A Big Day! 1st Day of the 1st Grade!

As our school day began, each of our new 1st graders was a little shy, a little nervous, and a little excited!  Actually, the teachers were a little nervous and excited, as well!  In no time, everyone loosened up and came out of their shells.  I can tell that this is going to be an amazing year full of learning and fun!

Language Arts- Our day began with the Pledge of Allegiance.  We will begin each day with the Pledge!  Ms. Allison started us off with an activity where the students could all get to know each other.  They passed a ball around a circle.  Each person who caught the ball answered a question about themselves... "What is your favorite ice cream?"  "What did you do this summer?"  "Have you ever fed an elephant?"  In no time, the ice was broken!

Ms. Allison taught the children about vowels.  They even made a vowel "train"!  They marched around the room, saying the alphabet.  Each time they came to a vowel, they had to clap in the air!  After the vowel train made it back to the station, the children worked on letter formation.  Today, they simply worked on making circles and lines.  First, they made circles in the air, moving in a counter-clockwise motion, just like is needed in many letters.  Then, they moved to the tennis court to draw circles with chalk.  The children then added "sticks" to the circles, creating letters such as "a", "b", "d" and "p".  After handwriting, Ms. Allison read the book "Andrew Henry's Meadow" to the students.  They loved it!

Math- In math today, Ms. Jennifer began with a counting review.  The children looked at numbers and number words from one to ten.  They counted the pictures on pages 12 and 13 in their textbooks, and wrote the corresponding numbers.  Then, Ms. Jennifer introduced them to a card game.  Each child was given 3 cards.  The pink ones had numbers on them.  The green ones had stickers.  The children had to count the stickers and see if they had a number card that matched.  When they found a match, they could place their matches on the table.  Ms. Jennifer then had the children choose a card to discard.  They then passed that card to the person on their left.  Then, they checked again to see if they had a match.  This continued until students ran out of cards!

Grammar-   Today's grammar lesson was all about nouns.  The children learned that a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea.  We read a poem, "The Caterpillar" by Christina G. Rosetti.  I explained that we will be memorizing this poem over the next few weeks!  Last, the students colored a picture that had to do with the poem.  They then labelled all of the nouns in their pictures.

Spanish-  Ms. Rose had a great time with the children today!  Her dynamic teaching and enthusiasm is contagious!  The kids played games with counting in Spanish, learned greetings, and sang songs.  They even played Hide and Go Seek, where they had to ask "Donde Esta" as they looked for their friends, and "Aqui Esta!" when they found them!

Science- In science today, Ms. Caroline discussed chapter 1 in their science books.  The children learned about how everything around us is made up atoms, and how those atoms work together to form molecules.  They discussed how we all learn about the world around us by making observations.  To demonstrate this, the children used a magnifying glass to examine different objects.  They then documented their observations in their workbooks.

History-  The class was introduced to what we will be studying this year in history class: Ancient Civilizations.  They learned the term ancient, and they learned what civilizations are and why they are important.  As we prepared for our lessons, we created our first history pocket.  Our history pockets will help guide us through the lessons that we learn at home... and give us a fun place to collect the crafts and papers that we complete as we go!