Bring on the Bugs!

We began our insect unit in science and that means we were visited by all kinds of creepy crawly creatures last week.  First, came the meal worms (not Mrs. Cushing's favorite little fellows, but sort of fascinating to examine, nonetheless).  We had a chance to look under a strong magnifying glass and see various stages of growth/development:  From tiny worms that were barely visible to the naked eye to rather chubby wiggly worms to worms in the pupa stage.  When the worms hatch, they will be beetles.  Viola!

We talked about the concept of metamorphosis further as we explored painted lady caterpillars, which will eventually turn into butterflies.  Right now we've been having fun examining them, watching them eat (and, boy, can they eat), and recording our observations about how they've changed in our "Caterpillar Diaries."  Since the caterpillars literally change overnight (the growth in them is visible), it has been easy for students to make observations to record.

We also entertained a house full of ladybugs and had a chance to watch them as they feasted on raisins and scurried around.

Continuing with our Kevin Henkes author study, we read Sheila Rae the brave, talked about her character traits, and then made comparisons between her and Lilly with a Venn diagram.  We also did a lot of writing and thinking about Kevin Henkes' characters, using our texts to find and record evidence to support our ideas and answers.  We also introduced the first non-mouse book by Kevin Henkes.  Called All Alone, Kevin Henkes' first children's book is full of understated watercolors and poetic language.  Students wrote about what they feel like and like to do when they are all alone.  This week we will read Wemberly Worried, Chrysanthemum, and Owen.

We wrapped up our latest math unit on mental arithmetic, money, and fractions with a post test and took a pre-test for our up-coming (and last) unit on place value and fractions.  During this unit, we will work on adding and subtracting tens, adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, and comparing fractions.  Please make sure that your child is practicing addition facts, particularly doubles facts, at home on a regular basis.  We have been having fun having doubles fact races during which I use a stop-watch to time kids to see how fast they can do all doubles facts up to 10.  So far the time to beat is 12 seconds by Andy!

Our Writer's Workshop study of poetry is well underway.  The children have been exploring all kinds of poetic writing conventions like onomatopoeia, alliteration, personification, voice, and rhyme.  We explored concrete poems and went on a hunt around our room to find objects about which to write poems.  We talked about how poetic writing is different from other forms of writing.  I think Jason summed it up best when I asked what poetry was and he said, "It's writing that sounds like a song without the music."

I am still working on DRA reading assessments and hope to be finished by the week's end.  Please make sure that your children continue to read for at least 15 minutes per night and that you ask questions about their reading (Who were the main characters in the story?  Where did it take place?  What was the problem?  How did it get solved?  What were the events in the story in sequence?).  You can also ask your child what the story made them think of or if they had any personal connections they could make with the story or one of its characters.

Happy Mother's Day to all our moms and grandmas!

Lilly, Lilly, Lilly

We began our Kevin Henkes author study last week by reading four of his books featuring the indomitable Lilly.  Lilly is one of the great characters in children's literature; she's a bit full of herself; she's impatient; she fearless; she's fun.  In short, she's just likable, and our students really felt they could relate to how "real" she seemed as a character.  We talked a lot this week about how Kevin Henkes gets his ideas for the stories he writes.  Because he is inspired by snippets of actual experiences he's noticed in his daily life, his characters are believable and meaningful for children.

As we explored Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Lilly's Big Day, Julius, Baby of the World, and Chester's Way, we talked about Lilly's character traits and how she changes in each story.  We also made text to text and personal connections as we read.  Tomorrow we will make a Lilly's Great Big Character Trait web linking those traits and evidence from the four stories.  Students will also be writing about whether they would like Lilly as a friend based on our reading.

Last week, students wrote letters to Lilly giving her advice about how she could treat her baby brother, Julius, better.  I was really impressed with the level of thinking and the connections students made in their writing!

We've begun our poetry unit in Writer's Workshop.  The children are not only exploring all sorts of poems and learning about poetic language, they're beginning to write some great poetry of their own.

In math, we began learning about fractions.  We made "personal pizzas" and decorated them with delicious toppings.  We also used jelly beans to figure out how to equally divide portions among various groups of students.  It's always fun when you can eat your math manipulatives when the lesson is finished!

Later this week, in science, we'll be exploring meal worms and ladybugs--yes...real ones!

Thank you to everyone who brought in tissues last week!  We sure did need them!

Kevin Henkes Author Study

This is the one I wait for!  We begin this week with a new author's study.  For the next month or so we will be exploring the works of my all time favorite author, Kevin Henkes.  You may be familiar with some of Henkes' more popular works like Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse (in my opinion, the "perfect" children's book) and Julius, Baby of the World.  We'll read about the indomitable Lilly; fearless Sheila Rae, timid Owen, anxious Wemberly, naughty Wendell, and a host of other mouse characters whom Kevin Henkes features as the main characters in so many of his stories. 

But, apart from his charming "mouse" books, which are themselves absolutely delightful, Kevin Henkes has written and illustrated some of the most beautiful children's books in the world.  Students will be learning about Kevin Henkes as a person and how he uses his own life experiences to enrich and influence his writing.  Our study will focus on such topics as:  author's message, character traits, text-to-text, and personal connections.  We'll turn some of Kevin Henkes' narratives into scripts and act them out in "reader's theater" where students will get a chance to make props and scenery, and students will also have the chance to write a "literary review" of their favorite Henkes book.  I hope all my students will end up loving Kevin Henkes' stories just as much as I do.  You can check out Kevin Henkes' great website here.

