I'm Back!

Hey guys!

It's been a while...a long while!  I took some time off of the blog, but I'm planning on being better this year!  Setting goals for myself! Woo Hoo!  So what's happened since I've been gone:

I taught a departmentalized class last year and loved it!!   I taught two groups of students, splitting the day in half.  I loved working with my partner, Mrs. Gutierrez.  She's amazing!  I taught ELA (Reading and Writing) and she taught Math and Science.  I got to really delve into my craft for teaching firsties how to read.  I really think we did so well (for the kids and ourselves) with departmentalizing because we have very similar teaching styles.  The kids adapted really well to switching to each others' classrooms because of that!

On a personal note, I got engaged!  We are getting married on December 28th in New Orleans.  So exciting!  After Christmas, I will be Mrs. Giffin.

So now, for this year...  I'm back to teaching a self-contained class, which means I teach all subjects to one special group of firsties!  I do really love teaching a self-contained class.  I really get to know my kiddos' personalities and interests.

Over the summer, I did a lot of research on Growth Mindset.  I am really excited to incorporate this into my classroom this year.  Growth Mindset is the idea that people are not born with a fixed set of intelligence or ability.  Every person can GROW in intelligence or ability.  So there will not be praise for being the "Smart One" or the "Athletic One" in our class.  We will praise and work on learning and persistence and progress.  I will be posting more about Growth Mindset in my next post. I'm really excited about this!

Our team changed up a little bit this year!  Ms. Tate came to join us in first grade!  Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Gutierrez are returning!  Yay!!  We went to the CAMT convention this summer and really bonded as a team!

This year our school's theme is "Anchored in Success."  I'm running with the nautical theme and mixing it with Growth Mindset to have our First Grade Motto:

"First Graders Refuse to Sink, We Just Keep Swimming!"

So that's all for now!  I'll be back soon!

It's been such a while...

Hey y'all,

Sorry that I've been MIA for a while.  I guess I just haven't had the motivation to be on here.  But I'm back now full of smiles!!

Anyways, just because I haven't been around on here, doesn't mean we haven't been having fun in and out of the classroom.  Looking back, I realize I haven't posted anything since December!  CRAZY!!!

So since December, we've been super busy in our classroom.  Here are some of the fun things you've missed out:

In January, we completed our Fables unit.  My kiddos absolutely loved doing reader's theater with these stories.

          

Of course, the 100th Day of school rolled around!  We celebrated in the best way possible, dressing up like we are 100 years old!

In February, we did a unit of biographies!  The kids had a lot of fun reading and writing about different historical figures.  Some of their favorites were Walt Disney, Jane Goodall, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

We also did a unit on poetry.  The kiddos did a poetry reading for our Valentines Day party!  So sweet!

We really enjoyed Dr. Seuss's Birthday/Read Across America Day!  We even had a guest reader from the local high school to come read to us!

           

I celebrated my very first Go Texans! day!  
I think I'm adjusting pretty well to this big ole' state!

   

You also missed out of Career Day!  We had a lot of fun learning about different things we can do when we grow up!

            

In March, we read A LOT of books by Kevin Henkes, one of my favorite authors!  His stories have such great lessons on growing-up!  He also cracks me up with my favorite character, Lilly.

We also had Math/Science convention for our kiddos right before spring break!  My session was a STEM challenge creating tall towers using toothpicks and play-doh.  It was really fun to watch the kiddos try to build it up, have it knock down, and try again.

  

Lastly, we've been delving into chapter books!  We've done character studies on Frog and Toad, Nate the Great, and Fly Guy.  If you haven't read the Fly Guy books, you totally should!  Tedd Arnold is a lot of fun with his stories and illustrations!

        

The end of the year is coming up faster than expected!  28 days left!  They'll go by super fast!  

On a personal note, during my hiatus, we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday with a surprise party!  Woo hoo!  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a true daddy's girl!  He's one of the most important people in my life. 

 I love celebrating his life!

 

Finally, I am SUPER DUPER excited that my little family is growing by four paws!  The kiddos know all about Brisket, my little Texas pup!  I am anxiously awaiting him being old enough to come home with us.  He is a mini Goldendoodle from a breeder in the Dallas area.  I am very, very excited for him to come to be home with me in a few weeks!  Be prepared to see many pictures coming soon!

 

You can't catch me! I'm the Gingerbread Man!

So last week, we had our Gingerbread week at school!  I have to say this is one of my favorite weeks of school.  We read four different versions of the Gingerbread Man and  compared/contrasted each one.  Each story was special in it's own way!  

Our first story that we read was the traditional version, The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt.  This one is your usual version with the gingerbread man running away from the man, lady, and boy, plus some animals, and townspeople, etc.  The boy Gingerbread Man met his match when he was outsmarted by the clever fox!  It's a good way to start the week off!

