The Little Red Hen Sequencing and Planting a Garden

On Tuesdays and Thursdays our class is fortunate to have an intern, Mrs. Sanford, from Dallas Baptist University assist in our class for a few hours as a part of her coursework. Today she taught a fantastic integrated Language Arts and Science lesson to the students. Mrs. Sanford started her lesson by greeting the students at the door and having them choose an animal card. The animal cards correlated to the book she was going to read during her lesson. She red The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton and as she read, the students sequenced the events in the story using picture cards and the Follow the Yellow Brick Road Retelling cards from The First Grade Parade.

Mrs. Sanford then had the students transition to the Promethean Board where they reviewed, wrote, and repeated the defition of sequencing. At the board, they reviewed various transition words that can be used to make writing more interesting. They then decided which transition words to use on the class Flow Map. After deciding this, students built their own garden in a large container. Mrs. Sanford explained how to plant seeds and the needs of plants. As she explained the steps, the students followed the multi-step directions. With each step, the students used interactive writing to record the steps they took on a Flow Map on the Promethan Board.

After planting the miniature garden and sequencing the events on a Flow Map, the students wrote the events using complete sentences on a flower template. On the petals of the flower, the students wrote transition words. The students were engaged the entire lesson. Mrs. Sanford and the students did an excellent job!

Research: Broad to Narrow Topic

This week we began a new research project. The students are learning more about how to use a variety of sources to find factual answers to questions. To begin, the students brainstormed a variety of research topics which we added to a Circle Map on our Promethean Board. We then talked about how some of the research topics could go in the same categories. The students then worked in small groups to write down at least 12 of the topics on notecards which they then sorted into conceptual categories. They then went on a gallery walk to see how each group sorted their cards. Back on the class Circle Map, we highlighted the topics that we thought went together. To go along with our science unit over plants and since it is Spring, we decided to research the garden habitat. Using the topics that we grouped together under the conceptual category of gardens, we discussed how you could have a broad topic about the garden or choose one specific part of the garden habitat to research.

The next day, we reviewed the various question words. In small groups, the students brainstormed questions they had about the garden habitat. We added them to a flipchart on our Promethean Board. If more than one group had the same or a similar question, we placed a check mark next to the question. This let us know which questions our class found the most important. After finding the questions our class found the most important, the students then voted on which was their favorite question that they would like to ask our garden expert. We will be having a garden expert visit our school next week and we will be emailing questions to another local plant expert.

On the third day, the students chose six questions that they felt were related and wrote them on a their research plan handout. Noticing that most of the questions they had brainstormed were about either the plants in a garden or the insects in a garden, they were then able to narrow down their broad topic of garden habitat to one of two more narrow topics: Plants in the Garden and Insects in the Garden. Of course this could be narrowed down more but for first grade, this is sufficient. Next week the students will be using a variety of sources to find answers to their research questions and then they will create a visual display based on their findings.

A First Look At Plants

To introduce our study of plants and the garden habitat, we created a KWL Chart on our Promethean Board. The students first shared what they know about plants and gardens. They then brainstormed things they wondered or wanted to know. We then watched the video AFirst Look: Plants on Discovery Education. They then shared what they learned about plants and gardens and we added it to our KWL chart.

Beluga Whale Research

Did you know Beluga Whales are often called the "canaries of the sea?" As a part of our oceans unit, each first grade class chose a different whale to research. Our class chose the Beluga Whale. We used a variety of sources to find interesting facts about the whale but our favorite was PebbleGo because the online source includes actual videos and sound clips of the Beluga Whale. The students used interactive writing to chart their research findings on a Circle Map using our Promethean Board. They then used their finished Circle Map to help them write a shared research paper. Before writing, we discussed that good writing should include a "hook" to get the reader interested followed by the important facts including what the whale looks like, where it lives, what it eats, special adaptations it may have, and any other interesting facts that want to share. Each student took a turn writing a phrase or sentence while the other students provided spelling and grammar support.

Bubble Burst: Odd Numbers

Now that we have the Promethean Board in our class, we have been doing a variety of review games from various websites. One of the students' favorite games is Bubble Burst. In this game, the students have to pop all of the bubbles with odd numbers in them. During these mini-reviews, one student gets to be "Board Boss" and choices a student to play who is showing the good behavior characteristics from our Capturing Kids' Hearts Social Contract. I love this game because it is highly engaging for the students without being overwhelming on the graphics side but also because the students have to work together to rationalize quickly which would be odd and which would be even. The students work well together to tell one another which to choose and why.