Snow Day!

Today is our 2nd full snow day of the school year, we've started late several times as well.  Did I forget to mention that it is only December 6 and not even technically winter yet!?!?  I figured I could spend part of this cold, windy, snowy day catching you all up on the happenings of the first graders.

The kiddos were excited when we got our first dusting of snow a couple of weeks ago.  They came to school in their snow pants and boots, scarves and winter coats, ready to play out in the snow.  There was a little disappointment in the fact that there wasn't enough snow to build a fort yet, but they still loved it!

I have gotten a little more used to my Mimio projector this school year.  It is a little touchy but we make it work in the end.  If I know their handwriting is going to be too messy for an activity using the interactive part of the board, I freeze the picture and let them write with dry erase markers instead.

I just love this note that was given to me.  It will be saved and given back to the author at their graduation.  If you look carefully, mom and dad was erased and Ms. Anglin was left :)

We had another hat day for National Honor Society right before Thanksgiving break.  It seems like every hat day becomes my favorite, but this one really is!  I went to Wal-Mart with this idea in my head and I actually found it- a turkey hat!!

In Social Studies this past chapter we learned about Jobs and we had our own Job Day of sorts.  The kiddos dressed up as the job they would like to have some day.  They were all so cute in their costumes and could all tell me if their job was a service job that helps people, or if they had a job that produced goods for others.  They also had to list some tools that are used at their job.  We had 3 vets, 2 artists, 2 construction workers, 1 cowboy, and 1 horse trainer.

We've had some fun show and tells again lately.  Who am I kidding- show and tell is always great!  Here are some moments I remembered to capture.

Georgia and her elf Chippy

Peyton brought a cute purse
with changeable bows

Georgia brought a zip lining doll

This is not a very good picture but it is capturing one of the whole class's favorite times- including mine.  Sam comes into our room 2 days a week to hang out with us.  She gets to read to the students while they have a snack in the afternoon.  She also helps with reading centers and art projects.  I do not always get that kind of attention and stillness when I am in front of the same kids, so you can tell they adore her.  Thank You Sam!

Our word wall is coming along nicely.  Every morning we read every word up on the wall.  The words come from our reading series and I occasionally add a word if it is something they are consistently writing.  It has taken a while but they are finally getting used to looking to the word wall when they are writing.

Peyton pointing to the words as they are read.

December is the month of Responsibility for character counts.  We wore green to celebrate it.  Responsibility is one of my favorite traits to teach about because the kids are learning that they can be more responsible every day.  We talked about how they are responsible for reading at night, remembering their folder or coat every day, and turning their papers in.  I hope to hear less of "my mom or dad forgot to...".  I know they are little, but I am trying to show them that taking responsibility for things they do is so important in life.  Your mom and dad are not in 1st grade- you are :)

As you can see from the pictures above that the tree is up in the classroom!  I'm not going to sugar coat it for you- putting this tree up is not exactly my favorite thing to do.  But we worked on it all together.  They took turns fluffing the branches, getting dizzy with me wrapping the lights, and placing the ornaments.  It took a full day, but it's up and ready for presents!

Yesterday we had an assembly called Be a Star!  It was a little bit of magic, music, and a positive message about having dreams and not letting bullies get to you.  Meika was a volunteer who shared her dream of being a horse trainer.  I love the way she is soaking up this man's words.

AH that's it!  I am up to date but will soon be back with some more Christmas activities.  Now it's time to use this snow day wisely- make some cookies and read!
~Ms. Anglin

January So Far

We started the month out as we have since October- Character Counts.  January is Fairness.  We talked about be fair with your friends, sharing, letting everyone have a turn, and following rules.  Obviously, we wore orange this day!  Such a hard color some years, but everyone found something with orange on it to wear.

Fairness

My favorite thing that we have done so far this month has been our Ukrainian Kaleidoscope Assembly.  We learned all about the country of Ukraine from a very nice man named Serge.  He spoke in his native language sometimes and showed us pictures of the country and of a school ceremony.  He also had many Ukrainian artifacts to show us, like shoes, clothes, alphabet, decorated eggs, and Ukrainian nesting dolls.  Serge is a very talented musician and played several instruments for us.  He showed everyone a traditional dance performed by boys, and boys from our school helped and participated.  Then he showed the girls a dance and Constance got picked to help out.  She had a great time dancing and did a fantastic job!!

Saying the Ukrainian alphabet

Playing a drum with a horse hair tail.  Very odd instrument.  You play it by wetting your hands and pulling on the hair, not actually beating the drum.

Girls dancing, Constance right behind Serge

Girls flower dance

Look at that long instrument!

The first graders earned a reward for good behavior.  We started off by making popcorn then we ate it while we played a new game- Disney Hedbands.  I thought the kids did such a good job at giving clues.  They were having fun but also developing skills in describing things and using different words.  And they looked pretty darn cute in those mouse ear head bands :)

Alaina's turn

Constance's turn

Amree's turn

Avery's turn

Kanyon's turn

Ella's turn, not sure what happened to my camera here!!

I read the story "Snowmen at Night" and we did a writing project with it.  First the students wrote what they would do if they were a snowman at night.  Then they created a snowman picture from tearing white paper.  I love that each of them is individual and unique!

Stay warm!!

~Ms. Anglin

Christmas is creeping in!

I can't believe its almost Christmas!  We are in full Christmas mode here at school!  We are fortunate enough to be able to celebrate Christmas in our school, my heart goes out to those who can't.

We started the winter season off with a pretty good snow, even had a snow day!  Here they are all bundled up and ready to go play in all of that fresh snow.

The tree is up and finally all decorated!  We make some of the ornaments so that takes us a little bit to finish. 

We wrote stories explaining what we would do if we found Santa stuck in the chimney.  We had every solution from just pulling him out to crying to using a little soap and water.  This project always looks so cute hanging in the hallway!

I am not sure what happened but all of a sudden one day, the kids turned into tiny little elves.  Luckily I took their pictures before they turned into grown 1st graders again!  

We are counting down the days until Christmas in our room by making Santa's beard grow.  Every day someone glues a cotton ball on the date.  Every day we watch that big puffy beard grow and grow!

Our bulletin looks extra festive with our cute and very unique gingerbread cookies :)

I'll be posting the Christmas gifts that we are in the process of making after Christmas.. Have to keep it a secret! 

~Ms. Anglin

What's Spring?

So it is April 18th... Look at our playground! All of the snow was gone for about a week, but then we got around 8-12 inches over a few days.

 

 

Even though it is wintery looking outside, we are making our classroom look like spring, my all time favorite season.

 



We made rainbows to brighten the hallway.  It was a very fun project!  Very fun and also a little difficult.  I am glad my senior helper, Rachel, was able to help us that day :)

Rainbow Connection



 
For Mother's Day, we are attempting to grow some flowers.  The kids painted flower pots how they thing their mothers would like them.  They turned out very cute. 
 

 



The marigold seeds are all planted, we have a watering schedule, and the sun is sometimes shining in on them... HOPEFULLY we have growth soon!

 

 

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of spring!  I will enjoy it a little more when soggy snow pants and wet mittens can be put away for good!!

 

~Ms. Anglin