Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from all of us in 1st grade! Thank you for all the adorable holiday cards and the generous gifts. Have a wonderful relaxing vacation with your children. Klipfel and Kids hopes you enjoy our holiday video below and we'll see you next year

Klipfel Airlines

Welcome aboard Klipfel Airlines! This is your captain, Captain Klipfel, speaking. Please fasten your seat belt and prepare to hear about Holidays Around the World.

Last week, 1st graders began their trip around the world. We have been creating a Holidays Around the World Scrapbook as we travel on our adventure. We began in the United States and discussed traditions and customs of different holidays celebrated. We then boarded Klipfel Airlines and flew to Mexico. Students learned about poinsettia plants and holiday piñatas.

Working on our scrapbook

Last week we also jetted off to Italy and checked out the Leaning Tower of Pizza, Coliseum and Venice.  Our next stop took us to France where students put their shoes by the fireplace, like traditional French children.

We even discovered a prize in our shoes

Next, our flight on Klipfel Airlines departed to Germany, where we sang O Tannenbaum, a traditional German song and discovered that Germany is famous for their gingerbread men.  Our layover in Sweden allowed us to learn about Tomte, a traditional Swedish gnome.  Tomorrow, we will fly first class to our last stop, England to make Holiday Crackers.  Have your child share what new customs and traditions they're learning. Bon Voyage!

The Grinch

The Grinch's heart is two sizes too small, take a look at how we're showing kindness to one and all. The mean Mr. Grinch has made an appearance in Room 116, with one grouchy face. During our Olweus Health and Wellness Block, students discussed ways to include others and be a good friend. 1st graders are showing the Grinch ways to be kind by writing about acts of kindness they see in our classroom. 

So many hearts have all ready been filled out and it makes not only the Grinch's heart grow but mine as well. Take a peak at a few hearts that have already been added to our Grinch

What better time than the holiday season to remind ourselves that something as kind as a smile can brighten a classmates day.  Look our Grinch's heart grow!

1st Grade Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, in a school far far away, our class along with Mrs. Higgins' and Mrs. Thomson's classes wrote one magical fairy tale.  It all began many days ago with our initial collaborative brainstorming session to discuss potential fairy tale elements.  After each classroom wrote one section of the story, we swapped to create illustrations that complemented our peers' writing.  

Klipfel & Kids was responsible for illustrating the middle part of our fairy tale that Mrs. Higgins' class wrote. In partners, students illustrated one or two sentences using a drawing app on the iPad. Once illustrations were completed in all three classrooms, our group fairy tale was ready to be put together in Book Creator using a little extra fairy dust.  1st graders are pleased to present The Princess and the Pearls!  

You may download our fairy tale on any electronic device to add to your digital library or you can view our book as a PDF for reading or printing on a computer.

Option 1: Add The Princess and the Pearls to your digital library.  

Click on the link: The Princess and the Pearls

Then click on Download.

Click Open in iBooks.

Option 2: Read The Princess and the Pearls in PDF form by clicking here.

As the story goes, students and teachers lived happily ever after with a new magical tale added to their digital library to read again, and again and again.

Winter Math

Snowy weather has put students in room 116 in the seasonal spirit. Take a stop by to snuggle up to the fire with a good book or an educational iPad app. We've changed over our high-five turkeys and have made snowmen to help us count by twos. 1st graders brought in some very creative eyes to help us skip count by twos. 

This month in math we have been focusing on numbers eleven through twenty.  1st graders have been practicing counting, comparing and ordering these numbers.  As a class, we made a life size number pattern and practiced comparing numbers using tens and ones pieces. 

To keep things festive, 1st graders made number dreidels to show off their knowledge of numbers from 11 to 20.  Students practiced using ten frames, grouping by tens, number sentences, tally marks and number words to represent these numbers.

Visit spelling city to practice spelling and reading number words from 11-20.

Gingerbread Kids

Run, Run as fast as you can, you can't catch us, we're the Gingerbread Kids.  Some of our favorite fairy tales we have read thus far have been the Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Girl and of course The Stinky Cheese Man (a twist on the Gingerbread Boy).  After reading The Gingerbread Girl, 1st graders each took a different part of the story to retell using one of our favorite apps Drawing Box.  When students were done creating, they put their pictures together to retell the story in sequence.  1st graders focused on illustrating the background to show off the important setting as well as adding details to their characters.

Sequencing The Gingerbread Girl

After reading and comparing all these stories, we had fun with Gingerbread Boys and Girls during math time. Students imagined running after that quick gingerbread boy and going snip, snap just like the fox. 1st graders then graphed which part of the gingerbread man they would eat first. We started with a class graph on the Smartboard.

We then took our graph and made it life size on the bulletin board. We made sure to analyze our results and had a good math discussion. 1st graders also wrote sentences about what they noticed after seeing our finished graph.

Most 1st graders would eat the head first.  The least number of students would eat the arm first.  Two more students would eat the leg first instead of the arm.  Which part of the gingerbread man do you eat first? Make sure to add your vote to our poll below.

WHICH PART OF THE GINGERBREAD MAN DO YOU EAT FIRST?

Fairy Tales

Princes and princesses of 1st grade have been royally enjoying exploring the elements of fairy tales.   We discussed how fairy tales are made up stories that usually have magical elements and often contain the number 3 or 7.  1st graders have been reading many different traditional fairy tales as well as some funny fractured tales.  Klipfel & Kids along with Mrs. Higgins' Class and Mrs. Thomson's class are writing our very own group fairy tale.  We began with a collective brainstorming session to discuss possible story elements.

After coming up with some magical ideas, each class had to determine which part of the fairy tale they would write.  Here is how we broke the story into three parts: The Beginning, Middle and End.

Klipfel & Kids got the beginning and were responsible for writing about the characters and setting. Wait until you hear about our beautiful princess, evil prince and his pet, Harry the fire-breathing dragon.  

We anxiously waited for the middle and ending to be written.  We were so excited to hear what happened with our characters.  We are happy to announce they are complete and now we are ready to illustrate.  Even though we wrote the beginning of the story, we will now be digitally illustrating the middle.  This really is one collaborative project!  Stay tuned for our first grade fairy tale coming to an iPad near you soon.