Throwing Candy to the Crowd

First Day of Camp

We walked down to the town tennis courts for the first day of camp...and found a crowd of happy, super-casual peeps. There seem to be about 50 kids altogether, so it's pretty small. We introduced ourselves, and found Boylee's counselors, Ellie and Ozzie. He joined the group already assembled -- which was about four girls. And then we waited. And then a few more girls arrived. And then we waited -- and I could actually feel Boylee's tension. And then a couple more girls showed up -- until it was EIGHT girls and Boylee, and I was really starting to sweat!

FINALLY another boy showed up, and then and then another, and then it seemed to be ages and ages later when the one boy Boylee knows, Mark, came. Finally Boylee relaxed! Things shifted during the day, so it turns out Boylee and Mark are the only two boys in the group, but I think that's enough. (I mean, he'd be happy with a few more, I'm sure, but one will do.)

Today was an all-camp getting-to-know-you-day, which meant games on the tennis court, then a one-minute walk to the beach where they did an obstacle course, played games, did face-painting (Boylee did not participate) and generally had fun. The day started drizzly and quite cold, which did not seem promising. I even had to hike back up to the house to get Boylee a pair of long pants to change into. And then when I delivered the pants back at the camp group, Boylee did not want to give me a kiss. He did snuggle against my shoulder, but I guess kissing mama at camp is not cool.

A few hours later I was taking a long walk around the town when my feet just happened to lead me down the beach where the camp was assembled. I looked, and looked and didn't see Boylee -- then finally found him, buried up to his waist in the sand. He was back at the far end of the beach, against the cliffs. I was at the water's edge. I wondered if I should say hi, and then he saw me and waved. I did get close enough to ask if he was having fun and he said yes -- and then turned away from me to horse around with Mark and another boy. Point taken -- MAMA NOT NEEDED AT CAMP!

Okay, okay, I learned my lesson.

Tomorrow I drop him off at the local school where they will be doing, among other things, storytelling and foot massages. I don't know whose feet will be massaged by whom. I will report.

Happy 4th!

Summer Science Experiment

Skittles killed a hummingbird. I don't like when that happens, but we can't leave it a total waste, so we turned the bird into a science experiment. This took less than 24 hours, so the conclusion is: ants work fast.

Almost Done

Monday I got to visit Boylee's classroom, where we celebrated the end of our big, year-long unit on The Neighborhood. There was a lot to see inside the classroom:

For the whole year, the kids have been studying the neighborhood. They've had three walking field trips in various directions. They're consulted paper maps and looked at Google maps and satellite images. Then Boylee and his group made this bird's eye view of the busy, busy neighborhood. The red blocks are cars. The little colored squares are people. The tall tower is the CNN building. Boylee's group was famous in the classroom for repeated collapses of the freeway they attempted to build. Eventually they gave up that effort.

Before they could do the block construction, they had to collaborate on a hand-drawn map.

The morning greeting.

The class was divided into four groups, and here are all the maps they made. I think Boylee's group was called Northeast, but I don't remember for sure.

They've also been working on dioramas about their favorite books.

Boylee's is about Percy Jackson, of course.

Our fearless leader. How she does this every year, I'll never know.

Getting Bigger -- and slightly weirder -- Every Day

So Long, First Grade (almost)

This is from the LA Times, and I love it:

So long, first grade

When you're 7, life's possibilities seem endless.

Chris Erskine

June 19, 2010



Dear first-graders,

At the end of the year, here are a few things I'd like to bring to your attention: You approach each day as if you've already had a glass of $100 Champagne. Your entire lives have been like the second hour of a very good wedding reception.

As with Champagne itself, you have lots of bubbles and none of them has been burst — Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, corporate capitalism. They all thrive in your crazy, pudding-filled heads.

The other day, my own son — who is one of you — lifted his head to the sky and blew, thinking he could move the clouds.

First-graders, huh? Get a grip, you kids.

Don't you know how life beats you down? Don't you know yet about the discrepancy between dreams and outcomes?

No, obviously you don't. You stand around each morning before class, talking about the teeth you lost overnight and noting how the new gaps in your smiles are great for milkshake straws. "My dad pulled out my tooth," Ava says. "He just grabbed it and twisted. There was blood."

