Pretty Please

Convince Me! Students have been working on writing persuasive writing pieces. First, 1st graders brainstormed different items they wanted at home or at school. Then students wrote adorable persuasive letters to try and change your mind. To help us write persuasive pieces we have been using "OREO". We start by writing our Opinion, then Reason, next Explanation, and finally restate our Opinion. If we're feeling like extra great writers that day, we will double stuff our Oreo! Students worked in groups to write a persuasive piece convincing me to get something for our classroom.

Kaitlyn, Sophia and Hailey tried to convince me for a class bunny. They believed it would cheer us up when we were sad and provide a new exciting class job.  The three of them even told me they would ask Mrs. Carreiro for permission and have a bake sale to raise money.  They then added in a few "pretty pleases" and hearts along the way. They definitely know good manners is the best way to try and convince me!

Luke, John, Matty, and Jake hoped for their very own cool computers for our classroom. They believe it will be fun and educational to no longer have to share computers in room 116. The boys promised to only do IXL, Raz-kids, or whatever the teacher told them. Everyone in our classroom agreed on this one believing we should all have our own computers or iPads in class. Fingers crossed someday this dream comes true (we might need to cross our toes too)!

Carter, Quinn, Ashwin and Brannon gave arguments for why we should get robots to do our work in school. They tried to persuade me that by having robots they would be able to sit and relax all day. This group offered to make the robots out of old tv parts and sell sandwiches to raise money.  I wonder if they can create a robot monkey too?

Teagan, Katherine and Natalia would like a slumber party for room 116. This group believed after a slumber party our classroom would be well rested and ready to focus on school work. They stated they would have a fundraiser to bring in ice cream (sherbet and chocolate my favorites) plus sprinkles and popcorn.  They also stated that some kids in our class have never had a slumber party, so what better place than 1st grade.

Langdon, Marco and Ella tried to persuade the class for a class pet day. This group believed it would be fun to learn about each other's beautiful pets. They promised to hang their backpacks up and not bully, in order to have a class pet day. Unfortunately, no pets are allowed at school so I guess our stuffed friends will have to do.

Since all the 1st graders did an excellent job with their writing, we celebrated with a brownie point and some Klipfel Kash. Unfortunately, with school rules and school money my fairy dust wasn't able to grant any other wishes but it's always fun to dream.

Writer's Workshop

Personal Narratives are stories we write about ourselves. Rather than writing large watermelon narratives we have been focusing our ideas into "seed" stories.  1st graders thought of one small moment in their long 6 or 7 years old lives to write a seed story about. We shared these seeds on a sticky note and added them to our class watermelon.

Students took their idea and wrote a detailed story using transition words to show the sequence of events. Like all good writers, we began with detailed pictures. Next, we added sentences and used a green pen to revise and edit our work.  All circled words are ones we need to look up in a pictionary. We also checked for capitals, periods and ways to make our writing better.

Our first drafts always have lots of edits and revisions.

Part of making our writing even better is including sensory words in our stories. Yesterday, we visited the leaf covered courtyard, with Mrs. Higgin's class, so students could record what they were seeing, hearing, feeling, and touching. Each student had a flipbook to fill in words or pictures about the senses they were experiencing on that brisk fall morning.

From all of us 1st grade writers in Room 116, 

GO SOX!

Playoff beards are growing

  

Go Sox!

Happy Opening Day 2013!  Opening Day at Fenway Park is always a special day. From the hype before hand, the return of my favorite announcers, Remy and Orsillo, the excitement during the game and who can forget about Wally, there are just so many things to love about this day.  I've been to one Opening Day at Fenway and it was by far my favorite baseball game I've ever attended and having been to over 15 major league baseball parks, I've been to a LOT of baseball games.  So here in 1st grade, we decided to show a little Sox Spirit!

As part of our poetry unit 1st graders learned the correct form of creating a diamante which ties perfectly with baseball.

Noun

two adjectives

three _ing words

4 word phrase

three _ing words

two adjectives

Noun

This form of poetry also helps us practice the parts of speech.  As a class we brainstormed baseball nouns.  1st graders came up with everything from Wally to Dustin Pedoria to Big Papi, even hot dog.  We brainstormed adjectives and baseball words ending in -ing.  Students then created their own baseball diamante poems to decorate our classroom door. 

