Blogging Fun!

There is a neat thing online called "wordle".  You put in a piece of text or the address of a blog, and it takes the text and creates a word doodle (wordle) of the most common words.  This is the wordle of our blog so far this year.  Fun!

Pushing on Air

We have been learning all about air in science.  Monday the students had the opportunity to create and test parachutes.  Some of the parachutes did not work so well.  Some of them flew CLEAR away.  On Wednesday they used syringes and tubing to create systems to compress air using pressure.  Enjoy some of our pictures and a few videos of the students explaining the principles at work.

Love,

Mrs. Heath

Week 7 - Pattern Block Fun

Dear Parents,
I am not very organized I guess!  I managed to leave my camera at school on Friday and even though I spent 2 hours at school today (Sunday), I STILL managed to forget it!!  I will add pictures to this post tomorrow from school.  Also, our online grading system (which is where I access your email addresses) has been down all weekend.  That means I have not been able to send out the weekly newsletter yet.  I am adding it to our newsletter page here on the blog and I will email it to you as soon as our access is reinstated.  Thank you for your understanding!

This week our focus has been on new science and math learning and our writing celebration.  Students LOVE science (see our blog from earlier this week for more on that!).  They are also really enjoying our new geometry unit in math.  On Friday they brought home several of their recent pattern block pages.  As you can see, our geometry unit is very hands on.  You can support that learning at home by having them look around the house and identify shapes in everyday items.  The roof is a ___________________, a chair is made up of ______________ and ______________, and the artwork on the walls has ____________.  They can also create pictures or artwork of their own using shapes.  Fun idea:  have them design your holiday cards using shapes!

On Friday we had our first writing celebration with the other first grade classes.  Authors need a chance to share their work and this celebration provided that.  Students worked with partners this week to improve their writing by fixing misspelled words and adding details.  Then they rewrote their stories onto clean paper, created artwork with colored pencils and markers, and gave their stories an appropriate title.  I can't wait to share these wonderful works of writing with you at conferences in a few weeks.  The students have already made so much growth as writers this first 7 weeks of school. 

Have a great week and I'll get some pictures up ASAP!
Love,
Mrs. Heath

We LOVE Science!

Investigating the materials from our unit.

Experimenting with air.

Jonas' "I Think, I Wonder" entry

I honestly think that the kids would be thrilled if I just spent all day teaching science!!  They are absolutely LOVING our unit on air and wind and we've only done one experiment so far! They had a bag of items that they used to experiment with air.  Air was blown through straws, balls were rolling all around the floor, balloons were emptied of air to make feathers fly, and foam balls were stuck in balloons and then the balloons blown up with an air pump. Hands on learning at it's best!  They are going to love it even more tomorrow when they try to keep a paper towel in a vial dry after submerging it in water.  What I am loving the most is that our new science curriclum engages all of them, and not only when they are doing the experiments.  The writing in their science notebooks is phenomenal as well.  Take a look at our first few days of science and I'll be sure and post more pictures soon!

Love,




Mrs. Heath

Hard at work writing in our Science Notebooks

Week 6- Test, Test, Test, Test.... and Oh Yeah...Test!!

We have been Frolicking in 1st Grade for 6 weeks now and it is time to ASSESS what we have learned!  Assessment is not just the "Fancy Nancy" word for a test, it is really a better word to describe what we do!  I am not really "testing" the students but are assessing their learning to determine what still needs to be taught.  The word test implies a one time event where you either get it or don't.  My philosophy, and that of our district, is to use assessment to determine what the students know and what they still need to learn.  We do not assess and then just move on; students will continue to receive instruction in the material if needed. 

Now that you have had a little "assessment" tutorial of your own...What exactly have we been assessing this week?  Students completed their first social studies unit this past week and were given a social studies assessment and an oral speaking assessment over community helpers.  All students were also given their first math assessment which covered numbers to 20 and the concept of addition.  This one was a bit more difficult as they had to EXPLAIN in writing what strategies they use when they are adding!  They also had their third math fact assessment over combinations of 5 (or 6 if they had previously passed 5).  Finally, students were given individual reading benchmark tests to determine their instructional and frustration reading levels. 


I am happy to say that overall students ROCKED their assessments!  They have learned a lot in our 6 short weeks together and we all have a lot more to learn.  I'm grateful for assessments that remind me how much my 1st grade friends are learning and growing!  :)  I will be sharing all of these assessments with you at conferences in two weeks.  I can't wait, can you???

Mrs. Heath doing her "Happy Dance"

Love,
Mrs. Heath

Weekly Newsletter Page

Yikes!  I have totally changed the layout of the blog this year and as such I keep forgetting to update the weekly newsletter page.  Please forgive my oversight.  I will try to do better as we go forth in the year!

Love,
Mrs. Heath

Vehicle Day Field Trip

It was a chilly, damp day on Friday but we headed out to see the vehicles anyway! Students LOVED that they got to get in and check things out up close and personal.  Here are a few of their observations from the day.
I hugged Dollar Dog. - Garrett
We sat in the limo.  - Meredith
I sat in the mailman's truck. - ?  Forgot to put their name on! ?

