We read the story Franklin’s Halloween and discussed Ordinal Numbers. We practiced counting using ordinal numbers and then played a matching game using ordinal numbers. Students stood in line holding Halloween pictures, and the other students play the game by asking a person to turn their card over using their ordinal position. If the students get a match they get a point and the person in line keeps their cards turned over.
As Halloween approaches we posted a new poem and song for our class to learn. We read a poem called The Halloween Surprise and learned new sight words to go along with our word wall.
We practiced reading the poem and then sang along to the song on CD with copies of the lyrics.
We discussed on how the problem was that the main character was lost and they found a scary house. The solution was that the house was scary because the narrator’s friends threw a surprise Halloween party. Student’s make their own Halloween invitation cards to our classroom Halloween party.
As a whole class we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and made patterns of our choosing.
As a whole group we read The Cat in the Hat as part of our year long Dr. Seuss unit that we are doing with the 2nd and 3rd graders. As a whole group we discussed the rules that were broken in the book and how the kids weren’t supposed to have visitors while mom is out of the house.
We then broke up into our reading buddy groups and the students shared with each other rules they have at their house. Then the students made their own houses out of construction paper and wrote a list of rules that moms and dads have at their house.
We read the book The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and used pictures of the different animals she swallowed to re-tell the story. Then students worked as a class to put the order of events back in the correct sequence. Finally, my K-1 All-Stars illustrated and wrote the main character of the story as well as other characters to make a character map.
In honor of the letter Q we had a Q U wedding today. Kids were allowed to dress up and everyone participated in the ceremony. We had the bride (letter Q), the groom (letter U), and the class were separated into the two families. The kids had a great time and enjoyed the ceremony. After the ceremony we had cupcakes other treats. The students were asked to bring presents that start with q. They brought things like q tips, quilts, and quarters.
For one of our read out louds we read the story The Costume Party by Victoria Chess. As a class we discussed how Halloween is coming up this month. Students discussed what they wanted to be for Halloween.
As a class we created a bar graph displaying what they’d like to be for halloween. Student’s copied the class bar graph individually and described what category was picked the most.
Students are provided with maple leafs with fall vocabulary words we’ve been learning in science and social studies. Student’s cut out their leaf and drew a picture illustrating their vocabulary word. Then students wrote a sentence using their word.
We read Pumpkin Pumpkin and talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin and remembered what we read in the story. The students then made a model of the life cycle.
Today was a BIG day for Mr. Daniel’s K-1 All-Stars! Today was the last Saturday make-up day for school. While students had to come to school today, we tried to make it a day of fun as well as a day of learning.
As I have said before we are in the middle of two units here in our K-1 Class. First we’ve been talking about fall, as well as our head to toe unit. Where student’s learn more about themselves and how they are important. But we talk more about our body and how we grow and change over time. Also in this theme is talking about our five senses. Today in Mr. Daniel’s K-1 All-Stars students used their sense of smell and taste to enjoy a fall treat, homemade Apple Cider!
Students discussed about how it smelled and tasted, and then we created a list of describing words. Afterwards students practiced writing using a topic sentence “We had apple cider.” Students have been learning in 1st grade how to write using a main idea and giving two details. Today the whole class wrote about their experience with apple cider!
After we had the apple cider I showed students on the smart board pictures of Michigan (grew I am from) and how apples are harvested in the fall, to be sold to stores, or put into to make things like apple cider. Our All-Stars then got to be a part of the fall harvest as they went out berry picking after lunch. Our K-1 Aide, Amanda, showed the whole class how Agutac (or also known as Eskimo ice-cream) is made and she used their berries to make the Agutac.
I think it was a great compare and contrast for our K-1 students. They got to see how other places prepare for winter by harvesting and gathering their food. Then they got to learn about and experience some of their own culture and be a part of the fall harvest!
