First Grade Researching...Can it be done?

I just spent my day in professional development...I love learning from other educators! We went to a session with Rebecca Harper, who is a writing expert. She was absolutely wonderful and so inspiring. One thing she said that really stuck out to me was, "First grades CAN do...if you have the high expectations for them, then they WILL perform. If not, they won't." How simply is that? So many times we think.. "Oh these kids are little...they can't do that." But, THEY CAN!! This was somewhat my attitude at the beginning of the year when shuffling through the common core standards. It is intimidating to see the words RESEARCH. I was one of the very ones that thought, "They seriously expect first graders to do RESEARCH!!!?" Yes, they do and yes first graders can!

We have been working with informational writing and I felt this would be the perfect time to incorporate in some researching. Each student was able to select an animal. Our awesome media specialist pulled some first grade non-fiction text for my students to use for their research. It was so interesting how well they did this and how much they loved it!! Hearing those sweet voices telling me facts that had learned from the text was awesome. 

After getting our information done, we discussed how to put facts into our own words. I modeled this using chart paper. Have y'all learned that chart paper is my best friend yet?! The final products to these animal informational writings were amazing. There are NO limits in first grade. I've learned to challenge these little minds and they will find success. How do you teach your students how to research? 

Dr. Seuss Week

Last week was one of my favorite  weeks of all in first grade. Dr. Seuss is so much fun and there are so many great learning opportunities. Each day we looked closely at a famous Dr. Seuss book. On Monday we read the biography of Dr. Seuss. We learned so many great facts. The kids found it super interesting that Dr. Seuss didn't really help people when they are sick!

We also read Cat in the Hat. After reading, we did some creative writing. "What would I do if Thing 1 and thing 2 came to my house." Reading these were hysterical!! We also did a super adorable craft to go with this writing. All it took were some googly eyes, red and blue paint. So easy!

The rest of the week we worked on reading Dr. Seuss' other hits! We did Wacky word problems with the book Wacky Wednesday. All of our centers this week were themed around our favorite author and his books! We did a "green eggs and ham write the room." Words from the book were displayed around the room and the students went on a word hunt. We also spent a TON of time on rhyming and nonsense words. 

We also had a fun visit from some wonderful fifth graders this week. These sweet friends came and read Dr? Seuss books to my kids. I wish you all could have seen their faces getting to hang out with the "big kids!" It was a sweet day!!

We wrapped up our week with a Dr. Seuss themed Freaky Friday of course! 

We made our very own "cat hats!"

Experimented with Oobleck! 

Used pattern blocks to make the Lorax's mustache.

And read some of our favorite books! 

All in all it was a "Seusstastic" week in first grade! 

Freaky Friday--President's Day Style!

This blog is of course slightly delayed. The Roberts family has been super busy and I completely forgot that this blog was promised!

We celebrated Presidents Day by learning all about some of our favorite guys: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. One of the coolest things that I think we did this week was the virtual tour of Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was shot. I'm not sure why but the fact that Lincoln was assassinated is always the most interesting facts to the children and they really enjoyed seeing the place it happened at.

Two great books we read this week were : A Picture Book of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and Me. 

We celebrated all week and learned so many great and interesting facts! We concluded our study with a President's themed Freaky Friday!

My favorite center for this week was the measuring Abe's Hat station. The kids measured this hat I made out of poster paper using paper clips, Popsicle sticks, and unifix cubes.

We have sooo many Math standards for this nine weeks, so Freaky Friday this week was all about incorporating Math in with our favorite presidents. The next station was working President Word Problems.

Click here to check out this worksheet. 

The last station was our snack station. We created log cabins using pretzel sticks. This reminded us of the place Abe Lincoln and George Washington were born. 

There you have it! This week is all about Dr. Seuss... look for my next blog all about our "Seussicall" good time!