All the students go wild for our Go Noodle Brain Breaks! For maximum learning, the brain needs breaks and some of the most beneficial breaks for this age group are physical and involve movement. Enter Go Noodle! Thanks to the Silicon Valley Health Literacy Collaborative which includes El Camino Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at … [Read more…]
Every morning in our classroom, we open our day with Morning Meeting. Morning Meeting comes out of a need to create and maintain closeness and stay connected in our classroom community. Each meeting has four components: Greeting: Greeting everyone by name each day helps them feel welcomed and included. Sharing: We get to learn more … [Read more…]
One thing you might notice upon entering our classroom is that there are no name tags on the desks. There are no assigned seats! You might even ask: Why? When you were in school, everyone knew where to sit and you had a name tag to label “your seat.” I’ve been mulling over getting rid … [Read more…]
Welcome to Mrs. Wharton’s 1st grade! I am so excited to have everyone in my class this year. Our first three days of class, we have spent much of the time getting to know one another. The first day of school involved activities in our room, with the 6th grade classes and the whole school. … [Read more…]
The students are totally immersed in earthworm research in preparation to make earthworm habitats next week. They are practically begging to do science. The other day we had to delay our science time and audible groans were heard! We started by brainstorming our schema {background knowledge} about earthworms. Then the students dived right into informational … [Read more…]
The first grades have joined together to bring a little more kindness to Santa Rita. This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week. In honor of that week, we are spreading kindness throughout the school. You’ll notice hearts with ideas to inspire acts of kindness around campus. Here is a video that gave us some … [Read more…]
I love math!! I really do! I have always connected to math. I love numbers and the revelations that students make when they learn math strategies. I love to see their math thinking. I love that one problem can have multiple solutions. There’s more than one way to get to the right answer. The students … [Read more…]
This year we transformed the gingerbread house activity to become a design challenge. We started by reading several versions of the gingerbread man story. The class decided that perhaps if the gingerbread man had his own house he wouldn’t run away. Thus the design challenge was born. We created a chart to make a plan … [Read more…]
Well, it was bound to happen. I’ve gotten a little behind in updating the blog and we continue to be busy as always in class. The class went to the STEM lab twice recently. The first visit was to help Mrs. Rafferty. She borrowed some solid particles {lima beans, pinto beans, mung beans, rice, and … [Read more…]
Science is in full swing in room 24. We started with a brief overview of matter. Matter is anything that takes up space. There are three different kinds of matter: liquids, solids and gases. Our first grade unit focuses on liquids and solids. The students used their powers of observation {eyes, hands and ears} to … [Read more…]
