Fires, spiders, and other things :)

This week, we finished up studying fire safety. We'd colored our firemen last week but had run out of time. We read Firefighters on Raz-Kids as a class and then discussed all the things firefighters do for us. The students created their own tree maps for firefighters. They used the tree maps to write sentences about their firemen. This was the first time that the students were responsible for their very own words in their tree maps. I was so impressed by how well they listened and could follow directions for writing their sentences! They really did a wonderful job.

We also created Thinking Maps for fall. We discussed our schema (yay we remembered the word!) and I asked them to do a Circle Map, or a Tree Map if they wanted to challenge themselves. They really turned out great! These kiddos really understand Thinking Maps, and they seem to enjoy them. We are understanding that they help us to organize our thinking so that we can better understand these topics.

We also talked about spiders this week. With Halloween around the corner, it's always fun to incorporate a little bit of scary things into our schedule. :) We read Itsy Bitsy Spider one day and talked about our sequencing words to retell the story. The kids were very excited to learn all the new verses in the song. We made connections to the character by having a discussion of what we would do if we were the spider. Would we keep trying hard to climb up things or would we just go home and take a nap? :) We got some pretty funny answers.

We also researched spiders on PebbleGo and used the information we learned to create a Tree Map as a class. I made a SmartExchange tree map so that the kids could actually manipulate the words themselves. We used our Airliner to move the words on the screen. It was the first time that I've let the kiddos use this form of technology, and I was SO proud of how well they did. They truly listened to the rules and were very gentle with everything. Basically, the Airliner is connected to the computer wirelessly so it can be used like a remote pad to control the computer. The kids can hold it anywhere in the room to manipulate the mouse on the computer. It's very fun, very hands-on, and very tech-savvy! :) Then I had the kids make their own tree maps and write sentences about spiders. It was a great activity full of learning and hard work!

We also made scarecrows for long a week. Then we wrote stories about what we would do if we were scarecrows. The kids had a fun time coming up with creative things that they would do if they were scarecrows. I was also proud of how they colored really well. We did a whole lesson on tracing and coloring in the lines, so I'm seeing hard workers doing their best!

After the kids did such a great job with the Airliner, I wanted to incorporate it more throughout the day. In math groups one day, we worked on subtraction stories and identifying numbers on a ten-frame. What a fun way to integrate technology throughout our day!

We created sun dioramas and researched the sun on PebbleGo as well. We used our information to help us study light and heat for our science lessons. I'm glad that the kids love PebbleGo so much. It really is a wonderful resource. The first grade teachers actually wrote a grant last year so that we could purchase it for our school because we love it so much! :)

To finish off our week, we read There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. No matter how many times anyone has read this book, it's always a riot. To practice retelling the story, we made an old lady puppet using a paper sack, and we colored our different animals to "feed" her. We found the song online so of course we had to have a couple sing-alongs. We then made a Double-Bubble Thinking Map to compare TWAOLWSAF to There Was An Old Monster that we'd read during monster week. The kids did another wonderful job, of course!

We also got another extra recess on Friday! Our class won the sticker competition for the week again. I was so proud of them, so we got to enjoy the beautiful weather. :)