As promised in the previous blog, I have information and pictures from the cereal box presentations! These fun boxes took the children all the way to the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid. The class presented their cereal box presentations over an animal from our language arts program. I wish there were pictures from the entire process, because the children worked very hard. Each student completely designed and decorated their box in class. At home they collected information with their parents and returned it to class. The cereal boxes had the children’s five facts about the animal on the back and additional information about the animal on both sides. The front is where each child’s personality shined. Everyone had a picture of their animal and created a cereal brand name and cover that applied to the animal. It was so fun to watch their higher order of thinking when creating, designing, and presenting their projects.

The St. James first graders participated in one of the best community service events I’ve been a part of to date. The class traveled to Cowhorn Creek Estates to read to some of the residents. For the residents it was apart of Read Across America, I believe Dr. Seuss would have been very proud, even if we were several days late. Each child brought a book from home to read to the residents. I paired up the children and they took turns reading to as many residents as they could. The residents were so kind and patient with the children. The children were so sweet and did a phenomenal job reading. I could not have been more proud of my students, not just for their reading, but their understanding and compassion for others who are different from them.

Next up...Spring Musical, Historic Washington field trip, and so much more fun in first grade!

Mrs. Gordon

This week we were fortunate to have Scott Kirby, a pianist, and visual artist, visit our campus. Scott performed “Main Street Souvenirs” for the students. This was a multimedia show that included a live performance, storytelling, and images on the screen. Scott is a very talented pianist who played Ragtime music on his piano while his art and photos were shown on the screen. This included music from Scott Joplin who lived in Texarkana in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The children really enjoyed seeing the old photos and Scott’s art on the screen while he played the piano. Mr. Kirby had interesting stories to tell about local places and people to go with the pictures from the past. It was such a treat!

Stay tuned for the next blog. It will be all about the animal cereal box presentations the class is working on!

Mrs. Gordon

Recently in math class the students have been learning about measuring in centimeters. When we begin a new lesson, we begin with the foundational knowledge and build from there. After discussing and learning with centimeter cubes we then moved to rulers, a standard unit of measurement. While studying about the standard units of measurement the class also learned about non-standard units of measurement, because who always has a ruler with them when they need to measure an item? The class learned that you can use almost anything to measure, but you have to make sure your tool is the same. For example, when we measured with paper clips the children had to make sure they had all of the same size paper clips to get a precise measurement.They enjoyed using the paperclips to measure different items. Using a pipe cleaner to determine the size of a bracelet that was needed caught their attention, too!  Math can be so fun if you are constrained to a desk with only paper and pencil.

Every year we have a visit from the tooth fairy, which has been lovely. The younger students especially love this tradition, but this year was slightly different. To help educate the older children and give them new material, the tooth visit included how to take care of your teeth and why it is so important. She also taught the children about how much sugar is in products they consume daily. Reinforcing how important it is to get the “sugar bugs” off of your teeth!

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love and those you care about. To help the students focus on the sharing love and kindness part of Valentine’s Day I had each student decorate each other's goodie bags. The only requirement was that the children could only write compliments on the bags. This is a great activity for several reasons. This helps teach the children how to genuinely compliment someone else. I told them they had to make the compliments specific to the individual. To prove my point, I asked them how meaningful it would be if I wrote the same compliment on every one of their bags. They all agreed that wouldn’t mean very much to the person receiving the compliment because I said it to everyone. It took them a while, which was wonderful because that meant they were really thinking about what they were writing on all of the bags, but each child wrote a personal compliment to all of the children in the class. The bags were covered in kind words from each classmate, it is one of my favorite activities. Another positive from the activity is that it lifts up all of the children. Students who may not receive much attention from their peers now have a bag full of positive notes. It shows how powerful words are. It is a tradition I will continue to do for as long as I teach. 

Have a blessed day!

Claire Gordon

We have jumped right into the new year in first grade. December was filled with Christmas Around the world, Candlelight, and fun Christmas activities, but we are ready to get back to the routine and keep learning. In science we have started a new unit, Seasons and Day and Night. The children will explore what causes the seasons to change and day/night cycle. To begin our new unit we discussed things we do during the daytime,at night, and during the different seasons. We took a closer look at an apple tree and how it looks like during the four seasons. I put the children into groups and instructed them to become the tree they were assigned - an apple tree in winter, spring, summer, or fall. At first they thought I wanted them to become trees while standing and looked at me very puzzled. Once I explained they were going to lay down to show the season it was clearer to them. They had fun pretending to be trees! To wrap up our discuss and review our learning the children used their science journals to draw pictures of apple trees during the four seasons. It was a fun way to get back into our science lessons!

Mrs. Gordon

This week the first graders began an adventure around the world. We have visited China, Italy, England, Brazil, and many places in between. The Christmas Around the World presentations are one of my favorite activities in first grade. The class and I learn new things about different cultures every year. It is such a great experience for the students to see how cultures around the world observe a beloved Christian holiday. They get to work with their parents and research their country and bring a treat, craft, or game to show the class. Not only is this an educational activity, it gives the students the opportunity to present their findings in front of the class to work on their public speaking skills. We extend our learning into the classroom too. We take an in depth look into how several countries celebrate Christmas and we make a booklet. This too has a multipurpose learning goal. Not only do they learn more about other cultures, they have to be responsible and keep up with all of the pages in their book and finish their work in a timely manner. Executive functioning skills are important and need practice along with reading, math, and writing. We have a few more stops to make on our adventure and then it is Christmas break! Have a blessed Christmas and holiday season!

Mrs. Claire