Welcome to First Grade!

Dear New First Grade Friends and Parents,

I just got my class list for 2015-2016, and I am beyond excited.  I absolutely can not WAIT to see each of your faces at Meet the Teacher night on August 6th!  I hope you have had a wonderful summer, and that you are excited about first grade--because it's going to be such an adventure!

Our classroom is one that is full of singing, dancing, cheering, exploring...and reading, lots and LOTS of reading--and I promise--I have some of the absolute BEST books in the entire world in my classroom.  Some are silly and some are serious, and some have wondrous pictures. Also,  I love to do silly voices when I read.  You can laugh at me if you want to--because sometimes I even laugh at myself!  HA!

I wonder if you like science?  The first day of school, I am going to show you one of my absolute favorite science experiments--my class last year went CRAZY for it, so I knew I just had to do it again for you sweet people!

What fun it is going to be getting to know all about you, making new friends, and learning together this year!

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer.  I'll see you very soon, first graders.

Love,
Mrs. Cooley

One Magical Morning

Our classroom is so cozy and peaceful in the mornings!  Usually before the kids arrive, I turn on the lamps and little lights and just have a moment before all the fun begins!  It only took a few moments of quiet to completely change my plan for that day.  I was sitting there thinking of how our room just looks magical.  I needed to do something different today...

We are right in the middle of a Mercer Mayer author study (the author and illustrator of all the Little Critter books), and he has a few Little Critter versions of popular fairy tales--one being Jack and the Beanstalk.  I quickly ran down to the teacher workroom to grab green paper.  I really wanted the kids to walk into the room (no big lights overhead), and see a beanstalk growing over by the window.  One big glue gun burn later (OW!) the beanstalk was stuck to the wall, and the kids were pointing and wondering all morning WHY it was there and asking what it was all about.  

Later that morning, we read Little Critter's Jack and the Beanstalk, and the kids created posters in groups to illustrate the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  They did an amazing job!  But they didn't stop there.  The beanstalk needed more details!  One little one suggested adding vines.  Another one said we needed a castle at the top.  One friend wanted to draw and add the little magical beans. And of course, Little Critter needed to be on the beanstalk...so I found some velcro and stuck him on the wall!  When it was done, the kids had helped to transform the reading area into a corner FULL of writing, illustrations, and imagination.  I hadn't planned it, it just happened.  Watching the kids get excited about a story enough to work for over two hours creating, drawing, discussing, and planning--it was a teacher's dream.  It was one of my favorite mornings of teaching.  One magical morning.

(One photo of a section of the beanstalk.  I couldn't get the whole thing in!)

Class Schedule

It was so wonderful to see all of you at "Meet the Teacher"!  I can already tell this is going to be an amazing year.  Your kids were all so precious and polite!  I had a few requests for our class schedule, so I wanted to post it here first!  I will also send a copy home with our First Grade Handbook, which should come home the first day of school.  The handbook will tell you all about our first grade happenings, procedures, discipline and rewards, and more.

Here is our specials schedule.  I DO allow and encourage my students to take home their library books for the week!  They can stay in your child's reading briefcase, or you can keep them at home.  Just be sure to return them each Wednesday so that your little one can check out another fun book.

Hi New Friends!

Dear New First Grade Friends (and Families),

I am so incredibly excited that you are in my first grade class this year!  We are going to have the BEST time learning together.

Get ready for a year full of adventures.  We are going to read amazing books, draw (I LOVE to draw!), sing, practice new sounds in reading with the “phonics dance”, do class cheers like the “minion cheer” and we’ll have a blast doing some crazy cool science experiments! 

I know you’ll probably be a little nervous to meet me and see your brand new classroom.  And that’s ok.  I’m always a little nervous, too!  Don’t worry, little friend!  I promise I'm super nice, and this year is going to be wonderful.  

I can’t wait to see each of your faces at Meet the Teacher on Monday, August 4th from 4:30-6:00!

See you soon!

Love,

Mrs. Cooley

This was a picture of me dancing around when I got my class list:  (photo credit—my 4 year old, Emma!)  Haha!  I'm a little silly sometimes.

Tips for Meet the Teacher:

First Grade Supply List:

Wish List Items!  I appreciate ANYTHING you are able to donate!  

Pumpkin Investigations

Last week, I had a patch full of little pumpkin experts--we read all kinds of nonfiction books about pumpkins, and then did pumpkin nonfiction writing of our very own!  We completed a shared writing chart to explain the pumpkin life cycle!  The kids were divided into groups, and had to illustrate and come up with writing for their part of the life cycle.  They did an amazing job.  Nothing is cuter than a kid-created shared writing chart--(in this teacher's opinion)!

The kids continued to work in small groups throughout the week to recall facts they had learned about pumpkins.  They created a giant page for our class pumpkin BIG book!  They used knowledge of nonfiction text features when designing their book pages--many included labels and diagrams to share their learning.

