Going For a Walk.......

After learning about communities and identifying the difference between needs and wants, first graders took a walk around our school community on Tuesday!  We made many stops along the way to identify if various businesses would provide something community members need or want.  We also looked at the different types of shelters in our community.  We identified single family homes, duplexes, an apartment building, and several large homes that have been converted into apartments.   When we reached Roland Avenue, we stopped to drop a very important piece of mail off at the post office and then we toured Eddie's of Roland Park.  We saw many yummy foods from the food groups we've been discussing.  We also got to enjoy a treat.

Here's a slideshow from our community walk:

First graders, what was your favorite part of our walk? Post a comment to share with all of us!

A Mysterious Month!

We enjoyed a visit from another Mystery Reader on Friday!  Here were our clues:

1. I wear glasses.
2. I love coffee.
3. I have 3 children.
4. I am a teacher.
5. I enjoy spending my summers at camp in Oxford, PA!!

Do you know who this Mystery Reader is?

It was Matthew's Mom, Mrs. S!

Mrs. S. read the book, Froggy's Halloween by Jonathan London:

We listened to the story.........

and had a mini Halloween celebration with fun goodies!

It was a GREAT ending to our week!  Thank you, Mrs. S!

First graders, what are you and your family doing to get ready for Halloween?  

Post a comment to share with all of us! 

Jan Thomas Day!

Friends in 1A were so excited for Jan Thomas's visit we could hardly contain ourselves!  We had read nearly all of her books (Miss Muntean is saving one for later in the year) with Mr. Scott, made our own dust bunnies, and thought of some excellent questions for her.

Here are a few pictures from our time with her:

Jan Thomas was So EXCITED to see us and we were just as EXCITED to see her!

10 seconds to draw. 

Working on Storyboards JUST like Jan Thomas does!

Sharing a story idea!

Here are some of our thoughts after her visit:

• "I enjoyed drawing."  - Roisin & Eva
• "I enjoyed working on a story on the storyboard." - Lukas
• "The quick drawing activity was a lot of fun!" - Lily
• "I liked how she showed us where her ideas came from." - Laya
• "It was a funny story about where her idea for the dust bunnies came from!" -Vanya
• "I liked hearing about the idea for Is Everyone Ready For Fun?"  - Sophia
• "I liked getting our own dust bunny." -Annabel

We were all super excited to hear that Jan Thomas's next book would be another dust bunny adventure!  We can't wait! 

First graders, if you were writing a dust bunny book of your own, what would it be about?  Post a comment to share with all of us (and maybe Jan Thomas will read it too!!).

Preparations for Jan Thomas!

Jan Thomas is coming to our school this Wednesday!  We've been reading her books with Mr. Scott in the library.  Some of our favorites are her Rhyming Dust Bunny Books:

I decided we had to get to work and create some Dust Bunnies of our own!  With the help of Ms. Weiss, Mr. Scott, and Ms. Thomsen, we went to work.

When we were finished, we had a collection of the cutest Dust Bunnies Ever! 

Stop by the library to see our Dust Bunnies hanging from above!  We know Jan Thomas is going to love them when we see her on Wednesday.  

If you'd like to purchase any of Jan Thomas' books (to be autographed when she's here too), please see the link under the Announcements section of the FSB website. 

First Graders, Which Jan Thomas book did you enjoy the most?

Post a comment to share with all of us!

Who Could It Be?

We enjoyed our second Mystery Reader!  This reader gave us the following clues:

1. I have black hair.
2. I like Tom & Jerry and The Roadrunner.
3. I work in a hospital.
4. I have 2 children
5. I wear red framed glasses.

Do you know who this is?

It was a parent of a child who was also celebrating their birthday........

Welcome, Laya's Mom, Ms. A!

Ms. A, a doctor, read us a story about our heart.  We learned about different parts of our hearts and also about veins and arteries.  Ms. A brought each of us our very own stethoscope.  We used them to listen to our heart after we were sitting and after we jumped up and down several times.

We might just have some future doctors in our class!  Thanks so much for reading to us and bringing us stethoscopes, Ms. A!

And....... Happy Birthday, Laya!  We hope you enjoyed your special day!

First graders, what do you do to keep your heart healthy? 

Post a comment to share with all of us!

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do!

Spirit Day 2013 was one for the record books!  Although we were getting pumped up for Scarlet & Gray Day it would have been nice if the weather hadn't have been so gray.  We weren't going to let a little rain ruin our fun.  Instead of decorating busses for a parade, we took our decorations to the gym.

Later on, we enjoyed the annual Pep Rally including the Morgan State Marching Band who got most of us up and dancing!  

Spirit Day sure makes us silly!


First Graders, what was your favorite part of Spirit Day or Scarlet & Gray?
Post a comment to share with all of us! 

The Day of the Dot!

First grade celebrated our first PLUSS day by enjoying a day centered around the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds.

Our day began with a reading of the book by Mr. Hardy, one of the 5th grade teachers.  First, third, fourth, and fifth grades gathered together in the assembly room.  After hearing the story, which would be our theme for the day, we got together with Senorita Neyra to learn about dots otherwise known as "punto" in Spanish.  The children counted the puntos on their dominos.  

When we came back to the classroom, we did some dot to dot activities and then headed to lunch. Next we got together with our LS art teachers, Ms. Weiss and Ms. Shelley, to create a leaf picture using dots. The children traced leaf templates and then used dots to outline and, in some cases, fill in the leaves. Blotter markers were used to created a dotted border around the picture.  Some friends got to extend their creativity with a free art drawing/painting.  

We continued to be creative with dots by making pictures with them when we got back to our classroom.  After recess we got together with Mrs. Rutstein's sixth graders to play some dot games.  We used the iPads to play the apps Flow and Dots (both are free apps if you're interested in checking them out) and also played the familiar paper/pencil dot/boxes game.  

Most of us agreed that our first PLUSS day was a lot of fun!  

Here's an animation for the book The Dot:

At FSB we value creativity as a habit of mind, recognizing that when individuals are allowed to be creative, more meaningful learning can occur.  

Parents & first graders, how have you sought to be creative in your learning?  

Please comment below to share your response with all of us.