Saturday, February 26, 2011

Music Program, Readers' Theater, and Flat Stanley!!

Wow!  There's been a lot going on in 1st grade and at NES!!  On February 15th we had our 1st Grade Music Program.  Mrs. West did a wonderful job with organizing all five first grade classes for their debut!  We performed with Mrs. Green's and Mrs. Moore's classes.  Mr. McIntyre and Mrs. Moss performed together.  Here are a few snap shots!








Readers' Theater
In the morning, the children are allowed to choose from various work stations,  In these stations they work with words, read poetry, practice with math flash cards, listen to books on cd, practice handwriting, or they can practice plays in our Readers' Theater.  This is a newly added station and some of them took right to it!  MANY of the students (especially the girls) are natural born performers so I wanted to add something to allow them to "act" on that!   They begin by choosing a play (There are different levels for different levels of reading).  They are to put read about the character and "cast" the parts.  They must practice for a morning or two and then they may create "costumes" or masks to go with their character.  On day 3, they have to option of performing it in front of the class.  Below are some snap shots and a video of our first ever "Mrs. Schmitt's class presents..." performance!!
The stars include (from R to L) Laurel, Mackenzie, Madison, Lainey, Haleigh, and Sadie.



"A Birthday Party for Pig"
(Click Play)




Flat Stanley
This week was our school literacy week.  Each class read a book about Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is a boy who was flattened by a falling bulletin board.  One of the many advantages of being flat is that he can travel in an envelope!  We made our own Flat Stanley's and they took them home on Friday to be a part of their families!  When he returns, we are going to mail him all over the United States to visit friends and family.  We will keep a map of Flat Stanley's adventures throughout the rest of the project!  
On Friday, each classroom received a balloon with a Flat Stanley attached to it.  We released the balloons outside in hopes that when he lands somewhere, someone will find him and let us know where he landed!!  All we can do now is wait....  :-)
Flat attached to the balloon.

His balloon

Carson was chosen as our "balloon releaser"!

This is the message on the back of Flat Stanley.

Outside waiting to release.


Video of Release
(click play)



Math Fact Sing-a-Long
As part of our math fact practice, we have been listening to songs that help us with memorization of them.  Below are a couple pictures of the children on Friday, when they took it upon themselves to form a circle and sway while singing!  It was too cute not to share with you!



Sunday, February 13, 2011

100th Day of School and Demonstrating "Caring"

We recently celebrated the 100th day of school!! How exciting!  After having to delay it because of MANY snow days, it finally happened!  We did many things with the number 100 including a special performance from "0 the Hero" and her assistant!  (sorry no photos!)
My message to the kiddos when they came in that morning!
Showing off their "100th Day" hats!  They had "100" on the top and then we made 100 tally marks around the band!







This was their special treat for the day.  What was I thinking trying to fit 100 candles on here!?  Obviously it didn't happen so we just enjoyed it anyway!






Demonstrating Our Character Trait: Caring 
In honor of Valentine's Day we decorated "envelopes" for our friends to drop valentines in to let us know how much they care. :-)