Oh, quit your bragging, Ava.

I see you and your little buddies each day before class, waiting for Mrs. Patterson to open the classroom door, hungry for her great New York accent. You soak it up with your pink-tipped ears, like baby mice. You are 7, and while you wait you wiggle like the inner workings of an old watch. You wear your heartbeats on your snotty little sleeves.

Listen, I've been studying you all year, and I have reached this disturbing conclusion: You have no apparent cliques, you kids. I mean, what are you thinking? This is L.A., for gosh sakes, where we don't even let people into NBA games unless they make $1.5 million (a week).

I see what you're up to. You're weirdly egalitarian in a world that no longer celebrates such things. You mingle each day as if at some college mixer. Evidently, a first-grader doesn't care much for fashion, or fancy haircuts or what your daddy does. All a first-grader cares about is whether you laugh at his silly jokes. Then you're in his frat. It is a very big frat — the biggest in the world. That doesn't mean it's the best.

Seriously, you're all nuts. You're showoffs, too. I've volunteered in the classroom several times over the course of the school year, helping you with your reading, only to discover some of you have larger vocabularies than I do.

So, not only are you excessively fair, you're scary smart. I think I hate you. You might be as perfect as people ever get.

On occasion, I also read to you. Once, on Dr. Seuss Day, I read you a book with so many "whatcha-ma-jiggies" and "thinga-ma-bops" that I grew faint-headed and spilled out of my chair. You thought I was joking when I fell to the floor, not realizing that I am a man of substance. I never joke. When I give wedding toasts, for example, they are somber expressions about the dangers of commitment, like something Tolstoy would write after a stormy fling.

But back to the subject at hand: first-graders. Don't care much for you guys. Never have. Never will.

One day, before a field trip, the entire class sang a few songs to get the day rolling. You sang a heartfelt "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," then a rousing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." In 100 years, school kids will still be singing 'My Country, 'Tis Of Thee" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," a small and comforting realization in a large and ornery world.

OK, I'll give you that Occasionally, you can be kind of cute.

Before we forget, let's be sure to thank Mrs. Patterson for all she did. Teaching you knuckleheads to read, for example. Teaching you to focus, to organize, to function as part of a wild and disparate group.

Teaching you to write. Teaching you that Ms are not rainbows, and that each letter cannot be an entirely different size or color. When my little guy first began to write, the Os were quite large and the Bs quite minuscule. He took pride in the variation. He worked hard to make each character unique.

Somehow, Mrs. Patterson straightened him out. As with the alphabet itself, she made him part of a group, but let him be his own unique self.

Now, to thank her, you kids are leaving, heading off to second grade. In my experience, that's how kids show their appreciation. They leave. No one should ever take it personally.

So, goodbye, Mrs. Patterson; celebrate this moment. There must be a special corner of heaven for first-grade teachers. Sort of a VIP section, where the margaritas keep flowing and no one ever screams.

And goodbye, you first-graders. Summer awaits, long and lazy — traditionally a bubble-rich environment.

Catch a ballgame. Lose some teeth. Move some clouds.

But don't you dare forget first grade, when you were as perfect as people ever get.

chris.erskine@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Fun for the Whole Family

We ALL loved it. We laughed, we cried. It's not just a fun cartoon. It's a really, really great movie.

Promoted to Level 2!!!

Quote of the Day

(Okay, it's from a couple of days ago. But still.)

Mama: Practice piano, please.

Boylee: I can't practice piano. I don't have enough chi.

Yep, Still Cute

Tap Dancing!

The school recorded the whole thing, but here are a couple of highlights:

Art

Our school's big party/fundraiser/silent auction was last week. The theme was Warhol/The Factory, and each class had to create an art project to be auctioned that night. Here's what some arty parents helped our kids do. It took me a good long while to figure out which one is Boylee.

A Mystery Waiting to be Solved

That's Okay, We Still Love You

Crocs sent me the new straps for Boylee's shoes. In fact, they love me so much, they sent them to me twice. Once in a ginormous box, once in a properly-sized envelope. But all four straps were too short. That may have been my fault, as I think I accidentally told them we needed size 1, and Boylee actually is wearing a size 2. (!) And now the white straps are out of stock! But the lady I spoke to was really nice about it. She says white (or should I say pearl?) is the most popular strap color, so they'll be back in stock shortly. Thank you Crocs, for being so nice about my mistake.

