Alphabetizing in action

Skimming Alphabet books

First graders skimmed alphabet books to learn more about getting the "gist" of a book before reading and to think about alphabetical order.  This is what they noticed about the different books they skimmed:

"There was a book about Egypt.  There was an uppercase and lowercase letter on each page and a couple of things that started with that letter." (ABC : Egyptian Art from the Brooklyn Museum)

"Me and Colin were reading a dinosaur book and there were different dinosaurs.  Each dinosaur started with a different letter in order and they all had different names." (The Dinosaur Alphabet Book)

"One of the books had this little cat and we saw these different crazy boxes that this cat was looking at and they had words in them and they were in alphabetical order, and the cat was saying these crazy things like he liked them or didn't like them."  ("Check out Bad Kitty!")

"There was a book that was about fishes underwater.  They were lined up in alphabetical order.  Most of the fish were crazy because most of them were different and I was able to learn names of new fish that started with the same letter as other fish that I know." (The Underwater Alphabet Book)

"In a book there was lots of people with jobs and they were all lined up in alphabetical order." (ABC of Jobs)

"There was a letter and a picture of what word you could make with that letter in most of the books."  

All mail correspondence to and from the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in monitoring and disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement.

CHOMPerific!

The first graders made their class CHOMP goal - they reached 800 chomps on classdojo! On Friday they cast their ballots for their class reward. The results are below...Which one has the most?

Congratulations first graders!


CHOMP making day: 17 votes
Nighttime Day: 9 votes
Treasure Chest: 4 votes
Pajama Day: 4 votes
Lunch Bunch: 4 votes
Race Day: 4 votes
Stuffed Animal Day: 3 votes
Tae Kwon Do Day: 3 votes
Camping Day: 3 votes
Nature Walk: 3 votes
Dress Up Day: 3 votes
Glasses Day: 2 votes
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All mail correspondence to and from the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools
is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in
monitoring and disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement.

Exploring Living Things

Our first graders are learning about living things as their first quarter science goal.  Our science teacher, Ms. Massengale, has been helping us explore different kinds of living things.  Last week, we looked at the mosquito larva that was living inside the black rain barrel.  This week, we learned about mosquito fish.  Here are some ideas from our first graders:

This is what we learned:

I learned that mosquito fish eat other things too besides mosquitos.

I learned that mosquito fish can eat pond grass, but they only eat if there's nothing else to eat.

I found out that mosquito fish were a fish and not tadpoles!

The pond grass was called elodea. 

I learned that mosquito fish are long, wiggly, spotty, small, and skinny.

They had stripes. 

I saw that mosquito fish looked clear.

This is what we wonder:

How do mosquito fish eat?

I wonder why mosquito fish eat mosquitos.

I wonder why mosquito fish have five fins (2 on the bottom, one on each side, and one on the back).

I wonder why mosquito fish seem to swim by wiggling instead of their tail fin going up and down or side to side. 

I wonder why mosquito fish always swim in a circle.  Mine were swimming in a circle the whole time!

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Katie Jiang

K-1 Dual Language, English Classroom

Glenwood Elementary School

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools

919-968-3473 x38249

kjiang@chccs.k12.nc.us

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." 

 -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

All mail correspondence to and from the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in monitoring and disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement.

Getting over the first day jitters

We're so excited to have the first graders back at school!

We've been engaging in several read-alouds and activities designed to ease students back into the school routine and to strengthen our classroom community. For starters, we read First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg, and discussed all the different reasons we might be feeling nervous about starting school. Ask your first grader about the surprise at the end of the story, and what it means!

Students brainstormed ways to get past being nervous. One of the ways we discussed was to find things you have in common with other people. To do that, students embarked on a Classmate Scavenger Hunt, matching their interests with other classmates. Students practiced literacy skills like stretching out words at the same time as they practiced initiating and continuing conversations. The scavenger hunt started out fairly quiet, with students mostly talking to only their closest friends, but by the end of the lesson students were comfortably engaging in conversation with a wide range of classmates. Way to go first graders!


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All mail correspondence to and from the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools
is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in
monitoring and disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement.

Ice Cream Social!

Glenwood's Ice Cream Social will be tonight, Thursday 8/22 from 5 to 6:30 in the courtyard.
Teachers will be organized by grade level.  be sure to come through the front office so you can look for any other information like class lists or bus routes.

Come meet Ms. Wang, our new K-1 Chinese teacher, and give Mrs. Jiang a hug!

We're looking forward to the 2013-2014 school year!

How do you choose work for a Celebration Portfolio? - by the First Graders

Yesterday our first graders noticed how their writing has changed over the year.  They selected a range of their own work for Celebration Portfolios to show all their fantastic first grade writing.  Today students worked hard to explain why they chose each piece.  Below are some of their reflections on their writing.  Check out your students' Celebration Portfolio (coming home on the last day of school) for more fantastic ideas!

Examples of our best thinking:

All About Sapphires is a good example of my best thinking because sapphires are hard to describe.

How to writing is a good example of our best thinking because you have to think about what you know, and then think about the steps, and think about an introduction and conclusion.

Math journals are a good example of our best thinking because you have to think of a strategy to solve the problem, a strategy to check your problem, a number sentence, and a sentence explaining how you figured it out.

Examples of our most challenging work:

My most challenging work was when I had to think alot about my all about book because it took a long time to do it and I really needed to work hard.

My most challenging work was my how to because you have to have a lot of steps, introduction, conclusion, and materials.  You always need three facts and the facts have to be specific.

Examples of our best cooperation:

My example of cooperation is the persuasive letters because I got ideas from my friends.

The Chinese New Year voicethread is an example of my best cooperation because I had to work with a bunch of friends and they gave me ideas and those people I remember we worked well together.

The time when we made student learning teams was an example of my best cooperation because we had to choose learning teams that we would work well together and we would help each other.