Monday was the last day of school. It looked very different from previous years. I was so thankful to get to see my students and tell them to have a happy summer. Even though the end of this year has been completely different and new to us all, I like to reminisce and think about the year as a whole. Not just the past 2 1/2 minutes. The first graders had a terrific first semester. We were able to enjoy book character day, fall festival, Thanksgiving program, Christmas festivities, and candlelight. The beginning of the spring semester was full of getting ready for grandparents’ day and preparing for the busyness of spring. While we anticipated a busy spring, clearly our plans were changed for us. I can definitely see the blessing in slowing down and taking time to be with your family and those you love. We will look back on this time and grieve the loss of loved ones, but we will also remember with joy this special time we were able to spend with our families. I look forward to having my classroom full of happy excited first graders again. I’m thrilled that this precious bunch of students will get to enjoy second grade in the fall and I will still get to see them every day!

Happy summer!

Claire

To say these are times are different is an understatement. Navigating through this new territory has been challenging and rewarding. There are many challenges: too much work, not enough work, are the children gaining the targeted skill, how are the children feeling, how are the parents, and the list goes on. The rewarding part of this experience has been seeing my students rise to the occasion and take on responsibilities that typically they would not have to consider. To say I am proud of my students is such an understatement. I can not find words to describe how impressed and proud of them I am of them through these atypical times. We have all been doing our best to continue on with teaching/learning the best we can. There have been paper packets and digital packets and the children and their parents have been amazing through it all.

Something I already had planned was the community building project. It is something first grade does every year. Each child picks a building in our community that is meaningful to them and they construct it. Usually this project is completed at school. The parents come up and the children work with their parent to build the chosen building. It is always fun and something the children look forward to doing. I didn’t want to take that away from them, so I adapted the assignment. The children built their buildings at home and uploaded the finished project to a shared folder so everyone could enjoy all of the buildings. I loved being able to watch the children present their projects. They all have done a fabulous job!

The thing I have enjoyed the most is being able to digitally meet with my class. So far, we have only met one time, but it will be a weekly meeting until the school year is over. The first meeting was great and it was wonderful to see and hear my sweet students. I know they loved seeing one another. This week we will have a digital show and tell and I know that will be a hit!

We are all trying our best and putting the children first. I pray that this will pass and be a memory we can look back on and learn from. I will never forget this experience of teaching my first graders from a distance.

Stay safe!

Claire

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