Feb. 1-5, 2016

Specials
Monday - 2
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 4
Thursday - 5
Friday - 6

Upcoming Events
February 5th - Penguin Day!! Dress in Black and White (yes...you may add extra details to look like a penguin! :) )
February 12th- Valentine's Day Activities. Click here to sign up to donate for our Valentine's Day fun!
February 15th - No school!

Kid-Friendly Objectives
I can read and write words with igh.
I can write about a topic and give a few facts.
I can tell when information comes from a picture or from the words.
I can match plural subjects to plural verbs.
I can match singular subjects to singular verbs.
I can add a double-digit number to a single-digit number.

Spelling List
Please continue to practice writing your spelling words in sentences!

List A (Purple Cats, Green Frogs)
high
sigh
fight
light
night
right
tight
flight
bright
knight

List B (Blue Dogs, Yellow Ducks)
fright
bright
right
tight
knight
flight
might
slight
delight
highlight

Week in Review
Oh my goodness what a fun week! In only 5 days we accomplished SO much...
We discovered what "shades of meaning" meant.

We spent some time thinking about how in the world can we "Save the Penguins?!" We worked hard to collaborate with our teammates to design a penguin nest using "found" objects,  just like South African penguins! We learned that South African penguins can survive in the heat, but they LOVE to cool down in the water. They have to be very clever to design nests with their found objects to protect their eggs and chicks from the heat, predators, and the hot sand. We had a contest to determine whose egg (penguin-shaped ice) could survive under the heat of the sun (our lamps). Congratulations Group 6!!!

Our final products!

We continued comparing the heights of our penguins.

(We still don't know how our bottom ruler mysteriously vanished!)

We continued to work on our Hundreds Chart...we hope our 100s Chart Cupid Shuffle makes it onto the Wellington News this week! (Fingers crossed!)

We defeated Evil Dr. Double Digit by coming to school dressed as spies or super heroes!

 We discovered Zero the Hero left us all sorts of tasks to complete so Evil Dr. Double Digit couldn't keep up us from the triple digits!

Task 1: Complete your Cape with 10 groups of 10 designs!

We quickly discovered he had an evil companion: Evil Dr. Don't Do It! If one Evil Dr. wasn't enough, we discovered there was another man on the loose trying to take away all of the VERBS at Wellington! We went into super stealth mode to find all of the stolen verbs in the school.

We had to complete a series of other tasks, like this one where we had to use 100 straws to make a tower!

  We defeated him and made it to the 100th day!

 We ended the week with a wonderful ceremony to celebrate all of our hard workers.

Thanks for all you do!

January 25-29, 2016

Specials
Monday - 3
Tuesday - 4
Wednesday - 5
Thursday - 6
Friday - 1

Upcoming Events
January 29 - 2nd 9 weeks Recognitions at 10AM 
Save the Penguins Day has been moved to Tuesday, January 26, to account for our Snow days this past week. Please consider still signing up to donate a few items, if you are able! 
Click here ---> Save the Penguins Volunteer Spot

Kid-Friendly Objectives
(We are keeping the objectives from last week)
I can read, write, and identify words with the i_e spelling pattern.
I can make connections between two informational texts.
I can organize verbs by their shades of meaning.
I can write to share information about penguins.
I can count, write, and read numbers to 120.
I can identify 10 more and/or 10 less of a given number, up to 120.

Spelling List
Please continue to practice writing your spelling words in sentences to prepare for this week's test, too! 

List A (Purple Cats, Green Frogs)
fire
nice
wife
dive
bike
pile
fine
time
shine
drive

List B (Blue Dogs, Yellow Ducks)

life

drive

shine

bride

quite

write

smile

stripe

invite

admire

Week in Review

What a crazy weather week, huh? I hope you got to enjoy the snow with your first graders. :) I know Max sure enjoyed it. 

Last week was obviously very short, due to MLK Jr. Day and then our crazy Kentucky Blizzard that made its way into town. Because of the weather, we will continue developing the skills that were introduced last Tuesday. As mentioned above, Save the Penguins Day will take place in my classroom this coming Tuesday now. 

To kick off our Martin Luther King Jr. study, we read a wonderful book about his life, watched a video from Scholastic, and studied his importance through one of the Scholastic Magazines. We even had a chance to write about what MLK's dream was and compare it to the dream we have for the world. Below are some of the dreams I recall from my friends!

• "I have a dream that there would be no bullies."
• "I have a dream that everyone would have dinner tonight."
• "I have a dream that every kid would have a playground."
• "I have a dream that everyone would have a coat."
• "I have a dream that everyone has a safe home!"
• "I have a dream that everyone is kind."
• "I have a dream that there is no more litter!"

They were excited to learn that MLK's dream began when he was a kid, just like them!

While we spent SO much time discussing it, I thought it was very important for our friends to see what it really means to say that we are all the same, despite looking different.

SO...we did the infamous egg experiment. Your first graders were posed the question, "Are we really different?" and were asked to tell me what they noticed about the eggs. At first glance, we know they are both eggs BUT one is brown and one is white. I explained that these eggs were meant to symbolize the colors of our skin. 

We made predictions of what the eggs might look like on the inside, once cracked. I heard there would be yolks, maybe yellow, maybe brown, maybe even white. One thing is certain, everyone predicted the yolks HAD to be different because the outsides were different.

Once cracked, we were able to discuss how the outsides were different (just like our bodies) but our insides (our hearts) are all the same and we should all be treated as such.

A very mature conversation for my very mature class :)

And then there was Math...

Oh how we LOVE math!

