Grade 1 Update!

Hey everyone! I thought I would give an update about Grade 1 at Elma!

After our last meeting, I decided to change up my Science/Social Studies time to “Wonder” time. We have been talking about our wonders since the start of the year, so now we are going to investigate those wonders and I’ll make connections from their wonders to curriculum expectations. This book I read in the summer had some good ideas about developing a sense of wonder in your classroom. http://www.amazon.com/Place-Wonder-Reading-Writing-Nonfiction/dp/1571104321

So to begin, we brainstormed about our wonders using Padlet and shared on our twitter feed. Here is what the kids came up with: http://padlet.com/wall/gflzl2ijb7

After, we discussed if there were any similarities in our wonders. We selected three wonders as a class and put them up on chart paper. The students then had a sticker vote on what wonder they wanted to research together as a class. In the end they chose to research the wonder “Why do baby teeth fall out?”

We then created a KWL Chart on Padlet and organized our thinking. After we sorted our questions about teeth in general, they came up with three themes: Human teeth, Animal teeth, and the Tooth Fairy. Here is our KWL Chart: http://padlet.com/wall/hnsbsnjji

That night I went home to find resources that would help them answer their questions.  Using the Qrafter App, I created QR Codes for them to use.  The students also used the Qrafter App to watch the videos.  There job was to watch the videos and then record their own saying atleast one new thing that they learned.  Afterwards we shared our videos on the SmartBoard.  Here is N and Cole using the Qrafter App.

One of the videos was the story “Do you throw your tooth on the roof?” and it goes through different cultures around the world and what children do with their baby teeth.  This will connect with the Social Studies curriculum when comparing their own tooth fairy story with other children from around the world.  I am going to have students create a Venn Diagram and then share it on our blogs.  We are also going to use Explain Everything once we the codes to share what they learned about animal or human teeth.  I’ll post when it gets rolling!

Another App we used last week was Croak It.  On Friday, they each created a Croak It sharing what their Halloween costume was or what their favourite candy is.  They posted these to our classroom Twitter account.  They really liked listening to their Croak Its!

Lastly, my morning block is always Language using Daily 5 and CAFE.  The iPads are being split between three of the sessions.  5 are used for Listening to Reading where students listen to a story on Tumblebooks.  3 more iPads are used during Word Work where they are either using Sight Word or Letters/Sounds Apps.  The last 2 are going to be for Work on Writing where students can blog on the iPads.  I also have three students using our classroom computers and writing using WordQ.  Here are two students using WordQ for the first time! http://telly.com/1CU5KAX  Don’t mind the background music, the Telly App lets you post videos to twitter with music added in the background.  So it sounds very intense! LOL

Anyways, BIG post! See you all at the next meeting!

Laura

https://twitter.com/BrossGradeOne