Fun with Fairy Tales

November has flown by! I feel like it was just Halloween and now I'm getting set for Thanksgiving break. This month we worked on story elements, comparing and contrasting and opinions with a unit on fairy tales. My students really enjoyed reading fractured fairy tales and then writing their own versions. For a couple of my students, even a couple of my high kids,  this was very difficult to do. They could not think of a fairy tale being different than the original version and it made me see how much more we need to work on thinking creatively. 
We did a couple of projects with our unit where the kids also worked on  their writing. Last week we did, "If I Had a Magic Wand..." I really saw each students personality come through in this project. Some made wishes straight from a story we had read and some really thought about what they already like and what they would want. 

This month I also spent some time working on how to write letters. It's not a first grade standard but it helped with my students' conventions and seeing a purpose for writing. We wrote a couple of letters as a class to staff members and then we also wrote individual letters for Veterans Day. My kids really enjoyed this unit and I saw tons of growth in their conventions in just a week. 

We only have school Monday and Tuesday so I'm reviewing a ton and doing some Thanksgiving stuff. After the break I'm starting on habitats and plan on doing deserts first. It's the habitat my kids are most familiar with and it'll help them learn the vocabulary and concepts. 

Spiders, bats and Halloween

Last week we started our bat and spider unit. We focused in on spiders and how they are not insects (which was our last unit). We also learned about how spiders use different types of silk and spin different types of webs. For this project I also introduced symmetry. The students traced their hands and laid them on top of each other with the thumbs making the spiders head. Most of them understood how each side of a spider is the same but then when they put it together they glued it however they wanted. To make the webs I punched holes along a paper plate and tied a long piece of string and then the students weaved it through the plate. 

This past week was super busy for me and my first graders. On Tuesday I had an observation with my district mentor in the morning and then with my AP in the afternoon. Probably not my best idea to schedule two observations in one day but it was a big relief to get them over with. On Wednesday we had our district personal narrative writing assessment. At first I was concerned that my students would struggle with the prompt but their writing has grown so much in the past couple of months. My students were all able to write a personal narrative and the majority wrote one that was at of above grade level. Our school also had our Halloween carnival Wednesday night. It was a really long day and evening but we did have a good turnout. 

Then of course there was Friday. In the morning we had a school wide assembly, where I did win an award!! Then we did a book study with Stellaluna and Night Song where the students had to decide which bat they liked better and explain why. In the afternoon we did a short math activity with addition facts and pumpkins and then it was just all about the Halloween party. We had tons of food and I set up some art materials and games for the kids. They had a great day and it was good to see them so excited but it was an exhausting day.

Next week we will be starting our fairy tale unit. I'm going to be spending a lot of time with comparing stories and the theme. I'm interested to see what stories the kids connect to and what stories they aren't as interested in. The following week progress reports will also go out. Last quarter I was just trying to get through each day so I didn't get to the reports until a couple days before they were due. This quarter I'm a little more ahead so I already got my science and writing grades finalized. I also started writing the comments for the students who need a longer explanation of whats going on. It's a really good feeling to be at least a little bit ahead so I don't have to stress about getting them done.