April Updates!

When I sat down to write today, I actually had to think about the url I was typing to get to my blog--it's been that long! April is coming to a close; it has been a great month, and I am so excited to share it's happenings with you :) Here we go!


(Side note: I apologize, for formatting issues...something is going on when I add photos, and I'm not sure how to fix it!)



The Binder Clip Mystery
So, at the beginning of the school year, I started off with a huge container of binder clips on my desk that looked something like this:



Now, I understand that my bobby pins often disappear--I leave them in random places, and sometimes bend a few the wrong way and end up throwing them away. I get that my socks disappear--ever heard of the sock monster in your dryer? I've definitely got one of those. Even Tupperware disappears, but it always seems to show up at a friend's house or in a kitchen cabinet where it doesn't belong.

The disappearance of binder clips, though, is a mystery to me! They are some of my most-used classroom items; it's rare that I use a paper clip because I'd rather grab a binder clip when I go to the copier, when I collect an assignment, or to hold the page in my planner/a book. So where do they go?!?! Does anyone else have this same disappearance in their classroom/office/life?!?


Our Class Garden
Since we learned about plants last week, we planted our own little garden! Once these plants have flowers on them (we planted zinnias in our room), we’ll send them home, but look at how nicely they’re sprouting! I can’t wait to have a windowsill in full bloom :)

Originally I thought we would water them every day, but these plants are not as “thirsty” as I thought! We had some flooded soil at first; now we’ve been watering about every other/every third day and it seems to be working out well! Fingers crossed that we’ll have petals in the next week or two!






The Solar System
This Friday, we finished our study of the relationship of the sun and the moon, and one of the things I showed my students were different constellations. I showed them just the stars first, and then I would “connect the dots” to make the constellation. For a few of them, I started off by asking what they thought the stars would connect to become; my favorite were the responses for what the stars Big Dipper would create:

- a wagon
- a shopping cart
- a vacuum
- a basket
- a dragon

Looks like I’ve got some future astronomers in my class :) I hope their imaginations never stop flowing!

More solar system fun (pictures of the Sun and Earth):

"The sun is far away from the Earth"

I like this one--check out Mercury!

"The Sun does NOT move, only Earth!"

Another one bites the dust...
...Pencil sharpener that is. As of yesterday, we've now gone through three pencil sharpeners this year...that's got to be a record, right?!? It looks like I will be sharpening pencils in another classroom or in the office for the remainder of the school year!


Student Work That Makes Me Smile


Me: “What is this beautiful drawing of?”
Student: “That’s you, Ms. Weissberg! See? You’re running!”
Me: “And what is this over here?”
Student: (giving me a duh look) “It’s a bench with your water bottle on it in case you get thirsty!”


We had Field Day earlier this month, and one of the activities was a "hydration station" where kids could also use chalk on the sidewalks. A few of my students called me over to proudly show off their work:






Looking over homework to make sure it's completed can be tedious, but I love when I come across little gems like #4:



When we made this "have, need, give" idea chart before learning about plants, I was humbled by some of my kiddos responses! Look at some of the things they need and give :)




Straight from the Mouths of First Graders!
Second Grade
Now that we are getting closer to the end of the year, my kiddos think that second grade is right around the corner. Sometimes they think that on Monday they will be in second grade, sometimes they think that when this month is over they will go to second grade, and sometimes they think it’s tomorrow. Last week, one of my kiddos asked when he was going to second grade and when I responded with, “In September…are you trying to leave my class soon?!?” His answer was: “No, Ms. Weissberg, I just want to go to second grade so I can learn more.” Melt my heart a little more, why don’t ya…

Superpowers
Student: “Moms have great vision.”
Me: “What do you mean?” [I intentionally ignored the fact that my kiddos still think I’m a mom, despite reminding them that the only children I have are the 19 that come to class in Room 106 Monday-Friday.]
Student: “They see everything. They’re like superheroes!”

