I surprised the kiddos this morning with a completely different set up of our room. I've noticed that we were all to squished at our tables, so during our break I completely rearranged the room. It has worked well these past two days and the kiddos really enjoy the change of scenery and they love their new table spots. I have enjoyed watching them interact with new table mates too, what a great way to build our community!
It took us awhile to get back into the swing of things, especially with our new room. We spent a lot of time practicing moving in our room, putting tools away, getting tools, walking in the hallways, and working together. One thing we are really focusing on is following a direction right away. (We have students that like to take "detours"...they go almost everywhere in our room instead of where they were directed to.) This makes our transitions longer, but eventually once we get them down they will be more efficient.
We have learned about nickels and are now tackling the task of counting nickels and pennies together. This is a very tricky thing but we are working hard and are coming along. We will practice this skill all week. We played two games to help us count- Nickel Grab and Penny/Nickel Grab. In both of these games each person grabs a handful of money, counts it, and the person with the most gets to keep the money. It's funny to watch eyes grow big as they accumulate more and more money. What's even better is listening to what each student would buy with "all that money":
a horse, a hammerhead shark, the moon, a million cookies, balloons, and peanuts.
Now that "the most wonderful time of the year" is finally upon us, we are going to start celebrating ALL holidays! The first grade team will be teaching students about Eid, Hanukkah, Christmas, Santa Lucia, Los Posados, and Diwali. Many of our families celebrate these holidays so it is intriguing to learn about them and each of our families. I'm excited to announce that on December 20th, the entire first grade will be visiting Crestview nursing home to sing holiday songs. This really is one of the most exciting and heartfelt events of the year that is adored by our kiddos as well as the residents. Everyday we will be practicing these songs in preparation.
Books We Read Today:
Beatrice's Goat - Paige McBrier
Betsy Who Cried Wolf - Gail Carlson Levine
Interesting Tidbits from our Day:
"Oh, thank goodness that break is over! I've been praying and praying, but it just wouldn't end!"
"Ms. Carlberg, did you know that santa can see you EVERYWHERE?! Even in your house...even in our school...even in our classroom!!.......... Oh oh, we better do our job."
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