Thursday, September 29

Charlotte's Web: As you all know, today we took a trip to the Lexington Children's Theatre to see Charlotte's Web. I have to say that this was a great play! It was funny, sad, and exciting all at the same time and the kids behaved very well throughout the entire process. Tomorrowwe will be making a web of important details from Charlotte's Web. Once again, we continue to work on deciding whether or not a detail is important or just intersting!

Another very cool thing that happened today was our second buttefly coming out of her chrysalis. And yes, I say "she" because our class was blessed with another female monarch this morning. We decided to name this monarch Charlotte in honor of Charlotte from Charlotte's Web...I thought it was fitting! We did not get the chance to hold Charlotte today but we were glad we could be some of the first things she saw as a new butterfly. Tomorrow we will release Charlotte into the wild!


Reminders:
*Spelling Test tomorrow
*DEARABBY due tomorrow
*Murphy Math Log due tomorrow

"The Best Day Ever!"

An amazing thing happened in our classroom today- one of our monarch butterflies came out of its chrysalis! And the best part was we were here to witness it all...and, boy, was it exciting. We watched as the tiny butterfly slowly emerged from her chrysalis, which by this time had turned completely transparent. Her wings were dripping wet as she crawled around her little cage. Slowly but surely her wings dried and we were able to see how beautiful she really was. Once our butterfly was dried and ready we got her out and introduced her to her new world. It was truly magical and the kids have now decided that today was "the best day ever." Isn't life grand?!

**Tomorrow we go on our Charlotte's Web field trip. We will be leaving school at 11:00 and returning at 1:30. Following this play we will be reading the book, Charlotte's Web, as a class. This would be a great book to follow at home for DEARABBY!


**Our classroom website is now up and running. Please take some time to look at the many math and language arts websites I have placed for you on this website. These can be used for DEARABBY or Murphy Math Log. You will also find some important documents that you can download...just in case they get misplaced! The address is: http://ischool.fcps.net/course/view.php?id=424

Monday, September 26th

Here we are again on a rainy Monday. I don't know about the rest of you, but this morning was a little chaotic with the strong winds and heavy rain. The poor kids looked like they had just taken a bath as they walked in this morning...and I can't say I looked any different myself! All in all, we had a pretty smooth morning. We did have a practice severe weather drill this morning and our class did a great job- they were quiet in the hallways and maintained composure throughout the entire process. Way to go 1st graders!!!


Reading- We continue to study main topic and key details. Today we completed a Show What You Know together and really discussed the meaning of main topic. We will continue to study this concept this week. Our phonics this week focuses on short /e/ words and -ed endings. The students will be learning a new phonics chant to go along with -ed endings. Our shared reading and sight words this week are the same as last week since we really only got to study the words for three days and that just wasn't enough! You will find that the word necklaces are getting harder and harder for some students. I am really pulling from  a variety of lists- some words are sight words and some are words found in a text that  we will be reading in small group. It really depends on what your student needs!


Math- Still working on subtraction facts to 10. We complete a math daily sheet everyday to assess what we learned in the lesson. I make sure to grade these as students finish so as to keep you updated on what they need to review at home for their Murphy Math Log. Once again, we played Subtraction Hide and Seek in groups. We will be staying with subtraction for a while...such an important skill!


Science- We are coming to a close to our science unit this week. This year we have learned so much about living and nonliving things. This week we are focusing on animal life cycles and how they are alike and different. Students will be observing the monarch chrysalis that we now house in our classroom. Students will also continue to work on their Diary of a Bee book. It is interesting to look at the similarities and differences among the two life cycles.


Updates/Reminders:

1.)    Stonewall Reading Night is TONIGHT! I strongly encourage you to come as this will be an amazing experience for your student. Unfortunately I will not be at the reading night because of a silly little thing called grad school L. Anyways, festivities will be from 6-8.

2.)    FIELD TRIP MONEY IS DUE TOMORROW! All field trip money must be in tomorrow! Also, students need to bring their lunches on Thursday. If this is not possible, they will be able to purchase a box lunch. If you want your student to get a box lunch- e-mail me and let me know! We have to have this information asap.

