We're All in This Together!

We have been brainstorming rules for how we want it to be when we learn, work, and play together in Room 408.  We talked about how we will do our best to stay on track.  I told Room 408 how we are like trains.

In fact, we are all like trains running on a track.

Sometimes, we make a mistake and our train runs off the track.

My job is to help get your behavior train back on track and running smoothly again.

There are three ways that I will help get your behavior train back on track.

One way is...

We can break feelings, creations, or have accidents...but the great thing is, we can fix it!

The second way I will help get behavior back on track is...

If you can't be safe with something or take care of something, I wouldn't be doing my job if I let you keep doing it!  For example, if you were walking across the top of the monkey bars you might need to simply stay away from the monkey bars until you are ready to show me you can be safe.

The last way I'll help keep you on track is...

Sometimes we all just need a little time to get ourselves under control.  Take your break, take some quick calming breaths and come back ready to learn.

We all got to practice taking a break in our "Take a Break" spots.  While we practiced, we watched a calming music youtube video.  

We also put these pictures up as a reminder of the three ways I will help us get back on track.

This week we also talked about how we have different states of our brain.

We all want to be in the Executive State, which is when we are making good choices and have good self-control.  It's like when you're driving your Brain Car.

Sometimes, we get into our Emotional State.  This is when we might be mean to others, cry, or say hurtful things.  It's like you're in the backseat of your Brain Car--not in control!

We also might get into our Survival State.  We might hit, scream, or hurt others when we are in this state.  It's like when we are in the trunk of our Brain Car--definitely not showing self-control!

When we are in our Emotional State or our Survival State, we can use the Safe Zone in our classroom.  This is a quite place to go when we might need a little longer to gain self-control.  As a class we talked about how this happens to all of us...even adults!  We watched this video to help us learn how to calm.


We even made our own calming Glitter Jars to take home.  Here is a link explaining it.

Great work, Room 408!

Happy New Year!

We have had a great first week of school!
We are becoming a classroom family.  We will learn, work, and play together for 172 days...it will go quickly!

Our first week has been filled with good books, discovering and exploring our classroom tools, and learning.
We read classics, like...

...as well as new books like

We explored our new classroom tools, like markers, scissors, and glue sticks, and learned how to take care of them.

We also did a little research into what we will learn in first grade.

We took our clipboards out into the hallway and wrote down things we are excited about in first grade.

We also loved exploring our math materials! Enjoy this video:

We look forward to lots of learning this year in Room 408!

Safety Drill

We had our second safety drill.  A few months ago we did our first safety drill and practiced hiding in our classroom.
Today, we practiced another ALICE drill.  ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate.
We read our ALICE book, again.

This time, our ALICE drill was about confusing any potential intruder.  We talked about how it is a good idea to confuse an intruder by throwing things, running in zig-zag in the classroom, and yelling.

We colored an activity sheet to remind us about things we could grab and throw.

Then, we wadded up our coloring sheets.  Later that day we practiced throwing things at a pretend "intruder" while running in zig-zags and yelling to confuse our pretend intruder.

Room 408 did a good job staying calm and following directions!

Starting our Reader's Toolbox Inquiry

We have been talking about how readers are like builders...when we read a story, we are building the story in our mind.

We learned that readers have tools too, but they aren't wrenches or screwdrivers or hammers.  They are strategies to help us figure out words!

We are doing a mini-inquiry to see what our brains do to help us out when we get to tricky parts in our books.

So far, we have noticed that using the pictures is helpful, like Mason did in this book when he got to the word straw...

We shared how using the pictures helped us when we got to a tricky part.

Kaylene used her picture to help her with the word 'insect.'

Chance used his picture to help him with the word 'kick.'

Today we tried out a strategy that worked for Aloura, Asher, and Maddin:  getting our mouth ready for the first part of the word.

When Aloura got to the last word on this page, she got her mouth ready by saying the short u sound...
and she figured out that the tricky word was umbrella! 

We shared how this strategy helped us, too.

Mason got his mouth ready for the tricky word 'playing' by making the 'p' sound.

