Busy Spring!

First grade had had a lot of fun activities keeping them busy lately! Spring has spring around campus and we took the opportunity to check out the tadpoles in the preschool building. The three year olds loved having the big kids come visit, and the first graders loved being the big kids. It was a fantastic way to wrap up our mini study about the lifecycle of a frog. Later in the week a student found a frog on the playground and we were able to see another living stage of the life cycle.

Earlier in the semester I incorporated the game boom, boom, clap into class to help with counting syllables and phonemes. I saw a variation of the game using the vowels A,E, I, O, and U. It was a lot of fun having the students listen to a word and try to be the first to grab the vowel they heard. It could be tricky because many words have a silent vowel in them, and some students went for the vowels they knew to be in the word, but the instructions were to listen for the vowel sound. I’ve got a highly competitive class and these games are always stir up a lot of excitement!

First grade made the annual trip to Historic Washington State Park. It did not disappoint! It is the best trip. Students get to be outside for almost the entire tour, learn about how people lived on the frontier of America about 150 years ago, visited the oldest magnolia tree in the state of Arkansa, made candles, and learned some interesting facts about the art of blacksmithing. The picnic lunch is always a good time too! Our weather wasn’t perfect, but it did not slow us down or keep us from leaning in a fun way!