We also read the "Flat Gingy" story on Monday, as well.  Flat Gingy is a home-connection project that our class is participating in.  Flat Gingy is the younger brother of the Gingerbread Man, and he wants to come hang out with us.  The kiddos were super excited to make their own Flat Gingys to go on adventures with.  Flat Gingys should be coming back to school today!  I can't wait to read about their adventures with the kiddos.

Gingy came with me to see the Hunger Games movie and he sat through an all day training on Saturday!  He's so dedicated to teaching the kiddos!

Next, we read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.  This was a sweet story about a runaway gingerbread baby, who was taken out of the over too early!  He, of course ran away from everyone, but then met with a clever boy who created a gingerbread house for him to live, and they lived happily ever after...or as long as good as it gets for cookies in their own houses!

Add caption

Then, we read The Gingerbread Man Loose in School by Laura Murray.  This was a cute spin to the traditional tale because the Gingerbread Man wanted to be around the students who made him.  He searched through the whole school until he found the principal's office with her fun spinning chair!  She brought him back to the kids who were searching for him and created him his own gingerbread desk and chair.

Our last and silliest version was The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka.  In this story, the old lady makes a man out of stinky cheese, but then decided that she didn't want to eat him because he smelled so bad!  None of the characters wanted to eat him because of his stench! Ha ha!  He ended up falling apart in the river because the fox gagged when he smelled him.  (Spoiler alert! )

After reading the different versions of the story, we voted on our favorite.  After our voting...Gingerbread Baby won!...we journaled about our favorite versions.

We also had one of our class moms come and play a Gingerbread game with the kiddos one morning!

On Friday, we took turns reading a Reader's Theater version of the traditional tale (on sale in my TPT store!).  My kiddos turned out to be inspiring actors!  They got so into character.  One of them even said, "Ms. Schulze, this is so fun!" in the middle of the reading.  I love seeing them so engaged!  

We are totally getting in character!

Yes...he's snorting!

I have to say nothing takes the cake...err cookie...more than our culminating activity: Making out own gingerbread cookies!  The kiddos made these cookies by themselves (for the most part!)  They poured ingredients, rolled out the dough, used the cookie cutter, and decorated their own cookies!  Did I mention how much I love cooking in the classroom with the kiddos?  So many cool things can be done with cooking...measuring, following directions, writing, graphing, teamwork, collaboration, etc.  Let's just say, I love it!

   

Waiting patiently for the cookies to come out...

We had so much fun reading and comparing the different versions!  Maybe next year we will add one of these fun tales!

       

November has Flown by!

Wow!! November is almost over already!  How did this happen!?

Well here's a recap of our month...

First off, we celebrated Veteran's Day by learning about the Veterans who serve/have served our wonderful country!

If you didn't know already, my big brother, Adam, is proudly serving our country in the United States Navy.  He's been in the Navy for over 10 years.  He is currently serving in Lemoore, California as a Legalman.  He did two tours in Afghanistan, and lived in Japan during his ten years.



Anywho, we set ourselves up to interview him over Facetime.  The kiddos wrote their questions to ask Adam during the interview.  Some questions included, "What is your Navy name?" and "Where have you been in the Navy?"

The day of Veteran's Day, we were very excited to video chat with Adam (aka Mr. Schulze).  Sidenote: the kids got such a big kick out of "Mr. Schulze"...I'm pretty sure they think everyone, including my family calls me Ms. Schulze haha!  Anyways, after a few technical difficulties, we got video chat up and running!  Thank you Google Hangout!


We invited two other first grade classes who were free and any admin that were available.  The interview was a success!  The kids learned a lot,  and I think my brother really enjoyed the experience.  The best part was after the interview, the kids sang him a Thank You song!  Oh My Gee!! Such a sweet moment!  I wish I could figure out how to upload videos to share that with you! 

That afternoon, to wrap up our lessons, the kiddos wrote thank you letters to Veterans.  Some kiddos chose family members who have passed away, and some even wrote to Adam.  Very meaningful day!

Another thing to happen in November was the devastating attacks on Paris.  We talked a little about what happened.  The kiddos created French flags and cut them into hearts.  We hung them up in the window with a french sentence "Paris, nos coeurs sont avec vous."  which translates to, "Paris, our hearts are with you."

We ended the month with learning about the first Thanksgiving.  The kiddos loved learning about how different things were in the past.  Here are a few things we learned about during the week!

On a personal note, I started off my Thanksgiving break attending the wedding of one of my first teacher friends!  It was a great time to catch up with former co-workers and see a beautiful wedding at Houma's House Plantation in Louisiana!  

       

Congrats Haley and Aaron!

I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving with friends and family!

Gobble Gobble!