3.)    Stone Award- We had two students from our room as the Stone Award Winners today- Caroline and Landen. For those of you new to Stonewall, the Stone Award is a special award given to those students going above and beyond on a daily basis. If you are a parent of a Stone Award Winner you are invited to come and eat with your child the day following the announcement (tomorrow in this case). Our lunch is from 11:25-11:50!

4.)    Spelling- Pretests were sent home today…please look over missed words and use the pretest to help you with your studying at home.

5.)    Kentucky Kids Day is tomorrow. Students may wear hats to school in honor of this special day.

Friday, September 23rd

Reading/Writing: Today we refelcted on our trip to Boyd's Orchard. The students wrote about their favorite part of the trip as well as what they wish they could have done while at the orchard. We shared our writing and I expect to place this writing on the bulletin board for all to see. Take a look when you come to Stonewall next.

We also took our first spelling test today and the kids did great! We had a lot of perfect scores and I was surprised to find that many students got the bonus word right (Murphy). You will find the new spelling list for next week in your student's OWL binder, Keep up the good work!

Math: Today was our first full day with our subtraction facts to 10. The words we are studying in this unit are take away, minus, less than, subtract. It is important for students to understand the words as much as the actual concept. We learned a new game in math today called "Subtraction Hide and Seek". Ask your student about this game. It is a great and easy way to work on basic subtraction facts.

Science: Exciting news...we just received two monarch butterfly chrysalis' in our classroom. Today we discussed the butterfly life cycle and the similarities to the bee life cycle. We also took some time out of our day to look at the beautiful chrysalis with magnifying glasses!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Boyd's Orchard

Such a beautiful day and we had a great time! The sun was shining and the apples were ready for the picking. I was so proud of our class and our school today for their excellent behavior...our leader at Boyd's Orchard had nothing but wonderful things to say about our group. I took lots and lots of pictures and hope to have them up very soon!

Friday Reminders:

*DEARABBY due
*Math Logs due
*Spelling Test
*Picture money due

Wednesday, September 21

Reading: Today we read the book, The Diary of a Fly, and used our fly swatters to swat the key details. This is still a very difficult topic for students. Make sure you discuss finding important details when reading with your student at home! We looked at the plural endings -s and -es and learned a new chant and dance. I will get a video up soon!

Math: Today we took the pretest for subtraction facts to 10. I will be sending the addition post tests home this Friday! The subtraction unit is a tough one. Please review addition and subtraction facts at home! Math logs will be due this Friday!

Science: We read about bee's structures and life cycles today. Then we began writing our own books titled, The Diary of a Bee. I told students that we will be publishing the books in our own classroom library when we finish. Exciting stuff!

Hooray for Apple Day

As we end our unit on plant needs, structures, functions, and life cycles we had our annual Apple Day.
Students enjoyed rotating from classroom to classroom completing a variety of activities based around apples. In Mrs. Dick's room students learned how to make applesauce and began looking at how to write "how-to" pieces. In Ms. Erwin's room students learned lots of neat facts about apples and made some awesomely cool apple hats (see below). In Ms. Leblanc's room students read about apples and discussed the many uses of apples in the real world. In Ms. Moore's room students read a play about Johnny Appleseed and made puppets to help them act out the play. In my room students learned about the life cycle of an apple tree. Students created apple life cycle wheels and learned a song.



Now that we know all there is to know about apples we are ready for Boyd's Orchard on Thursday!

Monday, September 19th

Well....we sure have a lot to catch up on from this week and last.

On Friday we were fortunate enough to get a visit from the Bee Man. Boy, was that exciting! He, not only was dressed like a bee, but had so many cool anf fun facts about bees. We even got the chance to take a look inside of a bee hive. I was a little hesitant, but the kids were all over it! Thay had the best time and truly learned a lot. Ask your student about the three different types of bees- it was interesting to find out about the way bees interact with each other as well as the hierarchy within and among the tribe! Check out some pictures from the Bee Man...

Reading: This week we continue to study the skill main topic and ket details. We will be focusing our reading on Bees! We will be reading a variety of literature on the topic and learning lots and lots of cool facts.