Shoes
Student 1: “Ms. Weissberg, I know why they call it a sneaker. In the olden days, they used to have squeakers, but they were so noisy, so in now days, they have sneakers so that you can be quieter.”
Student 2: “And sneak up on people! That’s why they’re sneakers!”

Definitions
Student 1: “Do you know what ‘epic’ means?”
Student 2: “Nope.”
Student 1: “It’s another word for awesome. It’s even more awesomer than awesome!”

Me: “Are you going to hang this artwork in your bedroom?”
Student: “Oh yeah! … But, actually, Ms. Weissberg, I don’t call it my bedroom.”
Me: “What do you call it?”
Student: “My bedroom? I call it my man cave.”

Overheard
The best are the things you hear students say when they think you’re not listening:

“Did you know that Ms. Weissberg can read really fast and understand all the words??”

“Did you know Ms. Weissberg is a teacher and an artist?!? Look what she drew!” [Don’t get too excited…it was just a doodle of a flower!]

[I ate lunch in my classroom with a few of my students the other day and needed to use the restroom, so I used the one in my room.] “Did you know Ms. Weissberg goes to the bathroom?!? Yeah, I saw her go into the bathroom!”

First Grade Dictionary
ficst = fixed
bandach = bandage
wocked = walked

Technology
Last week, we had a math consultant come provide professional development for teachers, and when he did a demo lesson in another 1st grade classroom, he used an overhead projector. Remember those? The kids were entranced by it! When water was squirted on it to erase the marker, there was a collective "ooooooohhhhhh" from the kiddos--it was hilarious! Most adults would walk into a classroom today and think that a SmartBoard was cool because it is new, but I just thought it was funny that an overhead is old and the kids thought it was the neatest thing!

Books, Books, Books!
In college, I had to make multiple "text sets" for reading classes, but being a teacher in my own classroom now, it is much more relevlant to make them now because I have a class in mind when I am picking out books. For first graders, these are some awesome books I've found!

Books about Plants
Grow Flower Grow, by Lisa Bruce


Rose's Garden, by Peter H. Reynolds
(I loved this book, and so did my class! The character in this book, Rose, shows that a little bit of patience and faith can have big pay-offs. The pictures are beautiful--the book starts off in mostly black and white as Rose begins her journey, and by the end, there is color flowing off every page. Reynolds also wrote another favorite of mine, The Dot.)

(A page from the book--beautiful!)

Flower Garden, by Eve Bunting



The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle
(Anything Eric Carle is almsot guaranteed to catch the attention of first graders--and me!--and this one has been a favorite of mine for years. I love it because it talks about all the things plants need in just one book!)



Thea's Tree, by Alison Jackson
(A Jack-in-the-beanstalk type book with awesome illustrations. Funny, too!)



We Planted a Tree, by Diane Muldrow
(Even though this one talks about planting trees, it also talks about families on different sides of the world who do different things, lead different lives, and have different communities. Hits on a lot of great points all at once--love it when a book can do that!)



Books about Recycling and Earth Day
Earth Day isn't a standard that we have to teach, but I think it's important and fun, so we wove it into our lessons in Room 106 :) Here were the books we read:

Earth Day--Hooray!, by Stuart J. Murphy
(I swear I would read every book that Murphy has written to my class if we had enough time. He writes a series called "Math Start," which incorporates real math and science into fictional story-lines.)


Garbage and Recycling, by Rosie Harlow and Sally Morgan
(A nonfiction text with lots of words--used this one more for the pictures than anything else!)


Let's Take Care of the Earth, by Rozanne Lanczak Williams


Miss Fox's Class Goes Green, by Eileen Spinelli
(Miss Fox's class does lots of fun things! We've read Miss Fox's Class Shapes Up when we talked about nutrition; Spinelli also has a book about Miss Green's class earning a field trip and celebrating peace week.)


