January Updates

January has gone by so quickly and we are ready to talk Valentine's Day and 100 Day already.  Guess what.....both of those BUSY events are on the same day this year due to school closings from hurricane Sandy.  Go ahead and say it....."That STINKS!"  There is even worse news.  We are also scheduled to get our class photo taken that day so dressing up like we are 100 years old is out this year.  Go ahead and say it again..."That stinks!" I am so bummed! Hopefully, we will have a snow storm between now and Feb. 14th so school can be closed one more day. That would solve this problem, I tell ya! (in my Junie B. voice)

Oh well, time to focus on the good things we have been doing in January.

We were "head hunters" with our sight words.  We each got a word on our foreheads and a list.  We had to go around reading one another's foreheads and connecting the word  to the name of the child it was on.  See the list below.  We didn't know what word we had on our own head until the end of the game.  I had a good laugh watching how serious everyone was with a sticker on their head.

 

In math, we have been working with place value.  Here is Ian and table 4 exploring with the base ten blocks before we had the lesson of the day.  Got to get the play factor out first with new manipulatives!

 

I promise we only "explored" with them for a few minutes!  cough... cough

 

Since we have had so many inside recess days this month I have been trying to think of ways to get the kids moving during the day.  Here you see a place value hunt the kids went on around the room.  When they found a place value card they had to record the number it showed.  If they found an exercise card along with it, they had to read and do the movements.

 

Another place value lesson that went well was using cereal as our tens and ones.

 

 

Thank goodness for YouTube videos that get us up and moving too on inside recess days!

 

 

 

Keep your fingers crossed for a snowstorm in South Jersey so 100 day can be as fun as I want it to be in first grade this year!!!!!!!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Oh What A Feeling

I was voted teacher of the year!  Oh, what a feeling of honor I have.  I am so very grateful for my career and for each and every student I have taught in the past 20 years.  Absecon is a wonderful community and I have been so blessed to have been a part of this school system.  Every teacher in our school is outstanding and puts their best foot forward each and every day.  Being recognized among them all is so exciting.  Thank you so very much!