Stanford Trees

We are Readers!

2011-10-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Stanford Trees have been falling in love with reading! We are growing so much as readers, as we have been exploring and reflecting on what great readers do, and learning more about how to use our classroom library.

We have learned:

Some of our special places to read are...

What's YOUR special place to read???

Penguin Families

2011-09-30T09:33:00.001-07:00

We ended our penguin unit by turning our classroom into Antarctica and acting out penguin life as penguin families! We had made penguin puppets a couple days before to reinforce the physical characteristics of penguins, and why they need each of their body parts. We used our puppets to slide on ice, dive into water for fish, and care for our eggs.

Stanford Trees were so careful and deliberate about not letting their eggs touch the ice, and keeping them safe on their feet and on their brood pouch. We were so surprised when halfway through caring for our eggs, they hatched!!! Stanford Trees marveled at their fuzzy chicks with downy feathers. We had a great time!

Tide Pools at EPACS

2011-09-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, we got a wonderful visit from the Marine Science Institute. They brought creatures from our estuary, and let us explore and observe them with our five senses.

Our guides were so wonderful about explaining all about our creatures, and teaching us new vocabulary words!

Ask your first grader to explain:

Estuary

(The Mermaid)

Brackish water

Sea star

Penguins Here, Penguins There, Penguins, Penguins Everywhere!

2011-09-19T23:29:00.001-07:00

We have continued our penguin study exploring penguins' unique physical characteristics, their harsh environment, and how penguins' adaptations help them thrive in their environment.

We experienced first hand how waterproof feathers are critical to a penguin's survival by feeling the difference between ice on our bare hand, on a sock-covered hand, and on a waterproof glove.

Stanford Trees exclaimed

"The waterproof glove helps my hand from freezing just like the waterproof feathers help the penguin from freezing!"
"The penguin has waterproof feathers because the ice is so frigid!"

In Science, we explored how ice freezes, and made predictions and observations about the differences between water and ice.

We learned more about ice by reading about ice-filled Antarctica!

Stanford Trees couldn't believe how cold Antarctica is, but decided they would like to be one of the 4,000 scientists that travel to Antarctica each summer to learn more about the environment!

Antarctica!

2011-08-31T18:33:00.001-07:00

We have been exploring a penguin's environment, and learning all about their habitat. This past week, we explored a penguin's home--icy water, by building our own! Each Stanford Tree created their own penguin, and played like penguins do.

We explored the penguin's favorite place to be--icy water, by freezing water to make ice bergs. The Stanford Trees acted out hiding from leopard seals up on the ice berg, sliding on their bellies, and diving deep into the ocean to catch fish and krill. It was a blast playing like penguins do!

Doin' the Ornithologist Bugaloo!

2011-08-24T22:02:00.001-07:00

We have been spending the last two weeks transforming into Ornithologists as we study perhaps the funniest, most interesting bird of all--the PENGUIN! We have been partaking in...

Observation Charts

Narrative Input with the beautiful story A Mother's Journey

Collecting Facts on our Penguin Book Matrix

(The stories we have been reading are on the left, with the categories of the facts we have been collecting above.)

We have been reading so many stories, learning so many facts, and are realizing that the more we learn, the more we wonder!

First grades are wondering...

"Why are ice bergs so thick?"

"How do penguins climb up ice bergs?"

"Why is there sand in Antarctica?"

"Why is the water so cold in the Southern part of the globe?"

We have been keeping track of all our new knowledge in our very own Penguin Journals.

C-O-O-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N in Action!

2011-08-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

We have been learning all about cooperation -- working together to get the job done, and having fun doing it! It has been such a blast seeing our super stars explore math tools, learn math games, start workshop, and discuss complex ideas in partners and teams while showing cooperation. I love it!

Welcome to 2011-2012!!!!

2011-08-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

It is my pleasure and honor to welcome you to the 2011-2012 school year! I am so excited for what we have in store this year! The Stanford Trees are already off to a great start, and I have loved every moment I've had with them so far!