Recycle, by Gail Gibbons
(Who doesn't like Gail Gibbons? This one talks about the recycling process, with classic Gibbons illustrations.)



Something Old, Something New: Recycling, by Anita Ganeri


The Earth and I, by Frank Asch
(Love Frank Asch!)


Why Should I Recycle?, by Mike Gordon
(Another series book. Gordon also has Why Should I books about protecting nature, eating well, and listening.)




Books about the Solar System
The Magic School Bus, Lost in the Solar System, by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
(I think I've said this before, but in my next life, I want to be Miss Frizzle. I've already got the curly hair and enthusiasm (at least I like to think so!)...now I just need a magic bus!)


Stars! Stars! Stars!, by Bob Barner


The Big Dipper, by Franklyn M. Branley







It seems unreal that I'll be changing the class calendar to May on Tuesday! I hope your Aprils come to a wonderful close as the weather keeps getting warmer and summer gets closer!

I promise the next post will come sooner than in a month--I love writing long posts because it let's be gush about my kiddos for hours on end (writing, loading pictures, writing more, organizing the blog...), but it's exhausting!

Thanks for stopping by--I can't tell you how much it means!

Endless love from Room 106,
Allie

Welcome to "Clover Day" Month!

Why, hello, March!  Where did you come from?!?

I realize I say this every single month, but it still blows my mind how quickly this year is flying!  The end of this month will mark the three-quarters-of-the-school-year mark...absolutely mind-boggling.  Some days I just feel like I need to sit back and soak it all in because every time I blink, another moment and first grade memory has passed.  They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, but it's been smooth sailing so far!

I also realize that I have been awful about blogging, and I apologize about that.  Most afternoons/evenings I sit and peruse other people's blogs, but I've been in much more of a reading than writing mood recently.  I hope it's just a phase, because I love sharing the adventures of Room 106 with anyone who's willing to listen (or in this case, read!).  That being said, there's a lot to catch you up on!  Sit back, relax, put yourself in a first-grade-mindset, and enjoy!


How do you spell...
tiyol = tile
chect = checked
deskuvrd = discovered
litnin = lightning
asperimet = experiment
elcktrisede / elchrisade / alechistey = electricity (can you tell we recently studied Benjamin Franklin and learned about his experiment to find electricity in a lightning storm?)

Also, when making predictions for a story:
Jimmy*: "Ms. Weissberg, how do you spell gonna?"
Me: "What do you mean?  Can you use it in a sentence?" [I knew what he meant, I was just looking for a giggle :) ]
Jimmy: "In the last chapter of this book, I think Josh is gonna run in the race and maybe win!"
Me: "I think what you mean is 'Josh is going to run in the race,' right?"
Jimmy: "Nope.  I mean gonna.  That's why I need to know how to spell it!"


Quotables
Some people write books that are entirely filled with jokes; I think that within a few years' time I will have collected enough quotes to write a book of kids' quotes!  I've collected a lot of quotes since my last post...enjoy!'

- "I'm so glad we live on Earth.  I wouldn't want to live somewhere else and have to have three eyes!" (...after reading a book about the Solar System and reading that though it may be cold on Mars, the planet might be able to sustain life.)

- ("Does anyone remember where Mount Rushmore is?")  "Hmmmmm...I'm pretty sure that it's in Russia."

- (On Valentine's Day: "Can anyone tell me who Cupid is?")  "I know!  It's what you clean your ears with!"  (...and then we had an impromptu class discussion about Q-tips and hygiene...)

- "It means how good your brain is.  Like, if you can read this, then your brain is at a level 18."  (...a child's take on what the Level 18 sticker meant on the back of the book they were reading.)

- (One of my reading groups was reading a book about a guinea pig, Mop, who had baby guinea pigs and a question I asked was, "As we keep turning pages, Mop keeps getting bigger; why does she get bigger?")  "Well, it's not because she's feeding Mop too much, Ms. Weissberg.  It's because there are baby guinea pigs growing inside of Mop!"  (...and that's where we ended that conversation.)