I like the Cox Car and the plumbers car. - Macie
I go to the Fed Ex truck. - Sophie
I loved the zoo car.  - Elle
My third favorite was the fancy police car. - Ben

I honked the big truck's horn.  - Ethan
I like the fire truck. - Zak
My other favorite was the corvette.  - Hunter (?  Must of missed that one!?)
I got to get in the limo. - Jade
I liked when we went on the bus. - Amy
We got to see a K-9 Unit.  - Jonas
I like the big truck. - Mya
I like all the cop cars. - Dannika

Week 5-5th Grade Buddies and Collage Making / Rubric Writing 101

The highlight of this week was our field trip of course, but look for a post ALL about that to be coming soon!  Another highlight was that we got to meet our 5th grade buddies from Mrs. Osborne's class!  All year we will get to do activities with our buddies.  For this visit we decided to show off our reading skills.  They read a book to us and we read a book to them.  We can't wait for them  to come back and visit again in October.

Students also really enjoyed making their community helper collages for social studies.  Before we began working on our posters we discussed how they would be graded.  In the Papillion-La Vista School District and in schools all over the country, children are graded based on proficiency levels instead of the old A, B, C, D and F system.  Our district  uses numbers that correspond to the following proficiency levels:  beginning (1) progressing (2) proficient (3) and advanced (4). These are the indicators that you will see on papers that come home and on their report cards.  Teachers often use a document known as a rubric to help them determine proficency levels.  Put simply, a rubric is a guide that outlines what the student must demonstrate at each level.    I am a firm believer in the idea that children can achieve anything, but that we must make our expectations known to them!  This week I explained to the students what a rubric is and what each level stood for.  We then worked together to list the exact features that their collages should include to earn a 1, 2, 3, or 4.  When their collages were done they helped me to grade them using the rubric.  They were able to understand what their grade was and why they earned it.

 I am including a few sample rubric for you to look at.  Please do not hesitate to call me or email me if you would like more information or if you would ever like to see the rubric used to grade an assessment.  You can see a copy of a basic rubric here.  1st Grade Grading Rubric  I created this one to use with kids because they can relaete to the different faces.  A specific rubric also includes exactly what the student is expected to show for that assignment.  You can see a copy of the rubric for our first math assessment here:  Math Rubric 

Love,
Mrs. Heath

One More Video...

Community Helpers

Today the students shared their group community helper posters that we have been working on this week.  We learned a few things about getting video taped.  1)  We need to be prepared!  2) We need to talk louder and 3) It is pretty funny to see a video of us!  Here are a few of our presentations. 

Remember that on Monday your child has to do an individual presentation on a community helper.  They can NOT read from a paper, but must give the talk from memory.

Thanks,
Mrs. Heath

The Star Spangled Banner

Today is the birthday of The Star Spangled Banner.  It was written on September 14, 1814.  That is almost 200 years ago!  We were singing to our beloved flag.  (Dannika)  We always respect our flag.  (Elle)  We love America!  (Mya)  We love our flag!  (Meredith) 

You can watch and listen to the Star-Spangled Banner just like we did!

http://youtu.be/jAYPN-1Yjt0

Love,

Mrs. Heath's 1st Grade Class

Hickory Hill Students Sing "America the Beautiful"

On September 9th Hickory Hill celebrated Patriot Day by singing a patriotic song. District personnel joined us to watch and took a video.   Please click the link below to watch it on youtube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfw9gfuZasA&feature=youtu.be

Week 4 - Communities

We are learning all about communities in social studies.  Students are able to identify the people, places, and things that are found in a community.  This week they had the opportunity to use community helper puppets and put on a quick play about where the helper worked and how they helped the community. In order to build our 1st grade classroom / school community, we invited the other first grade classes to join us for a video of the book "Office Buckle and Gloria" on Popcorn Reading Friday.  Learning in the guise of play..no better way to do it! Stop back by next week to see some more pictures of our learning as we venture off to our first field trip. 

Love,

Writing down they are going to say for their puppet.

First grade friends getting ready to watch and listen to a great book!

Mrs. Heath

Celebrating September 11th

I love America. (Elle)  We are learning about the flag because it is important. (Dannika)  We love singing the song about America. (Meredith)  America is our country and we love America. (Hailey) We love our flag. (Ethan) We are remembering what happend on September 11, 2001.  (Mrs. Heath and BilliJo)  We read a book about how America stayed strong even though bad things happened.  (Leah)  We are so glad that we live in America!

Love, Mrs. Heath's Class

Week 3 - Active Learners or Bumps on a Log??

Mr. Snyder reads us a story about "filling buckets" with kind words and deeds.

Students LOVED singing happy birthday to PFC Heath in Afghanistan!

Week 3 in 1st grade and we we are motoring along!  Students continue to practice working independently.  That is one of the biggest differences in 1st grade -- I expect them to do many more things on their own!  As students become more independent they also gain ownership of their learning.  One of my favorite sayings is "Are you an active learner or a bump on a log?"  We have had talks about how a bump on a log can't learn.  I can be the BEST teacher in the world but I still can't teach a bump on a log ANYTHING!  However, an active learner is in control of his/her learning.  Active learners are involved in their education and can learn ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!!  Room 302 is full of active learners who are learning a lot!! In addition to reading, writing, science, social studies, and math learning -  we also have tons of fun. This week we especially enjoyed singing happy birthday to PFC Ben Heath in Afghanistan and learning how to fill each other's buckets from our principal Mr. Snyder.  Enjoy our snapshots of the week!

Love,
Mrs. Heath