As we begin our author's study, we also are in full assessment mode!  I am currently conducting the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) on all students to determine independent and instructional reading levels.  These levels will be used to help place students into second grade classrooms and will be used to aid their second grade teachers in placing students into guided reading groups.  Tests include students reading an unfamiliar text (called a "cold read"), making predictions, retelling the story, and in some cases doing some written extensions to the texts.  Students are also timed to assess fluency.  The DRA is a very low key assessment for students.  Since they are so used to reading with me in guided reading groups and answering the same kinds of questions that are found on the DRA, they usually aren't really aware that they are being tested at all.

This week we will begin a unit in Writer's Workshop on poetry, which I expect to be a lot of fun!  Students will learn about rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and other poetic conventions.

If anyone would like to bring in a box of tissues to share with our class, it would be most appreciated.  Allergy season has hit our room big time; we have lots of runny noses!

Many students are also running low on pencils (or have none at all).  Please make sure your child has at least two pencils to bring to school.

The Ban on Silly Bandz in Room 125

I know the average 5-7 year old thinks that Silly Bandz are all the rage.  I realize that they are an adorable fashion accessory for the elementary school set.  I have a five year old, so I truly do get it.  They're cute.  However....Silly Bandz are not very conducive to the educational process.  When kids are supposed to be listening, they are invariably snapping, twisting, and otherwise playing with their bracelets.  Hey, if I were wearing them, I'd probably be fiddling with them as well!  The Bandz also make convenient flying projectiles which can soar across a classroom with deadly precision.  I have made it clear to students that if they take off the bands, the bracelets will spend the day on my desk.  So, to simplify matters, I am requesting that students NOT wear Silly Bandz to school.  If you have any questions about this policy, please let me know.  Thanks for your cooperation.

Help Wanted

Next week the children will be drawing squares for The Great David Shannon Quilt Project based on  scenes from their favorite David Shannon books.  Each square will then be linked to create a class quilt depicting representations from our author's study.  After the squares are laminated, I will need a parent volunteer to put the quilt together.  This project can be done easily at home.  You'll just need to punch holes in the sides of the squares and attached each square to the next with yarn.  If anyone is interested in volunteering for this project, please respond with a comment to this blog saying you'd like to help or by emailing me at wcushing@sheltonpublicschools.org.  The first person I hear from gets the job!  Thanks so much in advance for your help.

Happy Spring Break!

We finished our independent reading incentive yesterday--though this by no means gets the children off the hook; they should continue to read for 20 minutes nightly.

The bad news is that our class tied with two other 1st grade classrooms for last place.  The good news is that we also tied for 2nd place.  It's just a matter of how you look at things!

Michael K. won the award for the most total minutes read over the course of the incentive.  Congratulations, Michael.

Wishing everyone a wonderful, warm, sunny spring break!

David Shannon Author's Study Wrap Up

We are wrapping up our David Shannon author study this week as well as celebrating the start of Mrs. Cushing's FAVORITE time of year:  Baseball Season!!!  Today we read David Shannon's "How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball" to commemorate opening day around the major leagues this past weekend.  We discussed how this book was very different in writing and illustrative style than the other David Shannon books we've read.  Students noticed that the mood/tone of the book was very dark and was depicted in the illustrations.  We talked about how authors can set the tone of a story through pictures as well as through words.  After reading the story, we discussed Georgie's character traits and wrote about our discussions during learning centers.

Last week we read "How I Became a Pirate" and talked about how characters change in stories.  We followed that tale up with "Pirates Don't Change Diapers" where we talked about the problem and the solution in the story.  Later this week we will read Too Many Toys, Duck on a Bike, and And The Rain Came Down, which we use to make text-to-text connections with the book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Wrapping up our short unit on geometry in math, students will be taking the end-of-unit post test as well as the pre-test for our up-coming unit focusing some more on money.

Students are doing a great job in their reading groups as the texts they read become increasingly more complex.  Please make sure that your child is practicing the books that come home in his/her bag and that he/she is using strategies to decode tricky words.  Students should always be asking themselves if what they are reading looks right and sounds right.  Quite a few students are relying solely on sounding out words and are having trouble with their fluency and comprehension because the words they "sound out" don't make sense in context (i.e. a child reads "wid" for "wide").  If your child does not know a particular word while he/she is reading to you and has tried a couple of strategies (using picture clue, finding known chunks in the word, going back and re-reading to think what would make sense), please don't allow him/her to spend more than about 7 seconds stretching out sounds to decode the word.  You are better off telling your child the word and discussing strategies AFTER he/she is done reading.  This way your child will not lose the sense of the story and comprehension.

This is the last week for our reading log challenge, though students should continue to read for 15-20 minutes minimum each evening.  Right now we are tied for 2nd place (barely)!  Let's go out with a bang, Room 125!!!!  Don't forget those logs on Wednesday and READ, READ, READ!!!!!