WE WON THE CONTEST!!!!

Visitation has an annual food drive. We call it the Turkey Feather Contest. Each student brings in food for our church parish. Each food item gets a turkey feather. Each week we also have special items which get a 5pt feather. During the month we brought in items everyday. We worked very hard to raise food for families in our community who are not able to provide food for their Thanksgiving. We raised over 2,000 turkey feathers and as a school over 2,000 items for the food bank. First and second grade came in first place raising the most turkey feathers in the school. We did have a little help from one special friend but we are not allowed to share :) (AKA The Turkey Feather Man). Thank you to everyone who participated in the Turkey Feather Contest and for helping provide a warm meal for many families this Thanksgiving. We sure were proud to support so many families.




 We made paper bag turkeys this year to hold the things we are thankful for this year. Each student wrote on a notecard three things they are thankful for. We sent home extra notecards for families to write what they are thankful for. I asked the students to share this project with their family at the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day. Students were asked to read each card from their turkey and share as a family what they are thankful for this year. The turkeys turned out really cute and it was fun for us to be able to involve our families. I hope you all enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed creating them.

We Love our Military!!!

During the Month of November, we gave thanks to our military for Veterans Day. I had a friend of mine who is in the National Guard speak to us about what he does. The kids asked him many questions about how he serves our country. After we got to have fun sharing in the classroom, we all walked over to the gym for a Veterans Day assembly. My friend Tony, Katie's dad, and a few other volunteers spoke about their service in the military. The student council had a fun skit to share with us and we all got to thank the military men who came personally with a handshake on our way out.

Earlier in the week we read stories about Veterans Day and wrote about what we learned. Some also included details about their parents being in the military. We also wrote letters to another friend of mine and his unit who are in the Air Force. Below are some pictures of the assembly and our military people we made.

Poppies to help us remember!

Celebrating birthdays and a SPOOKY October day

 First and second grade love to celebrate birthdays. Thank you to Kathleen's family for bringing in a delicious treat to share. Happy Birthday, Kathleen.

We celebrated Halloween by brewing up a yummy snack. Each student brought in something to share. Our mix was filled with popcorn, M & M's, raisins, dried fruit, animal crackers, pretzels, gummy candy, goldfish, and many other candy's and snacks. We also invited our families to come in and read spooky stories. Thank you to Mr. Keith, Mrs. Price, Mrs. Smith, and the Turnipseed family. We're glad we got to share the spooky day with you and thankful for your participation.

Our yummy witches brew

Mrs. Price read in a spooky voice for us

Enjoying our snack while listening to stories

Things are brewing up as October comes to an end.

 I cannot believe that October is almost coming to an end. First and second grade have been working really hard and having tons of fun learning together. We have had a lot of opportunities to use the ipads and the students have enjoyed working on their math, sight words, and spelling on them. The application we have been using tracks each individual student and moves them up levels as they master the skills. As they progress, the students earn coins to purchase rewards. This week each student was assigned to an ipad for the remaining of the year. They were very excited about this :) The ipads have been great at helping reinforce skills they have learned as well as provide enrichment for the students as they move forward.

In first grade, we have focused this month on beginning addition. The students have used many different manipulatives to add parts together to make a whole. Today, we started talking about equations and what the plus and equal sign means. Next week, we are going to play a fun function machine game that I played when I was in first grade. I am excited to share it with the class.

In second grade, we have focused on time. They have done a fantastic job at grasping the concept of time. We have worked on telling time by the hour and elapsed time by the hour. We have made up fun stories about some of the students in our class and used the clock to tell their story. The class has enjoyed using real life experiences in math.

EX: Winston went to his piano lesson at 4:00 and was there for 1 hour. What time did he leave?
EX: Mackenzie left for ballet at 3:00 and arrived at her practice at 4:00. She was there for 1 hour. What time did she leave?

This week in reading, we have integrated some of our vocabulary and word work with first and second grade. It has been a great review for some of the second grade students and enriching for the first grade students. The students have enjoyed sharing some of our reading and we will continue to do this as the year goes on.

In social studies we have learned about government services. We discussed what government services are and what those people do for their communities. The students have drafted ideas about a chosen government service. Many have finished their graphic organizer and are working on writing about that person. It will be fun to read them when they are finished.

On Halloween we are going to have a class party. We hope that everyone can make it. We had a blast last year and I know we will this year too! Feel free to join us and read a spooky book and eat some of our delicious brew!!!!

First WILD post!!!!

Hello families and friends!!! I am excited to share with you what we have been up to in this first month of school in the WILD first and second grade.

We started the year off with learning classroom and school procedures. The second grade students have been a fabulous help with encouraging and reminding first graders of how things go in the classroom. We have had some fun lessons and activities together and some divided. The kids are very excited when we do activities together with both classes. One day a first grader came running into the classroom and asked me if we were going to learn about the world together again :) Both classes have begun the first social studies unit and they are very excited about it.

