We are all back together once again! Last week I was gone Thursday through this Monday (hence no blog posts) and there were many sick kiddos gone as well. We are back and ready to start a new week and mostly get back into our normal routine. Today was a very exciting day because it was our Harvest Party! In order to respect everyone's beliefs and traditions, we celebrate fall harvest instead of Halloween. We spent the day reading books about pumpkins, fall, and harvesting. But the most exciting part of the day (by far!) was doing pumpkin math! We spit into three groups and each group received a pumpkin. (Thank you Abby and her family, as well as my grandpa Jim and grandma Alma for the pumpkins!) With the pumpkin the groups weighed them, measured their circumfrence and height, and then dug out the seeds and counted them! This was gooey, slimey, and so exciting! We talked about how we could all count the seeds and decided that counting them by 10's would be easiest and fastest. We drew circles on our table cloths and dug in to get the seeds out and counted. The cooperation that took place during this was absolutely astounding! The groups were devising plans and systems to digging out seeds. One group decided that they were all just going to squeeze in and dig. Another group decided that they would take turns going around the table. The last group decided that they would pass the spoon to each person and then they could dig. Isn't that incredible! What a great lesson not only in math, but also in cooperation and sharing! We have amazing kiddos! Here are some gooey pictures:
We were going to trek over to the Edible Garden to see if any food was left to be harvested but we ran out of time. We'll try to fit it in tomorrow.
The entire first grade started something new today called I-Time. This is a time where all first graders are divided based on their reading level and then sent to different rooms to work. Some students are working on computers, some at stations, some are working on building vocabulary, and some are working on comprehension. This is absolutely wonderful for a few reasons: the students get a chance to get out of their rooms, they get a chance to meet other first graders, and they are working with students doing activities that are at their academic level. Plus it's fun for the teachers to get to know new students too! THe kiddos really seem excited by this!
Ahh, it's good to back in the "swing of things"
Books We Read Today:
Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
Five Little Pumpkins (this is a book we'll each bring home)
Interesting Tidbits from our Day
"Ms. Carlberg, we did so great in music! Mr. Rosas said we were role models! I don't think we'll have to practice tomorrow!"
"Could you please move off of my carpet spot?" [This is HUGE because normally this kiddo yells at others, "get out of my way!"]
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