnny Appleseed's birthday we did a lot of apple activities last week!  (They will continue into this week, too.)  We leaned that Johnny Appleseed was a real man named John Chapman.  There are a lot of stories about him.  Since many of them are Tall Tales we discussed which stories were true and which ones were exaggerated!

We also did science investigations with apples!  On Monday I cut a delicious looking apple for breakfast but didn't have time to eat it.  It sat on my table until lunch time.  The students noticed that it turned brown and we decided it didn't look very yummy anymore.  Using the Scientific Process we tried to figure out how we could prevent this from happening again.  After forming a hypothesis (prediction), conducting an investigation, and recording our results we learned that if you put lemon juice on apples, they will not turn brown as fast.  (We also tried milk, water, and soda.  The soda was Sprite and it "kind of" worked.  We think it was because it has lemon in it....Aren't we super smart!?!?!!)

We also listened to a story about a little red house with no doors, no windows, and a star inside.  We guessed and guessed what kind of house this was.  (There were no pictures in our story so this was really hard.)  At the end of the story we found out it was an APPLE!  Did you know there was a star inside apples?
After this we each got half of an apple to see our own stars.  Then we used our 5 senses just like real scientists to investigate apples.
 Here are some pictures of us enjoying our apples......Eating apples is tricky for first graders since a lot of us our missing teeth:-)




News and Notes:

  • Homework will begin coming home with all students this week.  It is provided by their reading teacher.
  • Keep bringing your binder to school daily and remember to check it each night!
  • Please encourage your child to only bring necessary items to school.  Toys and items that are being brought from home are becoming a distraction/lost/misplaced.  This includes silly bands and trading cards:-).
  • Our 2nd Annual Storybook Pumpkin Contest is coming up.  Look for information to come home soon!  

Miss Gilbert

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Lots of News and Lots of Pictures!

I have a lot to share with you!  Sorry for the lack of blogs this past week, but I have been B.U.S.Y!  First I want to welcome Zealand and Trenton to our class!  We are now up to 19 friends.
Second, Interims went home on Thursday.  Please sign and return them to school next week.
Third, I want to thank all of you who came to Open House!  Here are our family pictures:


For those of you who could not make it, here are some pictures of what we shared with our families:
Our hallway was lined with Pete the Cat!

Close up picture of Pete!  We LOVE Pete the Cat!!!!

Fall Apple Story

Fall Tree Paintings.
Thank You Ms. Cathy for coming in to help us with this!

Fall Leaf Story

Who Lives in our House Glyph
Parents had to use the "key" to figure out which house was ours!

Guessing Jar....the most popular spot in our classroom during Open House!  Families got to
make a guess about how many tootsie rolls were in the jar.  
On Thursday we put our guesses in order from least to greatest.  Then we counted the
tootsie rolls by making groups of 10.  There were 50 exactly!  (That is the first time
that has happened in my 9 years of doing this!)


Mae and Brittany both guessed correctly and each got a GIANT tootsie roll!  
Zero the Hero also visited last week!  Vanessa was our Terrific Kid, so she got to be his helper and wear the cape for the day!


Finally here are a few pictures of our reading centers last week. My reading group is doing so great with centers!  On Monday Ms. Stratton along with 5 other teachers and administrators walked in with flowers, cameras and an award during centers.  The students were so actively engaged that they looked up for a second then got back to work!  Wow, wow, wow!  I was very proud of them!
At Technology students practice words with our phonics pattern rule of the week in an App, then email their results to me!

Independent Work

Independent Reading

Independent Reading

Word Work.  These girls are "writing the room".  This week it was looking at pictures and writing the plurals.

More Technology!  Reading a nonfiction story all about animals.