Yet Another Reason to Love Crocs

We're all Crocs addicts around here. You may think they're ugly, but we think they're comfortable, affordable, easily washable, good for your feet, and did I mention comfortable? And they last FOREVER. We've received them as hand-me-downs, and passed along pairs as hand-me-downs. They're high quality stuff. But...for the first time ever, we had a strap break. It was on Boylee's almost-new, very special pair, that look just like this:

So I was kind of sad and disappointed about that, and got ready to unleash my ultra-firm customer tone of voice on the folks at Crocs' main office...and it turned out to be totally unnecessary. Crocs will always replace a broken strap or rivet for free. All they needed was my address so they could mail them right out. Yay, Crocs!

A Chain of Books

First I read this book:

It's hilarious. AJ Jacobs is a great writer, and his quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is funny and filled with lots of useless and semi-useless information, which I enjoy. So then I read:


In that one, AJ turns himself into a human guinea pig and tries various philosophies and lifestyles for a month at a time. I enjoyed his month of radical honesty, and the month where he outsources as much of his life as possible to three assistants in India. They read books to his child, argued with his wife on his behalf, and dealt with his boss, all from Bangalore. So then I read this:

That one's funny, too, and taught me more, and more interesting things, than I ever thought there were in the bible. During his quest to live biblically, he realizes he needs a slave. The closest he can get? An intern from Brown. It's only a tiny part of the book, but it turns out that after the intern went on a research trip with Jacobs, he was inspired to take a leave of absence from Brown and enroll at Liberty University. In case you're not familiar with Liberty, it's Jerry Fallwell's school.

Wow, what a great book. The people at Liberty are like total foreigners to me, and reading about them was like reading about aliens. They turn out to be more interesting, and more varied, than you might think. The author jumps right in and tries to live the Liberty lifestyle 100%. And in the process, he learns a lot about then, and a lot about himself.

All four books: highly recommended.

Signs of Spring

It's here! Actually, maybe it's getting to be summer, 'cause it's actually been hot.

Chives in a vintage mailbox. These grow like weeds and they're only sparse now because we've been using so many of 'em.

Chive blossom on the patio. I guess these are edible but I prefer to look at them.

The first strawberries. Not quite ready. This year we have to stay on our toes and get them before the birds do.

Tomato seedling #1.

Tomato seedling #2.
This is my last try at tomatoes. I have found the sunniest possible spot -- this is hard in our shady, shady yard. So these suckers had better produce. Otherwise I wash my hands of home-grown tomatoes FOREVER!

Today's Drama

So today Boylee came home from school with a sad, sad story: Alex, a kid in the other 1st grade class, put a "kick me" post-it on Boylee's back. When Boylee found out about it, Alex said, "Oh, it's just a joke." Poor Boylee really, really had his feelings hurt. And it sounded like the whole scene wasn't really noticed by the staff.

I didn't know who this Alex was, but I found his info in the school directory and sent an email to his mom. I wasn't mean -- and I do realize that there are two sides to every story -- but I just told her that Boylee felt really bad about it, had cried telling me about it, and that I thought Alex should apologize properly.

And then we heard a knock at the door at 7:30pm, and there was Alex and his mom! Alex had written an apology, and also told Boylee that he was sorry. Boylee said, "I accept your apology," and then Alex's mom talked to both boys about how much better you feel after you make amends for something you've done wrong. The boys didn't quite hug, but it turns out they live really close to us so we might do a park playdate. I was pretty impressed with Alex's mom -- she seemed like a very involved, caring parent.

The funniest part of the whole thing? It was 7:30, so none of us were dressed. The boys had on just their undies and I was wearing a sarong. (It's a warm night over here!) So the first part of the event was a mad scramble to get some real clothes on.

April 1st Grade News

April Newsletter
Dear Parents,

We returned from our Spring Break filled with excitement and enthusiasm for reading, writing, and working together. As time moves on, we celebrate each child’s growth and love for learning. We were so pleased to have had such a wonderful gathering to celebrate Writer’s Workshop. Spirit week added to the excitement.