At first Jace thought the word was 'doctor' but then got his mouth ready by saying the 'n' sound and fixed it--'nurse!'

Aloura got stuck on this word...she got her mouth ready by saying the 'st' sound and figure it out--'stay!'

What strategy helps you with your tricky words?

Animal Inquiry Immersion

After our earlier sorting and categorizing of animal models and materials during our immersion stage, we were ready to arrange our classroom library to make it easier to find the books that we need.  Room 408 thought it would be easiest to organize the animal books in our classroom library by habitats, so we spent an intense afternoon sorting every animal book we could find.

Of course, by then we couldn't wait to dive into the books and see what we could find in our research.  We spent quiet time researching individually...

We spent time researching and talking with partners...

And of course, we found lots of cool facts to write down...

For our sharing time, we used our ipads to create a class chatroom on the todaysmeet website.

This is a great site to put our reading and writing skills to work for an authentic purpose!  We needed to use our literacy skills to read the prompt, to write so others could read it, and to read what others wrote.

Once we introduced ourselves in the closed chatroom, we shared some of the cool animal facts that we learned.  

Below is a transcript of our class chatroom conversation.  The prompt was:

Please tell us what stuck with you about your animal research today. 

When two lions meet they make a friendly sound25 minutes ago by Jacob

I want wita the yellow25 minutes ago by Cooper

chameleon can eat fly26 minutes ago by Rylee

Or a puffling26 minutes ago by Grant

Sharks26 minutes ago by Jorel

Hummingbirds can fly in eny dreshin.27 minutes ago by Ellie

Elephants can weigh 11000 pounds27 minutes ago by Dane

Sharks lose their fins to ster27 minutes ago by Aaron

A baby puffin is called a chick27 minutes ago by Grant

The Emerald tree boa almost never comes down to the ground! WOW!27 minutes ago by Jill

Elephant weigh 11,00028 minutes ago by Drew

Crabs can have a cla bigger than the other.28 minutes ago by Sophia

Sterols have tef28 minutes ago by Breleigh

Can rabbit be camfash yes they can28 minutes ago by Rylee

Sharks lose their fins to29 minutes ago by Aaron

Monkeys can live in cities and towns.29 minutes ago by Tela

Sea Terdels have teeth30 minutes ago by Andrew

Some crabs eyes can be skinny30 minutes ago by Anderson

crabs can have a cla bigger than the other30 minutes ago by Sophia

We also read the book Actual Size by Steve Jenkins.

We started noticing numbers in the animal books we read, just like Steve Jenkins!

Researchers in Room 408 used our classroom rulers to measure out how long and tall some of these animals really are.

This is how tall a giraffe can be!

It takes about four of us to equal one giraffe!

Tech-Savvy First Graders

This afternoon Room 408 was introduced to the exciting world of email.  They had so much fun emailing each other back and forth, practicing our reading and writing skills in action.

When we discussed their thoughts and reflections on the possibilities of email, they were bubbling with so many ideas.

"We can send stuff to people are far away!"

"When can we get our parent's email addresses?!?"

"I like getting email."

"What is the difference between texting and email?"

"We should make sure we send emails to lots of different people so no one is left out."

"We will be stronger readers and writers if we email."

And my favorite:  "We can write a sentence to someone instead of walking across the room and talking to them!"  :P

On tomorrow's docket?  Emailing attachments such as screen shots and photos to show evidence of our learning.

What do you think is cool about email?

Discovery

On Friday we started learning about Jane Goodall.  We read this book and learned about how she was curious and patient as a little girl, and she loved to go outside to discover and explore.

We also talked about the book One Small Square: Backyard:

Armed with our Think Books, our pencils, a magnifying glass, and a black square, we headed to the woods behind Hillcrest to "be like Jane" and discover.

We explored and found lots of cool stuff.

Then we found a spot for our "small square study."

We wrote and drew about our observations and discoveries.

We even had a Philippe Petit-inspired moment:

What a beautiful afternoon!

What was your favorite part of our woods exploration?