Hats For Sale

One of the things the 1st graders in room 5 at Hathaway in Oxnard have been doing is reading, writing and drawing hats.

Inspired by Caps for Sale

and the Cat In The Hat ,

as well as using a fantastic Reading Rainbow that introduces a shop called “Hats To Where” then watching LeVar put on a cap and be transported ( racetrack as a jockey, miniature train station,to a hockey rink)  they made several different kinds of works.

The first was a terrific bunch of stacked hats:

Ironically I was asked during this time to teach teachers in a presentation on arts integration. And further prompted to do “self portraits” with the teachers so thinking that was too much decided to opt for a portrait “in hat.” There are ways we modify in the arts and in our work with children to gain skill, support learning. I was attempting to support success.

So there are the teacher’s works, following the kids,( unfortunately in the clunky word press just posting pictures now is a major pain,  wish I had built this in blogger.)

Kid’s tried hat pictures too, but so far I’m not sure these are ones that I like well enough, may try again before we do some writing.

There is a world of language in hats for 1st graders to think about, especially in their second language work.

If you want the basic lesson plan go here....Hats !

I have a friend that once wrote about a lucky cap. Or hinted at the story he actually never shared.  I have a lucky hat as well. And my students are all on St. Patty’s Day, or during the week, writing about a hat that was lucky. We’ve been brainstorming.

Hearts From Home, 100 days of school

Is it really time for Valentines and the 100th Day of School?
Both, as always.

For the troops we all made Love Bugs and sent these Valentines to them via the Hearts From Home project. Ms. Wolfson and my class often team up so we teamed to construct something for those we hope are kept safe as they keep us safe. Her great idea to send them seemed perfectly expressed in Luv Bugs.
I no longer can easily insert things in this blog, this newest version awful with Flickr so here is the link out to see the Valentines. See them here

The 100 bug directions

A Hearts from Home Valentine.

A class prepares the project

Our cupboard mailboxes ready for our notes.

“He’s Singing Our Song”

Friday Dr. Puglisi began his weekly visits to initiate PE activities, songs, science and the project “Exploring Space and Time.” We learned a bunch of songs he WROTE!

The first song we learned was called “Days of the Week”

The words go like this:

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saaaatuuurday…

The week have seven, not eleven, we can count the days.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saaaatuuurday…

Morning and noon we are singing this tune…weeeeee can count the days.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saaaatuuurday…

The week has hours like petals on flowers, 24 hours in a day.

So here we are!

The idea of 24 hours in a day, rotation around the sun, the turning of our earth, directional words/concepts…all of this comes “straight” from our standards but this is being “placed’ gently into things we “do.” After Thanksgiving children will be able to start watching the movement of our earth by using the sun and a tether ball pole plus chalk, an observatory on our play-yard. It should be fun. And help gro our understandings. It all takes time.

Here are our journals…..our sight word bingo games…our drawing community maps and….our watching our work projected as we listened to a bit of cello with Yo Yo Ma.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….”

show

And here is a slideshow of our turkey drawings, and our drawing and writing what we are thankful for this year……..

Thankful Thankgiving

Meet Busta and the Kitty

Tomorrow my class gets a big surprise.

New hermit crab environment and two new crabs, the Hello Kitty and the Busta who is a bit of a giant!

Go Away Big Green Monster

So we say…….(finding this from someone that left it as a link, wow)

We will need to try our version. But….perhaps with wigs…

Today we made pictures of our Big Green Monsters in 1st grade ( preparing for upcoming mask making)

And found this too, great, reversing!

Alphabetically Speaking…..You’re OK

Before we went home today 1st grade had an ABC activity

They really enjoyed it immensely.

Tomorrow they’ll do another version.

And read for me their ABC strips on the morrow so we can “check” them. Some aren’t quite done yet.

I’d seen a big bag of letters at Lakeshore and thought….hummm.

So each child picked a buddy. The rules for that were pick someone you either need or want to help.

They picked excellently. Then with a cup of letters and these pretty sentence strips off they went to make the ABC’s in alphabetical order.

I walked around, largely irrelevant watching problem solving.

Some children in my class have little to no English skills so this was perfect as they spoke the letter hunting for it. And they hunted for it over and over and over.

Some children had to work in order A to Z, good idea. Some first sorted all their letters in piles which looked like another great idea and we will need to do that one too. Some children found a “part” of the pattern and put it in relative position ( wow was that a healthy sign).

Some children forgot their letters and used resources like our room ABC wall train,

or on their desk strip on the name tag. Some sang an ABC song to recall.

One child that is doing very well this year, a child repeating with me, was done so quickly and this year he’s helping his cousin. Last year he often cried or needed help. I’m seeing him into self assurance and the bond this looping placement did will last (at least my lifetime)!

This particular activity wasn’t actually in the textbook, or the workbook. It’s a bit better I think.

But considering I’ll be teaching an October after-school an ABC Academy with 48 kids possible (22 allowed the others on a wait list) in about 100 total children it’s very clear we need to find ways to forge connections to alphabetical comfort. Of course with this comes a need to connect to letter sounds. I’ll be repeating this activity with rubber stamp sets ( I have lots) and then with these cute peel and press letters I have. Plus if I go to the craft store I bet I find something cheap to give us another way to build alphabets.

