Book Bins, Balls, and Biomimicry
9/13/2019
This week was a fun week in first grade! Students were introduced to the idea of Rasheed - the lion who is on his way to visit us but whose flight got delayed due to a snow storm in the mountains. Now, of course, a real-life lion is not on it's way to PNA but students loved the idea of it anyway! Rasheed is, however, the mascot for our reading workshop. We use Rasheed to demonstrate the use of chunks (sh!), short vowel (a) and twin vowels (ee). Rasheed not only helps students break apart and study words but he also introduces students to new names. The real Rasheed, stuffed animal of course, will be arriving next week in our classroom. Our first graders came ready this year with a solid foundation of letter sound knowledge and we are delving in even deeper as we explore words together and encourage the strategies that 'good readers use' during our silent and partner reading. We also have been focusing on these strategies as we gather at the small group table for reading group, as well as during group board work. Students are quite proud of themselves when they discover a hidden chunk, blend, or short vowel and are quick to write their findings down on their white boards! Also in the world of reading this week, we introduced individual book bins! Students were so excited to get their book bin and go "shopping" in the class library. They gathered books that were fun and interesting to them, and will be adding books that are targeted right at or just slightly above their reading level. Students also continued the theme of biomimicry this week by creating their own secret boxes. We studied what plants and animals use to protect themselves and then modeled their boxes after their favorite! We read the Caldecott honors book, "What Do You Do With a Tail Like That?" and learned all about animals such as how horned lizards shoot blood out of its eyes and that the giant ears of a hare are used to shade and cool it during hot days! One morning we decided to extend our morning meeting to the gym and do a team building activity. Students worked towards a common goal of delivering a ball, suspended above the ground by an O-ring and ropes, to the other side of the gym. One student was chosen as team lead and helped guide the class towards success. First grade was awesome and achieved their goal multiple times! It was amazing to see them collaborating, communicating, and having fun. And as their teacher, I stood back and let them work independently and encouraged the team lead to be clear with his or her directions. All in all, we had a great week! Despite the sniffling noses that autumn brings, first grade has been an exciting and fun place to be this week! Comments are closed.
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Hali TuomiMs. Tuomi has over five years experience in ASD, where she taught first and fifth grade classrooms. An avid skier, Ms. Tuomi is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Alaska Pacific University’s Bachelor of Arts in K-8 Education. Archives
April 2021
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