Agricultural Center

Recently, students in first grade were given an opportunity to visit the Agricultural Center on the Hamburg Fairgrounds.  The theme was "Farm to Table," but really exposed the students to many different aspects of Agriculture. 

There were three stations.  My group began with some holiday favorite foods such as pumpkin and cranberries.  The students discussed the characteristics of these foods and formed hypothesizes about their qualities (sink or float, will it bounce, texture, etc.). 
Meanwhile, two large turkeys observed their conversation with the instructor from behind!
The session ended with a turkey craft.

The second station was about vegetables.  The instructor talked about, passed around, and eventually the students tasted three new vegetables. This session ended with a game.  It was a "turkey footprint" version of musical chairs inside the garage.  The students had to step on a footprint before the music shut off, and they had to "gobble gobble" like turkeys to the music in between.    

The last station was about Thanksgiving.  The instructor read a Thanksgiving book to the students, and then had a discussion with them about the holiday traditions celebrated in their homes.  The students created a pilgrim hat, and ended with a Thanksgiving Bingo game. 

We would like to extend a thank you to our new friends at the Fairgrounds.  They provided this field trip to our students for free.  My group enjoyed themselves. 

Community Brochures

Students in room 120 just finished a unit on community.  We have discussed, and studied the characteristics of community, including places, jobs, and members.

In Native Language Arts, we read an informative text about the community of a young girl.  Throughout this story, students were learning to identify the difference between a fiction and a non-fiction text, and also some of the key features of an informative text.  For example, students learned about photographs, captions, subtitles, etc. 

Our final project for the unit was to create a brochure of our community, using the same characteristics in an informative text.

NYS: CCLS:ELA & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects PreK-5, NYS: 1st Grade , Reading: Literature
Responding to Literature 11. Respond to literature by employing knowledge of literary language, textual features, and forms to read and comprehend, reflect upon, and interpret literary texts from a variety of genres and a wide spectrum of American and world cultures.
	11. Make connections between self, text, and the world around them (text, media, social interaction).

NYS: Social Studies Core Curriculum, NYS: 1st Grade , My Family and Other Families Content Understandings
My family and other families
	Families and different kinds of families exist in all communities and societies though they may differ.
Challenge of meeting needs and wants
	Communities provide facilities and services to help satisfy the needs and wants of people who live there.
	Through work, people in communities earn income to help meet their needs and wants.

 
 
 
 
 

Fall Celebration!

Whether it's pumpkins, candy, or putting on a costume, there was a lot of excitement today during our harvest celebration!
The students began by working together in small groups to design a face for their pumpkin.  Most students chose a happy face, some a spooky face. They chose geometric shapes in their design, and then the team had to agree on which student's design would go on the pumpkin.   


One group had difficulty choosing.  Both students were adamant that their design should go on the pumpkin.  The discussion was getting heated.  I told them that they had to decide, or that their pumpkin would not get a face. 

About ten minutes later, they called me over.  The one little boy said, "Yeah Miss, I decided to go with M's design.  His looks good too, and we will use mine next time."  Thumbs up to this group for their problem-solving skills. 


We carved a total of fourteen pumpkins between two classrooms!  Many students said they had never carved a pumpkin before.  Students loved exploring the squishy, slimy pumpkin pulp today, as they separated the seeds.




In the afternoon, some students chose to wear costumes and some students had their faces painted as we celebrated the end of autumn in a parade around the school. 

Burchfield Art Center

Today we traveled to the Burchfield Art Center.  The students were so excited to be outside exploring nature.  







Students were instructed to pay attention to their senses; What did they see?  What could they hear?  smell?  How did different objects feel?




My group began by exploring the creek.  It was very shallow, but slippery.  Two boys immediately began exploring the different rocks under their feet.  I listened as they compared the shapes and sizes of the different rocks.  


 
Other students enjoyed throwing them into the water, trying to skip a stone.  They were experimenting with the different ways to throw the stone, in order to get it to skip in the water.  Yet another student really enjoyed trying to climb up the embankment.


Next we began our hike through the woods.....although any chance of running into an animal was lost on our group. They were so excited to begin exploring, many were running and yelling down the trails.  I think I actually saw animals running for cover when they heard us coming. 

The students were very observant; they commented on the leaves, the sticks, the bird houses.  We discovered several arrangements of branches that could be forts for the children to play under. 

The colors of the leaves were really accented by the dark, gloomy skies.  As we began our observational drawings, the collection of beautiful leaves that had fallen to the ground, became a fun game, and also souvenirs of our trek through the woods.      

My friend Orfrelis was captivated by this
sculpture, and insisted that he had
dreamed about it.

 

Our Noun Books

Students began illustrating their favorite nouns and used these illustrations to create a book.  There are four noun categories: people, places, things, animals.  Each student chose a favorite in every category, and then discussed their pictures with me.  I transcribed their writing on many of the pages.  The students enjoyed seeing their effort result in a book. 

NYS: CCLS:ELA & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects PreK-5, NYS: 1st Grade , Language
Conventions of Standard English 1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
	1b. Use common, proper, and possessive nouns. shark candy bar Treehouse Super Miguel

Our First Trip to the Museum

Making Waves

Today was the first of several visits to the Burchfield-Penny Art Museum.  This year there is a nautical focus and a theme around Buffalo's waterfront. 

Making Waves

I was surprised and impressed to learn how much my group already knew about work at the grain silos and life on the ships.  

Un Cangrejo

Several of the students live right in this part of Buffalo, so it was very meaningful to them.  They were very excited to see a part of their community featured in museum displays.  (Not to mention, this is area is very close to our school.)

Making Waves

The students began in a workshop where they began making waves and adding creatures to their water scenes.





Next, we began the tour and viewed many different displays and pieces of art.  Our tour concluded with a trip around, on top of, and inside of the giant ship which is the centerpiece of the exhibit. 


It was a valuable experience for these students to make such strong connections with not only a piece of history, but also with their community.

Sequencing

Students worked very hard on their sequencing project.  We read a story together about Curious George.  Students paid close attention to the details that happened in the beginning, middle, and end of story.  Later, they had to illustrate and quote passages from the story in order of occurrence.  Here is one student's interpretation of the story's events.