Celebration Museum

Today we finished up all the last minute preparations for our Celebration Museum.  Students started last week researching in teams of 3 using Pebble Go (a great data base we use in First Grade).  Each team picked a section and planned their exhibit.  Teams of 3 were put together in teams of 6 and given all kinds of materials to create an exhibit.  The only restrictions they had...it had to be 3-D and have a caption.

This was a great way to authentically learn and create information.  Tomorrow each class will tour the museum.  Our class will have a chance to learn about other celebrations in the other First Grade rooms!

Check back for more pictures and enjoy the students' hard work!

White OUT Wonder!

Frosty made a showing, but not enough to make it snow.  Even thought we didn't get snow, we sure had fun with all things white. Even Mark the Elf came dressed for the day!

After we got a special delivery from Ms. Snyder straight from Frosty.

 We started the morning cutting snowflakes and writing about why we are special.  Here are few things that make us special...

Camey said "because I was named after my Grandma"

Luc said "because my name is spelled with 3 letters and I am French"

Avery said, " because I am the middle kid in my family"

Dane said, "because I am fast"

Ben said, "because I know directions and Joesph does not"

Roman said, "because I help people up"

Mrs. Johnson said, " because I have the best class in the world"

We spent the rest of the morning planning and building our Sugar Cube Castles (hope they make it home).

We got our hands dirty by making snow!

and ended the day with a good old fashion snow ball fight!

Be sure to ask your students to tell you why we didn't get SNOW today!

Messy Movement

If Astroworld comes back to Houston, I have the perfect roller coaster designers!  Today we used what we know about motion to plan, make, adjust, and try out our very own roller coaster!  It was messy, loud, and so much fun.  Kids learned that they needed more force to make the marble stay on the track and worked to make the correct adjustments!

Germs, Codes, Toys, Letters and Putting it all on the MOVE!

Wow!  What a week.  It has been a week of sick kiddos and lots of action.  I am sad to say we have had lots of friends that have fallen to all sorts of illnesses.  We have taken time to try and get our hands washed and do everything we can to stay healthy!

We got our letter in the mail to Frosty - waiting to see if he responds with some snow for our White Out Day!

This week we were busy learning to code (that is the new term for writing programs).  I hope to be able to do more of this in the computer center when we return from the holidays.  We Had a visit from Santa and so many generous donations to Toys for Tots.  We finished up our motion unit by building boats and observing how they move.  BUSY BUSY BUSY!

I hope everyone gets some rest, we have a fun filled week of authentic  hands on learning.   I don't want anyone to miss the big week.

It's a Lunch Bunch, Mystery Reader and sloppy kind of Friday!

Today was our second lunch bunch.  We set the goal of increasing our reading stamina early in the week.  I was treated to eat with 6 kids who set great examples and dove right into their books.  It was a little humid, but a great day to eat outside!

All the kids weere stumped with our mystery reader.

The clues were...
He is a dad of 2
He likes to build stuff
and he is a boy scout...

My dad, dressed up as Pa Bear and read The Scout Bears to our class.  He even told a few stories about me!

Have a great weekend!

Elves, Authors and so much more!

WOW! We are back in the swing of things and so much has happened.  I wanted to take time to share with you one of our wonderful authors.  Everyday we have authors who share their work.  This is a great time for other's to learn from their work and offer compliments and questions to better the writing process.

In writing we are consuming letters.  The class has loved going on a gallery walk and hearing the kind words that you wrote to us.  We will start writing letters next week.

Lastly, we have a new classmate for the month of December, MARK the Elf has made a visit.  It is great fun to see what trouble he gets into when we aren't here.  Be sure to ask...

Putting value in it's PLACE!

This week we are learning about place value. We are building a solid foundation of tens and ones. We are learning how to make groups of ten and exchanging them for a solid group. We start with hands on, concrete learning before moving to abstract.  

Heat and Matter

Today we went in to the Discovery Center to learn first hand how heat changes matter.  We mixed a liquid with a solid to get a vicious liquid.  We then observed as we put heat on the liquid and it turned into a solid!  The kids may call this making pancakes, but we call it science!  Be sure to have them use their Scientific language next time they are in the kitchen!

Taking it to the Field

We had a great day learning in the field.  I was thankful for many things...the kids who behaved so well and were so excited to see everything, the great chaperons, and that the rain help off until we pulled into Hunters Creek.

Here are a few highlights from the kids...

Yuuki "The Power Tower" (Oh, and I forgot, I'm thankful that I didn't get stuck in the power tower!)

Hunter "building a lego car"

Katianna "running up and down the hill"

Roman "making a rocket"

Parker "rolling down the big hill"

Bianca "doing cart wheels the whole way down the hill"

Here is a link to more pictures:

http://hceyearbook1.smugmug.com/upload/zgw988/FirstChildrensMuseum

Changing States of Matter!

Today we did a Science Experiment.  Here is a recap from the students (typed by Mrs. Johnson)  are saying...  We were trying to make a ghost shoot in the air.  We were using corn starch and water with seltzer to make a solid change to a liquid. And then get the liquid to change into a gas.  We were hoping the gas would push the top off of the container to shoot the container (that looks like a ghost) into the air.  What really happened, it didn't work (according to Roman).  Reagan said that the container was too heavy, and we didn't have enough gas to shoot it in the air.

We still know that gas built up in the container because we saw bubbles, and we heard the the lid pop.

We learned that sometimes scientific experiments don't work the first time (Parker) and we will try again with a smaller container (Megan)!

Lunch Bunch Kind of Day!

When I first came to Hunters Creek, I was so excited to see the picnic tables outside.  This is a great spot for lunch bunch, and today was our first lunch bunch!    I will often set a goal with the class, and look for kids working on that goal.  On a given day, I invite about 6 kids to join me for lunch.  Today we were working on showing self control.  It was fun to visit, hear about their favorite foods, what they are going to be for Halloween, and share some down time.  We even took a selfie (I think Henry got blocked, I don't have long enough arms).

We will do this a couple times a month, and all students will have an opportunity to attend.   Thanks for keeping me company at lunch!

Thank you PTA

Thank you to the PTA for a wonderful cultural arts program!  We were treated to Lilly from Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.  She retold the entire story.  This was a great example of retelling from beginning to end, and including lots of details.

Thanks for a fun morning!

Our Community!

In first grade we spend lots of time on community!  We build our own classroom community, learn to work together, learn about what makes a community outside of the classroom.  Today we merged our learning of maps, community, and writing to create our own community!  Take a look at Johnsonville!