What does a Scientist do?

Let me begin by saying, "I love Science!"  I especially love to teach science to first graders.  Maybe it is because everything amazes them or maybe it is because I actually have the answers to their questions, who knows, the main thing is "I love Science!"

This is what we have been up to in science for the first few weeks of school:

What does a Scientist do?

I began by using the posters created by Deanna Jump,  they are perfect for introducing the scientific method in simple terms for first graders.

Next, let me say how much I also LOVE my document camera!

So we have been talking about the 3 states of matter and also doing color review, so this little project is perfect to combine the two.

I used clear cups with the three primary colors and then asked the question, "What will happen if we mix blue and yellow?" I ask students for their hypothesis and then we test their hypothesis.  They ooh and aww as they see, live and in color on the big screen, green magically appear!  I continue the same routine and make orange and purple.

The finale for this lesson is the little experiment I saw on Pinterest, (another thing I LOVE!)

 This project absolutely amazed me!, (oh, and the kids too!)  I started with blue water and yellow water, tore a paper towel into 2 strips and then stapled the 2 pieces to make the middle.  I put each end into the water and then placed the center into an empty cup.  I knew the towel would turn green in the middle, but I actually wasn't expecting the cup to fill with green water!  You should have heard the kids as they watched the yellow and blue climb up the towel, and then the next morning when they saw the final results.

And because we do rotations every day, I got to do it again with another class and we made orange!  For whatever reason, I tried to make purple 2 different times.  The first time we ended up with blue in the middle and a little purple on the towel.  The second time we ended up with a dark red in the middle.  Weird. I'm sure it must have something to do with the amount of food coloring.

Finally, along came fun Friday and it was time for my kiddos to get to play, I mean experiment, with making their own colors.

My favorite part of this was of course listening to the kids ooh and aww as they made their own colors.  I actually laughed out loud when I heard one of them tell another,  "Look, I'm a scientist!"

Gotta love it!

 

        

I hope everyone is having a great year!  Happy experimenting!

Until next time.....

Deanna

Power Pix + Genius Ladder = Double the Fun!

Wow!!
We have already been back in school for 14 days.  Time sure does fly when you are having fun.

Whole Brain Teaching is now in full swing.  We know our 6 rules and practice them constantly.  We know class/yes, hands & eyes and we are beginning to practice switch.  I think the hardest part is making myself stop when they don't respond properly to coach them.  Just like the kids, I need to practice, practice, practice.

We began working with our power pix last week.  I thought I would share with you all how I introduce a few of them and then how I use them as a lead into something else.

First I introduced each of the following power pix, (you can get your own, full set of first grade power pix at Whole Brain Teaching.)
                                                       

  

 To begin, I showed the kids my picture and then asked them the question, "What are letters?"  After teaching them the gesture and modeling it the students then taught each other, "Letters are joined together to make words."   As a little test, I point to different things in the class, numbers, books, etc. and ask "Is this a letter?"

Next up is Word.  Ask the question, "What is a word?"  Teach the gestures and model the gesture while telling them the answer, "A word is a group of letters that makes sense."  The kids then teach each other while practicing using the gestures.  Practice, practice, practice.  After some time I do a little test, writing various groups of letters for them to tell me if it is a word or not.

Now on to the final power pic for the day.  "What is a sentence?"  Following the same procedures as before, I model using gestures and they mirror me and then teach each other the answer.  "A sentence is a group of words that makes sense!"  We practice, all the while using our gestures and teaching each other.  Our little test for this is to write some groups of words on the board to decide if it is a sentence or not.



These power pics get practiced daily, quickly, before I begin teaching spelling or writing.  The kids are beginning to understand what a sentence truly is.  This helped me to lead into my first lesson using the genius ladder. (The genius ladder was done later in day.)

To begin the genius ladder I review quickly the sentence power pic and then also introduce that every sentence needs a "who" and a "did what!"  I have gestures that go with this as well.

I showed them the lowest rung on our ladder and started to snore to help emphasize that there is more to writing than making sure our sentences are complete.  We need to keep our audience AWAKE!
Quickly I chose a student to give me the name of an animal, any animal.  He chose a cheetah!  Wow!  Then I asked another student to tell me what a cheetah does.  She decided a cheetah growls.  So I wrote the blah sentence.  A cheetah growls.

