Teacher Appreciation Week

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week. The theme was "Lighting the Fire Within." Thank you PTA, parents, and students for all of your love, kindness, and support.

When I came to school this week I found my classroom door covered in decorations. I loved it and so did all of my students! Thanks!

Spring has definitely sprung! Stop by our classroom and see if you can figure out whose flower is whose. We also planted flowers in class for Mother's Day. Thank you Moms for all that you do!

We began testing last week and we will continue testing next week. Students, make sure you get enough sleep and eat a good breakfast.

Thank you!

Parents, thank you for coming to parent teacher conferences! I met with at least one parent for every one of my students. I loved talking with you about your child and his or her progress. Thanks for coming!

3 of our students read 100 1st grade sight words in 1 minute and 1 of our students read 100 3rd grade sight words in 1 minute. Congratulations! Keep up the great work!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can,You Can't Catch Us...We're 1st Graders!

Our theme last week was "Favorite Stories."

One of the class' favorite stories was "The Gingerbread Man."

(Click on the story's title to read it online)

Our class has collected $17.69 to support the humanitarian efforts in Chile. 3 more of our 1st graders passed the 2nd grade sight words and they are moving on to 3rd grade words.

Nice work 1st graders!

Don't forget to come to parent teacher conferences this Thursday (March 18th). I look forward to meeting with all of the parents and students to talk about our 1st graders' progress!

We Are ALL Doing our Very Best!

Every Friday we do extra centers after lunch. The students really enjoy centers...especially store. The students earn pennies throughout the week and then they get to buy things with their pennies every Friday.

This week we learned about things that float and things that sink. The students observed how clay floats AND sinks if it's put in a baking soda, water, vinegar mixture (try it at home!). They also tried to form balls of clay into shapes that would float.

We are learning about shapes right now too. The students created their own cubes, pyramids, triangular prisms, and rectangular prisms.

Our class is participating in the school fundraiser called "Change for Chile." As many of you know, Chile recently experienced a major earthquake and many people are without clothes, food, and shelter. Our school's goal is to collect $500 by the end of March to send to the humanitarian efforts in Chile. So far our class has donated $9.35. Great work 1st graders! That is very kind of you!

Our class recently started a reading program. If students read 500 minutes in the month of March they will earn a free ice skating pass, a free activity coupon to Trafalga, and a book. We are keeping track of everyone's progress on the gameboard below.

Keep reading, all you amazing 1st graders!!!

ANOTHER student passed the 1st grade sight words this week. Congratulations! Now we have 8 students working on 2nd grade words and 1 student working on 3rd grade words. Wow! Keep practicing at home! Nice work!

Maps, Maps, and More Maps!

We learned about maps this week. The students made many observations and discoveries. Did you know that there is land on the bottom of the globe called Antarctica? Did you know that there are mountains in China? Do you know what a map key or a symbol is?

Well, our class does!

Miss Cluff showed the class some of the pictures and things that she got while she was in Mexico.

Our class looked at pictures of people and things from different countries using Culture Grams-Kids Edition onwww.pioneer.uen.org. This website has many resources and it is free for all Utah students.

E-mail Miss Cluff if you would like the username and password.

The students created their own lands and made a map using symbols.

Did you know that there is treasure hidden in our classroom? The students took turns hiding a Brazilian coin in the classroom and then they gave directions to a student so they could find it. The students used the directions you would find on a compass: north, south, east, and west.

An atlas is the name of a book filled with maps. The students went on an atlas scavenger hunt and had to find things like a map key, symbols, the country of Mexico, and a picture of a bird.

The students loved looking at all of the places on the globe and making observations.

Congratulations! Two more of the students in our class passed the 1st grade sight words! Good luck with 2nd grade words!

Mushroom in the Rain

We read lots of stories about the weather this week. One of the stories we read was called "Mushroom in the Rain" by Mirra Ginsburg. In the story, it begins to rain and then five animals try to hide under one small mushroom...you will have to read the story to find out what happens (or you can ask one of the 1st graders in Miss Cluff's class!).

Each of the students hid their own animals underneath a mushroom. The students all had interesting mushroom designs. Come to school and check out our bulletin board to see every student's mushroom!

Valentine's Day Fun and Cool Creations

We celebrated Valentine's Day today! The students decorated their bags and got lots of nice notes and treats. It was "Wear Red and Pink" day. We made a graph that shows the color of everyone's shirt color in our class. Red and pink tied!

We also keep getting more and more visitors in our classroom. Many of our students have made their own creations at home and brought them in to visit the class.

This is Lizzie. She likes to help our class with math.

This is Valentine. She came especially for Valentine's Day.

This friend does not have a name yet, but I really love the glitter and stickers!

We had 1 student pass the 2nd grade words and she is now moving on to 3rd grade words. Congratulations! We also had another student complete EVERY episode in Head Sprouts. Terrific job!

We're Learning About the Weather!

Recycling Helps Save the Earth

Luke and his friend came to visit our class since we were learning about recycling this week. They were so excited to meet all of the students!

Congratulations to all 6 of our 1st graders who have moved on to 2nd grade sight words! A lot of the other students are close to mastering the 100 1st grade sight words. Keep up the great work!

100th Day of School!

We celebrated the 100th day of school last Friday. Students brought in collections of 100 things. We had everything from 100 Pokemon cards to 100 pieces of cereal. Nice work 1st graders! You all did terrific! I am so lucky to be your teacher!

It was a jungle in the lunchroom on Friday!

There were lions and elephants roaming around.

The students ate tiger blood soup and gorilla sandwiches. Delicious!

We are excited because 3 of our 1st graders have already mastered the 100 1st grade sight words in 1 minute. Congratulations! Good luck with the 2nd grade sight words!

100 Sight Words

The new challenge in our class is to read all 100 1st grade sight words in 1 minute. Students are graphing their progress in achieving this goal every week. Those who reach the goal get to choose an animal puzzle to take home and keep.

Keep practicing your sight words! :)

Family Fun!

We learned about families last week and guess what? We are learning more about families this week! 1st graders, can you sing our song about families to your family? Remember, it starts out "Oh a family is people and a family is love, that's a family..." Here are some sentences our class wrote about families:

All of the students are writing stories right now about princesses, sword fighters, ninjas, dinosaurs, or fairies. I love reading them! We definitely have some future authors in this class! Parents, you should be really excited to read these stories-they're amazing!

Welcome Back to School!

Thank you to all of the parents and students who came to the open house last Thursday! It was so fun to get to know all of you a little bit better. I hope you enjoyed visiting our classroom.

We learned about shadows last week. Here's a fun activity: Get a flashlight and try to make shadow animals with your hands. Can you make a duck, a bird, a rabbit? How about a crocodile?

We'll be learning about families this week. Each family is different in their own special way, but every family is important.

Here is a picture of my family: