Grinch Day

It was Grinch Day this past week in 1-Thomson! During Reader's Workshop, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss and discussed how characters can change in a story. We also discussed the lesson, or moral, of the story.

R.L.1.3: Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story using key details.
R.L.1.2: Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

Later, during Writer's Workshop, our focus was "How to Make the Grinch Grin".  We started with a brainstorm of the things that could bring a smile to the Grinch's face.  Some ideas included taking the Grinch to the movies, teaching him how to swim, or reading a fairy tale with him by the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa!    

From the first graders in 1-Thomson, Happy Holidays!

Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time, Mrs. Thomson's class, Miss Klipfel's class, and Mrs. Higgins' class worked together to write and illustrate a magical fairy tale...

Our focus in reading and writing has been fairy tales and fairy tale elements. Over the past few weeks, our three classes collaborated to author and illustrate our very own fairy tale.  We randomly selected which part of the story we would be in charge of.  We were very excited when we were assigned to the ending of the story!

  After the writing was complete, each class was assigned to a part of the story for illustrations, and using Drawing Box on the iPads,we created some beautiful illustrations for our story's beginning (written by Miss. Klipfel's class)!

Please enjoy our final product of The Princess and the Pearls.  Our three classes are very proud of their hard work.  

You may download our fairy tale on any electronic device to add to your digital library or you can view our book as a PDF for reading or printing on a computer.

Option 1: Add The Princess and the Pearls to your digital library.

Click on the link: The Princess and the PearlsThen click on Download.

Option 2: Read The Princess and the Pearls in PDF form by clicking here.

*Don't forget to tell us what you think!  Please leave a comment for our class to see.*

Gingerbread Man Fun!

Run, run as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!  This past week, was Gingerbread Man week in 1-Thomson.  Our study of fairy tales is currently underway and there are so many great versions of The Gingerbread Man to read and discuss!  Many of these tales are fractured fairy tales, or versions of the story that offer a humorous twist on the original version.  The children particularly enjoyed the fractured tale, The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka.  Ask them to tell you all about it!

As the week went on, we read many other Gingerbread tales, including The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst, The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone, The Gingerbread Man: Loose in School by Laura Murray (my personal favorite!), and finally The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires.

All versions of the story offered unexpected twists and turns, with interesting representations of the Gingerbread character.  After reading each story, the children compared and contrasted the different tales, and wrote about their favorite one!

Common Core Standard: 

R.L.1.9: Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in a story.

If I Had a Pet Turkey...

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, last week was Turkey Week in 1-Thomson!  To kick things off, we read a nonfiction book about turkeys: "All About Turkeys" by Jim Arnosky.  We gathered facts and completed a turkey "can, have, are" chart.  Did you know turkeys can fly as fast as 50 mph and that females lay as many as 18 large eggs at once?!  After learning a bit more about these interesting birds, the students used their imaginations to visualize what life would be like living with a PET turkey!  Using transition words and descriptive sentences, we wrote amusing stories about our imaginary pet turkeys while focusing on the following questions: What would your pet turkey look like?  What would your pet turkey eat? Where would your pet turkey sleep at night?  What would you do with your pet turkey for fun? The answers to these questions were very creative!  Please enjoy our class movie to see what life would be like with a pet turkey...

Click here to listen to our pet turkeys :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Padlet: A Thanksgiving Share

The first graders in 1- Thomson were asked to think about their plans for Thanksgiving this year. After reading several Thanksgiving stories in class, the students wrote about their exciting Thanksgiving agendas!  Next, we shared our writing with a writing buddy to do some peer revising and editing. Lastly,we posted our final ideas on Padlet.  Take a look at our Thanksgiving plans below:

Created with Padlet

Family members, add some thoughts or ideas to our Padlet by clicking anywhere on the board to add a note! Happy Thanksgiving!  I am very thankful for my first graders and their families!

