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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Our Trip To Davis Farmland


Here Are Some Great Moments From Our 2014 Trip to Davis Farmland!
Here's our Room 111 Gang at the entrance to the farm.

We had read that goats could climb ... and we witnessed this for ourselves!



We began the tour with Farmer Dan taking us on a guided hayride around the farm!





We saw llamas...

...Brahman Bulls.

One bull got up close and personal...

He came right up to our tractor-pulled hayride...

...and ate the very straw that we were sitting on!




We also saw Belgian horses...



...and Australian emus.





The scarecrow waved goodbye to us as our hayride ended.

Then we were off to see the rest of the farm animals!

We fed the goats food right out of our hands!













One bull stuck out his huge tongue for food!
He couldn't get enough to eat!





...more baby lambs.





Farmer Karen let us all pet the baby goat that she was holding!  She was so soft!

Here is a close-up of the baby goat.

Next came the fat-tailed gecko.  His fat tail makes him appear to have two heads to protect him from predators.

We each had a chance to pet him.















We pet the llamas.



We fed the sheep by hand.

We even met some alpacas.




We pet a baby chick.


We then went into the pen with the sheep.





We pet and brushed them.














Oink!


We fed the llamas leaves from nearby trees.







Then we entered the pen with the baby cows.









After lunch we had some fun pretending to fish...


We even got to hold some baby goats.


One goat got very friendly...

He crawled behind Ava...

...And then his brother jumped up too!

I think he wanted Ava's jacket for lunch! (But we had already read that goats don't really eat everything.  They just explore objects with their mouths.  So Ava wasn't scared.)

Finally holding a calm baby goat.

We ended the day with fun on the giant slide!















We gathered together again before boarding the bus and heading back to school.  It was a great day!  Thank you to all of the chaperones who volunteered their day to help out and enjoy the farm with us!  Thanks also to all of you who had volunteered to chaperone for this trip but were not chosen this time around.  Don't worry!  We have more fun field trips coming up!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Great First Few Weeks

Open House 
This Tuesday, 
September 16th at 6:00 pm
Mark your calendars!  Come meet the first grade team, see the classroom and sign up for your Parent-Teacher Conference with your child's reading teacher this Tuesday, September 16th.  The Open House will begin at 6:00 in the auditorium where you will meet Principal Nicole MacDonald and hear from the Technology Specialist Ben Schersten and the PTO.  At 6:45 you will go to your child's homeroom (Room 111) where you can meet me, see what's been happening for the last week and a half and familiarize yourself with the classroom, homework, curriculum and communication. At 7:30, you will go to your child's reading teacher to sign up for your parent-teacher conference in December.  Looking forward to meeting you all on Tuesday!


First Week Photo!

Here's Our Gang the first week of First Grade:


What Else Have We "BEAN" doing in Room 111?
This past week the first graders harvested the beans which the previous first graders had planted last Spring at the end of the 2014 school year.  
First we harvested the bean plants from the Francis Wyman plot of the Burlington Community Garden which had grown significantly over the summer.












We then took the bean plants back to the classroom and removed the beans from the plants:












Next:  We will let the bean pods dry out and then pack the beans in jars. We will add rice to the jars to help keep the beans dry.  We will then plant these beans in the spring in the Community Garden so that next year's first graders can then harvest the beans from those plants.  And so the bean life cycle continues!

Room 111 Are Bucket Fillers!


The entire first grade has read and discussed the book How Full Is Your Bucket? This book describes how we all have invisible buckets which are either filled by kind and helpful thoughts, actions and words or "dipped into" by unkind thoughts, words and actions.  Each child has his/her own bucket displayed on the wall.  When they are seen being kind and helpful to others or following the rules of the classroom, they put a coupon into their bucket.  

After the children earn 5 coupons, they receive a ticket.  After 3 tickets, they get a prize from the treasure box.  Check out the books shown below!  The children beg to have them re-read to them over and over again!  Ask your child how (s)he is being a bucket filler at school.



Lately we have been receiving coupons for our buckets by remembering to do the following upon arrival to school each morning (without being reminded by the teacher).

                                        

This is what we have been doing over the first 2 weeks!

Morning Meeting:
During morning meeting we practice greeting each other; learn to listen when others are speaking and read the "Morning Message." 

Hope and Dreams:
We discussed and shared our Hopes and Dreams for our year in first grade -- you can see them posted on the wall when you come to Open House on Tuesday.

Rules:
After sharing our hope and dreams we discussed and made rules as a classroom that we thought would help us achieve our goals.  They are also posted on our wall.

Here are photos of the children acting out the Classroom Rules:








Some More Photos Of the Children Working Together, Having Fun and Getting to Know Each Other: