We had the privilege of having Olivia and Annaliese's grandmother come today to do a Halloween arts and crafts activity with the students. This was a fun way to end the week on a Friday and celebrate making it through the first nine weeks. Ms. Payne read the students a story about spiders and then the students made a spooky craft that they could use to scare someone just like a spider. The students really enjoyed interacting with Ms. Payne and loved the opportunity to have a fun and relaxed Friday! Check out pictures below of our students having fun!
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Over the last week and a half the students have enjoyed learning about some of our Earth's natural resources. We began our discussion with rocks and have since transitioned into talking about sand. While working with rocks over the last week the students sorted various types of rocks by shapes, color, and size. They also described their rocks using adjectives and wrote sentences describing their rocks in French. We also took time to discuss what regions of the world had lots of rocks in them and talked specifically about mountain regions. While looking at various mountain regions around the world the students came up with lots of questions that will help guide our instruction for later on in this planner. Take a look at a sample of the student's French writing on rocks below. The students spent this week learning about the various aspects of maps. We discovered that there are many different types of maps that can show either a large area or smaller more precise area, that maps can show land and water, and determined the main purpose of maps and map keys. After reading about maps and viewing several maps using Google Earth, pairs of students drew maps of the neighborhood surrounding the school. They were also encouraged to make a map key to go along with the map so that others could read their map. We also went on an adventure around the school when the students had to follow a map to our butterfly garden. While in the garden the students practiced making a map of their own of the butterfly garden. Finally, we took a walk in the neighborhood around the school and used our own maps we drew to help find the quiet creek stream. The students really worked well this week during this introduction to maps and I was proud of both their cooperation and creativity skills. We will continue looking at various maps of different regions of the world as we continue our current planner on natural resources. The students spent this week creating new rules for Rosewood. As a culminating event for our first planner, groups of students were instructed to make a list of new rules or procedures that they would like at Rosewood. After the groups made a list they then created posters to teach their classmates about the new rules they would like to implement. The students shared their posters and then reflected on whether or not their new rule or procedure would make Rosewood a better place. Below are photos of the students working together to make their posters. I really talked to the students about the importance of cooperation and that there will be times when they will have to work in groups to create something or do something. For the most part the students did a great job working together and it was a great teachable moment showing students the power of working together to accomplish a task. The kids had a really good time on our field trip today to Publix. The students got to see all the various departments of the store and got to see how these departments all work together to help the store run smoothly. I think the students really saw how important grocery stores are to our community on a daily basis. While there, the students got to touch a live lobster and view a real whole fish at the meat department, watch the baker roll and make rolls and a pizza, watch the baker make roses and decorate a cake, and even viewed some of the fresh produce at Publix. The students got to sample some goodies which were great and even got to pretend they were customers by scanning boxes at the checkout aisle. Students even got a behind the scenes look in the warehouse in back and even got a quick look in the walk-in freezer. Students left with an activity book, pencil and frisbee donated from Publix. Publix also donated some snacks to the classes and helped fund our yoga balls that we use in the classrooms. We will be sending them a big thank you card/notes next week! Today we celebrated International Literacy Day. Each class had 2 guest readers and several of our students got to eat outside with their parents for lunch. A big thank you to Mrs. Payne for volunteering to read to both sections this morning. The other readers for our class were student athletes from Northwestern High School. Students who sent in their reading pledge cards and signed up for a library card or brought theirs from home we be given prizes. Today was a great way to start our school reading initiative for this year.
We spent the week talking about various types of authority figures and the roles they play in our government. We also talked about the jobs and responsibilities of these figures and found out that one of the powers authority figures such as mayors, governors, and presidents, have is the right to veto or change a rule/law. However, we also learned that these leaders aren't the only ones who could ask for a change. We read the book Click Clack Moo and found out that the animals on Farmer Brown's farm wanted a change so they wrote a letter to Farmer Brown asking for things to change on the farm. After reading this book, the students and I came up with a list of things they might want to change about Rosewood. We then wrote a letter to our leaders (Mrs. DiStasio and Mr. Ward asking for two of the things we wanted. Check out their letters below. We are eagerly awaiting their response!
This week the students helped us come up with our Essential Agreements for the year. The students and I went through the process of narrowing down a long list of rules into 5 that we collectively thought were the most important. We promised to abide by these essential agreements daily and signed our name pledging to do our best each day. The students also wrote down their hopes and dreams for first grade and we made them into a class book. Be sure to ask your child about his/her hope or dream for First Grade. Below is a picture showing the Essential Agreements that we made together.
The students and I had a great week getting to know each other while establishing the rules and procedures for our classroom, transition times, hallways, cafeterias, and playground. This year I have started something new with giving the students stability balls to use as chairs. From day one we learned the rules for their use and constantly reviewed them throughout the week. The students have done a great job and I have noticed that the students are staying on their stability balls during work time and the amount of movement in the room (besides the bouncing :) ) has lessened considerably than in the past. We also created our classroom essential agreements and wrote a class book about our Hopes and Dreams of First Grade. We will read and review the essential agreements each day and reflect back on our Hopes and Dreams throughout our year together. Pictures of our first few days together are below.
Thanks to all the parents who joined us for Field Day. The kids had fun playing the various games and enjoying being outside for the majority of the day! One of the highlights was definitely winning the Tug of War. Below are some pictures and a video of the kids warming up.
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AuthorMy name is Erin Webb and I am going into my fourteenth year teaching. I taught kindergarten in Summerville, SC for one year before moving to Rock Hill after getting married. Since being in Rock Hill, I have been teaching first grade at Rosewood Elementary International School. This will be my sixth year teaching using the Dual Language Model. I will be team teaching with Monsieur Joseph McFadden. I am very excited about what the coming year has to offer! Archives
January 2016
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