- (After a rainstorm in the morning, the sun came out...) "It's sunny now!  That means we can go to New York City!!!"  (???  I cannot even tell you the last time I've talked about/our class has talked about New York...)

- "I wish 2nd grade was college.  That way I could dress like a big person!"  (...I can't wait to see their outfits as they walk down the hallways as second-graders next year!)

- (Upon looking at the March calendar:)
Student 1: "Clover Day!  I forgot Clover Day was in March!"
Me: "St. Patrick's Day?"
Student 1: "I thought it was Clover Day."
Me: "Well, one of the symbols of St. Patrick's Day is a four-leafed clover.  I think that's what you were thinking of."
Student 2: "Are we going to celebrate it at school?"
Student 3: "No, silly!  [Runs over to calendar]  Look!  It's on a Saturday so we can't celebrate it in school."  [Insert "duh" look on student's face here.]
Student 2: "Ms. Weissberg, are you going to celebrate it?"
Me: "Well, actually, I'm running in a race on that day."
Student 2: "You always run in races!  I hope you win this race, Ms. Weissberg.  I really want you to win and bring your trophy to the classroom."
(...I'll make sure to tell the thousands of competitors in the race that I need to cross the finish line first!)

- Student: "Ms. Weissberg, Alex* was being mean to me."
Me: [the day has not even started and I was still at the door greeting students] "Do you think you can be a 1st-grade-problem-solver and use your kind words to work things out?"
Student: "Okay..." [walks back to desk] "Alex, when you said that to me, you broke my heart.  You broke my heart into a million little pieces and you really hurt my feelings.  Do you think we could be friends again?"
Alex: "Sure."
(...precious.)

- (I let the class know that during a math game, we weren't going to be using the wild cards in our decks of counting cards...)
Student 1: "What does the Wild Card even mean again?"
Student 2: "It means you need help."
Student 3: "It means the teacher chooses."
Student 4: "It means it's not tame!"
Student 1: "Ohhhh, okay."
(...in response to Student 4: at least he remembered from our study of the rainforest that the opposite of wild animals were tame ones!)

- "Wow.  (Sigh.)  That is such a beautiful dress.  She just looks so beautiful."
(In response to this picture of Eleanor Roosevelt:

...I'm telling you--the 30's are making a comeback!)

- (More Eleanor...) "We've only seen black and white pictures of Eleanor Roosevelt, but I think that if the pictures were in color, she would have been wearing blue on her eyes and red lipstick:"

- "Don't they know that's not a sleeping bag?!?"  (...I have absolutely no idea what sparked this one-liner; I didn't write down the context of the quote in my notebook!  But I still thought it'd be fun to include...feel free to use your imaginations to create a circumstance :)

Lucky for Daisies!

One of the best parts of having Daisies in my class is that spring brings Girl Scout cookies!  The cookies are in, and there are now four boxes on my kitchen counter :)  We'll see how long they last!

(In case anyone was wondering, my picks this year were Trefoils, Tagalongs, Dulce de Leche, and Savannah Smiles...yum!)

Fun with Math

You may remember that earlier this year, we had a math consultant come to our school for some professional development.  If not, let me remind you :)  He recently visited again, and for his demonstration lesson, he was in my classroom.  To say that the kiddos enjoyed Mr. Tom's visit to Room 106 would be an understatement--they loved it!  I feel really lucky that my class got to have a guest teacher for the afternoon, and it was really neat to watch another adult teach the 21 children that I teach every day.

