Celebrating MLK Jr.

     We have spent time this week learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and his contributions to society.  In addition to this being a Social Studies topic, we used it as an avenue for learning to research and write about our findings.  We discussed different sources that can be used to research and how to tell if they are recent and reliable.  We talked about what the problem with the Internet can be and how to know if a site is generally a good one.  (people can publish whatever they want)  We watched videos, checked out websites, and read books (both read aloud and a book that they read).  We completed a variety of organizers to record their learning.  It is important when learning about a new topic to process that new information many times and in a variety of ways in order to be sure the students remember it and understand it. 

     One activity that we did to process the information was record information on a has, was, and wanted chart.  We talked about what he had (a dream or vision of a better world), was (a minister, smart, a good speaker, a husband and dad, a good leader), and wanted (laws changed).  After studying with resources that I read to them for a few days the students read a rather challenging book themselves.  They did quite well because they had a lot of background knowledge and are very motivated by this topic.  Before we read we did a 30-second share.  They have a partner.  I set the timer for 30 seconds and they have to keep speaking the entire 30 seconds with no interruptions from their partner about the topic.  Then the partner takes a turn.  I was very impressed that they were able to speak knowledgeably for the full 30 seconds.  We could have easily gone for a minute. 

     As a culminating activity we created a foldable.  I got the idea off of Pinterest.  On the outside there was the image of children holding hands.  On the inside was the report that they wrote about what they had learned.  They turned out excellent.  The student's really showed off their ability to take 1 or 2 word ideas from their graphic organizer and turn them into sentences for a report.  I was very proud of them!

    We also read a variety of picture books set during the Civil Rights Era that really helped the students identify with the people during that time and really helped them understand what life would have been like.  The books Let Them Play, Goin Someplace Special, and The Other Side are three of my very favorite books.  They are great for teaching about characters and talking about how to identify with different characters.

Resolution Writing

     I intended to publish this post right away when we returned and I forgot about it.  Here are a few pictures of our New Year's Resolution projects.  I love having first graders do self-portraits a few times throughout the year.  It's fun to see their artwork progressing as well as see their perception of themselves.  We learned about the word "resolution" and thought of a couple of synonyms to go with it, such as goal.  We also talked about what their goal would look like, what they would have to do to achieve it, and how a goal is not something you are already doing.  I had several kids start out with the goal that they were going to be nice to their teacher.  :)  I love the thought, but none of them are mean to me, so I told them they had to think of something that they weren't already doing.    They turned out great and added a little sparkle to our hallway after the holiday break.

Snowmen at Night

   We have had a wonderful first week back after the holiday break.  We have been having fun in Writing this week learning new words to improve our Word Choice in our writing pieces.   One of the activities that we do in my room is collect words.  We are collecting antonyms right now.  Occasionally, I will choose one of the pairs of antonyms to do some extended work with.  This is a strategy I learned at LETRS training.  We used the words fat and skinny and thought of every word in between to describe fat and skinny.  We also thought of some words to describe "really fat" and "really skinny".   Then we ranked the words in order of degree of fat and skinny.    To follow up on some of our word study we wrote about snowmen.  We had obese snowmen, plump snowman, an emaciated snowman, and many other very descriptive snowmen.  It was fun to read their writing.   This activity was also an extension of the book Snowmen at Night.  They told about what their snowman does at night while they are sleeping.

   Enjoy our display!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday!  I am hoping now that the chaos of the holidays has settled down I will get back to blogging regularly about our classroom.  It wasn't that they students did not have fantastic learning and thinking going on, I just wasn't taking the time to share it! 

Today we worked on an interesting problem and one that really helped my first graders learn to persevere in their problem solving.  I presented the question to them of "When was the last time all four digits in the year were different?"  They discussed how to go about solving that problem and fairly quickly came up with the idea of making a list.  Several mentioned that it would be important not to miss any years so they needed to stay in order.  Here are some pictures of their thinking!

We had to do a lot of talking about how to write the years 2000-2009.  Once they saw the pattern they caught on quickly.  Then, the discussion of what years came before 2000.  They thought that must be in ancient times, so I circled the birth years of my children so they could have some sort of perspective.  I can't imagine what they would think of the year I was born in!  It was a great activity to get them thinking about Math again and a great dinner conversation piece at home.