Full Circle

It sure is quiet in here.  I have Pandora music playing quietly and I'm sipping on an actual cup of hot coffee that hasn't been warmed up over and over.  I'm enjoying the silence.  The books are collected, the desks and lockers are cleaned out, and the mailboxes are packed with the last of the last.  It's 3:59 and I'm looking at some empty desks and oddly enough, even though we still have two half days left and even though my 27 students have at times truly tested my patience, I almost miss them a little.  Today was a day of true excitement...the day of cleaning.  Everyone knows that day in school -- we used to have lug buckets and rags to school in order to scrub the 9 months of filth out of our desks.  Cleaning day is always that day when you KNOW summer is coming and school is ending and ALLELUIA! Let's Celebrate!  Today was that day in first grade.  My kids were giddy and smiling, giggling and goofy.  There were some that were sad, but then quickly remembered that summer means they can sleep in and watch cartoons and play games and not come to school and oh yes...no homework!  The sadness doesn't last long.  Teachers get excited, too.  The end of one year always means a brief intermission and then the beginning of the next.  It's the life cycle of school -- everything comes full circle on the last few days of school.  It was a good year, kiddos.  I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you learned something and I hope that some day when you look back on your first grade year, you remember that teacher...what was her name again?  She was funny.  She liked to read.  She drank a lot of coffee.  She loved us.

ALOHA FIRST GRADE!

We are ready for our last week of school.  I have mixed emotions, as usual.  I love summer and I love knowing I have some time with my daughter, but I'll also miss the everyday adventures of first grade.  This year we have a Hawaiian Beach theme to our last week, so it is all decked out and ready for students to arrive!  We will kick off Monday with a Read-In.  Students can hang out in the pools, bring their own beach towels and chairs to lounge in and enjoy some good summer reading!

Finding Perfection...

Finding a quiet spot to write....

I love this picture of my sweet Scarlett....sitting and writing.

 Today as my students worked on Daily Five, I couldn't help but want to take pictures.  It was a room buzzing with conversation and students moving this way and that, but when you looked closer, you realized they were all on task, working on writing, spelling, reading and listening.  I loved it!  It was my favorite moment of the day, and I wanted to share it!  This is perfection!   

We Are 100 Days Smarter!

Izabelle concentrates....

Connor flips....

After several snow days threw a wrench in our calendar, we were finally able to celebrate our 100th Day of School!  In elementary school, that's a pretty big deal and we usually have quite the celebration and this year it was no different.  We enjoyed many 100 Day Activities, such as Flipping a Coin 100 times and graphing our results.

 All Flip a Coin 100 Times worksheets can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), which is where I do all my shopping!  I'm not sure what the students liked more -- the thrill of having to go "all the way to 100" or learning how to flip a coin "the real way."  Either way, each student enjoyed the activity and learned more about how the number 100 can be broken apart into two different numbers.  Look how they concentrate! It's amazing!!  ----------->>>

Cora and Cameron work, work, work!



Freddie counts....

Autumn writes....

 After a quick snack, we enjoyed making 100 Words I Know booklets.  The kids had a blast walking around the room and seeing if they could reach 100 words.  Every 100 words earned them a pack of Smarties (since they are so SMART, get it?).  I don't yet have pictures of our next activity, but they will come soon.  We worked on creating a list of things we would be when we were 100 years old.  Some examples were that we would have hairy noses and ears, we would be called Granny, and our teeth would fall out.  We then created some really awesome "self portraits" of ourselves at 100 years old.  Pictures will be posted soon of some finished products.


Kaysen finds 100 words...

Lastly, we ended our awesome 100th Day with a sweet treat and challenge.  I told my kids that I would happily give them each a Blow Pop sucker, but there was a catch:  they had to lick it 100 times before they could crunch into it!  It was fun listening to them attempt to lick the suckers and count to 100, and although I know I heard some early crunching, some of them were quite serious about making that challenge!  Overall, we had a great day and we all left school feeling pretty happy-go-lucky and ready for 100 more!

My Wild and Crazy Bunch of First Graders!

A Heart-to-Heart....

I love the time leading up to Valentine's Day.  There is something about the ooey-gooey-ness of love that makes our hearts pitter-pat.  I remember the fun of making Valentines -- getting out the red and pink construction paper, hearing that sound as my safety scissors would slice through -- you know the sound.  I loved ever-so-gently dabbing on small pools of Elmer's glue, sticking on little puff balls of reds, whites and pinks, and finally having a use for those white paper doilies.  I remember sitting with my mom on snowy afternoons and cutting out decorations to hang on our windows at home.  It was always such a nice, quiet time -- she always paired it with hot chocolate and music playing in the background.  Knowing her, it was either the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac or Linda Rondstant.  I loved those afternoons.  We would cut out paper hearts and have our own little heart-to-heart talks.  I knew in those quiet moments with my mom that she truly loved me.  I think sometimes those are the quiet moments  that some kids are missing out on today.  It's a busy, busy world and it's practically impossible to have a family without having to work.  Add in all of the sports and extra curricular activities and pretty soon we hardly have time to say good morning and good night.  Now that I'm a mother I have promised myself to make paper hearts with my daughter.  I can't wait to sit at the table on a snowy afternoon and watch as she cuts through construction paper and signs her name with several X's and O's. 

And so to the parents of my students I have a little "homework" for you.  Try not to look at it as "yet something else that we don't have time for."  Look at it as a moment for creativity and expression and heart-to-heart conversations.  It's that time of year to make our Valentine's Day boxes!  Get out the red and pink papers, break out the glitter glues and ribbons -- it's time to think of something fun together.  I've added some example photos I found online to get your creative juices flowing -- but a shoebox, some paper hearts and and glue will do the trick, too.  Whatever you choose -- choose to have fun and to truly enjoy the moment with your child.  Valentine's Day is February 14!!

Doubles plus one equals what?!?

After attending a great math conference in Chicago last week, I couldn't wait to come back and try out all the new strategies I had learned.  I'm happy to say that just in the short time I've had this week, I'm already seeing some positive changes and more "lights" are turning on!  Today we continued to work on doubles (2+2=4, 4+4=8, etc) and how we can find a double (new strategy) in an addition problem in order to help us add the numbers together.  For instance, we can look at 5+6 as 5+5+1 -- finding the double and adding one more.  We can look at 5+7 as 5+5+2 -- finding the double and adding two more.  It all sounds as simple as can be, doesn't it!?  Well, try to get 26 first graders to catch on and you've got yourself a challenge!  We made doubles flip books today to help students remember their doubles facts -- they practiced and quizzed each other afterward.  They are learning more and more that math is not just about numbers -- it's about patterns -- taking things apart and putting things together.  I never looked at math that way when I was first learning -- I certainly wish I would have -- it would have been way more fun!

The Christmas Spirit of GIVING!

Our first grade classroom successfully collected A LOT of toys and money for the Otsego County Toys for Tots program. (It's hard to tell from this picture, but there is a lot there!)  We chose this charity to help this season because of a recent fire that destroyed their entire donation collection.  I'm sure many people and groups came together to replenish what was lost, but my students only saw the pile of toys in our classroom grow day by day and it made them feel very proud!  Many students and members of our staff helped collect donations and they were all picked up today by Katie Liedtke who volunteered to drive them over to Gaylord for delivery!  THANK YOU to everyone who gave toys and money!  Your Christmas Spirit is ALIVE!