Properties Scavenger Hunt

Our Elementary Science Program kit that we are working on now is an exploration of properties.  One of the lessons is a properties scavenger hunt.  I take a "property" word and secretly put it into a bag.  The teams then have to find 5 things that fit that particular property and put them in the bag. We then gather on the carpet and the teams put out their items and the class has to guess what the property owrd was based on the items.  They did a great job and had a really fun time!  If you study properties at all, give it a try!

First a bunch of pictures of cute kids while they were "on the hunt"!

And now some of the items in the property bags!

Rachel's Challenge

This year, our school is participating in Rachel's Challenge.  It is a program that focuses on kindness and the power of one person being able to start a chain reaction.  We are only 14 days into the school year and I am already feeling the positive energy in our school.  To read more about Rachel's Challenge, click HERE.

                                            

We have a team in our school that is working on implementing this program this year and they have come up with some great things for our kids to do.  The lesson plans that came as a part of the program are very age appropriate and we did the first one for first grade yesterday.  We read the book Giraffes Can't Dance.  We discussed people's differences and talked about kindness.  I thought that this was a great book BEFORE and now I am just as sure!

After we read the story and discussed the acts of kindness shown, we completed the September page in our Rachel's Challenge journals.  The prompt was "I am kind when I......." Here are some of the responses from my very KIND firsties!

I am kind when I raise my hand to not make the class stop learning.

I am kind when I include people.

I am kind when I help my Mom put things in my camper.

Stay tuned this year for more Rachel's Challenge posts!

21st Century Kids!

This is by far my favorite teaching tool recently! 

 In the past few years, I have taken pictures on my regular camera and by the end of the year, the students would ask me to take pictures and post them on the blog.  This year, I had kids asking me on Day 1 asking me to take pictures.  I don't even think they even KNEW about my blog at that point!

Now it is not unusual to see me with my phone in hand snapping pics throughout the day.  I have even sent kids to my desk to grab my phone.  Don't fear....I have an Otterbox cover....it could be dropped from a skyscraper and not be damaged....and, luckily, first graders aren't that high off the ground!

What is your favorite teaching tool????????

My love/hate relationship with F&P

My district has adopted the Fountas and Pinnell Phonics program.  I am very happy about this! (This is the LOVE in the love/hate) We had not had a formal phonics program until now and this gives me what I love....a logical system that makes sense. 

That being said.........

This program has fantastic resources that are consistent and easy to follow. (Do you feel the love?)

The one thing that I DO NOT love is that I don't know how to organize the materials so that they make sense!  (OK....maybe hate is too strong a word, but it is frustrating)

If there is anyone out there using this program and have found a way to logically organize, PLEASE let me know.

Question

Hey there bloggy peeps!  I have a question! When I comment on someone else's blog, how do I make it so that the direct link to my blog appears after my name?

Jumping Right IN!

Well, I have been working hard at posting over at my classroom blog so that I can hook some parents onto commenting!  My goal this year was to get more parent traffic on that blog.

Hop over and see what we have been up to at

Mrs. Faas' First Grade  

Also----any suggestions for how to get parents more involved in posting on the blog?????

Thanks!

Great First Day

We had a great first day of first grade! 3 teeth fell out today. One of my students lost one of his front teeth this morning and the other one this afternoon! Too tired to post too much more than that!

New Blog Design!

I feel a little like a kid on Christmas morning.  I have a new blog design and I love it.  I love the experience and learning that I have done while designing my blog over the past couple of years but when I hit 100 followers, I started to consider giving my blog a makeover!  
Enter Barb at Ruby Slippers Blog Design...
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Go and visit her!  She does beautiful work!

Thanks Barb!