Square Biz!

I am showing both my age and my love of R&B in particular Teena Marie. However, of course this is not a music blog, it is an elementary school teacher's blog about classroom life in first grade and how I love teaching to my particular beat. As in previous posts, my title does reflect the content. This week in class it is all about solid figures and plane shapes. Hence, the title Square Biz. I was very happy on Monday when we began our lesson to hear that many of my students knew the names of both the plane shapes and the solid figures. For the students who did not, we have been doing a lot with our vocabulary cards to match the shape with the name. I also sent home a letter asking families to go on a solid figures hunt. Students were very excited to bring in items from home and present them to the class. Each days lesson included a computer lesson using both Brainpopjr.com and Educationcity.com, and a create a solid figure activity that the students LOVE! They asked me at the end of class today which figure are they going to make from tomorrow. Our math program provided templates, however I found the precut figures by Lakeshore - Fold a Shape Classroom Kit to be much easier for little firsties to do. I also altered the reproducible activity sheets to match the First Grade Common Core standards by focusing on the vocabulary, comparing attributes, and making sure students know the correct names of the figures. We also discussed why and how these are different than plane shapes.

We also did some solid figure sorting worksheets, and classifying with graphic organizers. We will extend our lesson by building plane shapes with marshmallows and topics and playing a what is my solid figure game with musical clues. I also love a good game of I Spy and since first grade classrooms are full of things, I Spy for solid figures will be  a lot of fun for Friday. Today as my ticket out the door, I did a quick round with the solid figures. It also allowed me to differentiate quickly. Students who needed help with solid figure identification, I just asked them the name of the solid figure for them to exit. Students who were more fluent with this standard were asked if a figure could stack, roll, slide, and they had to explain why. It was a great way to wrap up what we had learned today and keep their minds fresh on the topic for homework tonight.

We are talking "Square Biz," this week and so far it is going just fine.

"I Got a Feeling....."

Although this post is written after the night of the great event, I must say the Black Eyed Peas song, truly fits the occasion. I am taking off my teacher hat for a moment and putting on  my PTO president hat. We had our Open House on Tuesday night...and it was a great one. We go a little over the top at my school with ways to get parents, students, faculty, and staff excited about coming to our school. But last night we really put on a show and you know what.....families showed up! This year our theme was "Rolling out the Red Carpet for our VIP families." Yes, we really did have "makeshift" red carpets. We gave children "swag bags" as they came in. Teachers took pictures as the paparazzi of students and their families in front of our Hollywood backdrop. We had giveaways. Students could sign their "autographs" to go on our Famous Families bulletin board. Students were given the star treatment with stickers. We decorated our lobby area with balloons, and red, gold, and black decorations to give the front of our auditorium the look of a Hollywood movie premier.  All this while also having a fundraising hot dog and bake sale. The school staff really showed their spirit by dressing up in their "star styles" that night.

The aim for me is to get students and families excited about coming to school so that they feel welcome at anytime to share the good as well as the challenges that may come along their way during their child's school career. We have also beefed up our efforts to stay in contact with families, using the technologies that a lot of our younger and even more seasoned parents use such as Facebook, text messaging services, and direct emails. Judging from the responses from parents and students that night, I am hopeful that our next events are just as successful.

 I really believe in developing a positive school-home-student connection. This morning as I walked around the school tidying up any areas that weren't cleared from the event, I could hear students ask each other...."Did you go to PTO? I went to PTO it was awesome....." It is great to hear students excited and talking about their school with pride and joy. By the way, it wasn't all glitz and glamor. We did discuss school safety, fundraising, reading goals, and other important school items. The difference is the way we did it. I believe if you can get someone to feel good about something, they are more likely to respond positively. Tuesday night at my school, I think we gave a lot of families a good feeling to go home with.

Here is a little more about the nuts and bolts. We aren't a fancy school. We are located in a small town. Our student population peeks at about 600. We have pre-k to 5th grade. We have a diverse mix of students including Black, White, and Hispanic. We have a large population of free-and reduced lunch students. The event itself wasn't costly. Decorations and all the things that gave it a "movie star feel" costs less than $100. We used our cafeteria to order the hot dogs that we sold and our teachers and PTO board volunteered to bake the items we sold. It wasn't the size of the dog in this fight to win over our families, but the fight in the dog. We are a school that follows The Leader In Me and we really proved that synergizing, and beginning with the end in mind can outweigh a lot of the factors that people usually say are the reasons why parents don't show up. Parents want to feel welcomed and special. Last night we aimed to do that with style.....Hooray for Hollywood!

"We're Jammin......"

