Field Trip to the Fire Hall

We kicked off Fire Safety Week with a field trip to the Fire Hall. Everyone in 1st and 2nd grade wore red for the trip.

Every year the 1st and 2nd grade classes go to the Fire Hall to learn about fire safety from our local volunteer firemen.  First we gathered in the meeting room and the firemen showed us their equipment and quizzed us on our knowledge of fire safety.

We got to see all of the equipment on a fireman so we wouldn't be
scared if we ever saw one.  We learned about the SCBA
tank and how the equipment keeps them safe.

Teaching us about the things fires need.

We got to check out the bay and look
 at the uniforms that are ready to go. 

We talked about the jaws of life and even got to see it.

Then they showed us the gear they use when a water rescue
 is needed.  The suit keeps the water out and fills up
with air so they can float.

Then came everybody's favorite part.  The kids each got to spray water from the big fire hose.  It was especially fun when a car drove by!

Fire Fighter Ava

Fire Fighter Michael

Fire Fighter Aaron

Fire Fighter Becca

Fire Fighter Peyton

Fire Fighter Colton

Fire Fighter Amanda

Fire Fighter Meika

Next up, we got to see the BIG hose straight from the truck shoot out across the street.  The power of that was amazing!  Then we watched as a fire extinguisher was used.  A lot of us had never actually seen one go off before- which is a  good thing!

We had a great trip and are fortunate that our firemen are willing to take time out of their busy schedules for us :)

~Ms. Anglin

Awesome October

October has flown by like a witch on a broom!  I can't believe its already the end of the month!  Here are some fun things we have done this month.

We learn about different character traits with Character Counts at our school.  October is the first month and we learned about Trustworthiness.  The color for Trustworthiness is blue so we all wore blue one day.  The firsties learned that being a trustworthy person means being honest, keeping your promises, and always being able to be counted on.

Amanda brought her stuffed cat for show and tell.  When she took it out of her bag a little part of me thought it was real for a second!

At a workshop this summer, I was introduced to a game called Tile Time to practice vocabulary.  We used the letter tiles that we have in reading centers to practice High Frequency words.  For this first time, I wrote the word down and the kids had to race to copy/spell the word correctly.  They were divided into 2 teams and could only chose one letter at a time.  Once they found a letter and placed it on the paper, it was the next person's turn.  The way the students picked up on this game amazed me!  We are now starting to use it every week to study our spelling words.  I say the word and the teams have to race to spell it correctly.

One of my absolute favorite new things this year is my implementation of Flashlight Friday.  I had seen this on Pinterest or something like that and I always wanted to do it but never actually did.  I bought mini flashlights on Amazon and the kids love using them.  I pull the blinds and turn off the lights but the room isn't as dark as I'd like it to be.  Everyone grabs lots of books, pillows, and stuffed animals from the library area and hunkers down to read for at least 20 minutes.  At first I wasn't sure how this was going to go as I have had silent reading time previous years and it was never truly silent.  I'm not sure if its the fact that the lights are off or just the magic power of the flashlights but these kids are SILENT the whole time and I couldn't be happier!!  I am hoping to instill the love of reading that I have in them by having them do nothing but read.  It is only once a week, Friday, and they really work hard during the day so we have time for it :)  Here they are reading by flashlight.

Georgia found a nice dark spot under the table

I'll be back soon with Halloween fun!
~Ms. Anglin

The end of September

Obviously, as if you couldn't tell, I am behind on all of these blog posts... Which is something I said I WOULD NOT do this year.  I'm making up for that now on this chilly fall Sunday.

In our classroom we have special rewards for awesome behavior of the whole class.  One of those rewards is a popcorn party.  Along with the popcorn, the students get to watch a movie.  I always try to find a Magic School Bus episode that will go along with our science for the movie.  The cool part about that is the students don't realize they are learning while watching!

Watching the air popper making the popcorn.

If there was sound to go with this picture, you would hear little shrieks and lots of giggles
while watching the popcorn shoot out!

Enjoying a plant episode of Magic School Bus and having some popcorn.

We use our computer a lot in our classroom.  We do IXL every week to practice our math skills.  We also do Accelerated Reader every morning with them.  It is amazing how technology savvy these 6 and 7 year olds are!  It seems like I have to show them how to do something once or twice and they remember exactly how to do it for the rest of the year.

At the end of September, we participated in our first Hat Day.  Students bring $1.00 to school if they want to wear a hat for the day.  That money is collected by the National Honor Society for a project.  we loved our hats, and getting to use the selfie stick again ;)

~Ms. Anglin

Falling in Love with Show and Tell

Show and Tell is always an exciting time for us on Fridays.  Students are allowed to bring whatever they want to share with the class.  We are only a couple of months in to the school year and we have already had some SUPER show and tells times!  Here are some pictures of what they have been bringing.  One of the first extra special show and tell items was a dog- I forgot about taking a picture, sorry Amanda and Gracie the dog!!

Ava brought her beautiful cat Mittens 

Georgia made a cool wooden box with a hinged door with her dad

Colton and his awesome light up rainbow Mohawk

Ava brought eggs fresh from the chickens on her farm.  It was interesting to see the different colors of eggs!

Grandma Sally also brought the class donuts and pumpkins!

Georgia's Grandma Sally came as show and tell.
She read stories to our class.

We decorated the pumpkins and used them as Halloween decorations in our room.

I'm sure there will be more terrific show and tell items in the future!

~Ms. Anglin

Science in September

We learned about plants in Science in September.  The kiddos did such a great job learning the needs of plants along with all of the parts and the important jobs they do.  We did a science project with plants so we could watch them grow when they were given everything they need: sunlight, water, space, and air.  I used a kit to make these grasshead projects but they can easily be created by simply gathering a few materials on my own for next year.

The first step was getting the soil ready.  In this kit, there were disks of compacted soil that expanded once water was added.  They really enjoyed watching the transformation that happened!

After sitting in the water for a while, this container was full of fluffy soil.  Our next step was to sprinkle grass seeds into the toe of a stocking.  Then we filled the stocking with our soil and squished it into a ball shape.

Once a perfect head shape was created, a rubber band was added to keep the soil in and the excess stocking was cut off.  Then noses and ears were created by pinching a small bit of soil away from the head and rubber banding.  The first graders then created a face with googly eyes and felt shapes for the mouths.

The heads were then put on little pedestals, so we could see them easier, and placed in the window so they would receive great sunlight.  When it was time to water our grassheads, they took a bath!  I placed them in a bucket of water so they could soak up the water that was necessary to start growing hair.

By day 5 we had excellent hair growth on all of our grassheads and the kids loved looking at them every morning.

While these were in school, they were given 2 hair cuts by their creators.  Every student trimmed their heads with style.  We had some short buzz cuts, some flat tops, and some just got a tiny trim.

When we got to leaves in this chapter, I had everyone collect leaves from home and bring them in so we could see how leaves can be so different from each other.

Then the students did leaf rubbings using the leaves they brought and fall colors.  They had to fill up the entire paper with rubbings.

Next, they watercolor painted over the crayon leaf rubbings.  There again, they had to choose a color of paint that is seen in fall.

The final step was picking out a leaf shape, tracing it on their paper and cutting it out.  They made great hallway decorations!  I love how each one is different and unique to each student.

The firsties learned a lot about plants with this chapter and these were awesome projects to get their hands dirty- literally!

See you soon!
~Ms. Anglin