SPACE

This year with the new Science TEKS we got to explore the sky!!! I was very excited because the kids LOVE everything there is about space. We concentrate mostly on the differences and similarities between day and night, and the sun, moon, and stars. For our school Family Science Night I made several stations for the 1st grade friends to have fun learning with.



Facts about the Sun and Moon Venn Diagram



Phases of the Moon Flow Map



Space Book Station - Read a book and create a circle map about facts you learned from the book



Things I Do...at night and day time sort



Day and Night Picture Concentration Game...I just found different pictures during the day and pictures at night, printed 2 of each picture. This was a BIG hit with the kids.



Describing the Sun and Moon with a DoubleBubble Map



Sun and Moon Facts Tree Map



Day and Night Venn Diagram



Constellations...the students drew shapes and pictures and then using a push pin following along the lines punching holes, when finished hold it up to the light and see the constellation!!!

Getting Ready for Open House

Open House is coming up very soon. We are just beginning our voyage under the sea in our ocean unit. The students have been and will be learning several new and fascinating things about ocean life. Be on the lookout for exciting information from your little oceanographers.

Rocks Rock!

Our district is so lucky to have the wonderful April Larremore as our K & 1st Strategist and she has a wealth of knowledge and is such a GREAT reasource. Her blog Chalk Talk: A Kindergarten Blog. She has excellent ideas for both K and 1st grade for all subjects. Her Rock Unit was definitely used in our class this year. We did the activity below, and the students LOVED it!





The sheet was created by April, it works for K and 1st. After reading several rock poems and books, completing a Flow Map of the breakdown of a rock, the students completed this. It really helped them see and understand that sand is actually really tiny rocks. They thought that was so "cool"... and that is a direct quote! Ha!!!

Long Time No See

My only excuse for not posting anything since November is that I have just been so busy, and when I'm not doing school stuff I was soaking up all the time I was spending with my family over the holidays. My plan is to post a couple Christmas things, and some things we have been doing lately.




At the beginning of December we made "Countdowns for Christmas" by connecting red and green strips of paper as links, with one gold at the top when you reach the bell. The bell had a poem about the countdown. The kiddos really LOVED making these, and were also able to practice their skip counting once they had the links put together.



Using these reindeer heads, I had the children trace their hand and we added them to each reindeer and skip counted by 2's, 5's, and 10's. They loved it, and had so much fun!!!





We read "Auntie Clause" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and we discussed gifts we could give without spending any money. In the computer lab the students created a gift box, and wrote 4 different gifts we could give for free from the heart.




I know some of my teammates have already posted pictures of this activity we do, but I really love this and wanted to share. My mentor teacher for 2 years, Beth Randall, gave us this idea for the students to make for their gift to their parents and families. I spray paint small puzzle pieces a dark green, and cut green circles from poster board, 1 for each student. Each student will need 10-15 puzzle pieces to cover the edge of the poster board circle. The students glue the pieces around the edge of the circle, and let dry. The picture can be added before the puzzle pieces or after, and as they dry I add red dots for the berries, and hot glue ribbon to the back so they can hang their ornament on their family tree at home. Love it!

It IS TURKEY TIME!!!

I love my team! I know I've said that before, but it is true. Each member is always ready and willing to share new ideas that they come up with or find! My team leader Marna found this great Patten Turkey Tail idea from a great 1st Grade Blog!



The First Grade Parade is a blog written by a First Grade Teacher, Mrs. Carroll. She has tons of really wonderful teaching ideas.
We tried the pattern turkey tails in my class. It was quite an experience and didn't turn out quite like I thought, but I think my kiddos did a REALLY great job. It was a learning experience for me as well, but we all had a lot of fun. Here are a couple of examples of their excellent work.

Noun Neighborhood

Grammar can be very difficult for a first grader. A fun way to learn about nouns if by making a neighborhood full of persons, places, and things. This lets the student relate it back to their own reality. They really enjoy illustrating all of the landmarks you would find in a community. Ours turned out really great!

Character Dress Up Day

So this is very late, but I still wanted to post all the fun that we had during National Red Ribbon Week. The last week in October is Red Ribbon Week all across the nation. The students and teachers all pledge to be drug free. We always end the week with our "Show your Character, Don't do Drugs" day. The students (and teachers of course) dress up like their favorite book character, and we have a parade for everyone that dresses up to walk in. The kids really love it, and so do the teachers. I know I look forward to it each year.