It feels good to really start to feel the rhythm of my classroom and to start to put my own twist on things. As stated in my previous blog, we are studying the text "Me on the Map" using materials provided by the Georgia Common Core literacy units. I found some great resources on other blogs and while thinking about how can I bring the story even closer to home I have decided to add the version "Me on the Map...of My School." Next week we will complete foldables that are similar to the ones found on this blog http://finallyinfirst.blogspot.com/2011/02/me-on-map.html . Then the week after that we are going to create a version that takes the students through the "street of their school," down to the seat of their chair. We are going to use a school map as part of our foldable and I will take pictures of the students in the different locations. We will move from the street of their school, to their school, to their hallway, to their classroom, to their chair. The foldable will be rectangular and we will focus on writing one complete sentence for each page. I am very excited to add this additional layer to the unit study and also the idea that this will further deepen the student's understanding about locations, maps, and their place in the world. After four weeks of school, it feels good to feel my creative juices flowing again and not just spinning around to the dizzying rhythm of back to school beats.

Ease on Down, Ease on Down the Road....

Well, I survived the Unit 1 Extended Text "The Wizard of Oz," part of the Common Core curriculum implemented this year. It was a bit daunting, but we are easing down the road to new things. It is funny how what is old is new again. My Blog Post Title is from a song in "The Whiz" a Quincy Jones led adaption of the Wizard of Oz that starred Diana Ross and the late Michael Jackson. I am getting ready to ease on down the road to a new text for the second half of the 1st nine weeks.

We are now reading "Me on the Map," and why I say what is old is new again is because this same story was actually in an older basal series that we used when I first started teaching. Now we are examining this text again! All the teachers at my school are wishing we could put our hands on those old basal readers now! This text is great to connect our geography lessons and expand our journal writing opportunities. I have also found some great unit activities online from other blogs and am looking at how I can incorporate Google Maps to explore the locations we will cover.

Talking about Google Maps leads me to a few techno kicks I am enjoying this year. I know I may be a little behind the curve, but in case I am not alone, I just want to tell you how GREAT planbook.com is. It is really changing the way I create my lesson plans. I also love parental involvement and keeping in contact with my school families and Remind101.com is a great new way to do that. I have to thank fellow teachers at my school for spreading the word about these two great sites.

I am looking forward to studying "Me on the Map," and getting students to expand their view of where they live. We will combine journal writing, foldables, and even a mobile to deepen our understanding.

I am also very grateful for another nifty gadget I was awarded as teacher of the year last year. It is called Quiz Whiz, and is an electronic game that you can customize with your own 10 questions and answer choices. I am going to use it to help with my grammar instruction. This week I will use it as part of my lesson on plural nouns. I got mine free, but I have seen them retail for about $45-$50. I am very excited to begin using it and it is very user friendly. I used clip art pictures to represent either single or plural nouns and then wrote the choices with either the (s) or no s. The slots on the game are about the size of an business card, so I used my Avery blank business cards for the game questions and answers. I am sure my first graders are going to be very excited to try this out. Right now I plan to use it once a week for grammar, because that is often a subject that needs as much diversified practice as possible.

Time to Pump Up the Jam!

After about three weeks of school, it is time to really get things going in class. I am a firm believer in establishing procedures during the first day of school as outlined in Harry Wong's First Days of School. I really believe and love that book. Now that my students have most of the routines firmly established, it is time to really get into the curriculum. This year has been a challenging one already because of the transfer to Common Core standards in Reading, Language Arts, Writing, and Math. The change has made lesson planning more detailed than usual, but has opened up a dialogue between teachers that didn't exist as much as we share more than before ideas, plans, and materials to meet the standards with our students. Also, the first few weeks were busy for me as I took time off to attend my commenecement ceremony for my docotoral degree and a curriclum planning session with other grade level teachers.

This week, will still be a little different because it is a four day week, however, I am looking forward to beginning my literacy workstations as I mentioned in my recent post. I am also happy as I reflect on completing the first unit extended text which was "The Wizard of Oz." The students learned a lot and it was a fun unit to teach. We ended the unit with a Back from Oz treat day which included green juice  and shortbread cookies with "E.C." on them - that stood for Emerald City :)  Students also made necklaces - Why didn't I take pictures! The were fun and simple to make. I used green yarn and yellow construction paper cut into a square. The yellow square stood for a "yellow brick" from the "yellow brick road." Students then wrote on their "yellow bricks"  "Back from the E.C." and drew and colored a picture of their favorite character from the story on their necklaces. I ended the day by giving them each a "heart" (sticker of a red heart) just as the Tin Woodsman wanted and instructed them to go out this weekend and spread their love to their family.

This coming week, I am working on my short text aspect of the unit and will compare and contrast a traditional Cinderella story using my Kindle Fire to find and read my text and a traditional print copy of Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. I will read both text and together as a class we will complete a Venn Diagram and review the aspects of a fairytale.

Along with careful classroom attention, did I also mention I am the PTO president and am getting ready to launch our first fundraiser of the school year, plan the first PTO event, and wrap up our membership drive....and don't get me started on the perils of getting my home back into the school groove. There's nothing to it but to do it...so off I go into my week fully ready to dance to the fast paced beat that being a teacher, mom, mother, wife, friend, and family member causes me to do. I think I hear the music playing now....until the next time!