In addition to the neat experiences of observing my class, my kiddos were rock stars.  I felt like a proud momma, y'all.  The lesson was split into two parts: one on time, and one on probability, and if someone took a picture of me in the back of the room, I probably had a goofy smile on my face.  I just love it when things work out.  Whew!  Thanks, kids, for cooperating :)

Famous Americans

In first grade, there are five famous Americans that we study in depth:

- George Washington

- Abraham Lincoln

- Benjamin Franklin

- Eleanor Roosevelt

- George Washington Carver

We've covered the first four over the past month, and I thought I'd share a few work samples with you that I was especially fond of. 

A writing sample of Benjamin Franklin's contributions:

"Benjamin Franklin proved there was electricity because he flew a kite in a storm.  Lightning touched the string [of the kite].  And it came all the way down and when he touched the key [that was attached to the kite string] his hand got shocked.  That is how he proved there was electricity."  Not too shabby!

Drawing and labeling Eleanor Roosevelt's contributions:

"She helped other people."

"She volunteered for many organizations."

"She was leader of all of the people's rights." [equal rights]

There is so much more on my "to-blog" list, but bedtime is beckoning.  Stay tuned for updates on our 100th Day of School, Valentine's Day, and Read Across America Day (Dr. Seuss's birthday)...coming soon to a blog near you!  (This blog right here!)

Off to another week of first grade in the morning--I hope your Marchs are also off to a great start!

Love from Room 106,

Allie

*As always names have been changed.

Nothing too much to update on from Room 106 today, but tomorrow is 100th Day of school and I am SO. EXCITED.  Call me crazy, but I actually have jitters.  My kiddos are pretty pumped, too :)

A full update coming after tomorrow's festivities--hoping to fill every second of the day with a hundred!

99 Days of  Room 106 love,

Allie

Hump Day came quickly this week!  I can't believe we're more than half-way over with this week...whew!  What happened in our class today?  Well......

Sideways
Do you ever feel like sometimes your life is just a little bit tilted?  Well, life actually was tilted in Room 106 today.  During one of my reading groups, I did a quick scan of the room and looked over to see one of my students with his head cocked completely to the side--like, perpendicular to the way it's supposed to be.  And then I looked past him and at the computer screen, and sure enough, the orientation was 90 degrees counter-clockwise!  Even after restarting the computer, it was still crooked, so we retired it for the day...

Books, books, books!
Some of what we've been reading:

Measurement...

...measurement...

...and more measurement!  (And I didn't even realize until today that I had picked up so many Steve Jenkins book at the library this weekend!  His illustrations are awesome and very real.  The kiddos loooovveeeedddd him!)

C'mon--how could a kid not love pictures like this?!?  This page is a giant squid eye--the actual size of one!

Another money book.  My kids know and love the bunnies (Max and Ruby), so this was a hit.

More money!  Was I the last one to realize that David Adler has written dozens and dozens of books??  I knew him mostly as an author of social studies texts/biographies, but he writes the whole she-bang!

  

Who could forget Little Bear?  We're still doing an author study on Else Holmelund Minarik, so this week, we are visiting Grandma and Grandpa Bear :)

Ah, Patricia Polacco...I love to squeeze her into lessons when I get a chance!  Her books are lengthy, so this one took us two days to finish, but Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln is a great--and real--collection of facts about Honest Abe and his contributions to the United States during the Civil War.

Speaking of Abe...
While we were reading Polacco's Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln, I took a couple of minutes to talk to the kiddos about the Civil War.  It's tricky to put something like the topic of war into first grade words, so I decided to tell them the story of the Civil War as real as I could, and most actually grasped the ideas of slavery, war, and a divided nation well!

And, of course--as always--a great conversation and six-year-old quotable emerged from it all :)
Student 1: "You mean there used to be slaves?"
Me: "Yes, a long time ago."
Student 2: "Yeah, like, [turns to his classmate] before we were born."
Student 1: "Wait, Ms. Weissberg, was this even before YOU were born?!?"
Me: "Quite some time before I was born."
Student 3: "Whew...then slaves were around a loooooong time ago."

Flattered, as always...




