Let Us Give Thanks

We started our Thanksgiving celebration a little early. Before the Thanksgiving holiday, we took the time to understand how this holiday came about. My students then retold the story of Thanksgiving by performing a play and having a feast of their own. Before the students stuffed their faces with food, it was nice to listen to all their reasons for being thankful this Thanksgiving. Take a look below...



Class Thanksgiving Feast (November 20, 2012)

                                               
                          
                                    
                                


                           

Top 5 "Sweet" Leaders of November



Congratulations to those students chosen as the Top 5 "Sweet" Leaders of November.

Olivia C.
Miguel B.
Tyler S.
Nina F.
Ashanti D.

( A special congratulations to Nina for being chosen as a "Sweet" leader for September, October, and November. A special congratulations to Tyler for being chosen as a "Sweet" leader for September and November)



We All Voted on Election Day

Today (November 6, 2012) my students had the opportunity to participate in a mock election by voting for a class president. There was a designated area in the classroom where students were able to cast their votes. Students used their school identification cards as registration cards and after their cards were reviewed by the teacher to assure a match in identification, students were clear to make their choices at the voting booth. This activity provided an understanding of the voting process, which lead to in depth discussions about the importance of voting and why we vote.

  After a day of voting with the students I rushed down to my local voting facility in my neighborhood to excercise my right to vote.

Ms.Carl is being checked in to make sure registration is listed.

Ms. Carl is walking to the poll area to cast her vote.

Fashionable Writing: It's a Process

Just like stepping out with the newest purse of the season that perfectly matches the cutest pair of shoes, is all apart of the in-fashion process, writing a great story works the same way. It's all a process. As my students continue to learn and utilize the writing process to produce great stories and prompts, they are having a blast integrating technology as a way to publish their work. Take a look at some of the books published and view the presentation above to get the inside scoop of how we utilize the writing process.

Awards Day for the 1st Nine Weeks

 First Nine Weeks Awards Day



(November 2, 2012)
Congratulations to all the students who were recognized for their accomplishments for the first nine weeks of school. The award categories included a Reading Award, Math Award, Perfect Attendance, and  Good Citizenship Award.
The following students won an award for the categories listed below:
Math Award:
Anthony M.
Tyler S.
Good Citizenship:
Tyler S.
Carmen R
Nina F.
Breanna A.
Reading Award:
Rachel O.
Tyler S.
Ashanti D.
Breanna A.
Perfect Attendance:
Tyler S.
Brianna C.
Rachel O.
Anthony M.
Olivia C.
Fernanda L.
Jose R.
Nina F.



Trick or Treat?

(October 31, 2012, Writing )

It sure was a treat to witness how engaged my students were as they wrote Halloween stories with their jack-o-lantern balloon friends. After my students created jack-o-lanterns with orange balloons, black marker and green ribbon, they were pretty excited to utilize all the creative writing tricks we have focused on in writer's workshop. Some of the writing strategies that we have focused on that good writers use include: providing details (who, what, when, where, why and how), include a beginning, middle, and end, find a creative way to introduce your story and an even more creative way to close your story, use common first grade sight words spelled correctly, use good adjectives to describe nouns, and include correct punctuation. It was a great day. So to answer the popular question on Halloween, trick or treat? I would describe our day as both a treat as students were engaged and received some sweet prizes in treat bags, as well as full of tricks as students utilized all their writing tricks (strategies)  to create great stories.