WOW em!

So the first day of a new year is all about students having a great day and wanting to come back tomorrow! What better way to start the year than with a circus!

A New Year Begins - 2015!

The circus is in town! This is just a sampling of the "big top" atmosphere as you walk through the downstairs hall. Free admission to all who dare to dream. It really is the greatest show on earth!

 

Each year Chets Creek transforms itself yet again into something new and exciting!  Teachers work so hard to make the outside and inside of their rooms inviting.  They wouldn't have to go to so much trouble.  Many of them come in during the summer and lots of them work the entire week before teachers return.  It would be much easier to just spruce up last year's décor a little and bounce in the week that you are actually paid to be there.  So why do teachers do it?  I think they do it because they care so much.  At Chets Creek, it's really not a competitive thing.  It's more like you are lifting up each other and the new décor just says, this group of children is so special.  I love what I am doing and I want the children to be as excited as I am.  Whatever the reasons, it really does put a smile on your face as you walk down the hall!

Work-Over-Time 2015

This year our final bulletin board features a first grade student's writing.  We have had Adrian for two years and have watched him grow as a student, as a reader and writer, as a mathematician and also as a Scientist.  He is the total package! When I think of him in those first early days of kindergarten and then think of the strong young man he is today, I am just bursting with pride.  We titled this board from a Wizard of Oz quote, "You are capable of more than you think"  and added a beautiful background mural from a scene in the movie with work contributed by all of our first graders.

Adrian's first piece on this bulletin board is from the first day of Kindergarten when he was able to draw a picture with "amoeba" people (circles with arms and legs), tell us a story orally, and write his name.

Adrian entered kindergarten with a strong background, already recognizing letters and sounds and a few sight words.  He had been nurtured in the early years by a strong nuclear family where reading and writing were reinforced.  He was an eager learner.  It wasn't long before Adrian's writing took off. 

The board  has several more pieces including later kindergarten and early first grade writing.  The final piece is a realistic fiction piece, completed a few weeks ago, that is part of a series that he is writing about Dan, the sports guy.  Below is the piece and translation.

 One day there was a boy named Dan and he likes to play soccer.  He has a soccer game.  Dan said to his mother, "What happens if I don't make a goal?"  Mom said, "It will be fine. OK?"

Then it was time for the soccer game.  It started.  Dan had the ball first and he ran as fast as he could.  Then... he made it go so high it was almost higher than a humongous giant.  Then... it made it in the goal.

"That was amazing," said Dan.  "One to zero!" shouted one of his team mates.  Then BOOM!! "Aaaaaa!" said Dan.  He twisted his ankle so he had to stay out.  It was half time.  Dan was still hurt.

Then the other team scored. "One to one," shouted a player.  Then Dan believed he could do it with the twisted ankle, so he went out on the field.  He had a plan...  He kicked it

with his other foot and the last second he made a goal!!!!!!  Then everybody was amazed by him.  He was the extraordinary guy on his team so every game he plays, he believes that he wins!!!

Quite a transformation from an "amoeba" family to a complete story with dialogue, a beginning, middle and end, strong vocabulary, pictures with speech bubbles, and even craft! Adrian is so good at so many things, but I wouldn't be surprised if one day I am asking him for his autograph on his first published book!

Sleepover, 2015

One of the things I love the most about our annual First Grade Sleepover is the way that family's get involved in the event.  This year our theme is "...lions and tiger and bears. Oh my!" to go with our Wizard of Oz school theme.  One of the things that families are asked to do with their child is to make a lion, tiger or bear - stuffed animal for Sleepover.  The directions are emphatic that you don't have to sew and that the idea is simply to have fun with your child.  The week before they are due, we make stuffed animals/pillows with the children that come from the large mobile home community.  These children are mostly second language students and so we incorporate making the animals/ pillows during the day that we tutor after school in their community.  Parents are invited in to help stuff and make the creations but we supply all the "stuff."   The picture on the right below with the big bear show the pillows that the students made together after school at the MARC. 

A parent in the classroom volunteered to make four extra pillows, just in case another student showed up without one, and of course, they did, but for the parents that are actually able to work with their children to make something special, this becomes  a wonderful shared experience.  The pillows and animals come in the week before the event to they can be displayed in the lobby on the evening of Parent's Night.

On Parent's Night students come with their family to make a keepsake pillowcase.  Each student sends in a pillowcase (and we ask that parents that are able, to please send in an extra), so that we make sure to have a pillowcase for every student that shows up.  We had over 100 children show up with their families to make pillowcases!   The first grade teachers have plenty of stamps set out with acrylic paint so each child can work with his family to make a pillowcase.  As they leave, the students are given a little bag of Teddy Grahams.

It's just such a nice tradition!  Teachers who now have grown children talk about still having the pillowcase that their child made in first grade.

The actual day of Sleepover began with a parade filled with first graders in pajamas, dark halls, flashlights and glow-in-the-dark bracelets.  The students ended in the Dinning Room watching and meeting the Wizard of OZ characters while they ate breakfast and the Principal (in her red sock puppet pajamas... with footies!) lead a dance party where first grade teachers danced on the stage and students danced to all the popular kid songs.  