Here's a sneak-peak of the classroom before the students arrived:

We have already kicked off our Penguin Unit! Thanks so much to those of you who sent back your Home-School Communication form about Penguins! It was so fun learning about your knowledge of penguins, and how much you have to share with your kiddos!

Make sure to ask your student what new facts they are learning about penguins. We are working hard to collect facts each day in our explorations.

Here's a photo from one of our favorite activities with penguins this week, a penguin/human compare/contrast pictorial:

I can't wait to post more photos of our superstars working so hard as scientists, readers, writers and thinkers!

Garden Days!

2011-04-27T22:12:00.000-07:00

It has been so wonderful starting a new year of Garden Class! The Stanford Trees couldn't believe how much the garden had changed since last season, exclaiming that it looked like a brand new place! The wisteria is growing fast, making our outdoor classroom feel like a whole different world!

Last week, we had our first week of exploring in the garden, hunting for living things with our five senses.

Today, we had our second week of Garden Class, and each student got to plant their own plant in their very own pot, which they also got to paint! It was an eventful class!

Our gardeners were so artistic as they each decorated their plant's home.
While their art dried, we snooped the garden to find bees in action! We saw both honeybees and bumble bees pollinating flowers in the garden. We learned that bumblebees don't sting!

After our bee search, we came back to transplant our plants into their new homes.

Students then created their own book about their plant, counting the leaves, measuring its height, and making a prediction about how it would look when it reached full-growth. We can't wait to keep track each week!

These two superstars were highlighted as being super engaged, and participating actively during garden. They got the "Harvest Card," and got to harvest and enjoy THREE vegetables from the garden! They chose broccoli, snap peas, and mint to munch on in the garden. Congratulations, Jorge and Raul!

We Are Bee-ologists!

2011-04-27T21:22:00.001-07:00

Spring has sprung & the Stanford Trees are embarking on our bee-unit!!!

We have some serious bee experts on our hands, only mid-way through our first week of learning about bees!

So far, we have learned about the parts of the bee and each created our own bees that are now flying in our classroom library!

We have learned that like all insects, bees have three body parts: head,

thorax and abdomen. They have six legs, two antenna, and a stinger.

Stanford Trees are amazed that:

"Worker bees have a curved stinger, so their insides come out when they sting, and that's why they die after they sting someone!" --Jorge

"The worker bees do all the work, while the queen bee lays the eggs and the drone bees look for the queen bee to mate!" --Vanessa

"When bees go to find honey, to find their way back to their home they just follow the sun." --Yazil

"Different types of bees come from different places. The bees in the U.S. came from Europe!" --Rhonicia

"Queen bees can sting over and over again!" --Jesus

"If a new queen bee comes into a hive, the OLD queen bee must leave with honey in her belly and half the bees to start a new colony!" --Adrian

We have been working so hard to study bees in real expository books, and listening closely to the main idea in each section, and the details that support the main idea. We are keeping track of all we learn in our very own Beeologist Journals!

No Brains About It!

2011-03-02T20:10:00.001-08:00

We had the unique and incredible opportunity to observe real life brains today! The incredibly talented and amazing Ms. Mills extended an invite to the Stanford Trees that we couldn't possibly turn down to take a mid-day field trip to the seventh grade wing to observe all types of brains:

Whole, half, and slices of human brains.
Turtles, frogs, squirrel monkeys and owl brains.

The Stanford Tree Scientists were fascinated, and had countless questions and observations. I can already see we have some serious neuro-scientists on our hands!!! I loved being part of the marvelous experience, particularly the expressions on the Stanford Trees' faces!