This month we will be starting our new music program with "First Note." I am thrilled that we have instruments that we will get to use in class. The music that accompanies the program is from across the world. It will be great to be able to incorporate social studies through music, too.

We are finishing up our first art project. The class learned about Piet Mondrian and his abstract art. We looked at different pieces of his art through a powerpoint and analyzed his artwork. Next, we created a piece of art that was inspired by a few of his abstract pieces. The kids have enjoyed creating their abstract art and making it unique.

On Monday we had Mr. Gordon (Mackenzie and Gage Gordon's dad) come to the school to teach us about fire safety. He talked to the kids about what firemen do for their job, explained the gear they wear, fire safety, and how to evacuate a home during a fire. The students went into the smoke house and we practiced how to evacuate safely. The kids had a blast learning from Mr. Gordon and loved the smell of the smoke in the smoke house....MMMM pancakes and syrup :) Thank you, Mr. Gordon!

On Tuesdays grades K-4 will be learning Spanish. We had our first Spanish class this week. The kids had so much fun with Senora Emily. They learned some words in Spanish, songs, and how to introduce themselves. I am eager to see what else they will be learning form Senora Emily and to learn some Spanish, too.

Today we used the school ipads for the first time.  The students had a blast using our first application. Today we used Teach me: First and Second Grade. This application has spelling, math, and sight words. The students have to write their answers using their fingers on the screen. One of the neat things about this application is that it will correct the child if they write the letter or number incorrectly. We are in the progress of downloading more applications to help reinforce skills we are learning in class as well as ones that meet the common core standards. Tune in later to hear what applications we will be using. Once I have a list of some great ones we use in class, I will share with everyone in case you have an ipad at home.

I have sent home the login and passwords with each student in the class for Sumdog. The website offers math games to reinforce skills learned in class. The students all work at their own pace and Sumdog will continue to assess them to provide the students with the best practice skills. I am also able to login and see how the children are doing.

I am still looking for volunteers for Thursdays and Fridays each week from 12-3. If you are interested in volunteering a few days, Thursdays, Fridays, or both.....please let me know. We would love to have you :)

I look forward to sharing with you more about the happenings in the WILD first and second grade.

The ending of a WILD year :)

Hello everyone!!! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and spending lots of quality time with their families. As the end of our first year together came to an end, so many things were going on that I haven't had a chance to post about the many things we did. This is going to be a long post with lots of pictures of our end of the year and descriptions about the things we did.

We had such a wonderful end of the year with Mr. Compton. The kids had so much fun with him during PE and always talked about how great of a PE teacher he was. When he came into our classroom on his last day to say goodbye, the kids ran up to the door to give him a big hug. We will miss him dearly!

My parents came in for the first time to visit the class. The students told them their names and something they like about going to Visitation. One of the girls said they like having all the visitors. She named all the visitors and said, "we also like when they bring us things" (It was so cute haha). My parents brought fun toys and candy for the kids. They loved the rocket candy and bag of toys.

 During the last week of school, first and second grade went on a field trip to Tilow Beach. We had a good time playing on the playground, having a BBQ, and picking up garbage on the walking trails. It started out with lots of rain but eventually cleared up so we could do our part in helping keep our parks clean. We had tons of fun using the pickers to pick up the garbage. Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who volunteered helping us pick up garbage and cooking the food.

Field day was a blast! As a school, we went to St. John of the Woods, to enjoy a fun filled day of organized activities. Mr. Tilton did a great job organizing the day and to top it off we had a pinata filled with lots of candy to bust open. The pinata came from the Advent program and it was the star that first grade brought up during their performance. So, first grade got the first chance to break it open.

 At the beginning of our last school day, the kindergarten students joined our class for a fun reading activity. I wanted to join the two classes on the last day to introduce everyone to each other, as we will be together as the new first and second grade combined class. After we did a read aloud together, the first graders were paired with a kindergarten student and they read to them. The students enjoyed being together and there was a great energy around the room. I am very excited to be able to spend next year with all of them and to be able to have my first graders back as second graders. I definitely wasn't ready for them to leave my class yet.

 On the last day of school, first and second grade sang a song during our last Mass together. We had prepared this song for the school talent show which was canceled. The students practiced so hard we had to showcase it and the last day of school was perfect. The classes sang, "Oh, Happy Day" and was accompanied by Gabe Rivera. Take a look at the video on Miss Lardies classroom facebook page. The students did a fantastic job :)

I had a terrific first year teaching and had such wonderful students to spend the year with. I feel so blessed to be a teacher at Visitation and it brought so much joy to be able to educate your children. They are so bright and so excited about learning. I am excited to continue working with them and to have you all back. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered and supported us during the year. See you at the back to school BBQ.