Oh how, I love this time of year in first grade. It is that time of the year where I find myself saying to many students, "OK, I know that you want to read and I love that you want to read, but now is the time to put down those books and listen." What a great thing! I have many students that are discovering that they can read a lot on their own now and all they want to do is read, read, and read some more! I have even had some of them ask if one of our extra fun things could just be reading! You could imagine my excitement on that one. :-)
Here are a couple of my kiddos engaged in their books:
I found this at http://rachelwojo.com/prayer-cant-understand-gods-plan/ and found it very fitting. This is a prayer that I have been looking at myself this last week and this week. There are just some things that I just don't understand and won't until I am no longer in this world. It is hard for me to understand that sometimes those things that I don't understand are part of God's plan for me. I need to remember that everything happens for a reason and it is his plan and there is a good reason for it even though I may not understand it. This is something that is really hard for me to do.
On another note, TPT is holding a sale starting tomorrow for having 3 million sellers. YAY! We already have items in our wish list! Don't forget to check it out!
Well, let's talk the important stuff first...a little lice advice.
For the last two weeks, I have feared that I might catch those little critters (as it has been passed around my kiddos). I mean...I have been having people check my head almost daily. My husband insists he doesn't know what he is looking for, but "look you must" I say! I have a hair appointment scheduled for today so I was really nervous about walking in and being embarrassed as she says a nice version of "Get out!"
I finally saw a hair dresser friend last night and asked her to check me to be sure. She said I was probably fine because I blow dry my hair daily. As she checked me (and thankfully found nothing), she said she tells everyone--teachers especially--to blow dry their hair daily this time of year. Even if you don't wash your hair, blow dry it anyway. The heat will kill them.
Maybe you already knew that (I knew heat killed them, but didn't realize the blow dryer was such an effective weapon)...but hey, if I can spare someone the scalp tingling anxiousness I have experienced the last two weeks...then I will!
Moving on...because my head is starting to itch (again).
I am in charge of our Dr. Seuss celebration this year. We're dressing up all next week and finishing with some fun rotations on Friday. We have 64 kids K-2 and will divide them up to visit 5 stations. I *think* I'm going to use the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck for my station on Friday. Dare I try to make oobleck with those excited little kiddos???
Check out this video of some kids making dancing oobleck - kind of creepy (the oobleck, I mean, not the kids - HA!):
Here's what we came up with for dress-up days (a combination of a few ideas I found on the internet):
Monday – Red,
White, and Blue Day (featured book: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)
– Wear red, white, and blue!
Tuesday – Crazy
Sock Day (featured book: Fox in Socks) – Wear your craziest socks!
We had our extra fun thing on Friday and I decided to have the kids do a portrait drawing of Abe Lincoln since we had been talking about him this week. The kids were so excited to draw him and their eyes lit up when I told them that after they drew him, they got to paint it. I don't know what it is about paint, but there is just something magical about it. The kids get so excited about painting and think it is just the coolest thing. In fact, when they saw the paint sitting on the shelf, they started pointing to it and getting excited at that point.
Check out some of their portraits (I have always found it interesting how a drawing can turn out so different from one another when given the same directions :-)).
Right now, I'm feeling the time crunch with my kiddos...only a few more months to influence them and share my love for reading with them.
Where has this school year gone?
Has it gone by so quickly because it was my first year at a new school?
Or my first year in a new grade level?
I'm not sure why I feel like the end is approaching way too fast, but I do know I have more to do! I still have some little readers that I want to see improve their skills and find a passion for reading so they can find this Dr. Seuss quote to be true.
Today is a lazy day. I told my hubby I deserve it because coaching middle school basketball since November is like working overtime for four months! These girls had a great season finishing 15-1, taking 1st in regular season division play, and then fighting for the championship on Saturday. Take a peek:
That's me on the left and my daughter is right in front of me. She is #30. My niece is also on the team (#22, you can't see her number but she is right by #00) and it has been so fun to watch them play together. I'm a little bummed the two will be separated next year as my niece goes to high school...
That's all I've got today...like I said, lazy! I promise more school related things next time. ;-)
This is a new game that we started this week and the kids absolutely love it and beg me to do it! I found it at Whole Brain Teaching. They actually use high frequency words in their game, but since we are later in the year, I decided to make up my own and do the words that we are working on for the week. (I plan to use the high frequency word one at the beginning of next year and I have started using it in my MTSS groups this year). They have also made a math one, that I would like to incorporate as well.
To play the game, the students work with their shoulder buddy. They have to decide who is going to go first. You time them for one minute and when you tell them to begin one person reads the first word, then the other person reads the next word and so on. If their partner doesn't know a word, the other partner can help them with the word. When the timer stops they mark the spot they ended up at and then they do it one more time with the other student starting first. The goal is for them to try to get past the word they made it to.
My students made the goal to try to reach the end of it by the end of the week. Many of them made that goal while others went further by the end of the week. I noticed that when reading our stories for the week, when they came to the word that we were working on, they remembered it, YAY! It is so easy to do and only takes 2 minutes out of your day and the best thing is that the kids love it!