Our phonics concepts this week are short/o/ words and plural eanding "s" and "es". Please look at the spelling words that have been placed in your students O.W.Ls tonight. Remember if they received a 100% today on the pretest they do NOT have to take the test on Friday!

We have a new shared reading this week: Do You Like to Buzz?

Do you like to buzz,
Are you covered all in fuzz?
Do you call a hive a home
In the Garden where you roam?
Do you know how to make honey,
Are your stripes a little funny?
Do you like to buzz?

Are you a worker bee?

Do you live over a tree?

Do you work all day and night?

Once you find some food in sight

Will you find food for a larva?

So the baby doesn’t starve-a

Are you a worker bee?

Are you a drone honeybee?

Allowed to be very lazy

Do they let you rest all day?

While the workers have to pay

Can you hurt anything?

No, because you can not sting

Are you a drone honeybee?

Math: Today we took the post test for addition facts to 10. Please take a look at this test and review the concepts that your student missed. Of, course I will be reteaching as well, but it helps out so much to reinforcement at home! This week in whole group we will begin subtraction facts to 10. Remember to be studying your math facts for at least 10 minutes a night with your student. This needs to be documented in the Murphy Math Log. I will be taking the log up this Friday!

Science: What a fun day in science. We are currently learning about the different jobs of the honeybee. After we read about the jobs in a Science Weekly Reader, students were assigned one of four roles: queen bee, worker bee, drone bee, intruder (yellow jacket, hornet). Each student played a different role in the hive and boy was it a HOOT to watch. This was an awesome role play activity. Hopefully I can get some pictures tomorrow!

Reminders and Dates:

• Apple Day tomorrow- students will be rotating from classroom to classroom learning lots of different things about apples.
• FIELD TRIP THURSDAY- Please turn in field trip forms ASAP. 9 dollars for students, 6 dollars for adults! Students will need to bring their lunches!

Thursday, September 15th

Ahh....finally, some cooler weather. I was shocked at how cool it had gotten when we went out to recess today. Make sure you are sending in those coats and jackets as we all know good and well the temperatures could drop at any point now.

Overall, a great day. This week has been a bit different due to MAP testing in the mornings. I am happy to say that ALL students have finished the MAP test and I will be setting up conferences to discuss the results very soon. I look forward to talking with you about your student's scores as this test will help us create an individualized plan for your student to help them make the gains they need this year! Be on the lookout for a conference sign up sheet in your student's folder!

Along the lines of folders, I sent home the Boyd's Orchard permission slip today. Please return this as soon as possible. We will be going on the field trip a week from today...sorry about the short notice. This is going to be a fabulous field trip as we have been studying plant structures, functions, and life cycles for the past month. At this age, the hands-on experiences are just crucial! We are going to have a great time and learn A LOT!!!

Remember DEARABBY is due tomorrow. I do keep track of the student's that turn these in and for those student's who turn in a full months worth a special prize will be in order.

Math logs and spelling will begin next week!!!

Tuesday, September 13th

I forgot to mention on yesterday's blog that the students have started the MAP test in mathematics and reading. This is a computerized test that students will be given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to show growth. I will be sharing your student's beginning of the year scores with you at our first conference!

Reading: We have a new shared reading this week, "Growth of a Tree." This is sung to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot and is a great song to learn about how a tree changes through the seasons. We also continued our study of "qu" words today. I hope you had a chance to look at our "qu" chant from yesterday's blog! To spice things up a little, students made "qu" words with playdoh today. Take a look!

Math: Today we made up our own addition stories and shared them with the class. I will be sending out math logs next week so we can really start to focus on those math facts to 10. One thing that our series stresses is the ability to count on from the greatest number. Many students still have difficulty with this- just something to be aware of!

Science: We studied the parts of the plant and how those structures help a plant function. We made a cool diagram of a plant with labeled structures and functions. Unfortunately, our unit on plants is coming to an end...it has been so much fun!

Reminders:
**Snack calendar has started...please make sure you bring snack for the students on your selected day. Everything went very well today with the snacks!
**I have not had anyone volunteer for the homeroom parent yet...please let me know if you are even the slightest bit interested in helping out with this job.
**DEARABBY is due this Friday. Make sure you continue to work on this at home.