The coolest part of our week of "pumpkin-tivities" was our pumpkin investigation on Friday!  Who knew a little pie pumpkin could be so interesting?!

We estimated how big around our pumpkin was by cutting a piece of string, and then we checked to see if our estimates were too short, too long, or just right.

We estimated how many snap cubes tall our pumpkin was--then we checked our guesses!

We all made a prediction about whether our pumpkin would sink or float in a tub of water...

We also used a hair dryer to see if the force of air would make our pumpkin roll!

We kept a journal of all our findings, and had a great time learning!  

Apples and a Sprinkler Dance

Parents, first of all...you are serious rockstars by helping to complete homework and math game pages, making sure your kids are reading each night, and you have been awesome with signing and returning graded work!  I can't thank you enough!!!  Our partnership this year will ensure that your kids are successful, and I truly couldn't do it all without you.  Now, give yourself one of our class cheers:  "The Sprinkler Dance!" {If you have NO idea what I'm talking about, ask your first grader to demonstrate!  I'm sure they'll be happy to show you!  HA!}


The end of the first nine weeks is quickly approaching, so I just wanted to remind you to continue practicing number fluency to six!  Your help at home with this skill has really been made evident in our class "number talks" and math tubs each day!  When you are ready for your child to be tested, please return the page to me--with a little note that says, "ready"!  The directions for the number fluency page are below--if you need to download another copy, just click the image:

Last week was apple week, and I appreciate everyone who sent in apple items for the apple tasting party!!! Yum.  We had tons of fun last week tying in apples to almost every subject!  During writing workshop, I did a mini lesson on adjectives, and then the kids called out adjectives to describe apples.  I added their ideas to our smiley apple guy chart:

On Johnny Appleseed's birthday, we did one of my all-time absolute favorite craftivities-- GIANT apples!!!  Totally kid-created, and totally adorable and unique--(in this teacher's opinion)!  During the creation of these ginormous apples, my classroom was literally a sea of red paper.  It was slightly crazy in there, but it really was all kinds of fun! The kids created the coolest little apple cores I've ever seen.  I may never want to take this display down!!!

{They also added labels to show the parts of the apple, and we attached their apple booklets--for more information, see below!}

In reading, we have begun learning features of non-fiction text, so of course, I HAD to tie it into apples.     The kids each created a non-fiction features mini booklet--all about apples!  Here is a super example: 

Happy fall, y'all!!!

The First Few Weeks...in a Nutshell!

I am so glad I named my blog The Super Smartie Adventures--because this year's group has continued to amaze and impress me day after day with their smart thinking, problem solving, writing, illustrating, and more!  They truly are Super Smarties!  We have had such a busy, fun-filled first few weeks, and I have enjoyed getting to know my new little friends so much!  I want this blog to be a little peek into our "first grade world" for you parents--so please become a blog "follower" and visit often!  I will try to keep you updated as much as I can!


Day one started with "Magic Dough" from the "magic teacher store", because it is just so magical.  If your kiddo asks, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!  {Magic Teacher Store--A.K.A. Wal-Mart.} :)  If their play  magic dough changed colors, it meant they were going to have the best year ever!  So many happy squeals over this!  They loved it!

Later on during the first day, we read First Grade Jitters, and talked about being a little nervous for the first day of school!  We sampled Jitter Juice--a delicious electric green drink that made those jitters disappear right out of our tummies!  {You can surprise your first grader by recreating this at home:  green Hawaiian Punch and a splash of Sprite!} 

The first few weeks in math, we have been practicing counting and building number sense.  Really, this  entire blog post should be titled:  Math, Math, and more Math!  We have been busy mathematicians!!!  On one of our first math lessons, the kids were each given "Counting Cups" and had to count the objects inside. I was so impressed at all the strategies I saw the kids use to help them PROVE their answers!  P.S. I did NOT tell them how to do any of the strategies pictured--they just did these on their own!!!!

Sorting, then counting.

Putting objects into an organized, straight line, then pushing to count.

Grouping the googly eyes into 2's, then counting by 2's!

We have also been talking a little bit about tally marks.  We learned a little chant:  "1, 2, 3, 4...number 5 shuts the door!"  The kids had to represent numbers to 20 using tally marks on white boards, then they created model tally marks using popsicle sticks!

We are learning to order numbers by creating "staircases" to 12 using snap cubes.  The kids noticed that each step increases by 1--just like counting.  

We have been doing a little graphing, too!  The kids have learned about pictographs and we have started creating bar graphs.  The picture below was a morning work activity--they had to sort their bag of legos by color, then create a bar graph to represent which color legos were in the bag.  One kid was overheard saying, "This is the BEST day EVER!!!!"  :)  Fun + learning...makes me happy.

Okay, so I spent so much time talking about math, that I will have to catch you up on other adventures later!!!  I can't wait to show you some of the cool stuff your kids are doing in reading!   See you soon!  :) Mrs. Cooley