End of the Year Post

It is so hard to believe that we are just 1 week away from the last day of school. It has been an amazing year! These children have grown in countless ways and I feel privileged to have been a part of it. I could not be more proud of a group of First Graders than I am of these children! I see lots of bright things in each of their futures.

The last couple of weeks are always crazed! I wanted to capture some of the moments at our Open House as a way of documenting how hard each child has worked this year and how proud they are of their accomplishments. I tried to get most families, and I apologize if I somehow missed yours. I'll be back at it with my camera at our picnic on Friday :)

Open House Festivities

American Symbols Project
This project was by far one of the highlights of the year! The children researched, collaborated, problem solved, and blew me away with their creativity. It just goes to prove that more of this kind of hands on learning that encourages choice should be an integral part of all classrooms. 

Children began by researching the symbols using books, websites, and a phenomenal online database called Pebblego that was introduced to us by our librarian, Mrs. Groden. They then chose 1 symbol that they wanted to learn more about. After some practice with note taking we came together as a group to decide how we could represent our learning. We came up with what we ended up calling "Studio Centers." Children chose between building, project, art and drama, and technology. Once they had an idea they filled out planning sheets and then the fun really began!

Here's a behind the scenes peak.....

They were BEYOND excited to share their finished projects with you!

Bald Eagle Group

Statue of Liberty Group

The White House Group

American Flag Group

I hope you enjoyed our End of the Year blog post and learned a little bit about how our Symbol projects came together. Thank you for sharing your child with me this year and supporting our classroom in countless ways! This has been an amazing year with an exceptional group of children. I will miss them next year...but I know they are ALL ready for 2nd grade!

Mrs. Elrick's Class 2016

Hope to see many of you at our picnic this Friday, (June, 17th), but in case I don't have a wonderful summer and don't hesitate to visit!!

Stony Brook Class Trip

Today we visited Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. We started out by thinking about how a sanctuary is different from a zoo. We learned that all of the wildlife here can come and go as they please! We learned that we had to look carefully and listen hard as we walked through the the three habitats.

Forest habitat

We stopped to check out a pine tree and learned that one way to tell how old a tree is would be to count the ring of branches. 

We searched for pill bugs, salamanders, and beetles under logs!

Pond

Next we stopped at the pond. We learned all about turtles; what they eat, where they get their water, and what they used for shelter.

We looked for fish, frogs, and painted turtles. We also learned about a "beaver deceiver" that was there to keep the beavers from building dams and causing flooding.

Meadows 

We stopped at the meadow to check out a "lunchbox" of clues that gave us hints about animals that you could find living in the field. We learned specifically about the red fox and a coyote! We even got to touch some fox fur!

What a great day! We learned so much about the habitats we can find right around our homes. Thank you to our parent volunteers, tour guides, and Stony  Brook for such a memorable experience for our first graders!

Melissa Stewart Visits, Coding Kibos, and Collection Writing!

Visiting Author

Melissa Stewart came to visit! We focused on text features found in Nonfiction stories. Children 

looked closely at the photographs in Mrs. Stuart's books and noticed clues and details that add meaning to the text. We also learned all about the process she goes through when editing the illustrations that go along with her books. Mrs. Stewart does research to make sure the pictures in her books reflect what actually happens in nature. She makes sure her pictures match the words really well!

Kibo 

We got to go back the library this week and explore some more coding with our Kibo robots. This time we worked in partnerships and even got to use some new "blocks" for coding. We even gave our Kibo ears so they could hear and respond to our clapping!

We did some experimenting with our Kibos too! There were races and synchronized robots. The class had a blast. We can't wait to do even more with our Kibo's next time! Check out the link below!

Synchronized Kibos

Writer's Workshop
We are learning all about persuasive writing during writer's workshop! We started with looking closely at our collections from home and judging our "best in show." We used an opinion writing checklist to help think about ways to convince our readers. We stated our opinions, gave reasons for our likes and dislikes, and thought about ways to gain our reader's attention. We showed off all of our hard work with a mini museum!

First we studied our own collections carefully comparing them with the same criteria to judge our "best in show."

Then we shared our opinion writing and got to read our friends opinion writing too!

I hope you found these highlights helpful and informative! Thanks for stopping by and taking a peak at some of the exciting happenings here in room 27.

Have a wonderful April vacation!!