Monday, September 12th

Wow....what an AWESOME day! We accomplished so much...and especially for a Monday :). Congratulations to Andi from our class for getting the P.E. student of the month (Mrs. Noble said we were the best we have ever been in P.E. today).

Reading: We have started a new skill this week, and it is a hard one- Main Topic and Key Details. This week and next we will be reading a variety of texts on apples. For the next couple of days we will be reading, The Giving Tree. Today we read the pictures in this book. It may sound silly, but the pictures can really get our brains going when it comes to questioning, prediciting, and connecting! It is also important for the students to know the difference between "key" details and interesting details. For example, it is interesting that the boy is wearing overalls and that the apples are red...but those are not "key" details- they do not help us understand the story better. After we read the pictures, we took some time to write in our reader's response notebooks.

Phonics: This week we are focusing our studies on "qu" words and final consonant blends (-nt, -nd, -lt). We learned our first phonics chant this morning. Check it out!!!



"Q...u...qu,qu,qu. Q....u...qu, qu, qu. Q never goes anywhere without her best friend u!"

Math: Today we looked at addition stories. We got very creative with some of the stories that we made and had a lot of fun. We continue to work on our addition facts to 10! We also learned a new math game today- Card Fun! This is a game that involves three players and cards. Two players draw one card each and the third person has to add the cards. This is a great game because it can be leveled for any learner. For example, some students worked with decks of cards with numbers 0-5 while others worked with 10 and above. Take a look...

**Today we made our snack calendars!!! Please put up this calendar somewhere in your house so you know your day to bring in a snack. We have 22 kids in our room this year. This calendar also tells which special we have on that day.

You Need to Know...

• Spelling begins next week
• Math logs begin next week

My "Miss" List

Boy, did I miss the kids today!!! Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more important than learning and bettering myself as a teacher so I can be the best I can be- and our first grade team had a GREAT day planning- but when it comes down to it I wanted to be with the kids!

My "Miss" List-

• I missed standing in the hallway in the morning waiting for those precious little faces to walk through the door
• I missed the graham cracker smiles and "gummy breath" that snack time always brings
• I missed the excitement that they get when they finally learn (and I mean really learn) something new
• I missed the off key notes that they sing/yell during shared reading
• I missed the untied shoes 
• I missed the hugs that I get in the morning, after lunch, during a lesson....all day long
• I missed the laughs from the kids when the shared reading poster falls off the wall- and it ALWAYS does

Overall, I missed everything about them. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they challenge me everyday. I love those little guys and I just cannot wait to see them on Monday!

Thursday, September 8th

PARENT NIGHT IS TONIGHT! I look forward to meeting with everyone to discuss how our year has gone up until this point as well as discuss procedures for the future.

**I will NOT be at school tomorrow- I will be at a professional development seminar with the rest of the fourth grade teachers. I'm hoping everything goes as smoothly as possible. I hate to leave the little guys when we have had such a great week. We will see how it goes! Please make sure you e-mail me tonight if you are going to have any transportation changes for Friday.

DEARABBY's will probably go home on Monday, as I am pretty certain they will not get passed out on Friday without me there. I will send home an electronic copy for those of you on the distribution list...but do not be surprised if you do not find one in your student's O.W.L tomorrow night.

There are lots of new things that I will begin implementing after the parent night: spelling, math log, student of the week, etc. Please be on the lookout for all of these upcoming papers!

Have a great weekend :)

Wednesday, September 7th

Another rainy day in first grade! As much as I am liking the cool weather I am not so into the rain.

Today in...

Reading we continued to work on answering and asking questions. We wrote about the book Miss Rumphius and made lots of connections. We are really working on developing sentences with meat. I like to call them "7-Up" sentences, meaning the sentence must have 7 or more words. We are also focusing on capital letters and punctuation. Every day we are getting better and better...we have some great authors in this classroom!

Math we worked on addition facts to 10. We took the addition pre-test and began using manipulatives to help us recognize addition problems and sentences. I will be going over the math log tomorrow at the parent meeting- make sure you come!!!