More quotables

- "It's like the north pole out here!"  (When walking outside for recess yesterday and a gust of wind blew a student's jacket open)

- "Don't take that off, Ms. Weissberg--it's bad luck!  You can't do that when you're married!"  (I took off a ring I was wearing during math today to measure it with an inch-tile so that we could compare measurements--which is what we're learning about--and apparently today was the first time in the year that I was hitched...how did I not know this?!?)

In closing news, I'm a little disappointed in Mother Nature this year.  I was hoping for a snow day or two (teachers have dreams, too!), but it looks like she's not planning on delivering any of the white stuff to northern Virginia.  (We were supposed to get snow today and it was just rain...)  I plan on wearing my pajamas inside out until it comes, though!

Even without snow,
Love from Room 106,
Allie

Happy Monday!

Today was a really great start to the week--I love when Mondays go like that!  My favorite quotable of the day:

(To set the scene--the class and I had just had a little "reminder" talk about what our manners look like at school and how we act in the hallways...)
Student: "Ms. Weissberg, I know why you tell us about how we're supposed to act at school."
Me: "Oh, really?"
Student: "Well, you know how you love it when we are quiet and walk in a straight line and don't touch the walls?" [I reallllly dislike when the kiddos have their hands all over walls...apparently I haven't kept this a secret!]
Me: "Yes, I love it when you behave like that..."
Student: "Well, it's because you're teaching us all the rules so that we know them when we get big and become teachers, too!"
...and then she skimpered off to the playground.  Sigh--such innocence :)

Books to share
I went to the public library this weekend, and, as always, I got distracted.  What was going to be a quick in-and-out trip (I even made an alphabetized list of books before I got there so I knew just what to look for and where) turned into an hour-ish of exploration and relaxation.  I just sort of "get lost" in libraries, in the best way possible.  And, as if losing yourself in one library isn't enough, I went to two branches this weekend to make sure I got all the books on my list.  Good news: got 'em all!  Here's what we read today:

We're working through our list of famous Americans as part of our Social Studies curriculum; George Washington was last week and now we're on to Abe Lincoln.  I was so impressed this morning when my class made a KWL chart of all the tidbits they already knew about him!  And, always curious, they had some great questions about him and his life.  This morning, we read A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln by David Adler:

Then, this afternoon we read some more!  Those who say that they can't find ways to incorporate reading into math might just not be looking hard enough, because we find ways in Room 106 all the time :)  With our continuing study of money, we read Stuart J. Murphy's The Penny Pot:

 

And then, moving into our unit on measurement (that we kicked off--successfully!--today), we read a classic Leo Lionni book, Inch by Inch.  I love this book and was hoping my students would as well, and they sure did.  Inch by Inch has some fun birds in it, like a flamingo, heron, and toucan; an inchworm measures all different parts of these birds before meeting a nightingale, who asks the worm to measure its song.  It sparked some great conversation about non-standard measurement and was a fabulous segue into today's lesson!

A Miss Rumphius blog!

A dear friend of mine gave me the book Miss Rumphius a few years ago, and it quickly became one of my favorites.  Its' a beautiful book, with whimsical drawings and a touching ending.  It's about a woman named Alice who dreams of going to faraway places, live by the sea, and to do something to make the world more beautiful; in her lifetime, she does all of these things, and the last thing, making the world a more beautiful place, is the most difficult one.  Please read it if you have not already.

This weekend I stumbled on a blog with the same name as the book, and it was great.  The blog is written by a professor of education, and the title of it, "The Miss Rumphius Effect," was so clever, given the moral of the book.  The blog has great reading lists and a great theme.

One last thing I realized before I sign off: I always type "Ms. W" when I am talking about dialogue in my classroom between my students and myself, but none of them actually call me Ms. W--they all call me Ms. Weissberg!  So from now on, I promise to be more true to form on the blog :)


I hope all of your weeks got off to an equally successful start!

Love from Room 106,
Allie