2016 Christmas Program

What a great night!  100% attendance for first graders at the program tonight.  That is a first for me and I have been teaching 12 years!!!!!  They all looked so cute in their fancy Christmas outfits. They sang so well and had a great time singing and dancing.  We watched a little Frosty The Snowman while we waited for the program to finish up1  WAY TO GO FIRST GRADE!

THE HANDSOME BOYS

THE PRETTY LADIES

Dissolving Candy Cane

Today we did a little holiday experiment with candy canes.  I had a few students that were disappointed we didn't get to eat them but in my opinion it was much cooler to watch them dissolve in 3 different liquids.  All students made their very own prediction about what they thought would happen when we placed a candy cane into a cup of cold water, hot water, and a cup of vinegar!  They were able to come up with some pretty interesting predictions.  Everyone filled out their prediction data sheet and then we dropped the candy canes in one by one.  We discovered that all of the candy canes eventually dissolved but not at the same pace.  The cup of hot water dissolved the candy cane the fastest.  The cup of vinegar bubbled and stripped the red stripes off of the candy cane immediately after we dropped it in.  The cup of cold water slowly dissolved the candy cane but did leave bits and pieces behind.  It was a fun and interesting twist on a very popular Christmas candy.  I bet next year when my students are hanging candy canes on their Christmas trees they might remember this little experiment.

The candy cane in the cup of vinegar is now white.

The hot water slowly dissolved/melted the candy cane.

Makenna and her classmates were busy writing her predictions.

Fantastic First Grade Christmas

With a little photo editing, my students or should I say Santa's Little Helpers are ready to spread some Christmas cheer!  Only 12 more days till Christmas=)

Meet Penny The Elf

We have a special visitor this week.  Penny traveled all the way from the North Pole to spend the week with us.  She is making sure that we are making good choices at school and working hard.  She reports back to Santa each night and then magically flies back to Erie Elementary and hides in our classroom each day!  We were so excited to find her today.  Each student has their very own Elf Adventure book to record where Penny hides each day=)

Dear Santa......

This week my class wrote letters to Santa.  We reviewed the parts of a letter together before we began to write.  Each student wrote one reason why they liked Christmas, asked Santa for something they needed and also an item they wanted (this goes right along with what we have been learning in social studies this week), and finally they asked Santa a question.  They did a fantastic job!  We also did a step by step "How To Draw Santa" activity to display in the hallway with our letters.  I think they turned out pretty cute=)

Meet Our Class Pet

Hi there!  My name is Freckles.  I am so excited to be Mrs. Holland's first grade class pet.  Can you believe that I get to go home with each student in the class to spend the night and play!  I am one lucky leopard!  I can't wait to snuggle, listen to boys and girls read me books, and go on fun adventures with my new friends.  Don't forget to write about what we did together in the class pet journal so you can share with the everyone when you bring me back to school!

Sneak Peek At Our Week!

This week in spelling and phonics we are learning about the "magic e".  This very special silent e makes vowels long. We are focusing on the LONG A  this week.  We did a word building activity where students wrote SHORT A words on their dry-erase boards and then added their "magic e" wands to the end of the word and "TADA" the SHORT A changed into a LONG A!   Students also wrote their spelling words on candy canes and highlighted the a and silent e in each word. (Here is an example...... cane)

In grammar this week were are learning about VERBS!  My students love playing the action verb game were I call out verbs and nouns and they have to imitate the verbs but stand still if the word is a noun.  They do such a great job using their listening ears and following directions.  They colored ANGRY BIRDS today and filled in the blanks with actions verbs that they thought their bird could do!  Check it out!

We also read When The Leaf Blew In and did a verb search as we read through the story.

Last but not least! With Christmas right around the corner, I thought it would be the perfect time to discuss NEEDS and WANTS during our social studies lessons this week.  For homework, each student was asked to bring in an item that they NEED in order to stay alive and also a item they WANT for Christmas.  We are filling Santa's NEED and WANT bags in the hallway very quickly. 

Happy Thanksgving

It's that time of year when we reflect on the things that we are thankful for.  As a class, we brainstormed a list of things were were thankful for and it sure was a very long one!!!!   Then each of my students made a cute little turkey craft and wrote all of the things they are thankful for on the turkey's feathers.  We also made Mayflower books this week and learned about the 65 day voyage that the Pilgrims made to Plymouth.  To end the week, we made pumpkin pie in a bag.  We all had a great time squishing the pudding, milk, pumpkin, and spices around in the bag!

Pizza, Bowling, Ice Cream, and Fresh Air.......

What a beautiful day!  We couldn't have asked for better weather for our field trip.  We headed to Geneseo, IL this morning for a little pizza making and bowling.  All of our first graders got to make their very own little pizza from start to finish.  They did a great job and learned about the different types of cheeses Happy Joe's uses on their pizzas and how hot the oven gets when they cook the pizzas.  After we made our pizzas, we headed over to the bowling alley next door and did a little cosmic bowling.  We ended our afternoon with a yummy ice cream treat and playtime at the park.  It was a fantastic day!  The kiddos were so well behaved.  Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents that joined us and helped throughout the day.

To prepare for our pizza making field trip, we discussed and wrote about the steps we needed to follow to make a pizza.  We also brainstormed adjectives that describe pizza and made a class popplet.