Happy Halloween

What a week!  Conferences, Volleyball, Football, Halloween, and we can't forget the wind!!  After reading our TIME for KIDS magazine, we got the idea that we could carve our pumpkin and roast the seeds.  The kids each got a handful of seeds out of the pumpkin, then they were washed, and finally we brainstormed ideas about how to count them.  We quickly learned that counting them one at a time would take forever and we could probably lose track of where we were at.  Then someone suggested to skip count by 2.  Well, once again we found that it would take a long time.  Finally, a student suggested that we skip count by 10.  So, each child took turns counting out 10 seeds and placing them on an index card.  Then those could be placed with 10 in a row, to make 100.   The class was able to quickly count using our plan, and we found that we had 513 seeds to roast.  Then we worked together to decide how to carve our Jack-O-lantern.

First graders costumes for the Halloween Parade!

Friday, October 15

Thursday we had a fun time celebrating with Mrs. Creswell!  She is running a marathon on Sunday.  She has been training hard, and all the money she raises will go towards building a school in Africa.  We decorated her room with balloons, streamers, banners, and we all wore buttons.  In the afternoon we had her run through a "tunnel" of elem. kids waving streamers and cheering her on.  We wish her the best of luck, and enjoy your day, you deserve it.

Friday, the NICL Conference teachers met in Cedar Falls for a day of technology.  We heard a speaker in the morning about how fast things are changing as far as technology, and what we as teachers need to think about with our students to keep up the pace.  In the afternoon I attended a session about how to use laptops in the classroom, and a session about using a mimeo board.  Both were interesting.  Now we will have to see what new things we can "unlock" in technology in our classrooms at GR!

Friday, October 8

What a wonderful fall week of school.  This is our review week in language arts.  There was lots of review, practice, and testing that I will share with you at conferences.  There will not be as many daily papers in your child's folder this week.  In math we spent a lot of time with subtraction story problems and looking for the key words.  Next week, I will start subtraction rocket math, along with the addition.  Wednesday was an early out for inservice, the elementary teachers discussed reading strategies.  Thursday we had a wonderful afternoon with the fire fighters.  Each child got to practice with the fire extinguisher.  They also shared all the gear and what it would be like if they came into your home to rescue you from a fire. Then the first grade room was filled with smoke.  The kids learned that the smoke would rise and they needed to stay low.  Then the fire fighters helped the 1st graders out the EXIT window to safety.  Mr. Ciddio shared his dalmatian fire dog, Gracey!  This week we also got to celebrate with an ice cream treat for saving the most box tops in September.  Keep saving for October!! 

Friday, Oct. 1

Our day started with a Homecoming Assembly.  Thank you High School Cheerleaders and Football Captains!  I took a picture of the Gladbrook Elementary with the Cheerleaders and Football Players showing our REBEL Spirit.  I'm getting an error when I try to add the picture of us.  I will keep working on it.  Hopefully, I can share the picture with you soon!

Congratulations 1st graders!  We celebrated our first AR goal of passing 100 tests!  We all enjoyed a picnic lunch in the room watching cartoons.  Keep reading!!  Our next goal to celebrate will be when we reach 300 AR Books.