Christmas Around the World

We are traveling around the world this month to learn about how other countries celebrate Christmas. So far we have visited Mexico and Germany. We used "Audioboo" to record some facts and songs relating to each country. Coming later this week....facts and songs from Canada and Italy!

listen to ‘Mexico’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Germany’ on Audioboo

Exploring Glogster

In preparation for an upcoming short vowel homework project we created a "Glogster" with information we learned about the first Thanksgiving. For more information about the first Thanksgiving, please visit the website we used this past month: http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/
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Singular and Plural Noun Photostory

Check out this photostory we made together about singular and plural nouns. We worked with a partner, chose a noun, and wrote sentences for the singular and plural form of the nouns we chose.

We are voters!

To finish up our study of the U.S.A. we discussed the election and the importance of voting. We learned about the different ways to vote and talked about times we need to vote on things. We applied this knowledge to the presidential election and participated in a mock election today in our classroom. Each girl visited the "1A Voting Booth" to cast their vote for president. We used a paper clip and placed it in a sealed container labeled with the candidates' names. Each girl received a "Good Citizen" certificate which we hung in the hallway. After everyone voted, Mrs. Crowley counted the votes and in our class election Barack Obama won. We are excited to find out who wins the real election!!

Sensational Subtraction Skills!

We created this video about the concepts we have learned so far in math about subtraction. Check out our mathematical movie stars in action! 

Liturgical Year with Kidspiration!

We used Kidspiration to help us review and sequence seasons and colors of the Liturgical Year.

A Prezi on bats

We had so much fun learning about bats. Here are some facts we learned last week. We turned them into a prezi to help us pre-write for informational writing pieces we will be creating using the Writing Process!

Bat Facts on Prezi

Science Update

Today we finished our pumpkin decay experiment. We made final observations on our pumpkin samples. We concluded that to keep a pumpkin from decaying, you can paint it with vaseline or spray it with another sealant. The vaseline acts like a jacket to protect the pumpkin from the air. Take a look at the final pictures...

Science Fun With Pumpkins

Yesterday we began an experiment to answer the question: How can we keep a pumpkin from decaying? We made a hypothesis and began our experiment by painting glue on some pumpkin pieces from our jack-o-lantern and vaseline on the other pieces.

We will keep our eyes on this each day to see what happens!

A School-time Storybird

This week our stories in ELA focus on a day at school. We read a non-fiction piece this morning and used Storybird to create a fictional story about animals at school. We chose a group of artwork from the Storybird site and worked together to come up with sentences to fit each picture. Check it out! Animals Go To School! by mrscrowley1a on Storybird

Our gifts and talents!

Today we talked about how everyone has a special gift and talent from God. Here they are in a Wordle!

God's Gifts of Creation

We experimented with creating a Prezi to sequence and retell the Creation story during Religion. Click around the Prezi to read the story and view the pictures.

God's Gifts of Creation on Prezi

It's a new year in 1A!

We are off to a great start in 1A! This week we began exploring our classroom blog. Take a look at our first post: a Photostory created last week while we were reviewing numbers. Stay tuned for more exciting technology pieces to come. :)

That doesn't look like Mrs. Crowley!?

The girls have learned so much in math this year. They have really picked up the concepts of addition and subtraction. In reviewing all that we have learned this year, we thought it would be fun to film a skit in which we would teach the concepts and strategies we learned for addition. Check out our video! Coming soon, part 2 on subtraction!

Ready for Research!

Today we listened to the "tall tale" of Paul Bunyan. In the story we heard many funny explanations for things in nature. One of them had to do with Paul's ox, Babe, making lakes from his big footprints. This made us wonder.....How are lakes really formed? We chose to research this topic on the computer using Google.(http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_are_lakes_formed) We learned that dents and cracks naturally happen in the Earth and then rain and melted snow fill them creating a lake. Next week we will begin our own research on an animal and create an informational paragraph.

Our first try with Audioboo.com!

Last week we read a non-fiction piece about a class trip to the forest. The children in the story learned facts about the animals and plants that live there. To practice our writing (and rhyming) skills, the girls worked with a partner to create a couplet about a forest animal or tree. We used the website "Audioboo" to record our voices reading these rhyming sentences.

Soaring with Storybird

This week we are reading If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. To enhance our reading of this familiar story we are doing some exciting activities. We have used www.storybird.com to create our own story inspired by the repetitive text Laura Numeroff likes to use in her books. On Friday we will be making blueberry pancakes to practice reading and following directions in a delicious way!

If You Take a Pig to Villa by mrscrowley1a on Storybird

"Going Green" in 1A

This month we will learn about ways to take care of the Earth. We will celebrate Earth Day on Monday 4/23. We brainstormed ways to take care of our planet and created this Tagxedo together. Also, we wrote "Earth pledges" to display in the hallway to show ways we will work to care for the planet.

Retelling and Sequencing with Photostory

To practice retelling and sequencing story events, we created a photostory from our artwork and sentences about the story "Lost" by David McPhail. We worked in small groups to focus on beginning, middle, and end.

Trying out "Tagxedo!"

We talked about the different names we have for our grandparents. Then we typed them into Tagxedo to create a fun word cloud! We will use this website to create word clouds of our grandparent writing pieces that we completed last week.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Love, Mrs. Crowley and her little leprechaun :)

SUPER SCIENCE :)

We started to learn about states of matter: GAS, LIQUID, and SOLID.

Today we did an experiment to see what can happen when you mix a solid and a liquid.

We used the following materials:

Vinegar
Baking Soda
Paper Cups
Paper Towel
Spoons

We PREDICTED that the baking soda would go up and down; it would explode; it would bubble up.

Next, we poured the vinegar into the baking soda and it bubbled up and OVERFLOWED!

In conclusion, when some solids and liquids mix they turn into a gas.

We liked this experiment!! Our favorite part was when it overflowed!!! :)

Rainforest Facts

In ELA we are reading Red Eyed Tree Frog. This non-fiction story gives great information and photos about the rainforest. Check out what we learned...







Red eyed tree frogs sleep during the day.

A katydid is an insect that lives in the rainforest.

An iguana is a lizard.

Red eyed tree frogs eat moths.

The weather in the rainforest is hot and rainy which makes it steamy.

The trees can be 200 ft. tall.

A boa is a snake that likes to eat frogs.

Some animals stay up in the trees all the time.

Red eyed tree frogs can jump very far.