The incubator arrived!  We have explored the life cycle of a chicken egg.  The Munchkins are so happy!  This teacher is just as happy because we really need to be mindful of the noise level in our classroom.  Quiet is a very important part of the developing process!  It's been a major motivator.

Chick number one.  My daughter named "her" Sparkle Ball 5". I have no idea where that came from.  Ha-Ha!

First two!  The students actually got to witness #2 hatching!  They were blown away by the miracle!

All ten!  Only two didn't hatch out of twelve.  Actually, that's pretty good.  In their little minds, they died.  It was a big life lesson, but I think they understand.

Having chicks in our classroom has been such a fun adventure!  We've loved every minute!  They will be missed!

Typical Friday

     As I write this, I feel unbelievably exhausted.  It's Friday night and I'm still at school.  I have everything organized and ready to go for next week, but now my daughter is "playing" school.  She's having a ball organizing papers, charts, and lists.  How could I tell her that she has to stop?  How can I get stressed about how my finally clean classroom is now getting all messed up?  I can't.....

     Now, I'm starting to wonder how many opportunities do I give my students time to enjoy school?  We are so hyper focused on their reading levels, goals to meet, and scores to prove growth.  It's sad that these poor children don't have time to love and enjoy school.  

    Hopefully, my students are having fun as we are learning vocabulary, reading, adding, subtracting, exploring new ideas and concepts, etc. I know that First grade has changed a ton over the years, but I pray that all my students love (or at least appreciate) learning and growing.

    The lesson that I have learned?  Don't worry, just pick up a pizza for dinner on the way home and watch a movie on the couch!  

    I pray that everyone has a long and boring weekend!  Ha-Ha!   

Vocabulary

After rethinking my guided reading groups, I have decided to focus more on vocabulary! Sounds scary, right?  My goal is to not only be able to use these words and understand them throughout the week, but to truly be able to use them in their daily conversations and journals. Kind of a tall order, but why not have big goals and expectations?

I found a fabulous resource from Fun-in-first.com.  Jodi has monthly guided reading stories that already have three differentiated levels (below, on, and above).  I got them on TPT.  I''m over the moon excited about how my munchkins are responding!  We finished up a week of studying Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr.  I had one of my lovelies come to me and tell me that she was going to "boycott" another student in class until they were nicer.  Wow!  I'm so proud of you that you made that connection, but now I need yet another mini lesson on social skills.  Sometimes there is a double edged sword.....

Overall, I am completely excited about how my kiddos are advancing.  At this time of the year, I have everyone on grade level or above.  I only use the below levels during the first semester.  So far, I'm loving vocabulary.  I will say that I am mostly verbal with the teaching of vocabulary.  It just takes too much time to illustrate, etc.  However, I still have them give my examples and we can have some fairly deep conversations going most days!

Any other thoughts, ideas, or suggestions???


Thanks and have a blessed Monday!

Random thoughts on a Thursday afternoon

I just wanted to share how impressed I am this week with my kiddos!  We have had some intense vocabulary words for first graders!  We're talking civil rights activist, peaceful, nonviolent, regardless, and equally!  We have been studying about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The kiddos are really intrigued by why anyone would have to fight for all people to be treated fairly.  "It's really sad that people couldn't be nice to each other."  They all have such kind hearts!  "I don't know if I want to read about this."  I asked why....   "I just don't understand why someone would be that mean to any body else." These are our discussions in FIRST GRADE!  I'm just overjoyed with my entire group!!!!

The kiddos have been crazy lately!  I'm not sure if it's a full moon, the storm front or what. For the last few weeks have been pretty stressful with behavior battles.  So, I decided to chuck my Reading Mini-Lesson and talk about being responsible.  We made a great chart.  I got the idea online, but can't remember who to give them credit.  It was worth taking the extra time to remind them of how important it is for all of our class to be responsible students.

I was very impressed how intrigued they all were about how they are expected to behave.  For some reason, they were acting like they had never heard this before???  I have decided that we are going to review a character trait of the expectations in our classroom every week.  This is just a "friendly reminder" for those students who have forgotten from the lessons at the beginning of the year.  Hopefully, taking time to do this now will pay off later.  We still have a long year in front of us!

I also tried something different at the end of the day.  I hate, and I mean hate how hectic the end of the day always seems. Is it just me???  Last minute rush to pack up and get in the right line, and I always have one student who is clueless on where to go at the end of the day.  So I decided, about 10 minutes before we leave, to put on soothing music and color.  We pack up, organize, and get ourselves ready to leave (including where we are going and how we get there). They hang their ready to go backpack and jacket on their chair.  We turn the lights low and just relax.  They don't talk. They don't get out of their seat.  They just grab their tool box and color.  It has been really successful so far!  It's relaxing for me as well!

What an awesome Fall celebration on Friday!  A huge thank you to all my parents who helped make it fun for everyone.  We have incredible families here at Cowan!

Fire Safety Visitor

Our class was blessed with having a very special guest today.  My favorite fireman, Firefighter Mike Murphy came and taught the munchkins all about fire safety.  We were all so excited, very few pictures were taken!  :(  

The best response from them today, "Mrs. Murphy!  I learned a ton about fire safety today!"

Job well done, Mr. Murphy