No Brains About It!

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

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!

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...

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!

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!

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!

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...