RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER RETIRES!

Now that report cards are done, I can relax a little. We have Student Led Conferences coming up later this week, and those are always a bit stressful, trying to get the students and their portfolios ready for their excited parents can be quite the job! One of the things on my list of 'Things To Do' for this week, is to complete the 'Reindeer Job Application' activity originally posted on the wonderfully creative blog First Grade Teaching. I fell in love with the holiday art and writing activity when I first saw it this summer and knew it was something I wanted to do in my own classroom! Kristen Walsky, the creative force behind First Grade Teaching has some great ideas, so be sure to check out her site. 

While you can find lots of reindeer and elf job applications out there, I decided to make my own. Here is a sample of what I came up with. Feel free to help yourself!  

My Reindeer Application

ARROW MATH

Well I have to say I feel TOTALLY awful for neglecting my blog for the last week or so. Things can get so crazy, so fast. It was my birthday last week, and I got sick (again), and reports are due in the next couple of days....Aaaggghhh! Sometimes you just have to sit back and let some things slide.

One thing I would love to share with you that we have been working on in math is something called Arrow Math. The students l-o-v-e it! It helps them with their general numeracy skills and being able to mentally visualize and navigate the 100 chart. For right now, they are using the 100 chart to help them find the solution, but I would love it even more, if they could get to the point where they could solve the tasks mentally. We can always hope, right? I introduced the students to the concept of Arrow Math on my birthday, and of course they wanted to know how old I was, so we did some Arrow Math on the SMARTboard to find out the answer (15 ↓ → ↓ ↓ ↑ → →)! As students become more comfortable with the concept, I would like them to create their own Arrow Math problems and have a friend solve it.


Here is a sample of the worksheet that the students used for Arrow Math:

Arrow Math

5 SENSES PEACE

So, with Remembrance Day only a few days away, it occurred to me today that Christmas is just around the corner! Agghhh! So much to do! I can't believe in less than a month, we will be preparing for the Winter Concert, Letters to Santa, and the holidays!

We have been working feverishly over the last week, writing, reading, and talking about what Peace means to us. To create meaning for my firsties, I framed the concept of Peace around our current Science unit, 'The Senses'. We brainstormed what peace 'Looks Like, Sounds Like, Feels Like, Tastes Like, and Smells Like'. Their ideas were so precious and well thought out! It was a great way to talk about the Senses in an abstract way. I have included the writing sheet that my students used to record their thoughts about Peace. Have a Peaceful day!

5 Senses Peace

PEACE

With the chaos of Halloween coming to a calm and Remembrance Day later this week, I have begun to talk to my students about the significance of Remembrance Day and the meaning of Peace. There are wonderful picture books out there if you are looking for a way to introduce the concept to your students. Here are some of the books that I incorporate into my Remembrance Day teaching...

Can You Say Peace?

By Karen Katz

 

The Peace Book

By Todd Parr

 

Hello World!

By Manya Stojic

 

In addition to the books, we watched a beautifully created children's video. It is illustrated and sung by children and almost brought tears to my eyes...Literally. Click on the link below to view the video.

We Are The Children Of Peace

You Tube 

 

We also completed some Peace dot art to accompany some of the books and our classroom discussions. My firsties loved it, and it ended up being very calming because it required them to sit and use precision with their 'dotting'. We had a discussion about the use of red and black paint and the connection to the poppy that we wear leading up to Remembrance Day. The project was easy to set up and only required Q-Tips for the dotting. Because of our math work with patterning, most students chose to incorporate a pattern into the art. 

Thanks for visiting...Peace.