While we have learned to be more observant through a poet’s eyes, we will continue to make observations, notations, and connections to the natural world.

As we begin to close out the year, we will continue to work with high expectations for performance across all content areas.


Fondly,

The First Grade Team


Reading

This month we have focused on reading Poetry to explore descriptive language. Also, we have been learning about rhythm and rhyme. We started exploring poetry through descriptive language by looking through our DWoK lens as we became naturalists. Focusing on nature and descriptive language, we started studying a variety of poetic styles, starting with the elegant Haiku. We also started exploring rhythm as we learned about using syllables in Haiku. We continued to study Cinquain and Acrostic Poetry.


As we have continued to grow as readers, we focused on the rhythm of poetry, exploring through singing, nursery rhymes and body percussion. To build up our strength as readers we have also been twisting our tongues with tongue twisters. As our Unit comes to a close, students are learning how to set reading goals to help them grow as readers by recording and assessing their own reading.

Writing

This Unit of Study on writing Poetry has taught the children to explore and savor language, valuing voice and repetition, sounds and onomatopoeia (even if they’ve never heard any of these terms). They have learned to read and write with an ear, appreciating and revising the pace and rhythm of words. They have also learned to care not only about their topics, but also how they write about those topics. Writing Poetry has also encouraged the children to see the world with fresh eyes. And they have learned to see with their hearts and show feelings by pretending and imagining with language.

The children have enjoyed reading and sharing different types of poetry. There are ideas everywhere just waiting for an open mind, a quick wit and an observant eye. Writing poems has been a delightful experience.

There are many styles and types of poems. The children have sampled and enjoyed writing several styles, including:

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. “The recipe” for Haiku is: The first and last lines of Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.

Cinquain is a structured five line poem. The topic of the poem is a noun and the poem is written according to a formula: Line 1: A noun that serves as both the title and subject. Line 2: Two describing words. Line 3: Three words associated with the noun. Line 4: A four-word verb phrase relating to the noun. Line 5: A synonym for the noun in line 1.

Acrostic poems are fun to write. First, the writer chooses a topic for the poem, which them becomes the title. Each letter of the title is written vertically and a word describing the title is chosen for each letter of the title.

Alliteration is the repetition of an initial consonant sound. Tongue twisters are examples of poems with alliterations.

Free Verse is an easy style because they can be any way you please. They do not have to rhyme. They can be in a shape. They can be short or long, have little or no punctuation.

Narrative Poems tell a story. Story must have a beginning, middle and an end. It can be long or short but should have a clear rhythm and beat to it.

Lyric Poems are musical. They sing in rhyming patterns. They sound like songs, but they use devices like similes, meter, cadence and beat instead of notes.

The children have become familiar with poets and poems and can think and talk well about the poems they read and write. Each writer assumes the identity “I am a poet!”

Word Study

Word Study is an integral part of the Reading/Language Arts Curriculum.

High Frequency Sight Words; Letter Sounds; Blends; Digraphs; Diphthongs; etc, are integrated into the daily Reading/Writing curriculum.

High Frequency Sight Words, Word Sorts, and Word Activities are included in daily Reading/Language Arts activities.

Math

In April, students learned how to Tell Time. First, the children learned how to identify the parts of the clock. Then, students learned time sequentially, starting with telling time by the hour, then progressing to the half hour. They learned to tell time to the hour and the half hour using both analog and digital time. As a way for understanding duration of time (1minute, 30 minutes, or an hour) students created a before and after book to show various activities that show the time listed.

Following that, the class learned to order months and days, and they learned to read a calendar. Although this was something we were doing implicitly all year, the students had a chance to apply what they know about calendar by a creating a collaborative class calendar. Students also played a game to help them identify the months. They worked in pairs and were challenged to think of clues for each month. After they wrote down their clues, they read the clues to the class in order for them to guess the mystery month.

These are only a few examples of some of the lessons on time. Currently, students are learning to estimate and measure the lengths of objects. Students will learn to use an inch ruler and a centimeter ruler. Please read the Activity below for a time related game to try at home.

