A Day in the Life of First Grade...

I love my job. I really do. It is demanding no doubt, but my class this year is simply adorable, and they keep me on my feet. I've taken a few pictures as of late of a couple of things that we have done (I try to put pics into a slide show for the end of the year), so I just thought that I would share.

Last week the school art teacher threw an ice cream party for our class because they had the most entries in the art contest. They also won a popcorn party because they earned the most number of points in art. Yep, my kids are amazing.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream...

See that Home Depot apron? I wear that all day, every day. I keep stickers, stamps, usually an extra pencil, and fake money to give to the kids when they are being extra good.

If that picture doesn't make you want to teach first grade, I don't know what will...

These are a couple of pictures from a language arts lesson. We played antonym charades and tried to guess what antonyms the kids were acting out.

I think this one was dead and alive?

hot and cold

This was one of the coolest, though difficult lessons I've taught this year. We started a new unit about organization in our communities (rules, routines, community helpers). Providence Hall is trying to become an IB (international baccaulaureate) school. There is a lot involved in that I won't go into, but part of the program consists of teaching kids a lot of inquiry: allowing them to reach and understand lessons on their own, without explicitly teaching them. This is one of those lessons. While they were at lunch, I destroyed my room (that's why it was the hardest lesson for me to teach :) ) I dumped every desk and threw crayons, pencils, etc everywhere. They came in from lunch and were-naturally-stunned. Technically, they still don't know it was me, they think it might have been a leprechaun. But it took them about 20 minutes or so to put the room back together, then I pulled them back to the carpet and we talked about it. "Why was that so frustrating?" "Why is it important to stay organized?" "Why does Miss Rodgers always make you put your crayons back in the same spot?" etc. The kids got a lot from the lesson, and I think it was one of my better teaching moments.