What a terrific time our tiny tigers had today -- our first day in first grade ! Check out the smiles of our 1C group:
On our second day of school we reviewed a few things from Kindergarten . . . with a twist or two. We used body puppets to answer tricky questions posed by Mrs. Casey. Today our puppets, the mouse and the scarecrow, could only answer with words beginning with m or s respectively. We had a few laughs with this activity. We learned to print - D'Nealian print - today, too. We printed letters on "stop-light" paper and then we moved to the board and mini-boards to practice our numbers 1 and 2.
Our Color Unit has begun. Stories will be read and a project completed as we review colors and color words. Many of our projects will be displayed at our Curriculum Night on Thursday, September 10th. Some of our terrific literature selections are: The Big Orange Splot, Marshmallow, Dandelion, The Red Balloon, Dear Mr. Blueberry, Old Black Fly, The Gingerbread Man, Little Blue and Little Yellow, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse. We will conclude this unit with a Celebration of Colors on Monday, September 14th.
This popular children's book, by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, is a favorite of 1C students every year. This year, we read the story, then read along with Ray Charles as he sang the story. It has been a great vehicle to introduce a brief review of our letters. We have created "tear-paper" trees and added our names - spelled by locating our letters in magazines. Some letters were a challenge to find ! Look for our trees, as well as several other alphabet projects, to be displayed in the hallway later in September.
We are reading lots and lots of words ! Games give us opportunities for fun and practice.
Games are a great vehicle for practicing math facts and concepts, too !
Reading is encouraged ALL the time in 1C. We try to play "Round Robin Reading" each Tuesday. Before we go to the Library, we gather with our library books on the classroom carpet. We pass our books around the circle. This gives us an opportunity to see what books our classmates are borrowing. Hmmmm. We might even get some ideas on what books we might want to take home, too.
Many thanks to all parents who were able to attend our Curriculum Night on "Steeler Thursday"! We had a great response -- and you all looked terrific in your Black and Gold attire. Your kids loved the notes they discovered in their desks this morning. Take a look:
Our COLORS unit wrapped up with a rainbow of centers. We listened to ELMER and created colorful elephants much like those in the story. We graphed our favorite colors. We played Color Bingo and marched in a Parade of Colors. We created individual rainbows using information about ourselves (a glyph). We used inkpads to stamp the color words. We created colorful patterns and so much more. . .
Mrs. Casey taught us vowels: A - E - I - O - U !! Yes, we have begun to sound out words using our consonant and vowel sounds. We have learned the short A (as in CAT) and are currently working with the short I (as in PIG). Watch for many word-play activities to come home: games, sentences and books to read, puzzles, "gimmicks" (like the Mad Cat with the Rats), and art projects (Cat Hats). Reading is lots of fun in 1-C !
Our theme for Monday, September 21st was "So-Long, Summer !" We celebrated the end of our favorite season with centers. We played Bingo with many sunny vocabulary words. We rolled dice and added to created beach scenes with many familiar beach items (the number determined by the sum of our rolls.) We created tee-shirts bearing drawings of our favorite summer memory or activity. We read several Summer/Beach themed stories. We even took a few minutes to head outside with our beach towels, sunglasses and some bubbles (Thank you, Lexie !) for some last-minute summer fun. Tuesday will a second scoop of summer fun as Ingomar celebrates our summer reading success.
1C continued to celebrate on 9/22 with an assembly involving the entire Ingomar school population. Students who had achieved their reading goal for the summer were awarded "Ingomar Rocks" bandanas. The entire school spread beach towels on the floor of the Gym and enjoyed Italian ice - thank you Rita's ! - our books and a special performance by a blue-grass band led by an MMS teacher, Mr. Jeff Scheller. He involved the students in fun sing-alongs, and the Ingomar strings group joined in the performance, too. Reading has never been more fun ! THANKS to all !
We have been building words in 1C. We can use small letters at our seats and larger letters in the pocket chart at the board. We can spell 3- and 4-letter words with the short a, short i and short o sounds. We play "Speed Round" and "Make a Cheer", too. Although formal spelling instruction does not begin until later in October, Mrs. Casey says we have a head start on this !
Yes, we are still enjoying reading in 1-C. We read with Mrs. Casey. We enjoy Mrs. Casey's read-alouds. We share stories with friends. Our newest collection is haunting ! ----- We have a perfect pumpkin patch of Halloween books. Monsters, too !
We continue to have fun while we learn. Games play an important part of each segment of our curriculum. As we begin to spell, we practice spelling with partners outside -- with chalk. We also practice facts of 10 using playing cards. And we graph our weather conditions each month - and we are getting very, very good !
We also have to practice inflection - reading with expression and phrasing - with Readers' Theater. Although we don't act out the stories, we use puppets and Mrs. Casey converts the stories into "scripts".
Today was a grrrreat day at Ingomar. The weather was warm and clear and we had a Halloween parade and party. Thank you, moms and dads, for putting together a a wonderful assortment of activities and treats for us.
1C loves to read ! Each Tuesday, we gather on the carpet and share our library books with our classmates. We want everyone to see some of the terrific books available at IES.
Place Value concepts are fun in our math class ! We use 10-sticks and 1-cubes. We also love to play "Nifty 50" !!
Do you know anything about Braille ? We have been learning about it - and we have found that most of the room signs in our building also are labeled with Braille. We used the Braille code and popcorn to practice identifying letters . . .
December was a busy, busy month in 1C. We celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas all month. We applied math skills (numerical order and place value) by completing calendars for our parents. One day we pretended to visit several different countries to learn of their holiday traditions. We made passports and Mrs. Casey gave us bags that became our "suitcases". We "traveled" to each country to create a Christmas craft: shoes in Italy, gingerbread men in England, Noel banners in France, St. Lucia wreaths in Sweden and nutcrackers in Germany. Then we mapped the countries. What fun we had !
Thank you, parents, for a wonderful holiday party ! May you all enjoy a safe, healthy and happy Christmas with your loved ones. See you next year ! Marcia
First graders at IES celebrated Chinese New Year on February 1st. What fun we had traveling from center to center. We read The Lion Dancer and saw a movie to explain the holiday. Then we dove in: trying our hands at Chinese printing (OOOOH !) and chopsticks, making dragon masks and banners, making paper lanterns and fortune cookies (following directions), and playing with the tangrams (Chinese puzzles). The day flew past as we moved from center to center, often pausing to revisit some. Take a look !