Now to spice it up!  I pointed to the next rung and asked a student to tell me the color of a cheetah.  Yellow! Spotted!  I asked the question how does a cheetah growl?  Loudly! (by this time, everyone was shouting out answers!)  So now we have a "spicy" (I absolutely loved how the kids said spicy!) sentence.

The best part of this entire lesson was how involved all the kids were.  They really understood the difference between blah and spicy.  I told them to close their eyes and see if they could now really SEE the yellow, spotted, cheetah growling loudly.  They were so animated showing me what they saw.  I love the genius ladder.  I can't wait to see how much better their writing will be as we move into using it with other power pics like nouns, adjectives, pronouns.............  I am loving being able to use the two together to reinforce all aspects of their learning.

I know this post was long, so for those of you who made it through, a ten finger wooo to you, wooooooo!

Until next time......

Deanna

The Genius Ladder

     I think I am done, I think I am ready, I think I can start thinking about lesson planning.  

     Today I put the final finishing touches on my Genius Ladder.

 It is very simple as you can see.  I have never used this strategy before, so I just drew it on my whiteboard.  My thinking is that it will be easy to change sentences and do what I need to do.  Plus it is easy to access.

Love this little pic of Einstein!  For me it fits perfectly.

extention cord icon

spicy chili pepper, too cute, couldn't mass it up

self explanatory, haha

I made some little icons on my computer and taped them onto each rung of the ladder.  

I am excited to give this a try when school starts.  

So on a different note, I had the WORST dream last night.  I have been doing so much work on refreshing myself on WBT strategies that I dreamt I began the first day of school WITHOUT teaching my students any of the class/yes or the rules.  PLUS my good friend didn't come to school so I had her class too.  THEN I remembered that I needed to teach them the rules and class/yes BUT I had ALL the smarty pants kids who had all the attitude........aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa........

and then I woke up!  Thank goodness it was all a dream..... 4 more nights to try and get some sleep, hopefully no more crazy dreams.

Until next time.....

Deanna

Super Improvers Wall

This year is going to be my year!  I am excited to be undertaking a new personal goal, that of becoming certified in Whole Brain Teaching.  Part of this journey includes using the Super Improvers Wall.  The premise behind using this wall is to motivate students into setting and breaking their own educational and/or behavioral goals.

Finally, after many days of deliberating and tormenting myself, I decided on the theme, "Super Improvers, Going for Gold!"  

With the Olympics going on right now and into the first week of school it just seemed to fit.  So many of these Olympians have overcome many struggles to get to the Olympics that I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity to tie it to the wall.

Super Improvers Wall

I plan to leave the names off the cards until the second week of school.  I want them to be curious as to what it may be.  I can picture their faces when they find out they will have their own chance to go for Gold.

I am picturing students meeting goals and going further than they had ever imagined they could.  I love that this is not a behavior chart or based solely on how they did on their test.  This wall is strictly for kids to see how setting their own personal goals can increase their love of learning and love of school.  I love it when kids are self motivated and this is one way to get them to be.  What is the final reward you ask?  They get to take home the card after they get 10 stars on it and make it to the next level!  They are only motivated to improve for improvements sake not motivated by something they get.

I think the best part of the SIW is how easy it will be to manage.  I love simple and easy because then I can do it.  No going backward,  only onward and upward for my kids this year!! 

If you would like more information on the Super Improvers Wall or anything else WBT  please visit the website.  There are many FREE materials and videos to help you get moving too!

Now, if I could just find the new rules posters I made................

does the wall help with memory or misplacing things??  

Until next time..............................

Deanna

Lost Tooth Tote

"My tooth is wiggly!"
One of my favorite things about teaching first grade is lost teeth.  I love how cute the kids are with those holes in their mouths.  I love it when they smile and I especially love it when I come to greet them at our line in the morning and they show me either a wiggly tooth or an empty space where their tooth once was.

Lost Tooth Tote

       

Class Chart

In our class when someone loses a tooth, they get to take home the Lost Tooth Tote and put their name (on a little tooth die cut) in our lost tooth chart.

