April 26,2008
We had a busy week leading up to vacation. It was filled with mixed emotion. Michael Wingfield, an African Drummer, spent time with us. That was very thrilling. We worked hard on our Coffeehouse Celebration. That was hard work. We said good-bye to our team of ducklings. That was sad. And, we said good-bye to Ms. Blair. That was very sad. But, we are excited for her to find her own classroom! Below are some highlights.
April 24, 2008
Thank you for coming to our Coffee House. It is wonderful that so many family members can make time for these events. The first graders were so excited to share their poems! I think the coffee house was a huge success. Ms. Blair did such a great job with this poetry unit. And the Bees worked hard and wrote such creative, thoughtful poems. Thank you for sharing it with us. We will be binding the poems into books for everyone to take home and keep. Enjoy.
Good-bye Ducklings
The Peking Ducklings have gone back to the farm where we got the eggs. I have the name of the family if anyone is interested in adopting one of the ducklings. They are totally adorable. But, after bringing them home for a week, I will tell you they are a HUGE COMMITMENT! Let me know if you want the contact information. According the the children YOU ALL ARE ADOPTING one. :) It was hard to say good-bye. The Bees helped on a Make Way For Ducklings Tour through the school where they shared the ducklings and their knowledge of hatching ducklings to the rest of the school.
Michael Wingfield
We learned African drumming from Michael Wingfield. It was spectacular. Ask your child about it. Michael does such a great job...and the kids seemed to love it.BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare
A group of ducks is called a paddling or a team! Meet ours. They just keep hatching. Our first duckling arrived on the 15th, one day before our predicted due date. The last duck hatched today, the 17th, around lunch time! It has been an incredible learning experience for all of us. Take a look at our new loves...all 21 of them!
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April 2, 2008
Clouds...
Watch the slideshow to see what we are learning about clouds.BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.
I added a great website to the weather page where kids can play games and explore more about weather, clouds and storms.
Poetry in Progress!
Wow. Ms. Bair's poetry unit is such a hit. Check out what we are working on by clicking the link below.
The class was very excited today about a website that had pictures and movies of chicks hatching. We also were able to see INSIDE the eggs today. It is called candling. I promised them I would add the link. Here it is...
LIVE EGG CAM..Due to Hatch April 9th
From this page you can navigate around the site and see movies of candling and photos of chicken embryos.
More Hatching Movies...totally adorable!
March 23, 2008
We have introduced all 110 of the word wall words that first graders are expected to know! Wow. Now we will begin to review all of them and focus on some of the tough ones. At home, I encourage you to sort your word cards into two separate groups: known and still learning. Continue to work hard on the still learning stack. A word wall word should be recognized in 3 seconds to be considered KNOWN. These are supposed to be lightning fast...not sounded out. Knowing words by sight improves fluency and comprehension.We also will continue to work on our poetry. I am so pleased with the enthusiasm for writing poetry from everyone AND the poems are wonderful. We are also busy doing some assessments these next two weeks. Here is a picture of the ducklings that visited our room. Go to the MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS page for more photos.
I have added a parents' page. Check the links on the left. I will continue to add websites and information that I think you will find useful.
Our Focus:
Life cycles: Frogs 
Math: Unit 9 Assessment ;
Readers Workshop: Non-fiction Conventions
Writers Workshop: Writing Non-fiction
Star Words: review
chunk: -ar -all
vocabulary:
Poems, Songs, Rhymes:
- 5 Green and Speckled Frogs
- Frog