Celebrating the last day of school!

Wow! We finished the last day of school with many fun activities. The fun-tastic first grade walked into the classroom with excitement today. They read the whiteboard and saw the balloons and knew I had something fun to finish the year out with.

After Mass we had our last recess and then came back to our classroom. We sorted through some of our last papers and students finished their letters to next years first grade students. They wrote their favorite memories in my class and what the new first graders can expect to do in my class. The letters were so sweet and I know the new first graders will love hearing about all the fun things I have in store for them.

When the sunshines, we go to the park!

On Wednesday, Kindergarten, first, and second grade went to the park to do a little reading. Mrs. HP brought Popsicles for all the kids. They were so thrilled and it was such a sweet treat on such a hot day. The kids loved finding a cozy spot in the park to settle down with a good book. Some of my first graders even read stories to the kindergarteners. It was so precious to see them being the expert.

NEW POSTS

I have recently updated many activities and photos for the months of April and May. Please visit both months and see all the fun things we learned!

Visitation has TALENT!

Today we had the opportunity to share the special talents God has given us with the school. All the students who participated did a fabulous job and I look forward to next years show! David wrote a song about his school and friends. Alina showcased her talents on the piano. Some of first grades friends performed a line dance with me. We practiced during recess and they had a blast learning the dance.

We took the day to learn outside!

At the end of each school year, first grade learns about animals. We studied mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, arachnids, and insects. Each student wrote a report on their favorite animal. This week students presented their animal reports to the class and then we went to the zoo to see many of the animals we studied in person. We got a private tour of the elephant housing. We had a wonderful tour guide that talked about how they care for the elephants. We even got a chance to stand inside of one of their bedrooms :) First graders loved seeing the monkeys. They were so cute and were very friendly. They sat in their hammock right in front of the window and walked up to the window to say hello. The new tiger cubs were pretty sleepy but so so so so cute as the first graders would say. The red wolves were pretty funny. Sam played fetch with one and another was responding to the students as they were howling. We had a great time on our field trip and we are so thankful for the volunteers who joined us at the Point Defiance Zoo.

We were watching the peacock.

Inside the elephants room!

We were so lucky to have such a nice tour guide to show us the elephants home!

Do you see the red wolf perched on the trunk? He jumped up there when we came up to him.

We love our volunteers! Andrew and him mom taking a break.

At the end of the field trip, some of us started to get tired of walking. We had one more stop to make which was the sharks. All the girls and David decided they wanted a snack and to rest while all the boys and Sam wanted to see the sharks. Mrs. Price, Mrs. Jay, and Yenny took them to the sharks while Mrs. Turnipseed and I took these friends to the playground for a rest and snack. Most of the time they wanted their pictures taken...hehe.

That is a wrap! What a fun day! Time to go back to school :)

These boys were pretty silly on the car ride home! Thank you Mrs. Turnipseed for driving us!

These kids were listening to music and watching a movie while Mrs. Turnipseed and I chatted.

Inside a fruit or veggie....how many seeds?

 This has got to be one of my favorite plant lessons because involves math, science, and a yummy snack at the end. For this lesson I brought a peach, avocado, bell pepper, tomato, melon, and an apple to class. We discuss that inside fruits are seeds. We made estimates of how many seeds were in each fruit or veggie. Once I cut them in half under the document camera, they were shocked by some. I placed the cores of each one on a plate for stations and kept all the good parts for a healthy snack at the end. Students had to come up with strategies of how to best count the seeds. When it came to the bell pepper they knew that counting by ones was going to take forever. They quickly started grouping the seeds into groups of tens. By the end of the activity the bell pepper had the most seeds and we accounted for over four hundred seeds. The least favorite to count was the tomato and the melon because the guts from these were pretty slimy! We kept a record of what the inside of each fruit or veggie looked like with the seeds attached and how many seeds were in each. Check out the photos from this fun lesson.

"It's my party and we'll bake if we want to..."

Every year my class is always so excited to celebrate my birthday. I always try not to make it a big deal but this year we had an awesome party planned! We came up with a great idea that involved reading, math, baking, and of course...EATING!

Our weekly reading story just happened to be Johnny Appleseed. At the end of many of the stories there is always fun activities and some of them include a recipe. My class was used to having cooking classes in kindergarten on Fridays and they had asked me all year if we could bake something. Since we had just read the story the week of my birthday, did a measurement unit that involved measuring with cups, and I just so happened to get a griddle at my bridal shower, I thought, why not? It was an educational birthday party! I told the class the idea of making apple pancakes for my birthday and they were thrilled with the idea. They talked about it all week and when the day came we had a blast. I have to say, it was probably one of my best birthday parties ever! Seeing the kids so excited about baking and doing all the tasks that were included in the lesson were priceless. We were also so fortunate to have Mrs. Price teach this lesson with me. She always assisted Mrs. HP in kindergarten and is a great partner teacher. We each cooked with a group. Check out all the fun photos!

Spilling is acceptable in first grade!

Thinking about the taste of pancakes!

Mrs. Price came to help out!

I think they taste good! This face definitely tells you what they thought of them.