Get on the Bus to First Grade!

We are all on the bus to first grade and we are off to a great start!

We have the perfect class of 20, and we are all excited to be here... Meet this year's group of hard workers!

 

Back to School Night was a great success.  It was so great to meet all of the parents and I think that they enjoyed seeing all of the work that their children have done so far this year!  The night was filled with lots of information about all that we do throughout the year.  Everything was included in this little flipbook that I made (Yes... I am really proud of it!! hehe)...

And although there was LOTS of information given throughout the night, my favorite are the more informal parts of the night; reading the notes that the parents write back to their children, watching as the parents enjoy the work that their children have done, interacting with parents, and visiting with parents from previous years!  The apple gift is another one of my favorites.  The leaf on the apple says, "An apple for the teacher is really nothing new, except when we remember that parents are teachers too!"  So true!!!  For all my 2015- 2016 parents out there... I am really looking forward to developing this partnership with you!

One of the projects that we do at the beginning of the year is a "Guess Who?" project.  The kids love writing clues about themselves for parents and other friends.  The idea is that at Back to School Night, the parents have to guess which one is their child only by the clues.  Because there is NO WAY that you can tell who is who by the pictures! These pictures are now hanging out in the hallway and I love watching children from other classes stop by, trying to guess who is in the Miakisz Clan! See if you can tell who these kiddos are below...

The first theme that we explore in September is apples.  One of the activities that we did was an apple glyph.  For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile, you may remember the snowman glyph that we made last winter.  For all my newbies, I am happy to quote myself, as I explain what a glyph is: "When you hear glyph you probably think about hieroglyphics, which is an ancient form of writing that uses pictures.  That is where the word glyph comes from in the crafting world.  When you look at a project that is a glyph, you will get information about the artist from the pictures or parts in each individual piece." There were a few different questions that helped to make each apple unique.  By looking the apples you will know if the child likes or dislikes apples, what color is their favorite, if they have ever eaten a seed, and how they like their apples best.  The apple glyph poster, bulletin board with all of the apples, and a few close up examples are shown below.

We also read the book Johnny Appleseed.  The book does a great job teaching the students about biography and folk lore.  They always enjoy deciphering between the parts that are real facts and the parts that have been elaborated.  They learn that John Chapman was once a boy, who became known for loving nature and planting many apple trees.  They also learn that it probably is not true that he enjoyed frolicking and wrestling with a family of bears!  After we read the book, we make our own apple orchard.  All done with paint, and no paint brushes.  Yes... I said it.... finger painting.  Brave, I know!  When there are rules anything is possible!  My little artists created some beautiful apple trees.  Take a peek! 

With all the talk of apples in school, I decided that it was time for me to go apple picking with my little family.  It was Clark's first time.  Being only 6 months old, he seemed to enjoy it and even got to pick some of his own apples!!  

Then it was time to really kick off fall!  The first day of fall, September 23rd, was actually a very nice day.  I decided it would be fun to go on our fall scavenger hunt.  Although most of the trees were still green, we were able to see some of the leaves changing.  We also read a book about why and how the leaves change.  The students report to me each day that they have observed more and more changing leaves as the days go on.  During centers one day, the students created a cute acorn craftivity (acorns were one of the things that we looked for on the scavenger hunt).  After the students made their acorn, they wrote about their favorite part of fall.  These came out cute!!

And then it was October, fire safety month.  On the first day of October, we had our annual fire prevention/ fire safety assembly in the cafeteria.  The firemen come and do their presentation.  Prior to this date, the first graders all create their own fire safety poster.  Then, the firemen choose (in their opinion) the 3 best posters of all!  The first prize winner gets to ride in the fire truck and the second and third place winners get a ca$h prize!  I am happy to report that the second and third place winners came from room B4.  That's right folks, two winners from our class! I was ever so proud and I think they were too :).  Here's Bailie and Shaelyn, showing off their beautiful work!

That's all for now! More October news in the next post.  Until then... 

