Class Dojo

Hi Crown Point families... LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH!

Here is the link to our first grade class for this school year on Class Dojo.

(click on the Class Dojo image below)

Class Dojo is a great way to communicate classroom announcements, reminders and celebrations. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Teacher Appreciation Week

(the beautiful flowers I got form one of my first graders)

This year was my first time as a teacher during Teacher Appreciation Week... and what an swonderfully~smarvelous week it was!! I cannot thank my students and parents enough for all the lovely gifts and awesome hugs. I feel so blessed and appreciated... my cup runneth over!!

One of the most unique and amazing gifts I received was a necklace made in Haiti through the Apparent Project. The necklace is made entirely from recycled materials, and the Apparent Project is designed to provide creative employment for Haitian families that are at risk of relinquishing their children to orphanages or the streets. The recycled materials used to make the necklace are...

*55 Gallon Steel Drum ~ Artists flatten 55 gallon oil drums and use them as steel canvases to cut, pierce, and bend intricate art work.

*Cereal Box Beads ~ Cut into thin strips, the paper is then carefully rolled on bamboo skewers and varnished.

*Aluminum Cans ~ Recycled cans are die cut and hand stamped by our talented artists.

Here is a picture of the lovely necklace I got for Teacher Appreciation Week...

Click here for more information on the Apparent Project

I would also like to thank the amazing staff and PTA at Crown Point Elementary for all the treats and gifts they gave out this week... they all did an incredible job making sure that the teachers felt truly appreciated!! :)

Thank you for the "Thank you"!

Kearson's Crocodiles got some awesome thank you cards from Mr. Beckstrom's Brainiacs for being such a great FCAT Buddy class! YAY US! :)

Classroom Coupons!

One of my AHH-MAZING first graders chose the *wear a hat in class* classroom coupon after filling up her Good Choices punch card... and the picture was too adorable not to share! :)

Today's Top Story

KEARSON'S CROCODILES ARE MAKING HEADLINES!

My most amazing first grade class is making headlines in the Mandarin Newsline May 2014 issue!! Crown Point Elementary did an article on reducing FCAT stress and anxiety . . . 

< pause for dramatic effect >

. . . featuring our class's FCAT Buddy support for Mr. Beckstrom's fifth grade class! WAY TO GO MS. KEARSON'S CLASS!!

If you do not receive the Mandarin Newline paper at your home, don't worry... you can download a digital copy of the article from the Mandarin Newsline website (I provided a link under the article picture).

Congratulations again to Mr. Beckstrom's class for all their hard work on the FCAT tests... and kudos to my AWESOME first graders for showing their Panther Pride and support for their FCAT Buddies!!

Click here to download a digital copy of the article in the Mandarin Newsline

FCAT Buddy... FCAT Parade

FCAT Buddy Parade

On Friday, Crown Point Elementary had their FCAT Parade so that all the K-2 classes could show their support for the third, fourth, & fifth graders that will be FCAT testing for the next several days. Each of the K-2 classes lined up in the halls and held up posters they made for their FCAT Buddy classroom. We clapped, gave high fives, and yelled *Good Luck* to every class in the parade... IT WAS A BLAST!!

This year, Kearson's Classroom has buddied up with Mr. Beckstrom's fifth graders. We made our GOOD LUCK poster for Beckstrom's Braniacs, and each of the students signed it. My first graders did such an amazing job creating this awesome poster to show their support!!

GOOD LUCK BECKSTROM'S BRAINIACS!!

The Big Bad Wolf

This is a fun activity to compare/contrast the Big Bad Wolf character in the fairy tales, "Little Red Riding Hood" & "The Three Little Pigs". You can also use the Wanted Poster for any fairy tale villain you are reading about with your class.

Included in this activity are...

~ Wanted Poster for your fairy tale villain

~ Example of how to create a wanted poster for the Big Bad Wolf (Three Little Pigs)

~ Example of how to create a wanted poster for the Big Bad Wolf (Little Red Riding Hood)

~ Big Bad Wolf compare/contrast Venn Diagram activity

 

Click here to visit my TpT store to download this Big Bad Wolf activity

The Venn Diagram activity is a great way to assess your student's comprehension and understanding of the characters, events, and main ideas of these fairy tales.

Enjoy!

