Happy Friday all! It’s time for another FIVE FOR FRIDAY post! Thank you again Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this awesome linky party. I love being able to share highlights from my week and linking back to see snapshots from other great bloggers’ weeks! It’s a great way to peek into our classrooms and get a sense for what’s happening. Despite having only 16 days left of school we’ve been very busy. Here are some of my favorite moments from the week.
As part of our first grade curriculum, our students are required to complete a shared research project using a digital tool. My first grade team put a little spin on this and assigned each class a different habitat for our projects. My firsties were able to choose different rainforest animals to research using Pebble Go. They were so engaged in their learning and truly excited to share new facts that they learned about their animals!
After we spent two days collecting our facts about our animals, we turned our notes into true research reports using complete sentences. My little ones were so invested in the project. It was a proud teaching moment for me to see how much they have grown in their writing. One of my little ones who came in without any understanding of writing a complete sentence, started her research paper with different clues for her reader to guess her animal. She wrote, “This animal has black fur and gray feet and face. And it eats fruit, bamboo, and wild celery. Can you guess who it is? That’s right it’s a gorilla!” She came up with this entirely on her own and I was so proud.
Every year the incoming kindergarten students come to school for an orientation. They’re able to meet all of the kindergarten teachers, get a tour of the school, and practice riding the school bus for the first time.
When they’re in with the kindergarten teachers, the first grade classes get to meet and greet with the incoming first graders. I love this day every year because it gives my students an opportunity to become the teachers. They are paired up and assigned a kindergarten buddy who they give a tour of the classroom to, read stories to, and complete a craft with. My students feel like such big important kids and I love hearing what they have to say about our classroom. They have such a sense of pride showing off our room and explaining to the kindergarteners all they will learn in first grade. It’s so much fun for me to watch them in action.
Friday night our school district sponsored a color run for all of our students. It was so much fun! Each grade level was able to race around the track while the kids and staff threw color on them. We had a DJ, a color kick-off party, and tons of food and good times. I didn’t plan on getting too much in the mix and just volunteered to work a booth. Well, that plan quickly went out the window and I jumped right into the mix running with my first graders and throwing color on anyone who crossed my path. I have to say that my kids got me pretty good! I was covered in color from head to toe!
Have you heard the news? My sweet friend Diana from My Day in K! and I have teamed up to celebrate the start of summer! We know that teachers work so hard over the school year and deserve to kick-start their summer break with a treat. We’re giving away a $50 gift card to Target and a $50 gift car to Michael’s! Make sure you head over to the original post here, for a chance to enter!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I have a professional day on Monday with my Teacher’s College writing workshop teacher leader group and I am so excited to wrap up the year with them. It’s been an amazing experience being able to learn from so many established workshop teachers and I can’t wait to share what I learn from our last meet-up!
Thanks for stopping by!
6 Comments
Aww I love your school's kinder meet and greet. I wish we did something like this at our school. I would hope it would alleviate some of the first day anxiety.
Thank you so much for stopping by! It is a great day for the incoming kinders and the incoming first graders too! It's so much fun to discuss the differences between kindergarten and first grade. Have a great day!
Hi Jayme!
Your animal research reports look awesome! I had no idea what Pebble Go was and I can not wait to use it next year during our animal research projects!!!! Thank you!
Have a good weekend!
Amy
Hi Amy! I'm so glad you liked our research reports, my kiddos loved them. Pebble Go is an awesome site and I highly suggest looking into it. Have a great rest of your weekend!
I absolutely love the idea of the Kindergarten meet and greet day! How long are the incoming kiddos at school? Is it a full day?
Andrea
Always Kindergarten
Hi Andrea! Thank you so much for stopping by. The kindergarten meet and greet is only for half of the day. They arrive when school starts and leave before lunch. While the kids are with the kindergarten teachers, their parents are in orientation with our principal and other administration. It definitely alleviates some first day jitters! Have a great rest of your weekend!