What's Happening in Our Classroom

Well, it has been a long time since I posted anything.  It has been a busy Fall getting settled into a new school, learning new procedures, and getting to know the students, as well as, learning first grade.  I haven't taken any pictures lately, so I'll just update what's been happening.


We have been learning about fire safety.  I have read lots of books to the kiddos and we have made some charts.  We made a chart with a fire hydrant on the background and put post-it notes on it with what the students know about fire safety.  I saw this on another blog.  I think it was on First Grade Garden.  This was a great activity.  The kiddos were full of knowledge about fire safety.  I introduced the word schema to them and talked about how they are adding to their schema everyday.  They have loved learning about this and hearing about my brother, the fire chief.  On Thursday, after our lesson, the kids looked out the window and the fire department was at the school.  How exciting!  We later found out that the lady who works in the cafeteria had chest pains, so they came to help her and take her to the hospital.  We also made our first tree map about firemen.  This was a great tool to use as they were learning.  I'm sure we will use more of them.


Since Halloween is coming and we don't do much with Halloween, I decided I could read a book or two.  Friday I read Where's My Mummy to the kids.  They sure enjoyed this.  We made a chart about Baby Mummy at the beginning of the story. Tomorrow we will add the end of the story.  This was something I found from Deanna Jump's lesson.  We will continue other activities on Monday.


You can tell I've been getting so many ideas from other teachers.  I'm reading the blogs as much as possible.  It is helpful to me since I'm new to first grade after teaching upper grades for the past 10 years.  I still feel I prefer to teach third and fourth grades, but I am adjusting.  I do admire all of you that love first grade.  I don't know how you do it.  I prefer to teach kids that have some background, know how to read some, and have some school behavior skills.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll change.


We are entering grading time.  Grades are due on Friday.  I will be spending today and the rest of the week working hard on them.  Unfortunately, I have been sick this weekend with a terrible sore throat.  I'm sure I'll be home for at least two days.  I don't want to infect any of the kids plus with the throat hurting I won't be able to use a loud voice over my 31 kiddos.  I'll be at home working on the grades.


We are still working on procedures and how to work quietly and walk in the hall quietly.  It sure is hard with 31 kiddos in the classroom.  They are sweet kids, but there are just a lot of them.  Budget cuts have made it so that class sizes are so large.


I will be missing Halloween at school.  We don't celebrate Halloween, but the school is having Crazy Hair and Hat Day.  I will be sitting and making plans for the substitute for tomorrow.  Hopefully, the kids won't be too excited and hard to keep focused.


We are participating in the Postcard Exchange.  It has been fun to receive the cards and find where they are on the United States map.  We've received 6 so far.


I will try to get pictures of what we do for my next post.