What I am doing is very simple.

Making a natural fun way to automaticity.

Great for a center but this day my room enjoyed being engaged together.

Remember in 1st grade what is really important to a child is feeling things are fair and their ability to hold that is short, so whole group feels very right at the start of a year.

Oh….those ABC’s ( links we will be using in centers)

I have a site you really have to see as you discover the beauty of the ABC…

||| A ||| B ||| C ||| D ||| E ||| F ||| G ||| H ||| I ||| J ||| K ||| L ||| M |||

||| N ||| O ||| P ||| Q ||| R ||| S ||| T ||| U ||| V ||| W ||| X ||| Y ||| Z |||

It isn’t just me, and it isn’t just you that need to see our ABC’s.

Here’s a place sure to please with music that sends us back to days when lots of kiddies played pianos and danced vaudeville ABC’s

WHAT’S IN THE GAME ROOM?
TIC KAT TOE /// WORD SEARCH /// CONNECT THE DOTS
KAT’S LOST AGAIN! /// JIGSAW PUZZLES

You will find this perfectly the place to say all the many (26) ABC’s…..

ALL THE LETTERS…..

Do you like to do your lessons, here are some that span 4 sessions.

When you click on these you see the ABC’s will be a breeze..

Finally you seem to say the teacher will allow some play.

Your job when here is to practice your letters and that includes a lot of centers.

And while you play your brain will learn that these are the keys to words like…ummm…. cistern, and plenty more that sound and spell all the things we need to discern.

(Ok it’s a rough patch of rhyming)

This site is great, kind of grand, it has some choices that make it worth a super hand stand.

Link here for the games Well we like to sing, that is true so let’s see what another site can do. ABC Sing Along Sing Along ABC Sing Along ABC Kareoke Try the Alphabet Center Well heres two places to practice the letters try and see if they are pleasures…. Letter TV Giraffian Alphabet Songs…we should end this happily, try this site to sing with glee… Alphabet Song Alphabet Song Learn the alphabet with the song “The Alphabet Song” A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Thanks to all the sites we see, it helps they exist in linking territory. We will make our own ABC movie, and sign and say some few more. Our focus is on gaining the sound in every context found around, including those we are mandated to say…it’s pretty clear we are busy all day. Hey stay tuned world for my class producing their own alphabet world. Dou you want to see what learning letters looks like? Check this out…..beautiful.

I Call My Hand Gentle

As the year starts we teach basic rules to help children be safer and happier in their interactions. They tried so hard today to listen. One of my main ideas this second day of working together is we learn from our mistakes. And I’m really impressed with the idea that we can speak in affirmation. Instead of “Don’t hit”, and believe me that matters, I read a book today that talked about ways we can use our hands.

The book is delightful. It is called, “I Call My Hand Gentle.”

It suggests lovely ways to use our hands. In fact what I really think it does with primary children is take the hand and open and calm it. I had them try butterfly hugs. Lots of hand ideas including some cool shadows.

So then the children traced their hands and made designs. I called each child over to tell me an idea of how we can use our hands. They had nice ideas. I think I’ll show these very, very early images as there is a long road to go.

So the funniest part was watching them trace their hands. I got loads of two right or two left. I use this to see if they can cut, to watch their “handiedness.” Just to watch how they are thinking.

Here is what they said, minus names, we need to make up our pen names…..and maybe this year I can find ways to get them blogging on their own pages. They are very young.

Very!

A…”I can help my mom with my hands.”
E said, ” I can put them on the wall.”
E said, “I can go play with my brother and use my hands on the bicycle. We can spin if my hands are good.

My brother can jump on my back. We can play.”
G, ” I can hold an apple to eat.”
M, ” I can use my hands to play.”
S, ” I can make polka dots and rainbows with my hands and crayons.”
A, ” I can hug my mom with my hands.”
L, ” I can work and help my Mom with my hands.”
E said ” I can drink with my hands.
M said, ” I can pick a flower with my hands.”
D said, ” I could touch and use a pencil.”
O said, ” I could make art.”
J, ” I could pet a dog with my hands.”
K, ” I could make cookies.”
S, ” I can hold my bike and go, go, go.”
E, ” I can play with toys.”
C, ” I can do sports with my hands.”

What Are We Going To Learn from 15 Hermit Crabs? A Dozen in a Box for our Science Investigations

Friday among the MANY things going on (including a great vaudeville show) we were introduced to our 12 new hermit crabs. Now we have 15! Since they like company, it was fun to watch them run around their cage.

If ONLY the teacher didn’t have a herniated disk. It’s really, really impossible.

Here’s a video to see them…with audio!

The Turtles

Our second March painting.

We studied in depth the categories of vertebrates. These paintings celebrating reptiles.

We are headed to the Santa Barbara Zoo Monday ALL DAY to see all of our animal friends.

They have turtles!

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

View sarah_puglisi’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

View sarah_puglisi’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

View sarah_puglisi’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

View sarah_puglisi’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

View sarah_puglisi’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

View sarah_puglisi’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

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Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)

View sarah_puglisi’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos here)