RAZ Kids

Yesterday your child took home a note about Raz-Kids. You have access to this reading resource at home so I thought I would share the links on the blog for you. These books can be a part of your child's nightly reading homework. If your child reads one, please add it to their reading long sheet.  The kids can easily access the site through our class sqworl page. The link is above in the menu. It is called links. I will also post a link below. Happy Reading! 

www.sqworl.com/8arzji

Questioning - Good Night Gorilla

One of my all time favorite books to teach with at the beginning of 1st grade is Good Night Gorilla. I use it to teach many things including, reading pictures, questioning, making predictions, and much more. We have already read/watched it a few times this year. This week we re-watched it focusing on asking questions. Some of the questions the kids and I had were as follows:

What didn't the zookeeper hear the keys rattling when the gorilla took them?
How can the elephant fit in that cage?
Why is the mouse hanging from a balloon?
Why did he let out the lion when he could eat him?
I wonder why the animals had stuffed animals in their cages?
I wonder why the armadillo had a pacifier?
I wonder why the gorilla let all the animals out?
I wonder they followed the zoo keeper?

This year Beckett is even dressing up as the gorilla for Halloween. :) Below is a picture and a YouTube reading of the book.

I Mustache You a Question...

Today during reading we focused on asking questions while we read. We discussed asking questions before, during, and after reading. To help up with questioning I read the story titled Mustache by Mac Barnett. I pre-read the story and loaded it up with my own questions on stick notes. As I read I asked my questions and we discussed possible answers. We talked about how asking questions while we read will help us have a better understanding of the story. We made a poster of possible question starters and then each kiddo wrote their question on a mustache. They LOVED it! Here are some pictures and sample questions from the book. I also linked a YouTube reading of the book if you want to read it too! :) Enjoy! 

Who is the author and who is the illustrator?

What made the king such a terribly king?

I wonder why they didn't move?

Why did the townspeople go silent?

Will the king ever fix the town?

What does culprit mean?

Why did he royal adviser have to wear a disguise?

Why did they all draw mustaches on the posters?

How did the king feel at the beginning and at the end?

How did the king change?

Why did he give himself a mustache? 

What was the setting?

What was the author's purpose?

Spinner the Spider

Hello, my name is Spinner the Spider. 

I like to help my friends make connections to their reading. As a first grader your kiddo will be working on make three different kinds of connections. Text to Self – Making connections to your own experiences Text to Text – Making connections between two or more books. Text to World – Making connections between books and world events.

Today we read the book Diary of a Spider and worked on all three kinds of connections. For example some kiddos made a connection when the spider said that he had a “vacuum drill”. This made the students think of the fire drills that we have had at school. As we continued reading this story we met spider’s friends worm and fly. This made us think of the books Diary of a Worm and Diary of a Fly. Finally, the book mentioned Grandparent’s Day and we made a text to world connection. We discussed this holiday and how some families celebrate it. We also discussed things that we could do on grandparent’s day.

Please try using me while you are reading at home! 

Love,

Spinner the Spider

P.S. We also made spider hats today. Did you know spiders are not insects. Insects have 6 legs spiders have 8!

Field Trip to Heritage Hill

As you already know today we went on a field trip to Heritage Hill. We had a great time and a beautiful day! We got to experience what life was like on a Belgian farm in 1905. We learned about immigration, homes, making butter, farm life, summer kitchens, gardens, farm animals, and much more! This field trip fits perfectly with our new social studies unit on the past and present. Below are some pictures of our day. 

Antonyms are Opposites

This week in class we are learning about antonyms. Below are a few games and a video that we have been using in class. The kids enjoyed them and asked if I would share them on the blog. Click the images to play!

Games

Video

TeleStory Weather Reports

To complete our unit on the weather we used an app called TeleStory to record weather reports. The class was divided into four groups and each group had to plan their report. The report had to include an introduction, temperature, sky cover, and a tip for the day. They could also include precipitation if it was appropriate for their forecast. They had so much fun planning, holding cue cards, recording, and sharing their reports. Even though not everyone got to give the report they all had a part and got to be in the video. I think they turned out AWESOME! I also shared them with my friend Claire who is a meteorologist for the Air Force. She thought they were great as well! Great job!

Columbus Day - Text Features

Today we learned about two new non-fiction text features during reading. They were diagrams and labels. We then used this new information to fill in two Columbus Day diagrams with labels. We also added posters for each to our non-fiction wall.

Fire Safety

Today we were lucky enough to have the Lawrence Fire Department come to Hemlock Creek to talk to the 1st graders about fire safety. We also read books, watched a Brain Pop video, and did some other fire safety activities. One of the other activities was using an app called Hello Crayon! to create a drawing of something the kids learned about fire safely. You can view most of them below (we had some email issues). Please discuss your home plan for fire safety this weekend!