Some observations from our 1st grade scholars:
"It looked like playdo and squishy." -Angel

"Today I saw a human brain. It looked big and we saw a frogs brain and we olso saw very tiny brains." --Yazil

"I like the frog's brain. It looked very small and interesting. It was very fun." --Esmeralda

"Today I saw two sizes. I saw a big brane and it was a hyumans brane and it kind of looked kind of naste and we saw frog branes and little branes." --Jesus

"Today I saw a real human brain. It looked scare creepe and interesting" --Adrian

Some questions our 1st grade scholars have:

" What do brains made of? What was the first day of a live brain?" --Vanessa

"I wonder what the yellow brain comes from?" -- Jorge

"How do people get brains?" -- Sheyla

"Why is a frog's brain so smowl?" --Esmeralda

"Why do branes have craks?"--Jocelyn

"Why they cut the brains when they ded." --Candelaria

"Why were the frog brains small?" --Joseph

Our Nation's Heroes

2011-02-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

We have been learning all about Our Nation's Heroes this month.

After reading President Obama's story written for his daughters, "Of Thee I Sing," our first graders had so many questions about these inspiring heroes that have shaped our history.

We have delved into learning more about their lives, and considering the great impact they had on our country.

Learning all about these heroes has inspired us to shape our history. We will continue to learn more about these heroes, and continue to dream big!

Many of us have taken an interest in learning more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, and are reading various books in Guided Reading. We all enjoyed reading "Martin's Big Words," and were so impressed and inspired by Martin's perseverance and commitment to bring peace and justice to all.

We read "Art From Her Heart," and learned about Clementine Hunter's beautiful art she created to give others insight into life on a plantation. We were inspired to create our own art by making self-portraits!

We are expository writers!

2011-02-13T14:30:00.000-08:00

In Writer's Workshop, we are learning all about how in expository writing, the author's purpose is to teach the reader more about a topic.

We have delved into topics we are experts in, and just had recently had a chance to learn from our expert peers! Here are some snapshots from an afternoon in Writer's Workshop.

You can see how we have many experts in the first grade!

Snooping in our garden...

2011-02-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

A fantastic organization named EVOLS recently came to teach us more about our environment--even what's in our own backyard! We grabbed our magnifying glasses and mini shovels and learned so much in our very own garden. We are so thankful to have discovered so much about living things!

100th Day of School!

2011-02-13T14:01:00.001-08:00

I've been a little behind on my blog updating! There is so much to update! We recently had our 100th day of school celebration! The Stanford Trees were so excited for the day, especially with all the festivities it entailed! Here are some snapshots from our celebration!

Around the world in 31 days!

2011-01-25T19:04:00.001-08:00

We are world explorers! We traveled to 6 countries in December and learned more about our incredible world! Each morning, we studied a new flag & added it to our World Explorer book, and learned a greeting from that country.

Without a doubt, one of our favorite parts of each day was breaking bread from each country and sharing in a new culture as we read about the country in a book.

Together, we enjoyed new tastes, like chapati (from Kenya), damper (from Australia), and Russian Rye bread.

We discovered similarities and differences within each country, and discovered what's unique! I learned so much from our explorations, and so enjoyed reading about these countries, eating new foods, and speaking new languages!

Here are some snapshots from our explorations.

I was most impressed at our final project--students chose a country to draw the flag for, and found facts to represent the country in expository books, on our class grid, and in their World Explorer books. Each student did a wonderful job representing the countries on their flag to hang in the classroom and teach our visitors!

Autumn Festivities!

2010-11-20T16:23:00.000-08:00

Autumn has been such a blast in Room 2! October was so super busy with a pumpkin cooking project, pumpkin painting with our parents, a fall festival with the kindergarten and first grade, and a Halloween Parade! Here are some photos that capture the highlights of October! Be sure to catch all the photos in the slide show. Thanks to all you parents who were able to come by for some of the events--we LOVED having you!!!

Rhonicia & her mom!

Jesus & his mom & little brother, Giovanni

Angel & his mom are all smiles :)

Joseph & his dad, Joseph Sr.!

Here are Mrs. Dhillon and me representing one of our class' favorite animals--the marvelous PENGUIN! We had so much fun waddling around together all day!

Here we are tasting our delicious pumpkin treat! Be sure to ask your student how to make our pumpkin pie recipe--they took home the recipe to try with their families!

