Snowmen Should Not...

1st graders have been working with their Kindergarten Buddies in Mrs. Newton's room over the past few weeks to brainstorm tips for snowmen. We started by reading Snowmen at Work and listening to Olaf sing "In Summer". With buddies, students then completed a sentence of what a snowman should NEVER do. In partners, students illustrated a snowman in some hot places. We then used one of our favorite apps Chatter Pix and made our snowmen come to life. Check out our video below with everything a snowman should not do.

 

Opinion Writing

In writer's workshop, 1st graders have been working on opinion writing. 1st graders have LOTS of opinions but we have learned that the best opinions are supported with reasons why. To practice our opinion writing, students first voted on their favorite season.

In these seasonal groups, students then worked together to brainstorm why they like that season. Many students loved summer for swimming, fall for Halloween, spring because the baseball season rolls around and winter for sledding. 

Group members working on reasons for why they love their season

Each group wrote their reasons on large chart paper and then presented their work to classmates. Groups made sure to start by stating their opinion, giving multiple reasons and closing with their opinion. This helped us work on being good presenters and audience members.

We'd love you to leave us a comment with your favorite season and a reason why.

1st Grade Fairy Tales

Once upon a time in a far away classroom, seventeen first graders were hard at work reading and writing their very own fairy tales. In this magical classroom, students discussed all the different elements of fairy tales. Unknown things such as royalty, magic, villains, heroes, spells and sometimes even dragons became part of everyday lessons.

It all began one warm winter day with students filling in castle organizers with title, characters, problem, solution and setting. Students then wrote, wrote and wrote some more using all the fairy tale elements. Some students had magical creatures and even Princess Miss Klipfels. 1st graders then used the iPads to make a detailed illustrations. We put our writing and illustrations into a class book in Book Creator.  Check it out:


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 our First Grade Fairy Tale to your digital library (for iPad or tablet reading).
Click on the link: First Grade Fairy Tale
Then click on Download.
Click Open in iBooks.

Option 2: Read out First Grade Fairy Tales in PDF form by clicking here.

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

Happy 2017!

HOPES AND DREAMS FOR 2017!

To start the new year off right we brainstormed New Year's resolutions. We discussed how these are goals or promises we make to ourselves for the new year. 1st graders used an organizer to think of personal goals, school goals and goals for friends and family. Then, they picked one resolution and typed it using laptops onto our Padlet.

We would love for you to add your 2017 resolution to our wall. Just double click anywhere on the wall. Then add your name and type your resolution (I need to approve it before it will show up on our wall). Happy New Year!