Retelling Stories

For reading, the students are working on retelling fictional stories to their reading partners and in reading groups.  We are becoming "retell experts"!  We discuss the importance of including as many important details in our retells as possible so that the listener can learn a lot about the story without even reading the book!  When we read a story and retell it, we use our handy, dandy checklist to be sure we are including all the elements of a strong retelling:

This past week, Ms. Klipfel introduced us to a fun way of retelling stories using iPads!  After reading our fictional story in small groups, we retold the story using the Drawing Pad app on our iPads!  The students were able to draw the events of the story and retell them orally when their artwork was complete. 

If you have an iPad, try this at home for some fun practice with retelling!
Common Core State Standard: RL.1.2: Retell stories including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson 

We Are Thankful

1-Thomson loves visitors!  It is always fun to share our knowledge and ideas with someone new.  Today, Ms. Corelle visited us from North Shore Community College to share a read-aloud about Thanksgiving.  Then, she discussed thankfulness with the class and asked what the students are thankful for.  Some answers included nature,school, family, friends, and our pets (to name a few)!  After the discussion, the students created colorful turkeys by tracing their hands and wrote about the things they are thankful for.  Thank you for visiting with us, Ms. Corelle!  We had so much fun!

Shapes Are All Around Us!

What shapes do we see in the world around us?
Math has been all about shapes in 1-Thomson! Check out what we can do with planar and solid shapes!

Common Core State Standards:
1.G.A.1: Distinguish between defining attributes of shapes; build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes
1.G.A.2: Compose two-dimensional shapes or three-dimensional shapes to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape

Five Senses Fall Writing

1-Thomson is filled with talented authors and illustrators, but every author must start with a draft and revise it time after time to really get it right!   First graders have been learning how to revise their writing to make it better.  An area of focus has been adding adjectives to our writing to make it more descriptive. This past week, we visited the Fuller Meadow courtyard to do some "Five Senses Fall Writing".  We traveled outside to take in the fall surroundings using our five senses and recorded our observations in our journals.

When we returned to the classroom, we got out our green revising pens and began adding description to our fall nouns that we recorded!  Trees became VIBRANT trees, air became COOL, CRISP air, and pumpkins became PLUMP pumpkins! 
The final product resulted in well-written Five Senses Poems about fall.  Take a look at a sampling of these poems below.

Common Core: W.1.5: With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

Thank you!

Happy Halloween to all the first graders and their families! Thank you for contributing to our Halloween celebration. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves! Check out the jack-o-lanterns that the children made at our party today!

Have fun trick-or-treating! BOO!

Pumpkins, Spiders, and Bats...Oh My!

Halloween is right around the corner and this October has been filled with all kinds of fun Halloween-themed activities in 1-Thomson. Take a peek at what we can do!

ADJECTIVE PUMPKINS: We can demonstrate a command of standard English grammar and usage by using frequently occurring adjectives (L.1.1)

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MATH BATS & FICTION/NONFICTION BAT STUDY:

We can add and subtract within 20 (1.OA.C.6)

We can explain the differences between books that tell stories and books that give information (RL.1.5)

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CONSONANT DIGRAPH SPIDERS:

We can apply grade level word analysis and phonics skills to decode words (RF. 1.3)

Reader's Workshop: Making Connections

Why do readers make connections?

This week during Reader's Workshop, the first graders in 1-Thomson have been busy making connections! We learned that making a connection can help us as readers because we can understand the story better.

Watch this video to learn about the three types of connections good readers can make!

In class, we discussed the three types of connections:

Text-self, text-text, text-world

Then, we practiced making connections during independent reading and shared them with the class.

Lastly, we ended with a literature share of "The Littlest Pumpkin" by R.A. Herman.  In this story, The Littlest Pumpkin was disappointed because no one chose him at the farm for Halloween. We then made a text-to-self connection about a time we were disappointed. 

*First Graders: Share a comment! What was your favorite part of the story, "The Littlest Pumpkin"?  -OR- Can you make another connection to this story?
Post your comment below :)