Professional Teacher Portfolio: September 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Thank you to all the families who brought in moon cakes!!!! Jessica's mom brought in moon cakes to share with the class on Thursday. We read the book Thanking The Moon by Grace Lin and then shared moon cakes and juice.

The book we read.

Jessica enjoying some moon cake and juice.

Tri Thanh and Samuel eating moon cake.

Natalie and Alexis enjoying the moon cake.

This photo was taken by Ms. Benedict at the Crescent during the Moon Festival!

Family enjoying the festival, photo by Meg Benedict.

Lanterns floating on the Crescent lake by Meg Benedict.

Two girls showing off their lanterns, photo by Silke Trester.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Respect for All Celebration

This month we celebrated the character trait, or ESLR, of "Respect for All." I hosted the assembly this month. My class worked on short skits that we put on for the other grade 1 classes. They demonstrated the wrong way and then the right way to show respect. My kids were so excited to perform their skits in front of their peers. Following the skits we handed out awards for the month's ESLR. Here is the first group.... they are not showing respect because they are not listening to the teacher.

Much better!!!!

Congratulations to all the students who were awarded an ESLR this month for showing respect for all. These students consistently use kind words, include everyone, help take care of the classroom and school environment and show that they care about themselves, others and the world. Next month we will celebrate the ESLR "Sense of Self." We will be looking for students who know who they are and what they like. These students are leaders and show pride in their work.

Here are some clips of the respect skits my students put on for the assembly.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Classroom Rules

Camera Roll-0, a photo by ebuglya on Flickr.

I like these rules because they cover just about everything in three simple rules.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Celebrating a Birthday in grade 1

Celebrating a Birthday in grade 1, a photo by ebuglya on Flickr.

Happy Birthday Yoon Hae!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

We are Scientists!

Today we a had Mr. Sullivan come into our class as a guest teacher. He showed us how to use microscopes. We made observations and recorded them, just like real scientists!

Here we are in action!

Monday, September 17, 2012

Favourite Educational Resources Used This Year

I thought it would be interesting to share the educational resources that I am using this year and what my daily schedule looks like. First in the day we do "Word Work" in 1st grade. I use Patricia M. Cunningham's Systematic and Sequencial Phonics They Use Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, Inc. I use this book for the "Making Words" activities, I also follow it for phonics and spelling lessons thoughout the year. The kids love doing "Making Words" and this resouce makes it sooo easy to plan the lessons, it's all laid out for you!

Source: amazon.com via Paula on Pinterest

Next in line is "Reader's Workshop." I like Daily 5 and The CAFE book.
I also use Making Meaning and Growing Readers.

Source: the2sisters.com via Susan on Pinterest

Source: images.betterworldbooks.com via Rachel on Pinterest

After a recess break we go into "Writer's Workshop." We use the Lucy Culkins writing program.
Following "Writer's Workshop," we do either "Work Stations" (which are literacy centers) or "Community Circle." My favourite resource for community building is TRIBES.

Lunch and recess are followed by specials such as Art, Music, P.E., Library, and Host Country Studies.

Finally, we have Science or Social Studies and Math to end the day. In Science, I love using the FOSS Kits, they are 'hands on' discovery based science lessons/units. We use the math resource Everyday Math, it follows a spiral curriculum and that it is very game based. I have learned so many math games by using this resource!