Science we made plant observations. Take a look at how big some of our plants are right now!!!

REMINDERS:

PARENT MEETING TOMORROW NIGHT!!! New parents will meet in the cafeteria with Mr. Gatliff at 6:00 to discuss school procedures. ALL parents will meet in Mrs. Murphy's room (12) at 6:30 to discuss classroom procedures!!! See you there :)

Tuesday, September 6th

Well, I hope everyone had a fun-filled labor day weekend, even with the weather acting up as it did! I don't know about you but I am certainly ready for the fall! Anyways, we had a super start to the week- honestly some of the best behavior I have seen all year from the students. Check out the clip chart below-notice everyone on green or above. :)

Reading- This week we are focusing on asking and answering questions about fiction and nonfiction texts. Today we ready the children's book, Miss Rumphius, and practiced answering questions from our very special question bag.

This week we are also focusing on initial /r/ blends in words. Today we did a word scavenger hunt to look for different cr- words around the room. The neat thing about phonics is that it is easily differentiated among students, meaning words that range from 7-8 letters to words with just 3 letters. Alot of the students have /r/ blend words on their word necklaces this week!

Our shared reading this week is "What Do Green Plants Need to Survive?" This is a fun acitvity to look at with your student if you have a couple of minutes.

Three main things, three main things.
Green plants need, green plants need.
For plants to grow, for plants to thrive,
In order to keep green plants alive,
What does it take so any plant could survive?
I said three main things!
                 
Every plant needs sun, every plant needs sun,
That's number one, plants need sun.
For plants to grow, for plants to thrive,                  
In order to keep green plants alive,
What does it take so any plant could survive?
Plants need sun!

Every plant needs air, every plant needs air,
After sun, plants need air.
For plants to grow, for plants to thrive,
In order to keep green plants alive,
What does it take so any plant could survive?

Plants need air!

Every plant needs water, every plant needs water,
'Specially when it's hotter, plants need water.
For plants to grow, for plants to thrive,
In order to keep green plants alive,
What does it take so any plant could survive?
Again, Plants need water!

Math- This week we are looking at addition facts to 10. Please, please, please begin to look over and review these addition facts as it is imperative to moving on to the next concept in our Math in Focus books. We will begin a math log next week which I will be sharing at the Parent Meeting this Thursday!

The math game we are playing this week is "I Have, Who Has". Ask your student about this game!

Science- We continue our study on plants and boy did we have a fun day today! Over the weekend our plants grew to enormous heights (I've never seen plants grow so fast...). This week we will really study cloesly the life cycle of a bean plant.

**The students were so excited they even played with their plants at recess today. We talked about how talking to plants actually helps them grow and thrive because of the carbon dioxide that humans give off! Take a look at some of your little hoots playing with their plants at recess. You know, I've realized there is nothing a 1st grade teacher needs more than creativity...especially when it's a rainy day!!!

We played with Play Doh with our plants!

We drew pictures with our plants!

We played word games with our plants!

This little plant already knows all of his sight words! Smart guy :)

We made pictures of our plants with Play Doh!

Oh, the life of a first grader! Isn't it grand?!

Thursday, September 1

Reading: Today we continued our study on retelling stories using important details. We finished our books on "The Tiny Seed" and they are now displayed out on our bulletin board. After taking some time to make connections, prections, and questions we read the book. Afterwards we discussed the important events that happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story. The student's books show each event in the order that they happened in the book. I must say, we have some taleneted author's in our class!

This week we are focusing our studies on words that contain the short /i/ sound. We have made charts, pictures, words, you name it! Tomorrow I will be sending home the books students made with all of the short /i/ words that they can read!

Math: Right now we continue to work on number bonds. This is a term used for number families in our new series called Math In Focus. If you are interested in learning more about our new math program, Stonewall will be hosting a Math In Focus night on Tuesday, September 6th .

Science: Today we made more observations with our plants...they are growing fast!!! The students get so excited to watch the changes from day to day!

Reminders:
*Parent Meeting- Thursday, September 8th
*Math in Focus Parent Night- Tuesday, September 6th