Greetings from Mommy World!

Oh how I miss you all... but oh how I love being a mommy!!!

I have so much to fill you in on and so little time...

Where to begin?  I think we should start with some projects that we did before my big D-day (D stands for delivery in case you didn't know.  Hehe.)  During the month of March we always celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.  One of my all time favorite books of his is called Horton Hatches the Egg.  In the story there is a bird, who decides that she is tired of sitting on her egg.  She asks an elephant to sit on the egg for her while she runs an errand.  The elephant reluctantly agrees under the impression that the bird would quickly return.  However, the elephant soon realizes that the bird is not going to return.  She has found a lovely place to live on the beach instead.  The elephant sits and sits and sits and says, "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant.  An elephant is faithful 100 percent."  And faithful that elephant is.  I look up to this surrogate mommy as a new mommy myself!  One day, as the elephant is performing in the circus (while still sitting on the egg), the bird happens to fly overhead and decides she'd like to see what all the commotion is about.  When she realizes who is performing below her, she soon decides that she would like her egg back.  **Side note: It is at this point that I start hearing things like "NO!!" and "That's not fair!" from all those captivated kiddos in my class.  They know right from wrong!!**  Just as everyone is feeling so sorry for the elephant, the egg begins to hatch.  And out pops not a bird, not an elephant, but an elephant bird!!  I love the message that this sends to the kids.  I think that there are many controversial topics that this book speaks to.  However, on a more lighthearted note, I think the kids learn that hard work does not go unrecognized.  Afterwards the kids love the activity that we do.  They choose 2 animals to mix together.  They write if you mix a ____ with a ____ you get a _____.  Their creations are always so creative.  This year I decided to take it a step further with technology.  We used the app called Superimpose.  The kids took their two animals and meshed them together into one.  Obviously, this took a little time and planning.  They had to figure out sizing, placement, background images, etc.  After they created their animal mix up, they sent their image to their Google drive and wrote about it in Google Docs.  The whole process took about 3 weeks.  I was so proud of all their hard work!  Thanks to Mrs. Civiok, Mrs. Clark, and Mrs. Vilics for your help too! Take a look at some of the finished products!

Wheew!  That was a long one... I promise the rest won't be as long!

Another topic that was covered before I left was sequencing.  One of our fun Friday projects was sequencing the steps of blowing a bubble.  But first, we had to actually try to blow the bubble.  So we broke out the bubblelicious gum and started chewing... and flattening... and pressing... and blowing... and popping!!  Us teachers were into it too.  Especially Mrs. Olsen! Notice the special visitor we had that day... The one and only Cameron Olsen, first grader, son of Mrs. Olsen.  We really enjoyed his company.  He liked writing all about blowing bubbles. :)

Mrs. Olsen and Mrs. Clark worked on the final project with the kids and they came out so cute!!  If I find the pictures I will share with you all. :)

After the most amazing SURPRISE shower at school, I was so excited to take home my gifts and put them in the nursery.  I loved the decorated piggy bank and the signed quilt.  And the gift cards were definitely welcomed as well! Mrs. Clark spent her entire February break working on the quilt and her hard work paid off!  I will always remember her hard work and my first and second grade class because of this beautiful quilt.  Thank you so much to Mrs. Olsen, Mrs. Clark, and all the kids and parents for making the shower so wonderful and making me feel so special! I thought I'd introduce baby Clark to all of you by showing you a picture of him looking at his new quilt.  He just loves it!

Now you know I can't stay away forever.  I just love everyone at Pashley way too much.  That is why I came in to be mystery reader!  And what better book to read to the class than Clark the Shark?!?!  The reunion was amazing and it was so great to give hugs to all my little ones.  Of course, I absolutely loved seeing all my teacher friends as well... and we had to take pictures to document! 

