Archives of Grade 1

This fall, Grade 1 students participated in an author study of Kevin Henkes. Students learned what authors and illustrators are. It has been nice sharing the Henkes mouse books because they often relate to common themes involving growing up, going to school, friendship, bullying, families. It has been especially nice to teach new vocabulary words through these books. (Within Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Kindergarten students learned the words: furious, considerate, amused, semicircle, and what a diva is! They also learned a funny expression, "sharp as a tack". Their guesses about what this meant were creative!) The kids have done a nice job noticing things in the illustrations and how with Kevin Henkes author, sometimes the illustrations tell the story itself.

Together, we read Owen, Chrysanthemum, Sheila Rae the Brave, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Lilly's Big Day and Kitten's First Full Moon (Caldecott Winner). We also watched Kevin Henkes describe how he writes and illustrates his books as well as is inspiration for Lilly! Visit www.kevinhenkes.com for more information!

In addition to learning vocabulary, students had the opportunity to be creative and to think about how the stories related to them through a variety of coloring page activities. Grade 1 students had to count the letters in their names, think of what they wish they could have brought to school with them (like Owen's blanket), complete a step by step following directions page about Lilly's Big Day. Grade 1 students began completing "word finds" related to the books! It was impressive to see how well many of the students did with this task!

Grade 1students learned about the phases of the moon following hearing Kitten's First Full Moon. We compared this book to The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons and watched a NASA phases of the moon video clip.

Mrs. Mercier and Mrs. MacKinnel's classes each designed their own classroom monster. The students each added one step to create a collaborative monster. As each step was created using Drawing Pad App on an I-pad, Mrs. Carvin recorded the directions in a document. We then sent our directions to Deep River and Essex Library Media Centers for Mrs. Beni's and Mrs. O'Connor's first grade classes to re-create. We in turn, recreated their monsters. At the end of the project, the classes used Google Hangouts to video chat and reveal the re-created monsters. Students compared similarities and differences of the re-created and original monsters.

This fun project highlighted the importance of creating clear directions for others to follow. See the Before/After Monsters below!

Students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 began an inquiry project in late November. They were read the books, Owl Babies and White Owl, Barn Owl. They were then asked to collaborate with partners to come up with "I wonder" statements about owls. The students had many great "I wonders".

Below is a sampling of "I wonder" questions and statements.

As a class, we researched owls using PebbleGo to see if we could find answers to our wonders about owls. Because some of the students had questions that were more than what PebbleGo could answer, they watched portion of these two videos.

In this lesson, students were paired up. Each student group was handed a stuffed animal (called their mascot) to research using PebbleGo on the I-pad. They were asked to remember two to three facts about their animal (one fact for each team member). Using the I-pad app, ChatterPix, students took a picture of their stuffed animal and then recorded their voices saying the fact that they learned.

Below are pictures of the kids working together to learn about their animals.

During the month of January, students in grade 1 have been learning about the Caldecott Award. Together, the classes learned about the Caldecott Medal, which is awarded every year in January. The Medal is awarded by the American Library Services to Children (a division of the American Library Association) to the American illustrator of the best children's picture book published in the United States the previous year. We watched this slide and learned about the four criteria needed for a book to be a Caldecott.

Chester Elementary Library Media Center

Mrs. Stephanie Carvin, Library Media Specialist

860-526-5797

scarvin@reg4.k12.ct.us