Then it's off to Center about literature run by the Resource Team.  The music teacher reads a children book about a party under the moon that includes singing and dancing, of course.

Coach provides an active outside game that included a read aloud!

Art read the popular Paddington Bear that ended with a painting art project.

And Mrs, KK, our Media Specialist ended our day with a shadow puppet show of one of our favorite books, Ira Sleeps Over complete with popcorn and dancing with a disco ball!

What an amazing day!

Follow the Bend in the Road

As we decided on our first standards-based bulletin board for the year, our Reading Coach, Melanie Holtsman, challenged us to take the lessons that we were teaching in Lucy Calkins' New Units of Study and to demonstrate the students' work as a result of some of the lessons.  It was an idea we had never presented before on a bulletin board so, of course, the challenge was interesting.  I'm always up for a challenge! Normally we like to take a finished genre of writing and show all the ways that a student has used what they have learned but on this board Melanie wanted us to look at student work after each lesson. We decided to accept the challenge with our bulletin board tied to our Wizard of Oz theme, Follow the Bend in the Road.

This was the "task" and standard.

Task

This year First Grade has embraced the new Writing Units of Study written by the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College under the direction of Lucy Calkins.  We are teaching this “Small Moments” Narrative unit for the first time.

As we opened our first days of Writing Workshop we reminded students of all that they loved about writing in Kindergarten and we welcomed them into a new year’s writing as authors.  We talked about their writing “muscles” and all the books that they were going to write!  We established the rituals and routines of the Workshop.

The lessons displayed on this bulletin board only address the first “bend” in the narrative unit.  The “bend” is like the first set of mini-lessons that go together.  The students stopped at this bend and celebrated their writing, before beginning the next leg of the journey.

Standards

LAFS.1.W.1.3
Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure. 


We looked at four different lessons.  This is a sample of an Introduction, the student work and the commentary from one of those lessons.

Translation: One time I went to my cousin's. It was my first time catching a lizard's tail. It was moving. My mom was there. I put it in the grass and my sister was there.  I went (back) in the afternoon. Then her lizard got stuck in the bush. Then I held the lizard's tail. Then I went to go wash my hands.

It's the little things

When I walked into my room this morning on the first day of school, I had a list a mile long of all the last minutes things I needed to do before the kids came in.  As I unlocked my door I glanced over at the bulletin board that highlights our summer reading and noticed all of the rainbow touches for our Wizard of Oz theme. We had worked so hard to put it all together so the children would be excited today and feel like they were walking into a magical place.  As I turned on the light I noticed a hand written note on a pad of hot air balloons, a handmade container with a chocolate bar and a rainbow pen.  The fact that our Principal had taken the time to write a sweet note - just warmed my heart.  Over the weekend she had visited every single class and left every single teacher a note.  We're not a faulty of 20 - We have 70-ish faculty members!  That she would take the time after we had left for the weekend to visit each classroom and write a note - well that absolutely blows me away!

On the first day of school there is always a WOW - something to excite children and just make them want to come back again tomorrow.  The WOW is always related to our theme.  So today we were treated to watching a hot air balloon!  Can you believe it? When we went outside it was lying flat on the ground and we watched as they heated up the air and the balloon.  And the next thing you know, there is our Principal floating away with Dorothy - just like the Wizard!

What an amazing day it has been!  There really is no place like Chets!

There's no place like Chets!

So... today we followed the yellow brick road to the Land of Chets, walking into the Emerald City by way of a hot air balloon, with the forest and Cowardly Lion on one side and Munchkinville on the other. I am continually amazed at the time and talent in our school.  KK Cherney, our Media Speicalist, with her sidekicks Karen Willet and Nikki Williams, spent weeks in the front Lobby preparing for our return (I might add that this is unpaid labor!)... and it was awesome!  There's something special about knowing that your colleagues care so much that they are willing to put so much of their heart into making the school such a special place for children and teachers.

We walked into the Dining Room with it's hot air balloons and rainbow balloon arches to find gifts of theme-related fun "stuff" - water and snacks, but also a calendar, a lanyard, a themed clipboard lovingly made by a retired employee, right out of Toto's basket.

Grade level skits always begin the day.  It's a chance for grade levels to show their creativity and fun.  My team presented a video this year - all recorded on an iphone!- all about "staying calm and clicking your heels."  It wasn't the video that was so special but the fun we had together making the video. That's what this first day is really about - getting to know each other.  Below is  my awesome 1st grade team - some of the most  talented and passionate teachers that I have ever known. Some of us have been together for years.  Some are new to our team and one is new to our school, but together we will do "oz-some" work this year!  So stay tuned...

First Grade Team

New teachers have a special place in our first day with a simple "hazing" activity where they have to create a poem, song, cheer in about 10 minutes time.  It's always fun to watch the newbies as they quickly bond with each other and always come up with something cute!  They end by repeating a pledge promising to have a sensational, fun-filled year!

Finally, there is always professional development and today it had to do with mission and leadership.  We divided into smaller groups and worked collaboratively - a message as to the kind of learning that should be going on in our classrooms.

Then we enjoyed a potluck lunch to remind us that this is a homecoming, a family reunion - a time for us to come together and remember all the reasons that we care about each other.

There is no place like Chets!