Grandparents Day

We had a terrific day today with our special guests! The children came in this morning wide-eyed and excited! Our guests arrived at 10:00 ready to share what life was like when they were younger. We began by sharing stories and then created a Venn Diagram to show how things have changed and what is still the same. Then we created family crests. These turned out wonderful! Finally, we shared in a wonderful feast provided by our guests and parents. The feast was a representation of traditional family recipes from our classroom!

Everyone seemed to really enjoy themseleves and a lot of learning took place! Although, I think simply having a grandparent or family member at school and sharing in some wonderful food was the best part for the children. We were all risk-takers and tried new foods! Here are some of the comments:

"I liked Alex's dad's food. I've tried them before, but he makes it better than Publix! Actually, they were the best!" -Ivan

"Today is the best day ever!" -Anna
"Why?"-student
"Because the coffee cake was so delicious!!!"-Anna

"I was excited about the grandparents coming!"-Alex

"There was a lot of things that they did back then. They did hula hoops and they had wooden desks. They had both wooden chairs and wooden desks!" -Carolyn

"Grandparents day was very fun becuase our grandparents came in and Anna and Michelle were a very big help. They helped me explain to my grandparents how to make the Venn Diagram."-Gabbrielle

"I liked Paige's peanut brittle!"-Chandler

"It was fun to have them here!"-Nathan

"The most fun was making family crest and lunch!"-Paige

It was fun making the Venn diagram. Back in the old times, it was only propeller planes but now it's jet planes."-John S.

"I learned to eat new stuff. I like the gingerbread cookies!"-Michelle


"I tried nachos and I really like it!"-Summer

I think we are all very full of both deeper knowledge and wonderful foods! Thank you to all who made this day such a success. I will post some pictures at a later time.

South African Visitors

Wow! We just had the most fantastic day! Three children from South Africa came to visit our classroom. Actually, there were a whole group of children that came and spent the day with others at our school. The three children in our room seemed to fit in perfectly! Everyone in our class welcomed them with open arms.

We learned a lot about South Africa and realized that we have many similarities and differences in our countries. The children were very interested in the sports that are commonly played in South Africa such as cricket and squash.

When our visitors left, we reflected on our day. Here are a few comments from the children:

“They were helpful.”
“They were good.”
“They had a good time.”
“We had a GREAT time.”
“They were lots of fun!”
“They were very kind!”
“They were nice!”
“They weren’t shy.”
“They were responsible!”

What a great way to learn about other's cultures! Why don't we all pack up and go travel!!!

Tolerance

We did a wonderful lesson on tolerance yesterday. After reading the book The Crayon Box, we created pictures using only one color. We discussed how boring life would be if this is all we had. We also discussed how people who are not tolerant may choose to see life in only one color. After much complaining, we finished our drawings and posted them on the board. We then created much kinder and happier pictures using many colors. The idea of tolerance was very vivid for our young learners!

Welcome!

Let's see how effective this form of communication will be! It's exciting to think that in 10 year's time, when this year's class is close to graduation, that technology will be even more impressive. There will be things that we can't even imagine. When I was in first grade, the Apple IIe just came out and we were using things like the ever impressive Print Shop to create signs and banners. I remember a friend of my mother's who started a business selling dot matrix banners that could be colored for things like birthdays (I had one) and other events. Now we have second graders with cell phones. I hope that this blog can be not only some reflections of our classroom learning, but a place for our first grade community to share thoughts and ideas.The new generation of technology is here and it's taking our kids with it!