Teamwork in Action!

The first CARES trait we studied was Cooperation, and we focused on Teamwork in table groups through Math Exploration.  

The Macaroni Penguin table set a fantastic example for the rest of the class on how to work together!:

We had so much fun exploring manipulatives, and creating phenomenal pieces of work in teams! The Stanford Trees certainly impressed me!! They also learned an invaluable lesson--you can get much further (AND have more fun) when you work as a team!

Summer of Inspiration

I was incredibly inspired this summer to grow deeper in my passions for Reading, Writer's Workshop, and Number Talks. I found myself completely engrossed in the following books. I HIGHLY recommend them! I am already seeing the fruits of the lessons these amazing books inspire (pictures to follow).

Please let me know if you want to know more about these books!

Welcome to 2012-2013

I went on a bit of a blogging hiatus, but am back in action! 

I am THRILLED to be starting my 4th year at EPACS, with an extraordinary group of 1st graders!!!

Already, the class of 2024 is proving to be extremely inquisitive, hard-working, and FUN!

Here is the classroom before the students arrived on July 30:

One of the first things we did was grow our make classroom agreements, and begin to nurture our tree by showing CARES (Cooperation Assertiveness Responsibility Empathy and Self Control).  Look how our tree grew after a couple of days!

We are Readers!

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

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

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!

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!