We began to discuss the concept of counting on from any given number up to 120.

Of course, they all rocked it. Some even got gutsy enough to count on in the 3-digit numbers!

Stay warm! :)

January 19-22, 2016

Specials
Monday - No school!
Tuesday - 2
Wednesday - 3
Thursday - 4
Friday - 5

Upcoming Events
January 19 - PTA Meeting at 6:30
January 29 - 2nd 9 weeks Recognitions at 10AM **I will be contacting you by the end of this week if your first grader will be receiving an award for the 2nd 9 weeks.**
January 21 will be a "Save the Penguins" day in my classroom. If you are able, please consider signing up to donate a few items to make this event a success in the classroom. :) 
Click here ---> Save the Penguins Volunteer Spot

Kid-Friendly Objectives
I can read, write, and identify words with the i_e spelling pattern.
I can make connections between two informational texts.
I can organize verbs by their shades of meaning.
I can write to share information about penguins.
I can count, write, and read numbers to 120.
I can identify 10 more and/or 10 less of a given number, up to 120.

Spelling List
Wow! Your kiddos rocked out their first spelling test that included a sentence. Please continue to practice writing your spelling words in sentences to prepare for this week's test, too! 

List A (Purple Cats, Green Frogs)
fire
nice
wife
dive
bike
pile
fine
time
shine
drive

List B (Blue Dogs, Yellow Ducks)
life
drive
shine
bride
quite
write
smile
stripe
invite
admire

Week in Review!
I have been bragging about this class to everyone I meet. It is almost as if the winter break transformed your first graders into soon-to-be fifth graders! They have heard me sing their praises every day about the ways in which they are learning to problem solve, verbalize their thinking, and really begin to take care of one another. Below, you'll find pictures that show you some of the ways they've provided me with bragging rights :)
**Some of your kiddos have asked how they can have their pictures on the blog. Please don't forget that I can only post these pictures with your permission. If you are interested in seeing your kiddo at work, please sign the picture permission slip in the righthand column. Thank you!**

Wellington introduced VIP Students for the first time in its history this week! Each week, every K-5 teacher at Wellington selects two students from his or her classroom who go above and beyond expectations. Here are some of the behaviors that Carney's Firsties thought we should see from our VIPs:

(See what I'm talking about when I say they're acting like soon-to-be fifth graders? Check out those vocabulary words!)

The two VIPs get a slew of benefits. In my classroom, they get to alternate being line leaders and paper passers, they get to wear their VIP badges everywhere, sign their autograph to hang on the classroom door, use special tools that ONLY VIPs have access to, get a special plaque that remains at their desks, AND they get to eat at the Hard Work Cafe on Wellington's stage with a friend on Friday. Phew. That's a lot to take in.

We were SO PROUD of Rachel and Wyatt for becoming our class's first VIPs in the HISTORY of Wellington!!!

You should have heard the squeals when our VIPs and their chosen friends learned the Hard Work Cafe allows you to WRITE ON THE TABLES at lunch!!!

Way to go, Wyatt and Rachel! I am so proud of you!

Last week, we began our unit of research on penguins. This week, we began taking notes on specific types of penguins. We researched King, Emperor, Gentoo, and Chinstrap penguins this week. 

We learned Emperor Penguins are the largest penguins, standing at 4 feet tall! Of COURSE we had to compare ourselves. Look at that integration of Math into Reading :)

 This took us through a fun evolution of measuring penguins. Initially, our chart was by our cubbies so we could compare ourselves. We then discovered Gentoo Penguins were shorter than Emperor Penguins. Naturally, we wanted to compare their heights by marking how tall Gentoo Penguins were. By the end of the week, we were so excited about measuring the different types of penguins that we opted to put our rulers in the hallway for all of Wellington to use. You wouldn't believe the number of times we heard, "Oh wow! I'm as tall as an Emperor Penguin!" or, "Look how tiny the Chinstrap Penguin is!" outside our door. 

We were all extremely invested in our research. It's a good thing we can handle note taking while also lounging around. :)

We also had our own experience of being a penguin this week when one of our kiddos shouted, "MRS. CARNEY! THERE'S A BLIZZARD OUTSIDE!" Being the mature first graders we are, we were able to set the timer and give ourselves a brain break to watch the magic outside our window before getting right back to work. 

We continued our work with penguins by using various informational texts to help us practice identifying text features.

We discovered that verb "tense" does not mean tents full of verbs. Instead, we practiced writing and identifying verbs with regular verb tenses (-ed, -ing, and will). 

Oh my goodness, math was FUN this week! We had an absolute blast playing with alligator mouths and Base 10 blocks. There are so many fun ways for your kiddos to practice place value and comparing numbers. 

Here are two of our first graders comparing their numbers with "swishes" (tens) and "thunks" (ones. After they compared their numbers, they were able to write complete sentences to tell me which was greater than and which was less than.

 Look at that focus!

Later in the week, we discovered Mrs. Carney's fancy gems. (Also known as floral decorations from the Dollar Tree :) ). We dropped two gems onto a 120 chart, built each number with Base 10 blocks, then decided which number the alligator wanted to eat. After all of that hard work, we had to tell Mrs. Carney our number sentence (such as 22 is less than 87). 

We practiced inputting numbers into sentences to make them true. For example, this guy's working on making every sentence say, "___ is less than ___." He really had to think about how to compare his numbers to make these sentences true!

 This friend was working on More, Less, and the Same all at once!

 By the end of the week, we were comparing numbers with partners.

Here's to yet another great week! Can you believe the 100th day is almost here?