My Favorite Time of Year

Nothing is better than a fall day in October with 22 Gators to share it with here at Grove!!  We have been working on habitats in Science, Fire Safety in Social Studies, word problems or number models using Halloween shapes for math, asking thick and thin questions in Reading Workshop AND narrative writing in Writing Workshop!    We even found some time to
create!!!  Take a look at our paper strip pumpkins!
I love this "outside the box" activity that makes kids problem solve how they can turn 9 simple orange strips of construction paper into a recognizable pumpkin!  They are all so creative.  The best part was the writing they did afterwards, describing their jack-o-lantern!!!  You will be able to see them up close during Parent/Teacher conferences!!!

Salutations!!!

1KC has been hard at work! After our back to school assessments and skill reviews, I am proud to announce that your child is in the right place!!  :). Seriously, the kids have caught on to our routines and have impressed me with their quick learning!! I look forward to an awesome year!!

This week, we are covering letter writing in Writer's Workshop.  We have discussed the components, thus the title of this blog, written an invitation to Ms. Hale's class to join us for Math Workshop and will be dropping our 4th grade buddies a line also!

We are enjoying Apples and Johnny Appleseed this week as we merge this fruit and historical character into Science and Social Studies. Here is our apple tasting food from today....yum!!

These were popular with almost everyone!!
  I promised I would share the bag, so you could

pick  some up for your Gator.  I found these at Cub Foods.

Math Workshop is one of our favorite activities!

Here are some pictures from this past week ...we broke out the water colors to paint a colorful sea of Rainbow Fish, like the character in the children's book. We used this story to discuss our Schema or what we know, in Reader's Workshop. We learned we are all pretty colorful and special in what we know!

MATH Workshop

We started our MATH Workshop this week!  We had four centers (see picture) that everyone rotated through Tuesday.

 Thank you to Mrs. Beaty for her help as we began our adventure!

 I am pleased with how well the class is handling routines and expectations!! 

 We drafted a list of traits and actions that outlined what Workshop time should look like and then all the Gators signed it, like a contract.  Then, it was work time!!!!

 It was a success and a routine we look forward to doing this year in 1KC!!  If you would like to join us sometime, please let me know!  

Building Stamina

This week, 1KC is working on building stamina by reading quietly during our Reader's Workshop time.  As with anything new, practice makes perfect and the more you focus and practice, the longer you can read and the better reader you become!!!  With that in mind, here are some pics of us in action!!!  (By the way, we got up to 6 absolutely SILENT minutes today on the first try...GO GATORS!!!!!

My favorite picture, however, is how we all feel at the end of the day......  :)