It was also great to see some of you at the Pashley Walk About.  I promised the kiddos that I would return before the year was over... and I will keep my promise, just like that elephant from Horton Hatches the Egg. Until then, I leave you with one last picture of my Clarkie.  Notice how he is wearing a Where the Wild Things Are shirt;  Another one of my favorite books! It says "I'll eat you up I love you so."  And that is how I feel about all of you! Ta-ta for now! 

A Little of This a Little of That!

We've been having so much fun in first and second grade that there has been no time to post to the blog!  But before I tell you about all the fun that we have been having in February and March... I need to fulfill my last promise to all of you.  In January I shared our Polar Animals unit that we worked on.  During computer class the students got to choose their favorite Polar Animal that they learned about, research it a little more, and then write about it.  The finished products came out great!  Take a look!

Now enough about POLAR things... let's think warmer thoughts!!  Ok, well not so warm, but one can think wishfully right?!?

Due to the snowdays in February, our 100th day celebration and Valentine's party ended up being on the same day!  We had so much fun celebrating these 2 fabulous holidays.  In order to prepare for the 100th day, the first graders collected 100 items and glued them inside a 100 on a big poster.  These posters were displayed in class.  They all turned out great!  The second graders brought in 100 small food items to contribute to our 100th day trail mix.  We got many different snacks, like 100 cheerios, 100 gummies, 100 pieces of popcorn, etc.  Everyone enjoyed the trail mix!  (including the adults!)

During centers, the students made 100 pictures.  They got the numbers 1, 0, 0 and could turn it into anything they wanted!  We really encouraged the students to be as creative and thoughtful as can be.  The kiddos definitely rose to the challenge!  We got a girl with glasses, a tractor, a funny looking face, animals, and much more!  Here are just some of them... Be sure to check out the cute hats in all of the pictures.  The first graders made 100 days in school certificate hats and the 2nd graders made cool 100 design hats.  They looked so cute! 

At another center the students put 10 different colored dots of paint in 10 squares using a Q tip.  When they were all finished they had a very colorful picture of 100 dots!

At the other 2 centers, the students worked on Valentine's activities.  Mrs. Gilgallon let us borrow her heart contractions puzzles.  The kids had to find both sides of the heart contraction that fit together.  Once they put the puzzle together, they wrote the word.  What a great way to mix ELA and Valentine's Day!  

Thanks for sharing Mrs. Gilgallon!

At another Valentine's center the students had to graph conversation hearts.  They sorted them, told how many of each color and then analyzed the data based on what they had.  When they were finished they could eat the hearts or save them to use as a topping for our ice cream sundae's.  Yum! 

After eating the Sundae's (which were so DELICIOUS!), the kids got to hand out their Valentine's cards.  They made super cute Valentine's keepers with white paper bags that looked like owls.  When it was all said and done, the bags were overflowing with LOTS of LOVE!!

Even us teachers got Valentine's.  Check out the adorable homemade card that Laura gave me.  How cute!  I also included a letter that a student wrote me.  This was a homework assignment and I love that Evie chose to write her Valentine's note to me.  I just love getting notes like these!

Miss Maria taught the class a lot about the Chinese New Year during Chinese class.  This year it fell on February 19th and it is the year of the goat.  The kiddos made awesome Chinese lanterns.  People use these during Chinese New Year celebrations. Of course, they turned out so great that we had to take a pic to document it! 

... And then it was March!  

In order to kick off the month of March, we read the story In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb by Marion Dane Bauer.  There are two main characters in the book... the Lion and the Lamb (go figure!).  In the book we learn about the characteristics of both of these animals, and how they relate to weather.  

Afterwards, the students all decided that March has definitely come in like a lion, but most of them are hopeful that it will, indeed, go out like a Lamb.  I did break the news that, unfortunately, it is never a guarantee!  The students wrote about their predictions and we posted them on one of our March bulletin boards.  

We also are keeping track of our Lion and Lamb days on the calendar.  As you can see we had lots of Lion days early in March.  However, since then, we have had some Lamb days.  I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  

How about you?  Do you think March will exit like a Lamb or Lion??