Robots! Robots! Robots!

To conclude our unit on inventors, the students became inventors themselves. They were asked to bring in two boxes covered in foil. In class they planned and designed their robots and then glued them together with my help. The students were very creative and the robots turned out amazing! The kids are pretty cute, too!

An Awesome Dog

Through one of our Empowering Writers lessons, the students wrote about awesome dogs. They could write about their own dog or another dog. They described what their dog looked like, what it could wear, and what it would say if it could talk. We then had a mini art lesson on how to draw animals using simple shapes such as circles and ovals. They then added details of their choosing to match their writing.

Name Parts of a Set

To quickly review parts of a set, the students colored their names to sort the vowels and consonants. They then counted how many vowels were in their name out of the whole set and how many consonants out of the whole set. This mini lesson can be found on my TpT store.

Measuring Length

The students worked in small groups to measure various objects around the room. They measured with a variety of units including Base Ten Blocks, paper clips, color tiles, etc. They then compared the length of their objects to those of other groups.

Mother's Day Gifts

Using the online program Tagxedo, the students typed words to describe their mother. They chose from one of the heart shapes and many color themes to personalize it. I then printed their hearts in color and cut them out. Using a roller, they ModPodged their hearts on ceramic tiles.

GPISD Elementary Teacher of the Year!

Last Tuesday I was honored to be chosen as Grand Prairie ISD's Elementary Teacher of the Year! There is a saying that individually we are just one drop of water but together we are an ocean. This award would not have been possible without my family, the teachers who have mentored me throughout my career, and the amazing group of people I get to work with at Moseley daily!

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.

Comparing David Shannon Stories

After reading A Bad Case of Stripes and Too Many Toys by David Shannon, the students created Venn Diagrams to compare the stories. After creating their diagrams in small groups, they independently created foldables to show their understanding. On the top flap, they wrote the title "Comparing Stories by David Shannon." On the second flap, they wrote one thing that was the same for both of the stories. On the third and fourth flaps, they wrote how the two stories were different. But, the things that they chose as different had to relate back to how they were both the same. For example, if they chose that they both had a setting, they had to then explain how the settings were different from one another. If they chose that both books had problems, they had to explain the problems for both books. The purpose of this lesson was to build a deeper understanding of the elements that make up fiction stories.

David Shannon Author Study

While reading David Shannon books, we also learned about him as an author and illustrator. We watched a short interview with him from Scholastic and then created a Circle Map about facts learned. The students used the Circle Map to write a shared writing piece about him.

Too Many Toys

As a part of our David Shannon author study, we read Too Many Toys. The students retold the beginning, middle, and end. They also completed story maps to explain the characters, setting, problem, and solution. As an extra lesson, the students created a character traits template about the book's main character, Spencer. They described what he looked like, important information about him, and what they would do if they were him.

A Bad Case of Stripes

To learn about the elements and features of fiction story, we read various David Shannon books. One of the books we read was A Bad Case of Stripes. After reading, the students created a Story Map to explain the characters, setting, problem, and solution. In a separate lesson, not pictured, they also retold the beginning, middle, and end. After concluding our lessons over this book, the students created art to display with their work during Daily 5 time.

 

Inventors Research

We visited the computer lab on Thursday so the students could research an inventor of their choice on their own. We use PebbleGo as our main online research tool. I love PebbleGo because the students can choose to have the information read to them and the words are highlighted as it is read which naturally leads them to read along. There are also historical videos imbedded within the biography section. After choosing an inventor to research, the students listened to each section and recorded at least two facts per section on their student-created Circle Maps. Next week they will use their Circle Maps to write a research paper independently. They will get to share their papers with their classmates and become the "expert" on their inventor.

Thomas Edison and The Light Bulb

In Social Studies the students are learning about various inventors and their contributions to society. The first inventor they are learning about is Thomas Alva Edison. To learn about him, the students researched him on PebbleGo, watched a short video about him on Discovery Education, and created timelines of his life. Using the information that they learned, they created a Bubble Map together which they then used to write a shared research paper. I typed their words to save time since this was a last minute, extra lesson but they told me exactly what to say - I think they enjoyed telling the teacher what to do! I printed their paper out on our poster machine. The students also brainstormed various modern day technologies we would not have without the invention of the light bulb. The students illustrated and labeled nine things that use a light bulb.

 

3D Shape Sort

This lesson is from a while back but I forgot to post about it. When we were learning about the attributes of 3D shapes, we visited the computer lab to create Tree Maps to sort real life examples of those shapes. The students drew there on lines for the Tree Map, used the search feature in the clipart for the 3D shape headers, and then looked through the various clipart images for examples. They had to use the skill of "click, hold, and drag" to move the clipart.