Activity: Write the days of the week on separate slips of paper. Mix them up, and give them to your child to put in order. While your child is not looking, take away one of the days, and have him or her tell which is missing. Repeat the activity using the months of the year.
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skill_builders/telling_time_math_first_1st_grade.htm

DWoK (Different Ways of Knowing)

April was a month for change in and out of the classroom. The class came back from Spring Break eager to start exploring their natural surroundings. The garden beds are a perfect place for making observations in nature and Earth Day reminded everyone how to care for Mother Earth.

Through a series of integrated lessons, students gained an increased environmental awareness. We learned to access what we know and want to know about our ecosystem. Students had opportunities to examine nature, more specifically our neighborhood ecosystem, in a way many students don’t.

The students went outside to gather and collect objects in nature through a scavenger hunt style search. They looked for something “older than them” or something “that changes in spring”. Their investigations helped them to develop other skills such as working in cooperative groups and critical thinking. To show what they know about nature in Hollywood, students will make a collaborative shoebox diorama.

We will continue to observe our immediate ecosystem in Los Angeles (Hollywood). We will form a concept of interdependence of nature by creating a web of life concept map. We will chart what we have learned about our ecosystem. Math skills, language arts, and social studies are also integrated into our science unit.


Visual Arts

The exploration of ceramics has the students to build up time honored techniques in pottery. As a functional piece of art, pottery has offered the same challenge to our artists as it has throughout time – to create something that is both aesthetically pleasing and useful in everyday life. Lessons centered around the techniques for pinch pots, coiled pots, and slab construction, provide students with a base understanding of the strengths and limitations of hand built ceramics. It also provides them with time to develop dexterity and strength in their hands that is not related to holding a pencil or brush, which will ultimately push them as artists in every field.

Drama

On the 21st of April the First graders got the opportunity to show the world what we have been working on so hard these past few months. The characters they created were represented in their elaborate homemade costumes. They were able to memorize their lines and be on the stage telling their story with confidence. It was a moment for them to shine. Their stories had playfulness, creativity, and showed great imagination. Through collaboration, imagination, and sharing of ideas the first graders were able to write a story and tell it through theater arts.

The following standards were addressed:

2.1 Demonstrate skills in pantomime, tableau, and improvisation.

2.2 Dramatize or improvise familiar simple stories from classroom literature or life experiences, incorporating plot (beginning, middle, and end) and using a tableau or a pantomime.

5.2 Demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively in presenting a tableau, an improvisation, or a pantomime.

Dance

Using the writing process and a general reference, the students have honed their skills at creating, editing and polishing choreography during the Tap Dance unit. All the students have used strategies of effective collaboration to eventually arrive at common steps. The teachers, for the most part, have been relegated to supporting members only, making the process a truly constructivist experience. With the deadline looming of open classroom time where parents will be invited, the dancers are putting on the finishing touches to their routines. The rehearsal process the students are currently experiencing is so vital in understanding the discipline of Dance, and in reality, all of the arts.

Music

The Yamaha Music In Education (MIE) keyboard lab has continued to be a great tool for learning our general music curriculum. The First and Second Grade has been focused on musical literacy, specializing in reading rhythms with quarter notes and quarter rests.

One of the benefits of using a state of the art computer and keyboard technology is that keyboards can be programmed for nearly 600 instrumental voices. Students create rhythm patterns with a dazzling array of timbres and tones. Imagine, our students were playing cowbell solos on the keys while Santana wailed on the guitar!

The upcoming weeks will focus on the continued study of music on the page. Students will compose, present and even record ostinato patterns. We keep repeating our mantra: The notes we read are the keys we play!

P.E.

Dear Students, Dear Parents,

The cones are gone.

The music is not playing anymore.

No one is handing out water and fruit.

No one is cheering.

But the track is still there.

The chalk line will eventually wash out in the rain.

What the students have learned will not.

They have learned how to pace themselves.

They have learned how to run for 15 minutes -

Most of them faster than ever before.

They had fun!

The track is still there.

Quietly they run their warm up laps now.

Pacing themselves.

Proud of what they have accomplished on the day of the jog-a-thon.