We Know Our Facts

We spent all week gathering facts and information about our animals for our informational text writing. Each of the students picked a different animal to research and write about. To introduce the students to fact finding skills, I had them draw a pictures of the animals in their natural habitats, label the name of the animal, and list two facts discovered about the animals.

I was so amazed and proud of the awesome job each of the students did with their pictures and fact finding skills, that I had to showcase each of their animal facts on the classroom bulletin board for everyone to enjoy!

Our Classroom Bulletin Board

 

All About Sea Turtles

As we finished up our unit on Informational Text Reading & Writing, we put our fact finding skills to the test with a KWL chart all about sea turtles. The students had so much fun sharing all the things they already knew about sea turtles, as well as what they wanted to know about sea turtles before we read, "Sea Turtles" by Kay de Silva.

After reading about sea turtles, the classroom was buzzing with excitement as my awesome first graders not only realized all the facts that they already knew about sea turtles were in the book, but most of the things they wanted to know about sea turtles were discovered in the book too!!

Our KWL Chart

"Sea Turtles" by Kay de Silva

A Snake Ate My Homework!

"A snake at ALL my homework!

Ma'am, I swear to you it's true.

It swallowed it with one BIG gulp...

It didn't even chew!"

~ Lori Degman

We had so much fun learning all about snakes today! All week we have been working on our informational text standard (RI.1.8 - Identify reasons an author gives to support points in a text) with the, "Our Amazing World Series" books by Kay de Silva. Today we enjoyed Silva's book, "Snakes", and as luck would have it... I had an amazing snake skin to share with my class. The children LOVED it! Each of the boys and girls got to touch and look at the snake skin up close. One of my students is writing his informational report on snakes, and volunteered to have his picture taken holding the snake skin... FUN!

I never thought that I could enjoy non-fiction books as much as fiction books, but exploring the informational text standards has been an absolute blast! The children love seeing all the pictures, learning about each of the animals, and sharing their knowledge and stories about each animal we have read about... sharks, snakes, and bears, OH MY!!

Tomorrow we will be diving into the wonderful world of whales. :)

That Darn Tricky Y!

WANTED: That sly tricky Y for stealing the sounds of "e" and "i"

Two things I must always remember

To keep the letter Y from tricking me...

In one syllable words he sounds like “i”

In two syllable words he sounds like “e”.

This is a fun little activity to help your students learn about that darn tricky Y. There is a mini anchor chart that can be printed and displayed in your literacy center, on your word wall, or with your reading and writing strategy bulletin boards.

I have also included two tricky Y activities...

- A worksheet to circle the number of syllables in each word and write which sound they hear... "e" or "i"

- A tricky Y word find

Click here to visit my TpT to download this Tricky Y activity 

Enjoy!

We Are 100 Days Smarter!

Sign made by FirstGradeBlueSkies

What an amazing 100th Day of School celebration we had in the classroom this week! Each of the students colored a banner flag and I decorated the window with every one of their awesome creations...

The students also loved making their own books about 100, which included... *I wish I had 100 ____*, *I can eat 100 ____*, *I can lift 100 ____*, and *I would not want 100 ____*. FUN! Next, I challenged the students to see how many words they could make out of the letters in "one hundred"... and let me tell you, my super smart first graders could give some Scrabble pros a run for their money! Here is the incredible list of words they were able to make...

After a morning filled with 100 days of school activities, I read, "One Hundred Hungry Ants" by Elinor J. Pinczes. This book is a great visual introduction to math as the ants travel in one row of 100, two rows of 50, 4 rows of 25, five rows of 20, and 10 rows of 10... but will they make it to the picnic before all the food is gone? You will have to ask your child how the story ended.

Last, but not least, we had a blast comparing our bags of 100 objects that each of the students brought from home. We got to see how heavy a bag of 100 pennies were compared to a bag of 100 popcorn kernels. We got to see how some bags had 100 objects that were the same size, shape, and color... like 100 Cheerios and 100 pennies - and we compared these to bags that had 100 beads, 100 crayons, 100 stickers, and 100 Legos that were different sizes, shapes, and colors. The students really enjoyed seeing all the creative objects that were brought in.

At the end of the day, each of the students received a 100 Days Smarter certificate to acknowledge all their handwork and accomplishments over the past 100 days of school!

Click here to visit my TpT to purchase this certificate