I have been doing this Tooth Tote for the last three years.  The kids absolutely love it!  (Even the boys!)  Originally, I changed the books and sent the same bag home for any child who had a second lost tooth.  Needless to say, I lost track of what books were in there for the first tooth and who had already read them.  (I don't think the kids really cared as long as they got to take the tote home.)  After two lost teeth, they just get to put their name in the chart.  This year I decided to make a second bag so I could make sure the kids had different books to read, not to mention there have been times that I had a waiting list for the tote.  Haha, kids just like to make things tricky!  Thank goodness they would remind me who's turn it was.  

                                                                                                                                                                                       

Inside tote #1 there are 3 books, a journal and a little pillow for their tooth to go inside of.

Inside tote #2 there are 3 books and journal.        

For the journal I used pages from Home and Back with Sight Word Packs.  There is a letter to the parents suggesting words they can look for in each of the books while they read them with their child.  There is also a  blank page for the kids to write what they think the Tooth Fairy does with the teeth.  On the outside of the journal is an index card listing all the items for the tote and letting them know to return all items the next day.  

                                                                                        

There are many different ideas for take home bags and I am hoping to get to at least one more this year.

This has been one of the most successful things in my class.  The kids love it and so do the parents. 

On a separate note.........

I am excited to be getting a package in the mail soon.  I won my first blog giveaway from:

She was giving away some really cool dice that I have been wanting for quite some time (and some other great math tools), so needless to say I am EXCITED!!!  Christmas in July!
I hope all of you are enjoying your summer and making the most of your time off.  Relax and get those mid-afternoon naps in while you can, haha!
Until next time.....
Deanna  

Hats for Kenton

My brain is still on summer vacation but this was something I just couldn't leave alone. I am a follower of Deb at

Oh My Little Classity Class

Her little guy is quite ill and another blogger, Jenny, from 

Luckeyfrog's Lilypad

has begun to organize a hat drive for Kenton.  Please hop over to one of their blogs to read up on all the details.  While you're there you can sign up to send a hat to Kenton and maybe a little something for his little sister and maybe even a letter to the parents.  I can bet that at this time any love they receive will be welcomed.  

Hats for Kenton

until next time.....

Deanna

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

      


       V- vistas 
       A- awesome 
       C- calm 
       A-adventure 
       T- tranquil 
       I- intermission 
       O- outdoors 
       N- nature





I love vacations.  I am so blessed that my husband and I both have jobs that give the opportunity to take vacations.  This year's destination was the Kern river.  To say that it was beautiful is an understatement.  We actually took our little boat down the river!  Not bad for us, (to say we are unadventurous is an understatement.)  If you look close, you can see the deer we saw on the little island behind our campsite. 
We made some new friends and who knows, maybe we'll go back next year.




The downfall is, I spent the week (partially) thinking about Daily 5 and how I am going to implement it in my classroom next year.

Daily 5 Chapter 3

What's the difference?: Key materials, concepts, and routines for launching the Daily 5

Establishing a Gathering Place- I already have my spot that I use daily for calendar, stories etc.




___     Good-Fit Books-  I plan to use the lessons that are laid out for me in the book.  I also plan to create
                                        the I chart with my class as the sisters encourage so my kids will have buy in.


___      Setting up Book Boxes- I am excited to do this, although my brain hasn't stopped wondering how,
                                                  where, etc. I am going to get them all.  I will be blog stalking for ideas!


___     Anchor Charts- I have seen so many great artistic anchor charts all over blogland.  I will be keeping
                                    a little cheat sheet nearby to make sure I get them right.


___     Practice- This is where I anticipate the most work on my part.  I have the tendency to think kids 
                          have it after the first time or two.  It is good to see over and over, in blogs and in my 
                          reading, reminding me that they need to build their stamina, (but hey, so do I!)


___     Signals and check-in- I already have my signals in place, WBT class/yes works great to get the 
                                             attention of my students and I plan to use it for this.  Check-in is a good
                                              way to help the kids think about their actions and focus their attention to what
                                             they need to do to be successful.


___     Modeling- I absolutely love the idea of using my challenging kids to do the modeling.  They begin by
                            by thinking they can goof but when we also ask them to model the correct way they are
                            now accountable for acting appropriately.  LOVE IT!

Loving the anticipation of using Daily 5 in my class.

until next time.......................

Deanna