Guest Speaker

Friday first grade had a guest speaker to share information about her job in the promotions department of KISS FM radio. Ms. Guterriez, who has a brother in one of our first grade classes, talked to the students about the importance of reading and writing in her job, the reason radio stations do promotions (to persuade - great tie in to author's purpose), and how they use technology (great tie in to our lessons on inventions). Another great tie in was that Friday was also GenTX Day which promotes college readiness. According to their website, "This year’s GenTX Day is a call to action statewide to motivate students with a real-world college experience that inspires them to visualize a career goal and take the steps to achieve it." The guest speaker told the students that she will be graduating soon with  a degree in broadcasting and was able to stress the importance of college. Thank you to our teammate, Ms. Moncibaiz, for setting this up for our students.

College Week: Career Parade

The students were invited to dress up in attire for their favorite career. The students who dressed up paraded through the school while the other students cheered them on.

College Week Festivities

As a part of college week, the students made t-shirts to show when they are expected to graduate high school and begin college. I printed "College 2025" on cardstock and the students traced the letters onto their shirts with permanent markers. They then colored them in however they wanted. For the piggy banks, they cut strips of construction paper and glued them in various patterns. We are trying to instill in the students at an early age that college is important and they need to start saving for their future now. The students also added their handprint to a grade level banner that we will keep hanging in our common area all year as a reminder of our belief that they will attend college one day.

College Week: Guest Speakers

During College Week, the students had two guest speakers come talk to them about the importance of going to college. The first is a scientist from The University of Texas at Arlington. She talked to the students about what she studied in college and what she does now. The second works in finance for Honda. He talked to the students about the importance of earning good grades. He equated earning good grades and getting scholarships to college to having a good credit score. The students were very engaged and full of questions.

Watch Out World...

On the last day of school, one of the things we did was to discuss the students' future goals. Those goals included going to college and their dream jobs. So, we took these pictures (Pinterest inspired) to showcase their dream jobs.

College Day

Every month or so we have "College Day" in our district to keep the students thinking about their future and put their focus on college. As a part of our college day this month, each teacher created a poster to tell about his or her road to college. All of the students in the school went on "college walk" to read about their teachers' educational journeys and to learn about various options for higher education. In first grade, the students also created a poster of their own to indicate that in the year 2024, they too will be heading to college. Each class took part in coloring the poster and each student added their handprint. Their poster said "The Class of 2024. We are college bound!"

Phonics Focus: Sports Pennants

Last week we were studying various sounds including /sl/, /sp/, and /st/. We also were having "college week" in our district. So, the students created sports pennants to help them remember the sound for /sp/.

College Week

In our district, this week has been designated as "College Week." Our counselor has set up many great activities for the students this week including the staff dressing up in caps and gowns, teachers sharing diplomas, and the students dressing in their favorite college shirts and colors. We also discussed the importance of college in each our classes. To help the students set a goal, we created a grade-level banner to show what year the students would graduate from high school and be able to go to college. The students each put their handprints on the banner. We hung the banner in our hallway as a reminder of the importance of staying in school, graduating, and going to college. Additionally, after discussing all of the careers and jobs that require a college degree, the students wrote about why they wanted to go to college and what they want to be when they grow up. We hung these up on our classroom door along with a pennant from my favorite college, The University of Texas at Arlington. Go Mavericks!