Story Problems

We are authors!!!  We are writing our own story problems to go with pictures that Mrs. Gregorash drew.  After writing the problem, students are using UPS check to solve.

Here are the story problems!
Amina
Amina saw 3 pink stars.  Paris saw 6 purple stars.  How many all together?

Baylee
Amina had 2 pink dogs.  I had 6 purple dogs.  How many in all?

Summer
Mrs. G. had 12 apples.  Her dog stole 4 apples.  How many apples are left?

Savannah
There were two big dogs and six little dogs.  How many are there all together?

Sam
Amina saw 6 stars, Sam saw 3 stars.   How many all together?

Bella
Mrs. G. had 12 apples that she picked.  4 fell and rolled away.  How many now?

Sebastian
Mrs. G. had 12 apples in her bag.  Her dogs stole 4 apples.  How many many are left?

Hayley
There were 4 bunches of bananas.  My dad ate one bunch of bananas.  How many are left?

Caitlyn
I have 2 big dogs.  I have 6 more dogs.  How many are together?

Kevin Henkes Author Study

This week we began our Kevin Henkes author study!  So far we have read the following books!

Chrysanthemum is about a mouse named Chrysanthemum, who loves her name, until.... she goes to school for the very first time.  All the kids in her class make fun of her name and Chrysanthemum wilted like a flower.  We shared connections to the story, about a time when we have felt sad, or felt like we had wilted, just like Chrysanthemum did.  

Chester's Way is story about Chester and Wilson, two mice, who like to do everything the exact same way.  They meet another mouse named Lilly, who likes to do things in her own way.  We made more connections to the story.  

Some examples of connections students made are:

• Chester and Wilson were best friends who made a new friend, just like our class made two new friends.
• Chester and Wilson didn't like Lilly at first, just like I didn't like my new neighbor at first.  
• Chester and Wilson became best friends with Lilly, like I became best friends with ____.
• Chester and Wilson avoided Lilly because they thought she was different, that reminds me of a movie where the boy avoids the neighbor because he thinks the neighbor is weird.  

In Lilly's Plastic Purple Purse, Lilly gets in trouble for bringing her new purse to school and disturbing the class.   Our class made some great connections to this story and learned many new vocabulary words.  

Some New Words we learned were:

• amused
• considerate
• longed
• jaunty
• furious
• disturb

Check out www.kevinhenkes.com for more books written by Kevin Henkes!  

More to come soon!

Making Inferences!

Making Inferences!
This week we are learning to make inferences.

Two books we read to help learn about inferences are:

One tool we used to help us understand what inferences are is the Infer Song.

Infer Song
(to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean")

Sometimes when you're reading a story
The words are not all there for you
So being a good book detective
Will help you to find any clue!

Chorus
Infer!  Infer!
Filling in what is not in the book!
Infer!  Infer!
It's taking a much closer look!

Some authors leave clues in their pictures.
Some authors leave clues in their text.
They give you just part of their story
And want you to fill in the rest!


Chorus

So when you are reading a story
Be careful to read what is there
But then figure out what is missing - 
Now you are inferring with flair!  

We're FAMOUS!! Well.... kinda!

I was contacted by the student newspaper at GMU, they did an article on our classroom and No Excuses University!!
Take a look!
http://broadsideonline.com/2012/10/16/alumnus-uses-mason-experience-to-inspire-college-goals-in-students-5312/

Story Elements

This week we are working on identifying story elements.  We are able to tell about the characters, setting, conflict and resolution.  Today we read the book, The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed Leaves.

We worked in groups and each group worked together on one story element.



This is what we came up with:
Characters:  The Little Old Lady
Setting:  The setting was on the farm, in the fall.
Conflict/Problem:  The little, old lady swallowed the leaves, a shirt, a pumpkin, a pole, a pair of pants, a rope and hay.
Resolution/Solution: The little old lady sneezed a scarecrow out!

 

From GMU to us!

Since we have partnered with George Mason University, many people have reached out to our classroom.  One person is Miss Meena.  She is a student at GMU and will be one of pen pals this year.   She is going to show and tell us what it is like to be a student at GMU!  

Dear Ms. Gregorash’s First Grade Class,

My name is Meena Rahmanyar and I am a junior at George Mason University. GMU is really a wonderful university, and it offers the best programs which cover all areas of interest. George Mason is also one of the most diverse schools in the nation, so it’s a great place to learn about different people and cultures. I am currently studying Interpersonal/Organizational Communication at Mason, and I plan on getting my masters in Education from this school. I love GMU; it’s a lot of fun being a student here. Mason also has a lot of groups on campus that students can be a part of. I am interested in helping people so I am the PR for UNICEF at GMU. Our UNICEF is very active and we do many wonderful things to help people around the world. George Mason is the best school and I hope some of you decide to come here to study one day. I wish you guys a fun year ahead and keep working hard so that you can achieve all your goals and make all your dreams come true! GO PATRIOTS!!!

