Rhyming with Seuss

Inspired by Dr. Seuss this month in Writer's Workshop we have been working on creating our own rhymes. We used a very popular Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham to help us get started. First, Tim Tebow came for a virtual visit and read us the silly story. Then, we decided on our own food that we definitely would not, could not eat! 1st graders came up with rhymes to create a silly poem. Afterwards, 1st graders drew caricatures based on their poem.  Next, we used a new favorite app Chatter PIX to record our voices. Check out our work below!

Read Across America

Read Across America is still going strong here at Fuller Meadow School. Last Friday was silly sock day and today was crazy hat day. Look at our very creative (and a little crazy) outfits.

For this fun event we met with our Kindergarten Buddies to make Dr. Seuss hats about our favorite things.  The top section was for our favorite place to read, middle was our favorite Seuss character and the bottom shows a picture from our favorite story. 1st graders and buddies loved sharing favorites with each other.

Buddies hard at work

We hope you have a silly splendiferous weekend...keep reading for those reading logs!

Dr. Seuss

We have been having a Seusstastic March! Klipfel & Kids is going for the gold as part of Fuller Meadows Read Across America program. As part of Read Across America in Room 116 students went on their first QR hunt around the classroom with all of their Dr. Seuss knowledge. Using the app, Qrafter, students worked in pairs to scan the QR codes with the iPads. Once they scanned the QR code it brought them to a Dr. Seuss question that they needed to work together to answer.  Try scanning the codes below (all you need is any free QR scanning app for an iPhone, iPad or iPod).  

There was lots of Dr. Seuss trivia. Do you know where Dr. Seuss was born or what the first book he ever wrote was? How about the number of words in Green Eggs and Ham? If not, ask your first grader to help.

1st graders and our Kindergarten buddies have been using the month to share our love of reading. For Dr. Seuess' birthday we met and listened to the story Cat in the Hat read to us by the very famous Justin Beiber. Who knew he made school visits? Afterwards, 1st graders and their buddies read their favorite Dr. Seuss books together.  Today, we met with our buddies again and read The Cat and the Hat Comes Back. 1st graders and their K-Buddy then filled in a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the two books. Mrs. Newton and I were so impressed with how stupendous their work came out.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” -Dr. Seuss

Author Visit

Author and illustrator, Maryann Cocca-Leffler visited Fuller Meadow School today.  She spoke to students about becoming book creators and how it all starts with an idea.  She told tales from her childhood that she later turned into published books.  We learned that Princess Kim and the Lie that Grew was inspired from the time Mrs. Cocc-Leffler informed her 1st grade class that her father owned Coca-Cola and could bring some for the whole class.  She drew a spectacular Princess Kim illustration while we watched and listened to a new song from Princess Kim the Musical. 

1st graders were also surprised to learn that Mr. Tanen (who really wore crazy ties) was a real principal from the school Mrs. Cocca-Leffler's daughters attended.  After reading many of her wonderfully illustrated stories, students responded to their favorite book in their read and respond journal.

In preparation for her visit and as part of World Read Aloud Day, Fuller Meadow students read Mr. Tanen's Ties. Students then illustrated ties to decorate bulletin boards to welcome Mrs. Cocca-Leffler to our school and of course we all had on silly ties today too!

Thanks to all the dad, big brothers, and moms who let us borrow their ties for the day (and helped us tie them).

World Read Aloud Day

1st graders can now officially say they've been to Australia (well virtually at least), as part of World Read Aloud Day.  The first Wednesday of every March marks LitWorld's campaign for sharing the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories.  Room 116 had an extra special treat for WRA and were able to skype with author Sally Rippin half way around the world in Australia.  We made sure to say "Good Morning" at the start of our skype visit, since Sally was just waking up, even though it was the end of our school day.

Sally took the opportunity to inspire the young writers in our classroom by sharing humorous tales of her childhood and explaining how those events inspired future published stories.  We learned that Sally and her younger sister got into a little mischief as young girls and one time gave themselves a haircut without permission.  Sally told the boys and girls how her mom was quite cross with her (it was fun learning some new Aussie lingo too).  After telling this animated story along with others, Sally read aloud Billie B. Brown The Beautiful Haircut and the story was surprisingly close to the real life events that happened when Sally was a little girl but don't worry 1st graders didn't get any new ideas.

If you'd like to know more about Sally Rippin and her wonderful stories take a look around her website: Sally Rippin's Homepage

The boys and girls have loved getting to know Sally's characters Billie B. Brown and Jack better over the course of the last few weeks.  Billie B. Brown and Hey, Jack! are perfect stories for our emerging 1st grade readers.  Students can relate to these characters and were able to learn some valuable lessons.  We can't wait to read more!

It’s hard to imagine a more delightful holiday than World Read Aloud Day, “to celebrate the power of words and create a community of readers taking action to show the world that the right to literacy belongs to all people.”  Never underestimate the power of reading aloud with your children.

Blogging

We are so excited for our next big learning adventure to be Kid Bloggers! Starting today 1st graders were given their own blog and have become published online writers. Students wrote about something that others don't know about them and I have to say I learned quite a few new facts about my 1st graders.  We used the iPads to access our Kidblog and type our 1st post.

Our 1st time blogging!

1st graders will be using their blogs at home or in school to practice their writing skills.  Today was our first day blogging and my inbox is overflowing with updates about new posts and comments.  As a teacher I could not be more excited about the students' excitement!  On our class blog you will notice a new tab in the top right, Kid Blog. This link will take you directly to our KidBlog page.

Check out our KidBlog and leave us some comments.

Water Cycle

Look right in front of you. Do you see that? Yes, right there all around you. It's water vapor!

Our class made water cycle

1st graders have been hard at work learning about the water cycle. We began by making our own water cycle board in our classroom. We made sure to label the important vocabulary: evaporation, precipitation, and condensation. After we finished our introduction to the water cycle we transformed into scientists and began a water cycle experiment.  

Experiment in progress...

Students were paired up to construct their Mr. Potato head inspired water cup for our experiment. Cups were filled with water and placed around the classroom. Some experiment cups have nothing on top of them, other have napkins, tissue paper, duct tape and even plastic bags (some with holes). We need lots of variables for a good scientific experiment.

Once experiment cups were filled with water, students worked as pairs to make a hypothesis about what they predict will happen to the water in their cup. 1st graders wrote their hypothesis in their water cycle journal.  

 Will there be a cloud in our classroom soon??

Will the water evaporate a little or a lot??       

Now we wait and observe what happens...