Happy Birthday, John Chapman!!

Today, we celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday with a day of apple activities.  You can see the results of our apple stained glass below.  We used coffee filters, colored markers and a spritz of water to make the colors blend!  We wrote a poem about apples, made a count-on book and listened to a story about a
little red house with no windows, doors and a star inside!!  Ask your Gator what it was!!

We also tallied our favorite color of apples...red won! And finally, capped off the day sampling some Gala apples, sliced so we could see the "star" inside!!!

Colorful Schemas

First grade has been talking about schema in Reader's Workshop this week.  We learned
that our schema is what we know-- and by reading and thinking about our reading, our brain
can grow and our schema can change!!   We have enjoyed learning a new song about our schema also, taken from a wonderful website. You can find the link here: http://www.thelearningpad.net/id86.html

Using the Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, we also discovered that our schemas are colorful and what we learn and share with each other makes us happy!!  The next time you are in Grove, check out our bulletin board outside the classroom...you will see all of our colorful learning and Rainbow Fish!!!

Of course, you can see it here first--along with some of the Gator artists!!!  :) 

It's Not Broadway....

1KC was at its finest today as we hosted our Grove Buddies from Mrs. Dawson's third grade and Mrs. Fogal for our "Life in  an Ant Colony" musical!!  It was our culminating activity for our study of these insects and went well.  See for 

yourselves!!

Ants! Ants! Ants!

First grade is crawling with harvester ants from the deserts of Utah!!  We received them after school yesterday, so this morning, we put them into our staff lounge refrigerator (ask your Gator why) and then prepared a special ant farm for them.  I had a commercial ant hill which we filled with red clay soil similar to the deserts of Utah and then, using a plastic deli container and an inverted cup, we filled a second habitat with sand.  We will be able to compare the two and see which one the ants prefer.
Our story this week is about ants and non-fiction.  All week we will incorporate these insects into our writing, reading and learning activities...it is fantastic!!!

 













Mrs. Fogal heard the good news!!








This is how they arrived...

Our homemade ant farm

The Best Place to Read

During our Reading Workshop time today, we read the story, The Best Place to Read by 
Debbie Bertram and Susan Bloom.  A little boy searches all over for the very best place to be comfortable reading his new book.  Ask your Gator where he finally ends up!  

In response to that, we have started staking out our own "Book Nooks" which are our special places to read during our Independent Reading time.  I thought you might enjoy some pictures of our places!!

I love the inverted chair and pillow idea!!!  I saw it on Pinterest (shock!) and the kids said it worked great...I'm going to need more pillows!!!  :)