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!!).
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?
We enjoyed our second Mystery Reader! This reader gave us the following clues:
I have black hair.
I like Tom & Jerry and The Roadrunner.
I work in a hospital.
I have 2 children
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?
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!
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.
We enjoyed our first Mystery Reader today. Here were the clues:
1. I love to read.
2. I have brown hair.
3. I am NOT tall.
4. I have one son.
5. I love ice hockey.
Do YOU know who our reader was?
Lukas knew who our Mystery Reader was........It was his Mom! Ms. S. read Benny An Adventure Story by Bob Graham
She also shared her hidden talent with us.............
She can juggle!
Ms. S. even brought us some balls to practice our juggling with at home. Before we left for the day, we practiced just throwing one ball to get the feel for it.
We all decided we'd need to keep practicing before we could move on to two balls, but we sure had fun!
First grade enjoyed a beautiful morning at First Fruits Farm in Freeland, MD! We learned about the farm and got down to business picking apples. The children worked hard in an attempt to clear 3 trees of its' fruit. They used crates to make themselves a little taller and also got to climb up and down the ladders. There was a lot of teamwork going on too as they helped with handing off the apples and putting them into the crates. Some of the children stood by the truck and helped the farmers sort the good apples from the not so good apples. At the end, each child was able to enjoy a just picked apple..... and the apple helped two of our friends lose a tooth!
The farmers told us we had picked just over 500lbs of apples in a little over an hour! We brought two large bags of apples back so we could take them to CARES (Thank you, Lukas' mom for taking these for us!). The rest of the apples we picked would be given to area food pantries and soup kitchens. Knowing that we were filling other peoples' buckets helped to fill our own!
Here's a photobook from our trip. I had a few photos of friends from 1B too so I've included them as well. I apologize in advance as I know there isn't an equal number of photos per child. Dylan's Mom, helped to take a few pictures too (thank you!) and I might have more coming from another parent next week.
I hope you and your family are enjoying this beautiful fall weekend!
First graders, what was your favorite part of our field trip on Friday?
Leave a comment to share with everyone. 1B friends, we welcome your comments too, but please see the guidelines here.
