Being Big

Today, my Project Cornerstone moms came to read to my class and teach a lesson. Project Cornerstone is a program ran by the YMCA that helps promote a great classroom and school community. It allows parents to be a support system for optimal physical, mental and emotional development. During this month's Project Cornerstone lesson, my class was asked what it means to "BE BIG". "Being Big" is treating yourself and others with respect. They use the words "being big" because children always want to be bigger and older and more mature. They also use these words because big kids are supposed to treat themselves and others with respect.  I love the idea of "Being Big", I use these words all of the time when students need to be respectful to me, themselves, and others. They are learning what it means to grow up. Growing up does not just mean getting older, moving grades or getting taller and stronger. It also comes with mental and emotional responsibilities. As any supportive adult in a child's life, I want my students to grow into kind, generous, and honorable young adults and adults. I love that my school has amazing parents that want to be involved in their child's life and the lives of all of the children in their child's class. These parents understand the importance of teaching kids ways to respect themselves and others. Behaviors need to be taught. Children need to watch and learn from adults that they trust. This is why Project Cornerstone is so important. If you see a Project Cornerstone parent around school, stop and thank them. They are helping to guide your child toward being comfortable and confident with who they are and making choices that reflect this attitude.

Room 8 is learning how to be big. These are all of the pledges that my students made to help them be big in 2015!

Martin Luther King Jr.

The three day weekend has come and gone, but I wanted to remember the hero that helped change the way people were treated in this country. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an ordinary man who did extraordinary acts of bravery. All last week and this week, my first graders talk about, write about, and listen to stories about this ordinary hero. My hope is that they understand that ordinary people can be heros. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges were ordinary, but because they had the courage to do what was right, they are considered heroes. When learning about these amazing people, I want my students to start to understand that if they choose to have the courage to what is right especially around bullying, that they are being heroes.

We read Martin's Big Words, a picture book about his life. His words captivated people. He is considered one of the greatest public speakers in the history of the United States. The book is filled with words like inspire, freedom, togetherness, love, dream, etc. We spend time trying to define these words, and I talk about their importance to the Civil Rights Movement. The artwork is award winning and the story is simple enough to reach the younger students. You can find the story read for you on youtube if you click below.

After we have discussed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, we discuss his dream for the future. I ask my students to think about their dreams for themselves and the world. We brainstorm what they want for the future. They think of everything. It really shows that they understand the issues in todays world like pollution, traffic, deforestation, extinction, oil spills, hunger, war, homelessness, etc. It always surprises and amazes me when we create our list. Although they are young, they listen when adults discuss issues going on in the world. They observe their environment. They have their own opinions and ideas for how to make the world better. They are optimistic. It comforts me to know that the next generation cares about the world we live in. 

The students write a paragraph discussing three of the ways that they want to improve themselves or the world. I give them a choice because some students really want to become excellent readers while others want to talk about ways to improve upon todays current pollution issue. Both choices speak to the determination of my young students to make things better. 

We complete a craftivity to accompany the writing. The students create a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. figure complete with suit and tie. They are all different, but equally as adorable. 

Snowy Day Inferencing

Inferencing Investigations

In the month of January students become investigators. It is their job to use clues from stories to infer what a character is doing and how a character is feeling. I start off by using "Inferencing Investigation" by Babbling Abby. This activity requires the students to listen to a story about a boy and his grandmother. The story leaves out details from their snowy day activities. It is the students' job to infer what the boy did with his grandmother based on clues in their "Snow Day Case File". I split the class up into five different groups. Each group has their own case file that they use. The clues from each file go with other clues, but the students do not realize this until we come back together and talk about what they found. 

Some of the clues have times attached to the event, so we were able to create this timeline. Each child chose one event and illustrated it. 

There was a writing component to this project as well. Students were instructed to choose one piece of evidence and the matching inference to create a sentence using the frame "Based on _______, I  infer that ________________________________."  These are samples of the wonderful writing and illustrations that my students produced. 

Nick Bruel Author Visit

Today, we were visited by the author Nick Bruel, who is the author of the Bad Kitty series. He presented his new book Bad Kitty: Puppies Big Day, which came out today, January 6th, 2014. Mr. Bruel discussed where he gets his ideas for his books. To our surprise, he starts all of his books by simply coming up with a title! Who knew! Then he explained how he with the title Bad Kitty, before creating the story of Bad Kitty. After he came up with multiple events in the stories, he put them in order alphabetically, and the Bad Kitty books were born. As an aspiring author, I loved learning how he started his books.

For a majority of the assembly, Mr. Bruel worked with all of the students to come up with a story called Mad Horse. He went through an exercise with the students where he asked them many questions in a rapid fire way, and called on students to answer. He took whatever was said to him and incorporated it into the story. Here is what the students came up with...

Mad Horse

Mad Horse lived on a farm, but he did not like the other animals because they are mean to him. He got very mad when they were mean to him. He was running away from the farm to the city.  The city was five hundred million miles away. He decided to get on a plane, but he didn't have any money. So then, he jumped on a train to go to the city. He was not supposed to be on the train, so he was kicked off. He needed a miracle. Santa arrived because one of his reindeer had fallen off and he needed Mad Horse to help him. Santa sprinkled pixie dust on Mad Horse. They went to the city together. When he saw his cousin, he was happy and they talked and talked and talked.

He finished by telling students what the secret to writing a story is.

"This is the secret to writing stories. Always ask yourself questions."

I was very impressed by the presentation and so happy that I took my class to go see him. I would encourage all teachers to try to get an author to visit. This was our second author visit this year! I hope that this visit will encourage my students to be patient writers.