Class Photos

Making and counting tally marks can be fun with pretzels...and the best part is that you get to eat them when you're finished!

First grade scientists looking at shells to name their different properties (color, size, shape, texture, etc.) and to compare the similarities and differences between them.

CCE's visiting author, Lalena Fisher, explains what it's like to be an author and how to take ideas and turn them into stories!

I love the saying, "Throw kindness around like confetti!" Since the beginning of the school year, we have been building our class family and together enjoyed the story The Jelly Donut Difference. Since then, we've discussed ways to sprinkle kindness to others, written about ways to sprinkle kindness and finally the teachers sprinkled a little kindness by sharing some delicious doughnuts of our own!

Learning how magnets can attract and repel as well as testing a handful of objects from around the room!

What are some ways that objects can move? They can move up and down, curve sideways, zig zag, go around and around, fast or slow...so what better way to show movement than to let these engineers design their own Hot Wheels track!

Parent Readers have begun and we love that they can help instill a love of reading! This week we were lucky enough to have Manuela de Alcantara Machado Levy (Tomas' mom) come and read some great books to our class.  We enjoyed hearing stories about the box of crayons getting along and how to give a good high five!

In thinking of all the ways that things move, we decided to put our learning to the test and create marble runs using lots of different kits as well as recycled materials to build our own...the kids did an outstanding job!

We are so thankful for Jill Dobies (Savannah's mom) and the wonderful reading of some favorite stories like Enemy Pie and one from her childhood that gives us two stories in one with a different perspective on the illustrations depending on how you hold the book!

The PTA Fun Run was such an awesome event for our entire school community!  Despite the heat, the kids loved running the course, getting popsicles afterwards, dancing to music, playing games, eating pizza and participating in the color blast!

Have you ever wondered what happens when you put Ivory soap in the microwave for 90 seconds? We have been learning about different sources of energy: light, sound and heat energy...and how these sources of energy can create change.  As scientists, we predicted what would happen and then were amazed with the outcome! The explanation is this...when Ivory soap is made they whip the mixture, trapping air bubbles within the soap, which expands when it's heated in the microwave. The students got to feel it afterwards and it was light and powdery, and actually looked like snow as they brushed their hands off in the trashcan...and not to mention how good their hands smelled!

Our first field trip is in the books! We had the most beautiful weather for a bus ride and picnic lunch at Zachary Scott Theatre. "The Girl Who Became Legend" was an awesome story of a girl that no one believed. She knew she had seen a cloud that could bring rain to the town of Dustbin and she traveled far and wide to find it, no matter who made fun of her for doing so. Of course the story had a happy ending and we learned about trusting ourselves and never giving up!

These first graders light up my life...literally! We had so much fun together on Glow Day as we enjoyed learning in the dark with black lights and highlighters.  We even learned about the difference between luminescent light (two liquids that mix and set off a glow like in glow sticks) and phosphorescent light (material that stores light and gives it off slowly over time like in glow in the dark stars).

Some great stories were shared by Mrs. Provost (Julia's mom) and despite all the fun we were having on Glow Day, the kids were captivated by her storytelling abilities and they heard some books that they had never heard before!

We had our first Watch D.O.G. of the school year in our classroom and appreciate Mr. Dobies (Savannah's dad) for all the help and entertainment throughout the day!  He read a few funny stories to us and successfully played "Hide & Seek" as well as "Duck Duck Goose" with nearly the entire grade level...he was one popular adult on the playground!

We love to read and for Parents Readers to read to us! We are thankful for Mrs. Russell (Frankie's mom) and the wonderful books that she brought today. We heard a few of our well known favorites and even a new one too!

Mrs. Shaer (Layla's mom) captivated the kids with some fun fairy and Halloween stories as our Parent Reader...always a treat for us!

How lucky are we...a CCE teacher and Parent Reader all in one! Mrs. Wear (Joshua's mom) came to read some super funny stories about tacos, ninja pigs and couch potatoes to us!  We enjoy stories like these that just make us smile!

The holidays are upon us and we kick off a 3-day weekend with two special days!  We celebrated Veteran's Day with a program to honor all the men and women who have served in the military and my dad comes every year to share in this tradition at CCE.  He was so excited to meet these first graders and sit with us as many of them were in awe of him serving in the Navy and being part of our program. We also made lanterns to celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Lights & learned a little about this holiday that takes place in India.

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch with family and friends!

Turkey Trot 2023 is in the books! These first graders has so much fun learning the Turkey Tango and running laps for the Turkey Trot...we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

We are so thankful for all we have...especially for an amazing school, kids that fill it every day and Parent Readers who love participating in all that we do!  We are grateful for Jiao Li (Leon's mom) who came to read to us and even left us with a book that their family purchased from the Scholastic Book Fair!

It's hard to believe that December is already here...but we couldn't ask for a better way to kick off a new month than with a Parent Reader! We loved having Mr. Chen (Peyton's dad) read stories to us about an old rock with big adventures and a girl named Violet who loved to fly and create aircrafts!

Our Holly Jolly Days continue with another Parent Reader, Mrs. Levy (Tomas' mom) who read some amazing stories, including one that was Tomas' favorite as a young child.  She even shared a story with us but retold it without a book and folded paper instead...brilliant!

