The Wizard of Oz

We are finishing up reading the story of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and watched the movie this week in class. The children noticed many differences and similarities. Did you know that Dorothy's shoes in the book are actually silver and not red? The movie also left out a lot of the book too, like the complete story of the flying monkeys, the china dolls, and the hammerheads.

today the students wrote about their noticings in Writing Workshop. I was pleased with their comparisons between the book and the movie.

Lunch with the Teacher

Today table three had lunch with me as a reward for doing the right thing. Each table is working towards ten points in order to eat lunch in the classroom. Table three was the first to get their ten points. Points are earned by making sure your table area is cleaned up on time, by not having anyone at your table be counted all day, and at other random times I catch them being good.

Congratulations!

Indianapolis Opera

The Indianapolis Opera came and performed "Fumbelina" for the first graders today. It was a retelling of the classic Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale "Thumbelina". Students thought it was funny, and enjoyed listening to the music. Some thought that the singing was very loud. They were also very interested in the costumes and set designs.

Thank you to Mrs. Tidrow our music teacher for arranging this unique experience for us.

Coin Rubbings

To go along with our money project, we did an activity suggested by Mrs. Simmons the art teacher. Students created their own coins using foil and paper. Everyone made a template of a face either as a profile or looking straight at you. They cut it out and added layers of card stock or string to the paper to give it thickness. When they placed the foil over the template and rubbed, all of the edges came through, and you could see lots of details just like on a regular coin. They also added designs and decorations to the front using an etching technique. I was very pleased with their efforts and impressed with the detail they put forth on this activity. I know they enjoyed working with their own coin designs.

Dr. Seuss

Today we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday. We read one of my favorite stories, The Sneetches, and I was pleased that the children noticed the similarities between this book and the black history that we have been learning about.

The students completed a response sheet on a Seuss book of their choosing. We also did a crossword puzzle based on many of his books that proved to be just right in challenging the children. We read some of his tongue twisters for Read Aloud today, and the watched a video at the end of day about Green Eggs and Ham, The Sneetches, and on the tongue twisters. I believe the students also were able to choose green eggs and ham for lunch today.