Wow that was  a lot to share!  I am glad so many of you are enjoying our blog.  We had over 300 views last month.  I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE for you to leave us comments!
Miss Gilbert

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Open House TONIGHT

I hope to see you at Open House tonight!  Meet in the cafeteria at 6:00!
Miss Gilbert

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Science Investigations and Math Stations

We did two more Science Investigations!
For our Sight Investigation we drew what we thought Oreo Cookies looked like.  Then we got Oreo Cookies and looked at them.  Then we looked at them with a hand lens....a REAL SCIENCE TOOL like REAL SCIENTISTS!  Did you know Oreos have shapes, patterns and letters on them? Check it out next time you eat one! Here are some pictures of our investigation:









We also did a Hearing Investigation!  There were 5 containers that had mystery items in them.  We had to shake them and make our predictions about what was inside.  There were bells, paper clips, rice, pennies and cotton.  Here are some pictures of that investigation:


We also started stations in Math Groups.  Here are pictures of the things Miss Gilbert's group is doing. Ms. Fischer will share hers soon!
We sort Math Facts!

Roll and Color.  We are learning to look at dice and "just know" how many dots we see without counting them.  This will help when we practice the addition strategy of counting on.  We DO NOT use our fingers when adding!!!

Sorting numbers to 10!  

Ways to Make Five!  We are learning our facts to 5 fluently!  
Wow, that was a lot of pictures!  I hope to see you all Wednesday night at Open House.  We have so much to show you!  

Miss Gilbert
Oh, by the way....Monday is DAY 20.  I wonder what that means;-)

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Our First Science Investigation

We completed our first science investigation!  It was all about our sense of TASTE!
We made predictions about which item would taste sour, salty, bitter, and sweet.
Here is a picture of our investigation half-way through!
Then we got to check our predictions by tasting the items!  The chocolate REALLY tricked us!  It was unsweet chocolate so it tasted bitter!
Here is a little video of our investigation.
We will be conducting investigations with the rest of our senses this week.


Here is a picture of our Tear Paper Names that I finally got up!  I think they turned out very colorful and cute!


Miss Gilbert

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Donor's Choose

Our class had a project funded through Donor's Choose!  (Starbuck's was our donor.  A $279 donation....they must know I love coffee and that I am a gold member.)  The supplies were delivered last Thursday.  We will be working on our Thank You's this week.
Popular science author Gail Gibbons introduces students to the fascinating lives of the world’s most intriguing animals…from the biggest whales to the tiniest spiders. Set includes all 5 kits shown, each with 4 copies of the book, plus a read-along CD that narrates the story word for word.
I have created 2 more projects.  BOTH have been awarded matching grants from amazing teaching resource companies, which means we are half way to earning more supplies for our classroom.  Click the links below to check them out!  Please share with anyone or any businesses you think would be interested in donating to our projects!
Teaching with Ten Frames

Roll the Dice Math Stations

Miss Gilbert

Saturday, September 1, 2012

10th Day of School

Wow, we have been in first grade for TEN whole days.  We have been very, very busy.  Day 10 was especially busy for us.  Two friends had birthdays, we had a practice fire drill during reading group, we experienced our first trip to the treasure box, we used our Science Books for the first time and there was a special package delivered to us.  It was SO heavy, Mr. Bronson and Ms. Stratton had to carry it all the way from the office to our carpet for Miss Gilbert.
Here is our picture with our special delivery.
The package said  "To: Ms. Gilbert's Monkeys" and was covered in 0's and Z's.  After making lots of predictions about what was in it and who sent it, we FINALLY opened it.
It was from ZERO THE HERO!  Zero the Hero is a superhero who LOVES the number 10.  He sent us a letter, a balloon, a "zero treat", a cape and his special helper.
Here are some pictures of us enjoying our yummy zero treats.





Zero the Hero doesn't just bring us treats, he helps us learn about the number 10.  We found lots of way to make the number 10 at Morning Math Meeting.
The next time Zero the Hero visits  (his letter said he would visit again) someone gets to wear the cape and be the helper at Morning Math Meeting.  When do you think he will visit again?  Leave a sticky on the wall with your prediction.



Miss Gilbert