Warmly,

Meena Rahmanyar

Word Wall Chant and Cheers

We like to stay active in first grade!  One way we do so is when we are learning our word wall words.  We have many different chants and cheers to help us master these words.  Our word wall leader of the week gets to choose the chant or cheer, then leads us through the words!

      Songs

3 letter words - Jingle Bells

4 letter words - Adams Family

5 letter words - Bingo

      Chants (some of our favorites)

Strike a pose

Pirate Words

Squeak like a mouse

Snap a word

Royal Highness

Here are some pics and a video of us practicing our word wall words. 

 

 

Sight Words - Star Words

In first grade we are working on being fluent when reading sight words.   There are so many ways to improve sight word fluency.  I dedicated an entire webpage for it.  Click here to go to my sight word page.  There you can find all different ways you can help you child become more fluent with their sight words.  Here is a game we played during the second week of school.  It's called Star words.  I had dice labeled with different sight words and students rolled the dice and colored in the word.  The first word to get to the top 'won'.  They loved it!   

Collect 20

One of the first games we played in math was called Collect 20.  We are practicing not only counting to 20, but also making sure that we do have exactly 20.  The second day we played this game we talked about ways to make sure that we had 20.  Some students suggested counting again, counting by 2's, putting them in groups of 5.  Then I gave them a 20 board, a board with exactly 20 boxes.  They thought it was so much easier to know when you had 20, they could also tell me how many more they needed to get to 20.  I LOVE playing games in math, it is such a hands on way of learning.

 

 

 

Mostly done!

Yay!!  It's mostly done!  We started back to staff development on Thursday and it was a great feeling to go into the beginning of the school year with my room mostly done!  I am excited to share a few pics with you.

It's almost time to meet my kiddos, we have back to school night on Tuesday!!  I know the kids are excited, but the teachers are too!  Yes, you better believe I will be blogging about that!
Oh, I almost forgot to share my job chart, since our classroom will iPads, I created a techie job chart!

GMU Partnership

I have received two packages in the mail from different George Mason University departments!  It's like Christmas morning when I see a package on the door step!  I was so excited to see what arrived!

 Then I created a bulletin board outside our classroom, showing off our Mason spirit!  I have invited these two departments to follow our blog and to keep in contact with our class!
Inside one of the boxes was a stack of Mason logos on card stock!  I held one of them up to the lockers to see if they would fit on the lockers, and guess what, if I trim off a little of the white around the logos, my kiddos will have their own GMU locker name tags!  I can't wait!

All About Me Book

I just finished my All About Me book!  I am super excited about this, as I have been working on pages for the past few weeks.   I do need to make a cover for it, but I am out of poster board!  

Going Green

     Green for George Mason University.  Our campus is participating in No Excuses University this year and we were each asked to pick a University.  Well, I picked GMU, where I did my undergraduate studies.

    The first thing I did was make a small website, to share a few things about the university.  I hope to do that for each of our first grade teachers too.   Click here, to see the website.

    Two weeks ago I started looking for things to decorate my room GMU style!  I painted two very small storage things for my classroom.  I went shopping online and found a GMU flag, floor mat, pennant, blanket and banner.  I also bought two yards each of green fleece and yellow fleece from Hobby Lobby, I figured I could get create one of those no-sew blankets to cover the five dollar couch I found at a garage sale, awesome find!  

I made this!

This flag is covering the window on
the right side of the classroom

The chair and couch with
the blanket

This week, my fabulous nieces were here, and they made that no-sew, fleece blanket for me in under a half an hour!  WOW!!  Those girls rock!  Next, I dyed a white chair, green.  I found this chair on a sell, swap site I am a member of.  It took me a week to get brave enough to dye it green in the washer.  Everything turned out alright and the chair looks great.  I put the GMU blanket I bought over this chair.  The chair and the couch are both in the reading corner of my classroom.

Then it was time to work in my room a little bit.  I used green felt and yellow border to cover the two bulletin boards I have in my classroom.  I also painted one more, longer, wooden storage shelving unit, green to match.

Then, after 14 years, I finally got my diploma framed!  I am so excited to have this in my classroom!  I can't wait to share the meaning behind it with my first graders.

ABC Stampers Box

For years I have had a bag full of Crayola ABC markers.  Great idea, but it was so unorganized.  It took more time to find one letter, than it was worth.  I was in Michael's looking for something to stick them in, and nothing existed.  So, I made one!  I saw these $1 clear plastic boxes, and my mind went to work.  I bought 12 of them.  

I bought 12 of these boxes and started
taping the sides together with clear
packaging tape

I made two rows of six.

Then I wrapped this patterned packaging
tape around, twice, two make sure
all of the containers were covered.

Last, I organized the markers, then added
puffy, black letters.