Book Clubs!

Yes!  First graders can do book clubs!  Today we welcomed Ms. Deborah, Ms. Dana, Mr. Bill and Ms. Josie into our room to model book clubs in a fishbowl manner.  We watched and listened to them share the book Strega Nona.  

Book clubs incorporate many 21st Century skills:
Communication, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking.  

 It was great to have a male reader with us!

 Ms. Josie is Italian which led to great connections

 with Strega Nona!

 Laughing is a great part of book clubs!  We learn that reading can be fun!

 We are learning to mark the text with sticky notes, writing down our questions, wonderings, connections and inferences.

Using our crew microphone really helped each of us hear and focus on the speaker.

 After the fishbowl some of us were able to try out book clubs on our own.  Next week everyone will have a chance to get involved.

Asian Market and Dim Sum Restaurant Fieldwork

What joy it was to see the children discovering a world outside of Castle Rock...New foods, smells, and tastes!
One of the highlights was certainly the full-size pig waiting to be roasted.  Oh my!  They were captivated...
We have really learned so much about China.

So much learning going on...and fun too!

Ms. Mary Beth's crew was busy with lots of learning this week.

In Expedition we practiced using chopsticks.  Tricky! We will have the option of using forks at the restaurant on Friday!

We also created water color paintings about China.
Check them out when you have a chance to come by.  They are hanging up across the windows.  Dragons, red hung bao envelopes, mountains, Chinese characters and more decorated the pages.

Below you can see the learning that went on during Math Explorations this week.  We explored measuring the area of a surface, using a pan balance to weigh items of different sizes and weights, and finding efficient ways to count a large number of colored discs.  

Wow! We thought more meant heavier!  But we realized that even one item could weigh more than many things!

 Figuring out the area of a white board using dominoes...
Does it matter which way they are turned?

Discovering that counting by piles of 10 was a smart idea!

Creating, exploring, discovering.  21st Century skills!

Joyous Chinese Culture Center Fieldwork

The children had such a wonderful day of learning!
It was a great day for all of us.  One we will hopefully remember for a life time!

That Which Shall Not Be Named...

Things change in First Grade.  Six year olds start noticing things that they didn't notice in kindergarten, such as what the children around them are doing, reading, writing, and learning.

In Kindergarten, children often parallel play.  They play next to children and do their own thing, rather than engaging in partner or group play.  

And as they approach the mid-year of First Grade the inevitable occurs.  And here's what it is.  

That which shall not be mentioned.  The experience that every First Grader longs for...

Chapter Books. 

                                                    

At first I begin reading them out loud to the whole crew,  as I am doing with Anna Hibiscus.

But now, some of the children are ready to read books like Frog and Toad,  Henry and Mudge, 

and Poppleton during Independent reading time.

Not all of us are ready for these books.  But some of us are.  I am SO SENSITIVE to all of my crew children's hearts.  So for now, I've asked the children who will be reading these books not to call them "chapter books". 

For now,  we will call them "longer books" until the day that we are all in what a First Grader thinks is a special club to belong to.  Those who are reading "chapter books".  

Crew Climbing / November 2012

Perseverance...
My heart soared when I heard that my crew showed this character trait while climbing this week. Each child challenged themselves to move to new heights. Personal growth.  Working together.  Cheering each other on.  How wonderful.

I was sad that meetings kept me out of the gym during our first climbing week, but thankfully Ms. Dana was able to be there to take pictures and be the cheerleader. (she is very good at this role!)  I will be there for them next time, but I was surely there in spirit.  I believe that my children can rise to the bar I have for them as learners, and I'm there to keep them from falling.

Halloween!

Ok. So if you do not know who Pete the Cat is, you will need to ask your children about this book character. We have read several books about this crazy cat.  Ms. Dana and I rocked Pete the Cat this year.  You can check out Pete at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2YwCgtvnNg.

The children had such fun...parading through the classrooms, munching on healthy food, and checking out each others costumes.  They were so cute!
THANK YOU's go out to our amazing crew mom who set up the party and to all who contributed food or paper goods.