Ladybugs, Pumpkin Patch, and Pete the Cat

It is so nice to have a three-day weekend.  I spend so much time during the weekend on lesson plans that an extra day gives me a little bit of time for myself.  I drove to Portland to see my niece in a play.  She had one of the three female lead roles and was in most of the play.  She is such a great actress!

We have been learning about insects through our Bridges math curriculum.  I've added to that and have been teaching about ladybugs.  I read the book, Ladybugs, by Gail Gibbons to the class.

This book is full of wonderful information and great pictures.  The students first learned about the parts of a ladybug.  Here's the chart that we labeled.  This picture is from the book.

The students also learned about the life cycle of a ladybug (insect) using the following chart.

The students shared about this during ELD using sentence frames.  We recently started using Deanna Jump's Chit Chat to review topics that the students learn about.  The kids just love this.  It is such a great way to work on reading and writing skills.

The students have worked on labeling a ladybug on paper and describing the four stages of a ladybug.

We went to the pumpkin patch.  I had been out sick for one week and our field trip was my first day back.  We had a lot of fun!  We learned a lot about pumpkins in class.  We made a chart showing the life cycle of a pumpkin.

This past week we were reading and learning about the first Thanksgiving.  I asked the kids if they knew about the first Thanksgiving and all they knew is that they eat turkey and have dinner with family.  This week we will be continue our study about the first Thanksgiving.  This is our last week of school before Thanksgiving.  Parent-Teacher conferences take place in one week for two days.  The kids will be off school for one week.  I will do two 12-hour days of conferences and then be off for 3 days plus the weekend.  It will be nice to have a 5 day break.

I'll have more pictures and information about what we learn this week about Thanksgiving and how I teach them.

Of course, we have spent some time reading and learning about Pete the Cat.  The kids just love him.  I read all 3 books to the class, sang the song, and did several activities.  We made Pete the Cat from Deanna Jump's unit and wrote a sentence.  Last week we started our V.I.P.  The V.I.P. gets to take home the book, Pete the Cat, the stuffed Pete the Cat, a poster to fill out about themselves, and a binder to write about their time with Pete.  The kids are so looking forward to this.

I guess I better think about going to bed soon.  Tomorrow I hope to finish my lesson plans for the week of Nov. 26 - 30 since they are due on Thursday.  I finally figured I can complete them on time if I work on them the weekend ahead of when they are due.  I will drive back to Salem.  I hope to print some things and go to school for a little while.  I need to do some things to be ready for the week.

Enjoy your Veterans' Day!  I'm so thankful for the men and women who have sacrificed so that we can have freedom, including my dad.

Field Trip and Other Happenings

     Happy Easter!  What a wonderful day to reflect on what my Lord and Savior has done for us.  I'm spending the day in Portland with my dad.    


     This was the first week back after Spring Break!  Boy, it sure seemed like a long week!  It was so hard getting up early everyday.


     On Wednesday we went on our first field trip with 5 other classrooms in our school.  We went to the local community college to see the play, Peter Pan and Wendy.  It was a very good and exciting play.  Many kids were seeing a play for the first time.

Waiting for the play to begin

It was fun seeing the students reaction.  Everytime the curtain closed the boy sitting next to me would say, "Is it over?"  I explained that they were just changing the scene.

I took a picture of the boy with Pete the Cat whose mother made a sweater for Pete.  It was so cute!  She is letting us keep it, so now Pete wears a sweater.  We have two Petes that go home every week, so we'll be able to keep track of which one belongs to which VIP.

Pete the Cat wearing a sweater

Pete the Cat came to school with this sweater on our recent late start due to snow on March 21st.  

The students are learning about penguins.  This week I will be using the book Penguins by Gail Gibbons as my mentor text.  I recently took a Systematic ELD class since we have new requirements in teaching ELD.  I'm working on preparing a 5-day lesson using this book.  On Tuesday my literacy coach will observe and evaluate me as I teach.  I'm hoping this will help my principal to see that I do know how to teach ELD.  This is one area that she said that I "do not meet" because she had only seen me teach it once.  Unfortunately, she's not in my room all of the time.

Well, I better get back to my ELD plans and lesson plans and, hopefully, I'll have time to relax some, too.

Have a great Easter!

Diane

Good News and Pete the Cat

     I have good news!  I received my teaching license renewal this week and I did get the ESOL endorsement.  This was the reason I was told that I was transferred.  I won't be transferred again for this reason.  My district wants everyone to have this.  I took the classes several years ago, but didn't take the test.  They don't require the test, now, if you took it when I did.  I am so happy!


     Well, I made made it through 3-1/2 weeks of teaching first grade.  It has been so different from any grade that I have taught.  I feel like I am learning as I go.  I have a nice group of 30 kiddos, who love to talk.  I'm just not used to kids who talk while I talk.  I guess we have lots to work on.


     I saw lots of things on the blogs about Pete the Cat, so I decided that would be a good way to start.  I bought the first book and the stuffed animal, as well as, the many Pete the Cat units I found on TpT beginning with Deanna Jump's unit.  I appreciate everything that teachers have made.  It helps teachers like me who are new to first grade and need ideas without having to spend too much.  I like all of the free items.  I did have to buy the second book about a week ago.  We will continue reading that one.


     We made the Pete the Cat craft in Deanna Jump's unit.  They turned out very nice but were a lot of work with 30 kiddos.  It's hard when they don't follow or pay attention to the directions.  With 30 kiddos, it is hard to keep them focused.  It does help so much, though, that I have a document camera and they can see exactly what to do.  Here are some pictures of our Pete the Cats.

The kids worked on a writing that will go below their pictures.  We had these up for Open House and the parents were impressed.  I'm going to have a V.I.P. in our class and use Erica Bohrer's Class Mascot forms.  Pete the Cat will go home.  I will demonstrate this week how to do this and then the kids will begin.  With 30 kids, we might have to have two V.I.P.'s on some weeks.  I may need to purchase one more cat.


     I don't have much option for making my own centers for Math.  We use Bridges for Math and there are six Work Places that the students do.  I may throw in another one when possible.  It has been overwhelming learning all of this.  This weekend I'm hoping to find some containers for the centers.  I had to wait until payday.  September is a hard month to buy things after I bought supplies during the summer.  Managing the centers is what I want to work on now.


     Our first math unit is all about bugs.  I will be incorporating Deanna Jump's insect unit, as well as, the one that Made For First Grade has.  I love how I can incorporate literacy along with the math throughout the day on insects.  We also use GLAD in our district.  There is an insect unit, so I will be investigating that and trying to get it ready.  Those units take a lot of time to prepare, but they are so good in teaching ELL kids.