Big Week!

Are you ready?   This blog will have a LARGE amount of photos included for you!   We had an eventful week full of fun.   I know it is hard not to be a part of the festivities, so I took a lot of pictures for you to enjoy!   Have fun!

Monday we celebrated Clifford's 50th birthday!

Our trip just begins on our wagon!

Mrs. Stork teaches us about finding the right pumpkin.  She also taught us about animals who love to eat pumpkins!

Carter finds one (along with the vine!)

Josie finds the perfect one.

Jordyn and Jaelene pick out perfect pumpkins.

Isaac shows off his choice.

Keaton uses his foot to hold the vine down while he pulls the pumpkin of his choice.

Abby and Olivia show off their pumpkins.

Brandon, Abbi, Mackenzie, Maddie, Vera, Carter, Jordyn and Koltin!

Back on the wagon and off to the corn field.

Mrs. Stork tells us they grow four kinds of corn at Nyboer's Farm;
 Indian corn, sweet corn, feed corn and mini indian corn (popcorn).

Heading to the sunflowers and gourds next.

Mrs. Stork teaches us about the types of gourds on the farm.

Abby shows off her choices

Jordyn picks out two great gourds!

Still a few kids deciding on just the right gourds.

What type will it be???

Evan shows his gourd choice.

Our last farm treasure is a piece of mini indian corn.  Mrs. Stork says
if we leave it out to dry until Halloween, we can put it into the microwave
and watch it pop into popcorn!

Our class!

We measured the circumference of our pumpkin tummies with yarn!
Only two students estimated the correct length.
Mackenzie makes her estimate with Miss Shelby.

Carter makes his guess... He was one of two who estimated the exact length!

Evan waits patiently until everyone has a turn.

Koltin's estimate is 'too long'.

When is it my turn?????

We used one of our gourds to weigh in a balance scale.
Jaelene uses teddy bear counters to balance her gourd.

Grayson, Mackenzie, Carter, Vera and Jordyn use tiles to balance their gourds.

Keaton, Josie, Tommy and Abbi use tiles to weigh their gourds.

Abbi finishes up her weight while Keaton counts how many tiles his gourd weighs.

We measured the area of our mini indian corn.
Keaton, Josie, Tommy and Abbi are working on the area of their corn.

Keegan, Olivia, Brandon, Ethan, Jaelene and Koltin trace around their corn and count how many squares it covers.

Isaac, Maddie, Evan and Abby figure out the area of their corn.

Vera, Carter and Mackenzie work on their area of indian corn.

 What a great day!   We had the perfect weather and a wonderful teacher at the farm!   Thanks to the PTO for helping with our bus and bus driver costs.   Thank you parents for providing the admission fees for your children!   If you would like any copies of the photos on today's blog, email me and I can attach them to your email!

Brandon

Our Student of the Week this week is Brandon!  His favorite food is pizza.  Brandon likes to play soccer.  His favorite book is called Road Builders.  He has two pets - a dog named Buddy and a cat named Chipper.  Brandon thinks he is special because he can operate a mini-excavator!  When he grows up, he would like to be a construction worker.  Brandon likes to watch The Cat in the Hat on television.  He would love to visit the Great Wolf Lodge someday soon.  His favorite color is brown (like dirt for a construction worker).  The BEST thing about Brandon is the fact that he is a good friend to others!

Maddie

This is Maddie!   She is our new Student of the Week.  Her favorite food is Macaroni and Cheese.  She loves to watch and play volleyball.  Her favorite book is "Pinkalicious".  She has her own pet fish, but her family also has a dog named Bailey.  Maddie is special because she is in First Grade!  When she grows up, Maddie wants to be a baby doctor.  Her favorite television show is called i Carly.  The place she would most like to visit is the beach.  Her favorite color is GREEN.

First Full Week

Hello again!  Thanks for checking out our blog again this week!  We usually post once or twice a week, so be sure you check in each weekend.  Here are a few highlights of our first full week in first grade...

We began our week with EIGHT Monarch caterpillars from a field near Mrs. Ferrell's home.  We have been recording their changes in a journal as they happen.  On the first day, all eight were eating the milkweed leaves.  By the end of that day, a few were 'heading for high ground' to create a chrysalis.

The Monarch caterpillars attach themselves and hang upside down in a "J" shape.
Soon the skin will split a final time and the chrysalis will emerge.

The above two pictures were taken when a chrysalis began to emerge with two of our caterpillars!

Sadly, we lost most of our caterpillars.  We found out that sometimes caterpillars kill other caterpillars, and also are infected with larva.  We even had two who we think died as their chrysalis' were forming! We all decided that we had to go hunting for more monarch caterpillars this weekend and would keep trying.   If you are fortunate enough to find some, please send them in along with milkweed leaves.

This week we also began Language Arts center time.  We do centers Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.   There are three rotations each day;  Reading group with Mrs. Ferrell followed by two practice papers, computers, and Learning Stations.

Maddie and Evan play Hi-Ho, Cherry-O along with some Beginning Sound board games
for their Learning Station.  They will go to the other two stations as well by the end of Wednesday's center time.

Josie, Abby, Keaton, Olivia, Isaac and Ethan are working on their
seat work papers following our Reading Group lesson.

Grayson, Vera, Keegan, Mackenzie, and Jaelene are playing
various learning games on our 'dinosaur' computers.

We also were able to use the laptop cart this week.  I introduced the kids to one of my favorite websites called Cool Math 4 Kids.   This week they played a game called Feed Fribbit Colors.  This website has a TON of cool math games!  The kids do not even realize how much they are learning when they play, plus they learn really cool computer skills too.

Feed Fribbit Colors was so much fun!   The next day, the kids used the laptops
to take the Delta Math Screener, which we take three times per year.

Check back again next weekend to see more action in our classroom!  You can also bookmark our blog and your child can click on the links to get to Xtra Math, Cool Math 4 Kids, Ms. Baker's InfoTech website, and other sites with cool games for first graders!

Keaton

This is Keaton!   He is our Student of the Week this week.   Keaton's favorite colors are blue and yellow (for the Michigan Wolverines).  He would love to visit Disneyland someday.  The best thing about Keaton is the fact that he has a LOT of legos!  His favorite thing to watch is the Detroit Tigers.  When he grows up, Keaton wants to be a policeman.  He thinks he is special because he gets to do a lot of fun things.  Keaton does not have his own pet, but his sister has a hermit crab.  His favorite book is a lego book he has at home.  Keaton's favorite sport is football and his favorite foods are pizza and cookies!   

Meet our class

We survived our first week of school.  The heat made things a challenge, but we did meet many new friends, learn new rules and procedures, and even did some school work!  Thank you for taking the time to revisit our blog!  This week I thought it would be nice to show you the children in our wonderful class so that you could put some faces with names.  Enjoy!

Abby and Evan

Ethan and Brandon

Olivia and Jaelene

Koltin and Carter

Keaton and Abbi

Vera and Jordyn

Maddie and Isaac

Josie and Tommy

Mackenzie and Grayson

Miss Shelby, our High School Assistant

Missing from our photos today were Keegan and Kandra.  

Enjoy your weekend everyone!