At recess we enjoyed Friendly Inclusive Friday thanks to the 5th graders and the No Place For Hate Coalition!  We had fun interacting with them and engaging in some other neat activities that we don't usually get to do at recess...what a treat!

Holiday fun was had by all on the last day before winter break! We had a schoolwide sing along with beautiful singing & music and lots of fun during our classroom party.  We played winter Bingo, made adorable snowmen ornaments that will document our height for years to come and decorated some yummy snowmen to eat!

With the New Year brings new Parent Readers!  We were excited to have Mr. Orta (Tristan's dad) come and share some stories that are family favorites in addition to a few new stories that not many students had heard. It's always fun to listen to stories that talk about friendships and helping others!

Mr. Meidan read a lovely story called Make Way for Butterfly. It was about being proud of who you are and not trying to be someone else! Such a beautiful story and something to always keep in mind.

Filling up the marble jar = a class reward!  Our class voted on a "Bring Your Electronics to School Day" to celebrate.  They did such a great job playing and including others in their fun.

Getting to see all the animals from Barn Hill Preserve was a real treat today! We got to see a bearded dragon, 3 banded armadillo, tortoise, Madagascan tenrec and an Australian cockatoo.  Many of our students got pictures with the animals and with this being a free presentation, that was one way to support the efforts of this organization as they traveled all the way from Louisiana to share this experience with us!

Mr. Provost (Julia's dad) was on our campus as a WatchDOG and we appreciate him spending some time with us reading and working on our campus!

Measuring ourselves with mittens and hearing some of Mrs. Shaer's (Layla's mom) favorite stories make for a perfect day!

Thanks to Mrs. Bamford, our librarian, we had the opportunity to visit a planetarium and see lots of stars and constellations in outer space...so cool!

Kindness Rocks!! Yes, that's right...it does, and we made kindness rocks with kind words and pictures to brighten anyone's day.  We hope to leave them somewhere for another person to find with the hope that our rock brightens their day!  We love our Parent Readers and today we enjoyed having Mrs. Dobies (Savannah's mom) come to read some all time favorite stories and even one that got us excited about Valentine's Day coming up soon!

Happy 100th Day of School!! We have learned so much in the past 100 days together and these kids are officially 100 days smarter.  We celebrated all day with activities centered around the number 100 and this will hopefully be a day they won't forget! Our Parent Reader, Mr. Friesenhahn (Sydney's dad) brought some awesome stories that captured our attention and were perfect after a week's long discussion of fiction vs. nonfiction stories. 

Happy Lunar New Year! We began the day with a parade, headbands as well as traditional clothing, and ended the day with red envelopes and Korean sweet cakes! It was a fun day indeed as we celebrated the Year of the Dragon and enjoyed stories by our Parent Reader, Mr. Levy (Tomas' dad)!  

We were definitely feeling the love on Valentine's Day with so many of our parents!  We had lots of fun creating valentine headbands, making ice cream sundaes and playing Valentine Bingo!  Our valentine bags were filled to the brim with many goodies and ways to show our friendship...it was a "lovely" day!

We loved having Mrs. Wear (Joshua's mom) as our Parent Reader and are grateful that she gave up her lunch to come and read to us!  There were a handful of favorite stories read (even one of Joshua's birthday books) but I think the one called Legend of Rock Paper Scissors took the cake!

Enjoying our Parent Reader, Mrs. Li (Leon's mom) as she and Leon teamed up to read some wonderful stories. One of their books was in letter format, which was fun to listen to as we recently learned how important letters can be and the messages that they send!

The long awaited field trip to Callahan's General Store can mean only one thing...CHICKS!!!  We learned a lot about how to care for baby chicks once they hatch and how to provide a living space that has everything they need! The eggs arrive next week which we'll put in an incubator and our class couldn't be more "egg-cited!"

Loved getting to kick off spring with some favorite new stories that many first graders hadn't heard of before, thanks for Mr. Chen (Peyton's dad)...we enjoyed having him as our Parent Reader!

The most anticipated event is here...CHICKS...and it's time to build a living space for them once they hatch! We've learned all about what is needed to take care of our baby chicks, thanks to Callahan's General Store, and it's time to get to work on building a brooder.  We got into teams to brainstorm designs and construct a 3D model using popsicle sticks, wood glue and a little bit of hot glue to hold all the walls together. 

The children shared their design with the builders! They were excited to watch and take notes of the progress as our 3D model was turned into a life-sized brooder for our chicks to enjoy! A huge thank you to Manuela Levy and Russell Friesenhahn for bringing our idea to life!

Hatching day was a success! We welcomed 14 baby chicks to our classroom and we couldn't be more in love! 

Preparations are in full swing for a schoolwide Chick Viewing and an after school Sip 'n See that we've invited our parents to. The students chose one of the following committees or design teams to work on: Poster Design Team, Commercial Design Team, Invitation Committee or Decorations Committee. Once in groups, they began working on things that pertained to their job assignment. We can't wait to share these cuties with our school and community!

Ocean Day is complete with the children making a tranquil, shimmery ocean in a bottle and mingling with an octopus friend. They sampled delicious seafood, looked closely at sand from around the world, and dove into a sweet blue ocean of jello.  It was an amazing journey - free of itchy sand and sunburns!  We are so thankful for all the parent volunteers who donated food, supplies or their time...our ocean hallway was filled with beautiful decorations, festive music and lots of excited children swimming through...it was perfect!