Earth Balloon Assembly

Today the PTO provided an assembly for our school and we loved it! We actually went inside an enormous Earth Balloon as we learned about the lands and seas of our Earth. Thanks PTO!

Hope you enjoy the photos...

Everyday Math Explorations

Part of our math program provides the students the opportunity to freely explore the materials they will soon be using... Today our students had an exploration experience and we hope you enjoy the pictures!

We Can!

It's Friday afternoon, backpacks are ready,  we are waiting for buses to be called and what are my students doing? Lining up for one more chance to read their sight word rings! Really!! They are so motivated to read their words that some got back at the end of the line to sneak in another read!!

I started the students on an individualized reading/spelling program and boy are they loving it! Each student reads to me from a list of first grade words, when they make 5 mistakes they go on their word ring. The first grade list is followed by a second and third grade list and when that is mastered their challenge changes to spelling words from a list of leveled words created from the most frequently used words used in writing. As they gather 3 tallies on the back of each word for a successful read/spelling they pull the word off the ring and it goes in the class "I Can" can. When that gets filled it's party time in 1A!

I'll keep you posted!



You can see their word rings hanging from the velcro strip in the background.



Team Building Day 2010

We had a beautiful day together having fun, laughing, and playing and getting to know each other better. It's going to be a great year! Visit the slideshow along the right side of the Blog to see more of our good times...

Study Island Skills Fun

The Oceanport School District subscribes to an incredible site called Study Island. This is a differentiated source of skills practice for all subject areas to promote and reinforce the core curriculum skills your children need to succeed.
Please visit the site and explore the many opportunities your student has to have fun while practicing important academic skills…

http://www.studyisland.com/

After arriving at the home page please login in the upper left hand corner.

First graders user name is:  18lastname@oceanport

Password:  ab12

 Good luck and have fun!

Geocaching For Family Fun & Writer's Workshop Ideas!

I wanted to share a fun idea for an activity to do with your family and friends. It's called Geocaching- you go on real life treasure hunts as near to your home or as far away as you choose. First you go to the online site and put in an area to hunt a zip code or address. Then a list of coordinates will appear - choose one (or a few!) and imput the coordinates into a GPS device or GPS enabled phone and then go treasure hunting! My daughter and her friends treasure hunted at college and they had a blast! Give it a try and let me know how it goes...

What great material your child will have when they sit to write their stories during Writer's Workshop!
Have fun!

Be a Bucket Filler!

This summer the first grade teachers came across a book that we just knew we needed to bring to first grade! It's called:

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

by Carol McCloud and Illustrated by David Messing

The story describes us all as having an invisible bucket that is filled with our good thoughts and feelings. When someone says or does or says something nice to us or we say or do something nice to someone else you are filling a bucket and getting your own bucket filled. When someone does or says something unkind they are bucket dipping. Bucket dipping is bullying behavior and that is not good for anyone!

Today I shared the story with the class and the kids loved it!! They all wanted their own buckets! We have a class bucket that we are going to try to keep filled all year long and spread the news to make our class a bucket filling classroom and school a bucket filling school - no bucket dipping!!

After doing a little online research I found that classrooms and schools across America are becoming Bucket Filling Schools. It has even reached the workplace and been used in preventing bullying in the workplace!

Check it out at Amazon.com- they let you take a peek in the book...

Amazon Link to Bucket Filler Book

Let me know what you think!

First Day of First Grade 2010!

The butterflies and jitters quickly disappeared when I met my wonderful new first grade class! We had a great first day and we are going to have a great year together!!!

Inspiration from a 10 year old...

Thanks to Cory Radisch, principal of Maple Place School, for sharing this inspirational video at our "first day back" workshop...


What an awesome honor and responsibility we have as teachers...