From Here to There

The Hot Seat

We finished our unit on transportation with a field trip to the NC Transportation Museum.  The students loved the train ride.  They learned about the first form of transportation. :)  We learned that one of the first cars was the originator of the phrase, "...in the hot seat."  The engine was under the driver's seat, and that made the seat hot.  That same car had a lever that the driver used instead of a steering wheel.  The students can tell you that Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine.

The Backseat Driver: The controls were in the back.

Our interactive bulletin board was created by using the My Community and Every Day Paper Dolls Cricut cartridges. A few pictures were included from our field trip also.  We counted the wheels on the forms of transportation and made a line plot.  Later we will use the line plot to answer some questions.  We will also sort the transportation by whether it travels by air, land, or water.

Disappearing Wheel Barrow :)

I've Been Tagged!

Kristi and Crystal at Teaching Little Miracles tagged me.  I hope you'll play along.  Here are the rules;

Post these rules

Answer the 10 questions posted for you.

Create 10 questions that you want to ask people that you will be tagging.

Tag ten people and link them with your post. Don't forget to let them know that they've been tagged!

 

 Here the questions they had for me, and my answers.

1.         How long have you taught? I've taught for 5 years, but been in education for 18 years.

2.         What state do you teach in?  North Carolina

3.         What are your contract hours at school? 9+

4.         Lunch – duty? or duty free? Duty :(

5.         What reading series do you use? Harcourt Trophies

6.         What math series do you use?  Harcourt

7.         What is your favorite hobby? Sewing (I haven't had time for this, lately.)

8.         What is the last movie you watched? The Lorax with my grand-daughter

9.         What is your favorite season and why? Spring- It's a time for renewal and the temperature is just right. 

10.     What is your favorite game to play with students? Using Silent-Speed Ball as review or practice.

Here my questions;

1. What is something funny that has happened to you this year?

2. What would you be doing if you weren't teaching?

3. What is your guilty pleasure?

4. Which Web 2.0 tools do you use on a regular basis?

5. Which enrichment classes are available at your school?

6. How many students do you have?

7. Do you have an assistant?  Full or part-time?

8. Have you traveled outside the country? Where?

9. What is the most useful staff development you've participated in?

10. If you have a class theme, what is it?

These are the bloggers who I've tagged;

First Class With Mrs. Mac

Heather's Heart

Learning With Mrs. Parker

Ms. Peppy

Saylor's Log

Always First Grade

Peterson's Pad

Flipping For First

First Grade Jungle

First Grade Owls

B For Beekeeper

Whenever we read, Busy Buzzy Bee in our Harcourt Trophies reading series, we try to get someone to talk to our first graders about beekeeping.  This year we were very fortunate to get Bill Waddell to bring one of his hives, his beekeeping suit, a smoker, and a sample of honey.  The students were able to handle and observe a honeycomb.  Two students were able to try on the beekeeper bonnet.  All of the students were able to sample some honey.  They were fascinated by all the bees in one hive, and tried to find the queen.  They were more amazed to know that Mr. Waddell only brought a small portion of his bees with him.  He shared a YouTube video in which he was featured; Bee For Beekeeper.  There are two parts to the video.  Check it out.

Mr. Waddell goes all over the world with his bees. He has been to the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.  I ran into him at the NC Zoo back in the fall.  I bought two bottles of honey from him. When I realized that he lived in the city next to me, I asked if he knew a former neighbor who was also a beekeeper.  Throughout our conversation, I realized that he and my neighbor came to another school where I was an assistant.  He said that he would be happy to come talk to our first graders. 

Our first grade classes wrote about worker bees and queen bees.  Their writings are displayed in the hallway.  I think I'll add some of the pictures that were taken during our guest speaker's visit to the display.

Bloomin' in First Grade

Back in the fall, my students planted 50 tulip bulbs, for a Journey North project.  Throughout the last part of the year, we checked the temperature and added mulch.  We got our first sprout at the end of January.  Our very mild winter forced several flowers to wake up early. 

Can You Dig It

Teamwork

Spreading Mulch on a Cold Day

Then the snow came.  I tried to prepare the students for the disappointment that might come.  Then we noticed more sprouts and at least one bud.  Finally, this week, our first tulip opened up.  Then there were so many tulips that we had a hard time counting them.  The students wanted to stop and count them every time we passed them.  We did stop to measure the leaves.  They got their chance to count them when a substitute took over for our 1/2 day workshop.  They used yarn to group the plants in tens.  They counted 37 plants.  I think about twelve had actually bloomed by then. 

Wake Little Tulip

Our First Tulip

The students are so proud of their hard work.  The teachers keep telling them what a great job they did.  All I did was take pictures and video.  The students really did do the digging and planting, because I don't like worms.  So much for my garden theme.  Right?  Our next gardening project will be to plant some vegetables and flowers in one of the school's garden plots.

Which One Did You Plant?

Catch the Reading Bug!

Our Reading Association is awesome!  For the past several years, we have presented a county-wide, community reading conference.  It's a day when families can participate in make-and-take literacy activities, take pictures with book characters, enjoy author/illustrator presentations, and buy books from the Book Fair.

In the past, the Reading Association members have set up activity tables. In the last 3 or 4 years, schools have set up tables.  Since I'm the building representative and book club chair, I thought it would be great to get the student, book club members involved with the conference.  Last year our theme was Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  We used scrapbook paper, recycled cereal boxes and such, and recycled printing paper to make diaries/journals.

This year, our theme was The World of Eric Carle.  The book club members' first experience with Eric Carle artwork was with making door prizes for our Valentine Dance.  They were reluctant about tackling the job.  As members started finishing their masterpieces, they became more confident.  For the conference, we helped children make bookmarks from the left-over recycled materials from last year's activity.  I painted the paper in advance.  The guest illustrator was impressed with the artwork too.  How cool is that?

Door Prizes for Valentine Dance

Satisfied Participant (actually a book club member's brother)

This year, the band, Big Bang Boom was the entertainment.  I didn't get to take pictures of the band, because most of the helpers disappeared around the time they performed. LOL!  I don't blame them. Other guests were Geronimo Stilton, Pig (If You Give a Pig a Pancake), Clifford, and Wild Thing.  There were also activity tables for the characters.  Other activity tables featured Fancy Nancy, Olivia, and Skippy John Jones. There were so many tables that I can't remember them all.

If You Give a Pig a Hug?....

Businesses, school PTA's/PTO's, and individuals donated money to make the conference possible. The conference gets better and better each year.  It is so good to see so many families at this free event.