Our Librarian Mrs. Jepsen or the man in the yellow hat with Curious George




Our Assistant Principal Amanda Borowczak (THing 2) and one of our 2nd Graders (The Birthday Cat) Abby!



Thing 1 and Thing 2 Principal Oliver and Assistant Principal Borowczak




My class and I all dressed up at the Moose from If you give a Moose a Muffin They all looked so great! One of my little friends brought her moose with her so we made it a photo opt.

FUN in the Fall!!!

I have really been slacking at adding the WONDERFUL things my class has been doing. Very sorry!

My class has been doing lots of GREAT learning with a Fall theme behind it. I have been trying to add the holidays into the curriculum as much as I can. Luckily I have the greatest 1st Grade team to work and share with, which helps SO much!


My class made these awesome Abstract Pumpkins in October. We were learning about 2D shapes. They counted the triangles they used and the squares they used to fill out the cloze.







They did an AWESOME job! I was very impressed!


There will be MORE on the way later this afternoon!!!

WOW!

Teacher Salary Info

I feel special, now I have to try and make my posts a little more often to keep it up! :) Just what I needed today!

Skip Counting!!!

In math this past week we were going learning and practicing how to skip count using patterns. I had each student bring in a pair of fun socks. My teammate and I worked together and created a "clothes line" on the bulletin boards across the hall from our classrooms. (Having great teammates is SUCH a blessing!) With clothespins we hung the socks up one at a time and counted them. I wrote the odd numbers in BLUE and the even numbers in RED. Stopping with each sock helped the kiddos see that when there was one sock left by itself it was ODD.






After skip counting by 2's we moved onto 5's and 10's using our little feet cutouts! It was really awesome to see the kids realize that 5's were odds, and the 10's were evens. Counting the toes really helped them see there was 1 left out when the numbers ended in a 5. They really enjoyed these lessons! :)

Busy Busy 1st Graders

The year has started and it is already going fast! Our camping theme classroom has been full of learning and having fun!








This is one of the bulletin boards outside my room. "There's s'more learning going on in Ms. Pollard's class!"




"Whooo is in Ms. Pollard's Class?!?"

We are having a WONDERFUL start to the year in our class. So excited to post more exciting things we are going to do!

Happy Summer

Hello all!!!

I have been having a wonderful summer catching up with friends and hanging out with family. I've been taking trips, and resting up for this coming school year. The school supplies are already back on the shelves, and I am excited to meet the new group of youngsters I will have for the next 9 months...give or take a few days.

I've already been shopping, planning, and looking for new ideas to better my classroom, teaching, and students' learning!

So EXCITED!!!

It has been quite a while!

I am so sorry it has been so long since I have added anything to my blog. I am new at this, and I get very wrapped up in school work. I sometimes forget about the fun updates I could be putting on this. The end of the year is very fast approaching, but we have been keeping very busy learning lots of fun things. We just wrapped up out garden and life cycle unit. We learned all about earthworms and their habitat and created our own bulletin board. We also learned about life cycles of living things. We focused on insects and frogs. We again created our own pond with LOTS of green friends. I have some pictures that will be on their way soon to share the kid's wonderful hard work!

It has been such a fun time!

We are now finishing up our "INVENTORS" unit. We have been studying and focusing on two very important inventors to several generations all over the world, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison. We learned all kinds of facts about their inventions and lives. This week WE got to become inventors! The kids got to create and build their very own robot. Then they wrote about what their special robot was able to do. All the robots were very creative and interesting. I have so much fun reading their writing.

Keep on checking in. There will be much more to come!

Thanks for visiting!

New Resource!

We just got our National Geographic Young Explorer magazine series in. This is a wonderful magazine with great kid friendly language and beautiful pictures for the students to see. They also have a great website you and your children can visit. The website has all the past and present issues of the magazine, and will read the text to the child. There are different games and activities for the kids as well.

This is a great non-fiction literature source, but has challenging vocabulary too. I'm very excited to share this with your children. They are really going to love it. I encourage you to go to the website together at home too! HAVE FUN!

Mardi Gras Math Night

Our 2nd Annual Mardi Gras Math Night is this Thursday, February 25th! Come and enjoy tons of fun Math games, and earn real Mardi Gras beads. You are guaranteed a lot of family fun. I will be helping students play exciting games on the computers in the Primary lab. Hope to see all of you there!

WELCOME!

Welcome to our classroom blog! This is where you can find what is going on in our class. Things we have done, things we are doing, and things we are going to do!