Here we are at the Autumn Festival, checking out the "Mystery Tubs" & trying to guess what's inside using our Sense of Touch! I heard students describing the items in the tubs as "slimy, squishy, smooth, chunky, cool, and sticky"! I wonder what was inside...

Autumn is here!

2010-11-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how quickly Autumn is zooming by! It is almost Thanksgiving! Before we know it, we will be singing Christmas tunes and welcoming the new year!

We have been so busy learning all about Fall! We had an awesome time learning all about pumpkins in Science, and exploring them in Math Workstations!

We explored five stations in Math Workshop, and we kept track in our very own "My Pumpkin Investigations" book:

We counted all the bumps on our bumpiest pumpkins.

We weighed our pumpkins in pennies.

We estimated how many seeds were inside a pumpkin--then opened it up to count them!

We compared and contrasted two very different pumpkins!

We traced our pumpkin, and counted how many triangle pattern blocks fit inside.

We learned so much from our pumpkin investigations, and how each and every pumpkin is so very different!

Measuring Madness!

2010-10-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

We had a blast measuring our desks with things from our room: tens rods, popsicle sticks, counting bears, geo boards, hexagons--you name it!!! Did you know our desks are 7 geoboards long, and 28 counting bears long?? I wonder how many dimes long the desk would be!?

Latin America Celebration!

2010-10-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last month, EPACS hosted a tremendous Latin America Celebration for the community! The Stanford Trees learned a wonderful song they performed for the whole school, and made flags from each country with their parents! Here are some highlight photos from the wonderful event! Our Spanish Teacher, Mrs. Przbila did an incredible job working hard to coordinate the whole event. Thanks, Mrs. Przbila, and thank you Trees for participating!!!

My brother, Juan Carlos and sister-in-law, Greta came to enjoy the great performances and delicious food! They were excited to meet so many Stanford Trees!

Marine Science Institute!!

2010-10-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

The Marine Science Institute visited our classroom with amazing creatures! We spent the morning exploring our own mini tide-pools. We had fantastic instructors who taught us about how to pet fish gently and hold sea stars, urchins, and other incredible sea animals. We learned so much about tides and how these creatures survive the rising and falling tides each and every day.

My favorite animal must've been the decorator crab--it grabs things from the ocean to decorate its back and camouflage itself!!! How awesome is that!?

This week in Room 2!

2010-09-08T18:34:00.001-07:00

This week in Room 2, we are beginning Expository Writing in Writer's Workshop! Today, we had our first opportunity to write expository text, after we examined a flower from our school garden with our five senses. My writers blew me away with how quickly the picked up the skill of writing to teach their reader, including sensory details, and observing as scientists! Here are a few snapshots from our first day of expository writing! Stanford Trees should feel so proud of themselves!

Here is Emilio wearing the hard worker hat because he was working SO hard during writing!!!!

Literacy Night Fun!

2010-09-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone who made it to Literacy Night last week! It was such a success. Mrs. Dhillon & I had so much fun leading you through our Morning Meeting with a Greeting, Message, and Activity!
It was so much fun waddling around to greet one another like penguins do, reading our message in English & Spanish,
and learning two new activities to play at home with your child: High Frequency Word Bingo, and Speedy Readers

I had a blast and hope you enjoyed the night as much as I did!

EPACS & EPAPA Bbq at the park

2010-08-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

EPACS & EPAPA had our first joint event at the park this Saturday! We had so much fun enjoying the beautiful day in the park with great people, delicious food, frisbees, and bocce ball!

Student of the Month: August!!!

2010-08-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS to our first two students of the month!!!

Candelaria and Esmeralda are both our Stanford Tree students of the month for August! They have earned their award for 100% effort and participation. They are amazingly hard workers!

Penguin Role-Playing and Fantastic Fun Friday!

