FIELD TRIP! To the Western Reserve Historical Society!

Yesterday we went on our first class field trip to the Western Reserve Historical Society!  We have just finished studying how people lived long ago and we knew that this trip would let us see it all in person!

We were so excited when we first arrived...

First, we were taken on a tour through the Hay-McKinney House, which was built in 1911.

This is the children's room.                     

We thought this chair was so weird!

Next, our tour guide showed us some games that kids played with in the past.  We were allowed to try each game!  These toys and games made the things we play with today seem very fancy!

The last part of our tour let us investigate four different aspects of how living in Ohio has changed through the years.

1.  Transportation

2: Lighting our homes (we actually got to walk through rooms with different options of light through the years, the first started with just a fireplace and the last used electricity)

3: Cooking and preparing food



4: Building materials



After lunch, we had time to explore the rest of the museum on our own.  Here are some of our favorite things...






I think the train sets were our absolute favorite!

This was a fabulous end to our unit about how people lived in the past!

Holiday Card Exchange

We are participating in a Holiday Card Exchange with schools from all over the WORLD!

First, we made our own cards (it was glitter-mania!):

As we were making them, Max said it best when he said, "This is really getting me in the holiday spirit!"  We all agreed!

Now we are eagerly awaiting the mail delivery each day!  We already opened 13 cards!  With each card we learn information about different places around the world then we find them on the map!

Look at all the places we've received cards from already!

If you want more information on the holiday card exchange, you can find it here!

1st Graders Transform into Math Teachers

We are working on some pretty amazing things in 1st grade!

Everyone knows our math brains are constantly working and learning new things, so we decided to transform some 1st graders into teachers!!

We had a special technology teacher come in and show some students how to work a great new app on our iPads called ShowMe.  This let the students transform into the teachers!

If you need some strategies for adding 2-digit numbers, check out our videos below!!

Gingerbread Math

Today we showed off our adding and subtracting skills by making our very own gingerbread boys and girls!

First, we had to answer some tough questions using strategies like counting on a number grid or building the numbers with base 10 blocks.

As we found the sums and differences, we were able to build our gingerbread boys and girls!

Check them out below!

The Pilgrims Have Landed in 1st Grade!

We have had so much fun learning about how children lived long ago!  

We've learned how different everything was long ago compared to today. We can't believe their schools, clothes, food and money!  We know we work hard at school, but long ago children REALLY had to WORK!

We thought it would be fun to act like Pilgrim children in our own class, so we started by getting some wampum (these were shells that Native Americans and Pilgrims used as currency).  Then, we worked in collaborative groups to write a recipe for trail mix that we could afford to buy (using our wampum) from the general store.  After we came up with our delicious recipes, we visited the store to buy the supplies and worked together to make it!  

We used the rest of our wampum to make necklaces that we could wear during our 1st grade feast!

 

Of course we had to make hats to really look like Pilgrim children, too!

Now we were ready to invite the other 1st grade classes over to share in our feast and celebrate Thanksgiving.  We all shared what we were thankful for, then our class along with Mrs. Hayes' class shared our fun Thanksgiving fluency song of the week, Turkey Tom!


Turkey Tom from Jackie Nelson on Vimeo.

Then we enjoyed a great story while we snacked on our homemade trail mix!


It was such a fantastic way to start our Thanksgiving break!!

PIZZA PARTY!

We had so much fun at our pizza party today!  

Since we had the most spirit on spirit day, our wonderful PTA awarded us with a pizza party!

All the 1st graders came together for this awesome celebration!

THANK YOU PTA!

Thanksgiving Performance

The first graders put on a wonderful Thanksgiving show at our spirit assembly this morning!

We were so proud of the hard work they put in to prepare for this big performance!  Thank you to all the family members that came to show their support!  We really appreciate it!

If you were unable to attend or if you want to relive the fun again and again, check out our video below!

Thanksgiving Performance from Jackie Nelson on Vimeo.

If you'd like a laugh, check out our silly face picture, too!

Thank You, Veterans!

We spent a majority of today learning about what it means to be a veteran and the important job that they all do.

We even learned that our very own Mr. Gregory and Mrs. Muth's husband are veterans!

We want to say THANK YOU to all the veterans for keeping our country safe and free!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

One of our reading groups performed a spook-tacular reader's theater play for us today!

This play was adapted from a book we love:
                                                       

Thank you to Gloriana's mom who came in and helped make props, practice, and organize the presentation!  These kids did fabulous!!



The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid Of Anything from Jackie Nelson on Vimeo.

It's fall... time to party!!

On Friday we had such a blast at our Fall Party!

Thank you to all the people that helped make it the BEST PARTY EVER!!

Spooky Stories

Today, Mrs. C's STAR block group put on a wonderful performance!

We were all so impressed with their fabulous fluency and their professionalism!

We had scaredy cats...

Zombies...

A dragon and a knight in shining armor...


and a witch and her broom!


What a great performance! We loved it!!

Looking for Something New to Read? Check Out Our Stories!

We told you we were working on a new video project... and it's finally ready!!

We video recorded each other's favorite small moment stories and have them all uploaded on Mrs. Hayes' YouTube account!

Check them out here:


While you're there, check out the awesome writing that Mrs. Hayes' first graders did too!!

Photostory: Community Rules and Laws

Last week we finished our unit on rules and laws in our community.

To show what we learned, we worked with a partner to create a photostory telling about the rules and laws in our community!

First, we took a walk through the community and took pictures of rules and laws we saw.

Then, we uploaded our pictures to photostory and chose which rules and laws we wanted to share.

Finally, we were able to record our voices telling what the rules and laws in our community are!

Our photostories are posted on our school website.  Click on our pictures below to be linked back to the website where you can watch our photostories!

     

Writing Celebration!

As you know, we finished our first unit in writing!!

Today, we celebrated our hard work with our friends from the other 1st grade classrooms!

We sat in small groups and read our stories to each other, it was so much fun and their stories were fantastic!

                                  

     

Then we sang this song together:

Celebration! from Jackie Nelson on Vimeo.

And had donuts!!!

                                                   

It was a wonderful way to celebrate our writing successes!