A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Today the students created Bubble Maps to brainstorm all of their favorite things from First Grade. After the Thinking Maps were complete, I compiled their words into a collage using an online program, Wordle. Wordle is a great way to have students practice their spelling and typing in a fun and creative way. Here is the Wordle of the students' favorite things from this year:




To see a larger image, you will need to click on the picture above which will take you to a new window. The image can also be printed.

You're Invited: Reader's Theater Performances

You're Invited! As a reminder, the first grade classes are hosting a reader's theater presentation this Friday, the 28th, beginning at 2:30PM in the cafeteria. Each class will perform their own short play followed but a couple of reader's theaters performed by the entire grade. Please join us as the students showcase and celebrate all of their reading accomplishments!

Career Day

Today Moseley had their annual Career Day. First grade had the opportunity to hear from professionals in law enforcement and safety. The students learned about how to stay safe from an area police officer. As a part of his presentation the students learned about "stranger danger" from McGruff, the crime fighting dog. To learn more about McGruff, you can visit his website which is a part of The National Crime Prevention Council. The site has many child-centered activities that focus on putting safety first. The students also learned about fire safety from the Grand Prairie Fire Department. The officers demonstrated their protective clothing, how some of their tools work, and gave the students a chance to look around their truck. The firefighters emphasized the importance of not only practicing fire drills at school but at home also. Homefiredrill.org is a great resource to help get this practice in place in your home if you do not already have a fire safety plan.

Time For Kids

As you've seen with the issues that come home, our grade level subscribes to Time Magazine for Kids. The kids love the magazine not only because it is on their independent reading level but also because the articles are easy for them to relate to. A very important aspect of learning to be a good reader is being able to make connections to texts. To enjoy some of the features of the magazine at home this summer, check out The Time Magazine for Kids webpage created specifically for kids. The site is updated frequently with current events put into terms that your child can understand.

Texas: The Big Picture

Last week and this week we are studying the various ecosystems in the seven Texas regions. Along with their geographical features and weather, we are exploring and comparing the different animals that depend upon these regions. We are also reviewing the various Texas symbols. To learn more about the Texas regions and for more fun activities, you can visit the Texas Parks and Wildlife website. At the conclusion of our lessons last week, the first grade classes joined together to watch the short film Texas: The Big Picture. The video shows the various landforms from the seven regions as well as past and modern history and culture of Texas. The video can be seen in the IMAX theater of The Bob Bullock Museum in Austin. If you are going to be in the area, it is a great place to visit for the whole family.

Literacy Luau

As a part of the family fun nights at Moseley, we recently had a "Literacy Luau" to promote a love of reading. In first grade we had two great activities: Making Beach Words and Beach Concentration. In Making Words, the students had to see how many words they could make from a set of letters. When all of the letters were used, they made a mystery word related to the beach. In Beach Concentration, the students played the old fashioned game of Memory but with a twist - they had to match the picture to its word card.

I Can Be An Inventor, Too!

In Social Studies we have been studying many inventors, past and present. Our focus was on Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. As a part of our study the students were able to make their own robots. As we learned, an important part of inventing is having a patent. To prove that they were the inventors of their robots, the students had to first make a plan and document it in their Inventor's Notebook. They also had to draw a diagram of what they wanted their robot to look like after they chose all of their robot parts. After building their robots, the students wrote papers about them including their name, what problem they could solve, and how. The students were very creative!

The Nature Center

With the end of the school year quickly approaching I have not been able to update the class blog as often as I would like to. But, hopefully this slideshow is worth the wait! At the conclusion of our garden and life cycle unit we were able to visit the district's Nature Center to explore many types of plants in various stages of growth. We were also able to visit the pond habitat, a creek, and see many insects, birds, and other animals along the way.

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In the Garden

This six weeks we have been studying the garden habitat. From examining real earthworms to measuring and drawing insects, we have explored the different living and nonliving things that work together in a garden. Below you can get a glimpse of the many lessons and activities we did across all subject areas related to the garden habitat.

Slideshow design made with Smilebox

Earth Day Book Swap

To celebrate Earth Day, we talked about reusing things we already have around the house. Below are a few snapshots from Moseley's first annual Earth Day Book Swap.

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Additive Artwork

A few weeks ago we reviewed patterns by creating additive pattern artwork. The students first built their additive patterns out of color tiles and then recreated those patterns on black paper using one inch paper squares. Enjoy a quick slideshow of the students at work.

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Earth Day Book Swap

Earth Day Book Swap
April 22, 2010

Do you have old books lying around the house
that you’ve already read but no longer need?
Instead of letting them go to waste, recycle them!

The Moseley Green Team is hosting an Earth Day Book Swap!
Beginning Monday, April 19th, and ending Wednesday, April 21st,
you may bring in gently used books to your classroom.
When you bring in a book, your teacher will give you a Book Swap Ticket.

