For the Love of Second Grade, Food, and Fitness: 2016

Monday, December 12, 2016

Holiday STEM, Acts of Kindness and a Class Update!!!

It's December! That is such a busy time for a first grade teacher! I mean, first grade has the most fun (in my opinion) when it comes to the holidays! We make homemade gingerbread, ornaments, have our very own Polar Express Day, readers theater (The Gingerbread Man) ANNNND we are doing some holiday STEM projects! This has got to be one of my favorite new things we've done this year! I am loving all the stem projects our kids have been coming up with!

HOLIDAY STEM!!

Our first graders are super pumped about our holiday stem projects. My awesome teaching partner and I planned out these activities to do during our normal math time. It is for this last week before holiday break! HOW FUN!

Here are some of the stem projects we did so far:

STEM DAY #1: Construct the tallest tower you can using only toothpicks and gumdrops.

This was a lot of fun. I did start off the class at the carpet going over all the rules for this stem challenge. Rule #1: Do not eat the gumdrops :), Rule #2: The toothpicks are tools, not weapons, Rule #3: If someone copies your idea, it's not COPYING, it's a COMPLIMENT... :0 You know.. all the regular stuff that first grade teachers have to say. (COPYING is considered a BAD word in first grade - also we don't say "BUTTING" - that is a NO NO word. lol) ANYWAY... after the rules, the kids started off at their stations. They had lots of great ideas and great starts.
Many of them realized that things didn't quite go as planned. They had to adjust their plans.(and take deep breaths).
These are some of the early-on towers:

After about 20 minutes, I pulled everyone to the carpet to talk about what was working, and what wasn't. Things that the kids reported to be working were things like doubling or tripling up on the toothpicks to make it stronger, making triangle bases instead of square, etc. After we talked through all of that, I sent them back to their spots to make changes. I gave them 15 more minutes before they had to have hands off! Then I would measure their towers to find the winner! THE SUSPENSE!! :)

Bella decided to try triangles to make her tower more sturdy at the bottom.

Here's some of our finished towers:

Deem's finished tower

Taylan's finished tower (2nd place!)

Alexi's finished tower!

Julian's finished tower (3rd place!)

Hunter's finished tower (OUR WINNER! 12 inches tall!)

STEM DAY #2:

Construct a Christmas Tree that stand on its own out of only pipe cleaners

Design a cylinder telescope to help Santa on his travels using paper and tape.

Today was our day 2 and they enjoyed themselves immensely!

I set up this day into 2 stations. Each station had a different challenge. I'm not going to lie! We did have some tears today! The kids who couldn't get their trees just right, had a hard time trying again, but we had a little chat about perseverance today and I think that helped a lot!! :)

Here's some of our Christmas trees!

Finn's tree

Gracelyn's tree

Alexi's tree

Ethen's tree

Here's some of our telescopes! These were very fun!

This is Austin's telescope. He decided to make a tool to go with it in order to wipe away any snow that gets in the way on the telescope! WOW! So smart!

Stay tuned for more about our holiday STEM projects! This has been so much fun!!

Acts of Kindness Christmas Break Countdown

So first grade started this last year in an attempt to get kids thinking about giving to others and doing kind during the holiday season. My goal is to give the kids a view of the holidays that isn't always about presents and what we "get". So our acts of kindness Countdown has been a huge hit! Every morning, we pick a new act of kindness out of our bag,

Then we do that for the day! Sometimes it's as simple as telling a teacher that they are special or it can be to actually make someone a note, card, or letter.

Here's some pictures of our kids after they made their friends an award telling them they are special.

We are such great buds!

I love this time of year so much! We will see how we can get this type of attitude all year long!

Now for a class update:

Zachary saw Santa this weekend on Main Street
Austin got a wrestling award this weekend
Rainey has a very loose tooth!
Lizzie had a basketball game this weekend!
Christopher is moving next week :/
Gianna is also moving next week :/
London is going to be the Gingerbread Man in our readers theater and he's very excited!
I saw Finn over the weekend at Target!
Taylor is going to get her sister something really special for Christmas!
Aurora was the reader of the day today!

That's all for now! More updates to come!

PEACE!
~Shelly

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Election Day and a class update!!!

Yesterday was election day in first grade!!! I knew I wanted to teach the election process and the basic idea of being a good citizen by voting in our country (it's in our social studies standards!!) ANNND FIRST GRADERS HAVE THE MOST FUN SOO..

Why not an election!?

The problem I was coming up with prior to these lessons was talking about elections without ACTUALLY talking about our political candidates. I figured I could get in less trouble teaching my kids about Jesus than talking about politics :). SOOO I came up with this great idea! Voting for books! We would vote for the new books that we would add to our classroom library! You see, last week, we won third place in a Halloween door decorating contest!

We did pretty good right!?