2010-08-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun role-playing as Emperor Father, Mother, and Chick Penguins on a giant iceberg on Friday! We role-played keeping emperor eggs safe on our feet, away from the ice and warm under our feathers with the penguins we made on Thursday. When Mother Penguins got tired of keeping their eggs safe, the Father Penguins let the Mothers take a break and go dive into the icy cold ocean for penguin food: krill, squid and fish!

Soon enough, the emperor eggs were ready to hatch! We were surprised to find baby chicks with fluffy downy feathers inside to keep them warm. Again, we protected them from the ice on our brood patch. We learned in our reading this week that chicks don't grow waterproof feathers until they are adults. Then, they are ready to jump into the ocean to find their own food.

After our fun of acting-out penguin life, we got to watch The March of the Penguins for Fantastic Fun Friday!!! We sat in wonder as we watched real-life penguins waddle, slide on their bellies, and march, just as we'd been reading about in our expository stories. It was incredible! We can't wait to continue our penguin reading this week, and finish the movie at Fantastic Fun Friday next week!

Penguin Facts

2010-08-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

We have been working so hard to listen for facts in our expository stories, and have been collecting all our facts in our special penguin journals!

Tiger Buddies!

2010-08-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

Last week, we met our Tiger Buddies from Mr. Crosby's class! We had so much fun adding vocabulary words to our penguin journals, and showing them all the fun facts we're learning!

We are so lucky to have such amazing fourth grade friends! We are excited to learn a lot from Mr. Crosby's Stanford class, and have so much fun together all year long!

Publishing party & more penguin fun!

2010-08-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time sharing our pieces with a real-life audience at our first publishing party last week! The Stanford Trees and I were so thankful to have so many parents come join us in celebrating our hard work in Writer's Workshop!

We can't wait for our next writer's celebration!

After our celebration, we had more fun with penguins learning about why penguins have such thick coats of feathers. We tested out how we felt holding ice in our bare hands, versus ice in our hands covered with socks!

We all voted for a hand covered with feathers. :) We will be learning more about penguin bodies tomorrow during our science adventures!

How do YOU compare in size to an Emperor Penguin???

2010-08-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

We had a blast today learning that an emperor penguin is just our size! 18 students predicted they would be taller than the emperor penguin, but it turns out that most of us are just a bit shorter than the emperor penguin, and only three of us are taller.

After we compared our size to a penguin's, we made our own life-size drawings of ourselves, and compared our features to a penguin's features. Tomorrow, we will learn more about why the penguin has those features.

Tomorrow is our Publishing Party!!! We hope to see you at 12:30 to celebrate your child's published piece and hard work!!

Penguin Homes!

2010-08-15T16:28:00.001-07:00

This Friday, we learned all about what a penguin home is really like, by making our own! The Stanford Trees each made their own black and white penguin, and explored their penguin home by sliding around on icebergs we froze ourselves, gobbling up fish, and diving into their favorite place to play--icy cold water. We had so much fun waddling around class like penguins, and playing just like penguins do!

This week, we will be learning how to read for information this week, as we begin with The March of the Penguins book.

Please ask your child each night what fun facts they have been learning about in the stories we've read.

Antarctica!

2010-08-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Our penguin unit is well underway! As scientists, we explored ice and how it freezes, and read a story about Antarctica. We are learning more about the emperor penguin, as well as a seal.

We are focusing on making connections as we read. As we listened to our Antarctica story, we listened to connections we had to the animals in the story. We learned many new feelings words:

excitement
nervous
afraid
upset
surprised
content

Stay tuned for more adventures with penguins!

This week in room 2...8/9-8/13

2010-08-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

This week in Room 2,

We will be starting an exciting unit on PENGUINS!!! Our vocabulary words for today are:

shelter

danger

nuzzle

Our letter of the day is P
PENGUIN! popcorn, presents, pop, pig, pear, peach
What P words do you know?

Welcome!

2010-08-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year in the Stanford Tree classroom--the most fun place to be. I am so excited to start this blog...a dream I've had for quite a while!!! This will be a great place to post the millions of photos I take of all the fun we're having in Room 2.