On Earth Day, Thursday, April 22nd, you may visit the First Grade Common Area to use your ticket to trade for a different gently used book that a fellow classmate has brought.

You may bring in as many books as you would like to trade.

The Earth Day Book Swap is a great way to get

new reading material for your home library for free!

Egg Hunt and Spring Party

Last Thursday the kids had a great time celebrating Spring. We started our day by creating "bunny bags" which they later used to collect eggs at the annual egg hunt. Following the egg hunt, the kids enjoyed a snack while relaxing with their buddies. Below are a few pictures of the egg hunt and Spring party. There aren't many of the actual egg hunting because the kids were so fast!

Casa Manana Field Trip

As a conclusion to our Language Arts lessons on comparing versions of Cinderella, our class visited Casa Manana in Fort Worth to watch their new production of Cinderella. The students seemed to really enjoy the play. Following the play we went to a local park to have a picnic and play for a few minutes. Enjoy the quick pictures from the field trip.

Baby Beluga: Pride Rally Share

A few weeks ago the students had the opportunity to share at Pride Rally what they have been learning. After researching the Beluga Whale as a class, each student wrote one learned fact on a Beluga Whale shaped piece of notebook paper. The whales were then assembled into a Bubble Map. At Pride Rally the students read their facts. At the conclusion of their share time, students sang "Baby Beluga." Below are a few pictures from Pride Rally.

Open House: Ocean Adventures

This is a little late coming, but thank you to all of the families who came to Open House. We had a great time. Over this last six weeks the students explored the Ocean Habitat in cross-curricular lessons. The students began by researching about a specific ocean animal in the library with Ms. Tricoli. They then used their research notes to write, edit, and revise research papers. Using their research papers, the students created slides on the computer about their animals. After creating their slides, the students typed and recorded themselves reading one fact about their ocean animal. The slides were compiled into an ocean video. (The video will be posted at a later time after modifications are made.) The students also read numerous books about the ocean, created math word problems with fish, and reviewed the parts of a plant with a study of Kelp. Students were able to experiment with the ocean habitat by making an "ocean in a bottle." Below is a quick video of the students' hard work.

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Phonics and Reading Help

If your child is struggling with their reading or seem to have lost interest, check out the BBC's Words and Pictures website. This website has great games and printables for all of the various stages of reading learning. You can use this site to target your child's reading progress at home. For example, if you notice that your child does not consistently read the long vowels correctly, you can visit their Long Vowel Sounds page. If they are struggling with their common sight words, you can visit their High Frequency Page.

Weekly Reminders

This week is a very busy week in first grade!

• As a reminder, we have a field trip this Wednesday morning to Casa Manana in Fort Worth. We will be watching "Cinderella" and then having a picnic lunch. Please remember that your child needs a sack lunch for this field trip.
• On Thursday afternoon we will be having our Spring Party at 2:45PM in the grassy area behind the library. The students will be hunting candy-filled eggs. Each child needs to bring one dozen candy-filled eggs by Thursday morning. Please do not put chocolate in the eggs as it quickly melts.
• Lastly, as a reminder, there is no school this Friday. Enjoy the long weekend with your family!

Check back in with the blog often to see some pictures from these fun events!

"Eggs"perimenting with Teeth

Yesterday we made predictions about what we thought would stain teeth by soaking eggs in three liquids: water, grape juice, and soda. The students journaled about their predictions and today in the science lab we tested our predictions. We found that the soda and grape juice stain the eggshell but the water did not. The students concluded that the water was the best thing for their teeth. In the lab today the students also explored several different tooth-related stations. At one station they were able to see what would clean a grape-juice stained tile the best: store-bought toothpaste or homemade baking soda toothpaste. The students got to make their own toothpaste as a class. At another station they practiced flossing properly with an egg carton and yarn. To practice the correct brushing motion, the students colored cavities on laminated teeth and then used an eraser to "brush" away the cavity. At another station, they explored the pressure teeth has on food by using pliers and scissors on pretzels. At another station, they drew themselves with healthy smiles and wrote sentences explaining how to keep them healthy. They also had a chance to read all about teeth. Enjoy a slideshow of their explorations and experiments.

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All Sorts of Graphing

Yesterday we explored and created three kinds of graphs: real-object, picture, and bar-type graphs. First the students voted on which type of cracker was their favorite: Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, or Animal Crackers. Goldfish crackers won by a landslide. After completing a bar-type graph together with this data, the students each got a cup full of the three crackers. Each student chose eight of the crackers at random to place on their real-object graph. The students loved comparing their graphs to one another. After completing their real-object graphs, the students replicated it using pictures. The students then went around reporting how much of each cracker they had in their cup to compare least, greatest, or equal to. Below a slideshow below of the students graphing:

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