We won $25.00 towards books from Scholastic! (Thank you PTO!) This could be the ballot I was looking for! And just like that - the kids told me books they loved, we make a ballot, and vualah! MAGIC! No republican/democrat/Hilary/Trump talk allowed. In fact (lol) I told my kids the words Clinton and Trump were "bad words" that they weren't allowed to talk about at school. (I JUST CAN'T!!) Plus - no 6 or 7 year old knows anything about politics. They simply just repeat what their parents say at home ---- (Some isn't so positiive.... SO BOOKS IT IS :). Here's a look at the ballot:

Then, I got some help from some 4th graders. They were my poll workers. "Welcome to the 2016 Election!" they said as each first grader came out into the hall to cast their secret ballot. Then they checked out out their Voter Registration Cards, allowed them to vote, then gave them a sticker afterward. This was so adorable! I loved having the older kids helping! Here's some pics of the magic!

London casting his vote!

Chris voting!

Hannah and Brianna (4th graders) checking Gianna's voter registration card!

William (4th grader) checking Finn's voter registration card!

Finn Voting!

Hunter with his voter registration card and "I Voted" sticker!

Aren't they cute??

And the winners are...

WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!

Now for a class update!

Bella went to Branson over the weekend and she had so much fun! She went on go carts and everything!
Gianna got a big scrape on her elbow over the weekend :(
Friday was London's birthday!
This Friday is Emmet's birthday!
Alexi's sister Aunna met her reading goal in 2nd grade! They celebrated today at lunch!
Aubrey saw the Troll movie over the weekend and she loved it!!!
Zachary had strep throat last week :/
Derek is reading a book about Volcanoes and it's AMAZING!!! :)
Mrs. Trauterman finished her grades!! WOO HOO!
Lizzie got her first basket at basketball practice last night! Rainey was there to see it!

That's all for now!

PEACE
~Shelly

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The beginning of our newest flexible seating options! FINALLY!

Flexible seating just got real today! I've been waiting to introduce some of my new seats until I felt comfortable, and I knew the kids could handle it! We were all SO EXCITED!!!

For those of you who don't know, earlier this summer, I wrote a grant on Donors choose - flex seating grant asking for supplies to start flexible seating in my classroom. I was so thrilled when it got funded! I also attended an EDCAMP this summer hosted by our district. This is where I learned A LOT from other educators about the benefits of flexible seating. You can read more on my blog post -----> EDCAMP. This is where I found out about another opportunity to apply for a grant. I GOT IT! I received A THOUSAND (WHA?!?!) more dollars to purchase flexible seating options for my students! I was super thrilled!! So, after much thought and debating, meeting with my building principal about the best options, buying the right supplies, and discussing this with some colleagues of mine, I decided a good time to start it out was now. I used my extra time on Thursday afternoon after parent teacher conferences to set up the chairs. I had some help from my super awesome coworkers. We had them all blown up and put together in no time! Have I mentioned how much I truly love the people I work with?! <3

Anyway, so I knew that a whole room full of bouncy ball seats and wobble stools wouldn't just go over in a snap with 6 & 7 year olds.....my purpose is not to disturb learning, but enhance it (wink wink) so I decided to start small. Right now, the ball seats and wobble stools are all back at my back table. I have 8 set up total (plus the lap desks, stability disks, and go anywhere chairs that have been getting used since day 1 of school). So we are good to go!

First thing this morning, we went over some "rules" for our new chairs. Here's the anchor chart I came up with. Shout out to my awesome teaching partner Ashton! She now has a TPT store and makes cool posters and stuff! I love how creative she is! I claim that I knew her first and I was her mentor! (So I get this stuff for free... BAM!) Anyway, here's a link to her TPT STORE FAB FIRSTIES for the flexible seating posters. She really is so talented and I am so supportive of her new store and that she's sharing her creativity with the world! We are both using the flexible seats from my grants together - I am so happy to have another soul to talk to about starting this adventure!

<---You'll notice the chart has the "WHY" right at the top. We use these for learning! It is all about THEM! I just wanted to make sure they knew exactly why they were using these in the first place!

So, today, we started using the seats, and this is sneak peek of what writer's workshop looked like today

Zachary using a Zenergy ball chair

Calley using a stability ball chair for writing

Bella using a stability ball to write

Emmett and Sloan using lap desks to write

Christopher using a stability disk on his chair to write

Derek using a wobble seat to write.

I really felt like the kids handled it better than I expected. We also used the new chairs earlier in the day during reader's workshop. I did my small groups back at my table, so we worked on how to sit in them then as well!

Stay tuned as I update you on our progress! I believe it was a very focused writer's workshop time when everyone felt like they had their just right spot to write. Now, the challenge is getting them to really decide what's truly best for them! Once the "newness" wears off, they will realize they like to stand, wobble, bounce, or just sit with a chair that has a back. We are all different!