From all of us 1st graders in Red Sox Nation we wish the Sox the best of luck in their 2013 season. Let's "Play Ball"!

Pretty Please

Convince Me! Students have been working on writing persuasive writing pieces. First, we brainstormed different items they wanted at home or at school. Then students wrote adorable persuasive letters to try and change your mind.  To help us write persuasive pieces we have been using "OREO". We start by writing our Opinion, then Reason, next Explanation, and finally restate our Opinion. If we're feeling like extra great writers that day, we will double stuff our Oreo!  Students worked in groups to write a persuasive piece convincing me to get something for our classroom.

 Rayan, Liam, Ariana and Kenna tried to convince me for a class guinea pig.  They believed it would be cute and soft.  The four of them even told me they would clean the cage twice a week. Unfortunately no pets are allowed at school so I guess our stuffed friends will have to do.

Kurt, Emma, Ana and Aidan hoped for a pool inside room 116.  They believe it will be fun and help us all not be sweaty.  They even offered to help teach anyone who doesn't know how to swim.  As much as I love swimming, I just don't think a pool would fit in our classroom

Brady, Allison and Mia gave arguments for why we should get an Apple T.V. in our classroom.  They believe everyone would be able to see the app from the iPads on the Smartboard and that they would be able to teach each other more things.  Everyone in our classroom agreed on this one and we're definitely hoping to get one soon. Fingers crossed!

Maxwell, Nicholas, Rebecca and Jacob would like an awesome Easter Egg Hunt for our 1st grade class.  They stated they would bring it all in from home and we could have it on a Friday.  They even ended with a choral group "PLEASE".  They definitely know good manners is the best way to convince me!

Andrew, Olivia, Kaitlin, and Riley persuaded the class for nap time.  This group believed it would be comfy since they could sleep with bean bags, beds, massage chairs and stuffed animals.  They hoped this would help students not be so tired in class so they could do their work. 

Since all the 1st graders did an excellent job with their writing we celebrated with a minute nap time, thanks to the group that convinced me.  Even without beds and bean bags students loved their minute nap (and it definielty helped them do their work)!

Fairy Tales

Once upon a time in a far away classroom, nineteen first grade students were hard at work writing their very own fairy tales.  In this magical classroom students discussed all the different elements of fairy tales.  There is usually royalty, magic, villains, heroes, spells and sometimes even dragons.

Our Castle Word Wall

It all began with students filling in their castle organizers with title, characters, problem, solution and setting.  While reading a variety of different fairy tales we have been focusing on what the problem in the fairy tale was and how it was solved.



Students then wrote, wrote and wrote some more using all the fairy tale elements.  Some students had Gingerbread Dogs, Big Bad Pigs, magic wands and even a Fairy Godfather.

1st graders then used the iPads to illustrate a detailed cover page.  We included three important parts: title, author and illustration.  

As the story ends, these nineteen first graders kept learning happily ever after!

Sensory Writing

During Writer's Workshop we have been talking about the 5 senses.  We started by brainstorming Halloween senses. Students discussed what they see and hear on Halloween night.  We also talked about how we feel with all the spooky things going on around us.  The following day we went outside so students could record what they were seeing, hearing, feeling, and touching.  Each student had a flipbook to fill in words or pictures about the senses they were experiencing in the courtyard.  We will continue to use our sensory details to make our writing even better.

Writer's Workshop

It looked like a squiggle but it wasn't a squiggle...

We read the story, It Looked Like Split Milk to get ideas for our own writing pieces, during Writer's Workshop.  Students were given a squiggle line and created a picture around that squiggle.  It is always fun to see what the boys' and girls' creative minds come up with. Students' drawings were unique and interesting. Once we completed our pictures, we wrote a sentence to go with our work.  Then, we took our sentences through the whole writing process!  We especially focused on revising our writing and making them even better.


Steps in the writing process

Here are our published pieces. Click on the pictures for a close up.

Heart Maps

Writer's Workshop has begun in our classroom. Students filled in heart maps with topics that they love. These ideas will serve as "seeds" for future writing pieces. 



 Our heart maps show what is close to our hearts: people, places events and memories.

Our heart maps are done so we chose one "seed" to draw a detailed picture of.  We labled our picture to give the reader more information.  Now we're going to use these pictures with a caption to practice going through the writing process.