Be A T.I.G.E.R. character education program

Clemson University's "Be A T.I.G.E.R. Character Education Program" visited our school today.  Two athletes, Emily (Diver) and Trevor (Baseball Player) came to speak to our kids about the acronym T.I.G.E.R.  T=Team Work, I=Integrity, G=Gratitude, E=Education, & R=Respect.  The kids LOVED seeing the athletes and hearing that no matter what they want to be when they grow up, they will still need education to fall back on.  They will still need to learn and practice new skills or tasks.  Here are some pictures of the day!  Note: The Clemson Tiger mascot was not there today. The kids were sad, but they really enjoyed hearing the athletes talk.

Our class sitting patiently waiting for the program to start. (Hey Zachary!)

Still waiting :) 

Trevor Kieboom speaking to the kids about T.I.G.E.R.

Emily talking to the kids.

Trevor Kieboom

Illustrating how hard it is to work without being a team. That little boy is going to try to pull Kieboom down by himself (tug of war).

Not working so great (by himself)

Working out much better as a team (See Jay from our class in the back of the group in the brown shirt). Way to go on working as a team. 

Teaching everyone how to the Tiger cheer (1-2-3-4 in cadence count)

Writing Biographies

This month we have been learning about Biographies in writing.  We have also been reading lots of biographies in our nonfiction unit (reading) and in our American Democracy Unit (Social Studies).  Now, each child is paired up with a biography buddy, that they are responsible for interviewing (we've discussed the interview process) and they are responsible for turning those interview questions' answers into sentences to create a biography about their buddy.  They are doing such a great job.  I love hearing them talk about their lives to their buddies and actually be interested in their buddy. :) I can't wait to see the final product.  Here are some friends in the interviewing process with their biography buddy.

Russell and Madison interviewing each other. :) 

I love how Brendan is looking over Drake's shoulder making sure he doesn't leave out any details. 

Joe and Lee interviewing. Lee is recording Joe's answers. 

Elijah and Emma working on their interviews comfortably. 

Sophia and Karlye working hard. 

Valentine's Day Fun!!!

What a wonderful Valentine's Day!  These sweet kids enjoy ANY "little" thing that we do and are so appreciative of those little things.  They say, "Today is the BEST DAY EVER!" (I think to myself, Man, I gave you a cookie and I am the "coolest?" Who knew it were that easy?) HA!  But really, we had a great day.  We worked on Valentine's Math by sorting, taking information and putting it into a table and turning that into a bar graph with Conversation Hearts.  They did a wonderful job!  We also passed out our Valentine's, played fun Valentine's games and at the end of the day, everyone went home with some LOVE POX.  :) We had a GREAT DAY!!!

Sorting their candies and making their table.

Madison is working on recording information from her sorting sheet onto her table.

Timothy is working on his table.

Group 6 is sorting their candies by color.

Looking good Group 3. 

Group 4 is working hard. 

Passing out valentines. The kids put valentine pouches on their chairs so that it was easier to find where each valentine was supposed to go.  

My Valentine Pouch.  I feel so loved :) 

Uh-Oh!  Elijah (along with the rest of the class) had to get a prescription (pink Rx Note) from Concrete Primary School Medical Group, Inc.  They got a bad case of the LOVE pox...they need to go home and give their families BIG HUGS to SPREAD the love pox.  

Brendan and Hank are playing Valentine Battleship.  (Just like real battleship but using conversation hearts on a 100 board ... If you guess the numbered space that your opponent has placed their heart candy, you get to keep it.) :) 

Brendan 

Hank

Miscellaneous...

I am so sad to say that our sweet, soooo sweet, Abigail moved to a new state and is no longer in our class.  What a lucky school, they have just been blessed with one of the sweetest students. :) We love and miss you already Abigail...Keep us posted and write to us. 

Karlye spun our Prize Spinner and earned a "show & share" pass. She decided to bring in this cool "moth" that was in a display case.  She told us about the moth and the kids were amazed by it.  They seriously couldn't believe that she had a moth in a box. :) haha. Good Share Karlye!

Sophia spun the Prize Spinner and earned a "Cool Cat in the Hat" pass. So, in honor of our spelling word this week, "rabbit," she wore these bunny ears.  I told them that they could remember that "rabbit" had two "b's" in it just like a bunny has two ears. We turned the tall part of the b's into rabbit ears. Thanks Sophia...you were one cute little rabbit! :) 

Friendly Letter Writing

A few weeks ago, we finished up our January Writing Workshop Lessons by writing a friendly letter to a "future 1st Grader" to let them know everything that we would've liked to know prior to being in First Grade.  It was fun hearing them tell the Kindergartners about how much harder it was in First Grade and to make sure they study spelling words, read more, and practice their math.  They were very cute.  Apparently the second grade group also wrote a letter, but to "future 2nd Graders."  Mrs. Kellett's 2nd Grade Class came over and read their letters to a buddy in our class.  They were so cute telling our class about the 2nd grade trials and tribulations they've encountered, and again....how much HARDER it was. :) Here are some pictures of the 2nd graders reading to our 1st graders.  After the 2nd grade kids read to our class, I had our 1st grade friends ask questions to 2nd grade friends about things they were concerned about with 2nd grade.  They did a fantastic job! Check them out!

Nonfiction Text Features

The time has come...to finally start learning about Nonfiction Text.  I love when we work on our Nonfiction unit in our Reading Workshop.  It is so fun to see all of the light bulbs turning on in the children's heads as they learn something new!!! (They secretly think that we are doing "big kid" work.) We started off by introducing the nonfiction text features.  So far, we have learned about the Table of Contents, Photographs, Picture Captions, Index, Glossary, Tables, Graphs, Charts, Labels, Maps, & Diagrams.  We also learned our "Nonfiction Song." Ask your child to sing it to you...I know they will be excited to share it with someone...especially the last line of the song. :)  We discussed reading targets (look in the Table of Contents to see what you would like to learn more about, and go straight to that page number), and we talked about different materials that are considered to be Nonfiction, like: Dictionary, Cookbook, Biography, Newspapers, (some) Magazines, etc.
Check out some pictures of our class searching through the nonfiction baskets to find the Table of Contents, a Photograph, and a Picture Caption.  (They tabbed their place with a post-it sticky flag.)

Russell found all 3 in this book.

Drake found a few in this one. 

Joe found a photograph.

Elijah found his, so now he is enjoying his nonfiction book.

Emma is on the search. 

I love how Destiny P.'s facially expression shows that she is really into this book! :) 

Group 3 is exploring their nonfiction basket.

Mari has her sticky tab ready to put it on one of the text features. (I see a Glossary and an Index). 

Destiny V. has her eye on a life cycle. 

Sophia found some photographs.

Way to go on your nonfiction text feature findings...Y'all did GREAT!!! :) 

Groundhog Day Predictions

On Groundhog day, we tried predicting what we thought the groundhog would do when he came out of his hole.  We used the "Heads or Tails" Oreos to predict.  Each child got an Oreo.  If they predicted the groundhog would see his shadow causing us to have 6 more weeks of Winter, then they placed their Oreo on the chocolate side (dark).  If they predicted the groundhog would NOT see his shadow causing an early Spring, then they placed their Oreo on the vanilla side (light).  Here are some prediction pictures and then a picture of what the groundhog actually did. :( Let's just say, I am not happy with the outcome! Ha!

Check out our predictions!

Close up of Drake's prediction...I predicted this too. (secretly wanted warm weather)

Everyone showing what the groundhog actually did. :( 

Up close of Sam...see how NOT excited we all are...6 more weeks of Winter, really?