Our First Field Trip

We took our first field trip recently.  The whole first grade went - all 129 students!  We had the BEST TIME EVER!  The kids were absolutely fantastic.  The weather was beautiful (a little warm but what do you expect in Georgia right??).  The trip was a success.

We started out down at the Dairy Farm.  The kids got a chance to "milk" a cow (it was fake btw).  The kids were surprised when only water came out (hehe).  We had an awesome tour guide that did a great job explaining all about the milking process on a level the kids could easily understand.  Her name was Addison.  We have a picture of her (in the pink) explaining how the cows are brought in to be milked.

Miss Addison was impressed by how inquisitive our kids were.  They were very curious about how they cows could have babies if there were no bulls on the farm.  Gotta love questions from six and seven year olds!

The kids also had a chance to go down to the calf barn to interact with new born calves.  They were precious (the kids and calves).  This is my favorite part of the trip because the kids get to be up close and personal with the animals.

After the Dairy Barn we headed up to the back campus to a place called Possum Trot.  This is an old one room building that Martha Berry used for school, church and other community events.  There is even a small cemetary on the site.  And no, Martha Berry is not buried there.  The children got to stand on tippie toes and peek into the windows of the one room building(s).  They seemed to enjoy seeing this first-hand as we had talked about what life was like years ago when children of all ages in a community went to school together.  At this point we found a spot in the grass and enjoyed our lunch!  (Note: with the humidity it seemed like 143 degrees as this point!)

We loaded the bus and headed back to 27.  We arrived at Oak Hill and the kids were very impressed.  We were able to cool off in the small movie theater and watch the life of Martha Berry "Miracle in the Mountains".  We then took a brief tour of the museum on the Oak Hill campus.  The kids learned some interesting facts about Martha Berry and Berry College.  Each time I take this trip I also learn something new.

The house on the hill was the most impressive as many of the children had not had the experience of touring an old antebellum house before.  The rooms were ornate and massive, the gardens were prestine, and car collection in the carriage house was fascinating!

We had a great time learning new things and being with our friends.

Life is good in first grade :)

Going on a Wabbit Hunt

The students and I went on a rabbit hunt on Friday.  We saw pictures that baby bunnies had been spotted on the playground on Thursday so we went to investigate this further.  The kids were sooooo cute as they tiptoed up towards the area where I spotted the precious bunnies.  They (the bunnies) were nestled in the new mulch alongside a post.

At first the bunnies were sound asleep.  The sweet whispers of the kids woke one of the bunnies but they remained snuggled in their spot. The kids were able to see one of the bunnies little bitty black eye open up.  I caught a quick video of three girls as they hovered around the bunnies spot.

The best part (for me) was when we went back inside and talked about it.  Because we have spent the past few weeks reading some great books by Mo Willems (previous post for more info), I told the kids to create a picture of the bunnies with speech bubbles.  Some of the kids wrote the BEST dialogues between the bunnies.  They wrote things like "Where did mom go?"  "I don't know but I hope she comes back soon."  "Who are these big kids looking at us?"  "I'm hungry"   A few kids drew pictures above the bunnies head to illlustrate what they may be dreaming of.  Of course it was carrots - love those kiddos and their creative thoughts.

My grandmother was right....

"Time flies when you're having fun!"  There is an element of truth to this age-old saying.  I cannot believe it is already Thursday AGAIN.  I know you tire of me saying this week after week but it's true.....this has been a great week.  Although I still have not fully built up my stamina for the energy these children bring into the classroom each day.  I seriously wonder if you parents feed them straight up sugar before kissing them sweetly on the cheek and pushing them out the door.  I'll keep telling myself they are just happy to be at school.

We visited the library this week and checked out books.  We go to the library each Monday from now on.  The children may also check out a book after morning work as well (8:15 - 8:45).  The kids have really enjoyed the books I've been reading aloud this week.  They are the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems.  Although they appear to be easy books, we have had a great time discussing dialogue and expression.  Each day the children respond to our read aloud in their journal.  This week their job was to make up a conversation of their own that could occur between Elephant (Gerald) and Piggie. They are precious!  Below is a picture of one student's journal entry.

Forgive me....but you'll need to turn you head sideways to view this masterpiece.  It's Thursday evening and my head is actually laying on the desk so this looks right side up to me :)

Here's a link to Mo Willems

Love them bunches,
Mrs. Montgomery

Is it Thursday already????

Oh my....the week has flown by.  I am so excited about the progress we are making in reading, writing, and math.  If you haven't noticed from the math homework pages and classwork coming home, we are really stepping it up in first grade.  These kiddos amaze me.  I try to keep it fun and exciting by playing funky music to get them charged up for their sprints.  We stop mid-way through our lesson for some exercises to get that blood flowing!  On any given day you can find me in a dress doing karate kicks and jumping jacks - barefooted most of the time.  I have no shame in my game when it comes to getting this kids up and moving.  Seriously though....without coffee (which I assume most of these kids do not drink in the morning) I would be face down on my desk if someone asked me to do a page of math problems before 9:00.

As far as reading and writing - We Rock!  I am thrilled at the writing piece we are working on this week.  I can't wait to post these in the hall over the next few days.  We've worked through the writing process already (brainstorming, first draft, editing, revisions, final draft and illustration)!  Can you believe it?  It's only the 10th day of school.  Very soon I hope to begin having the students publish on KidBlog.  I'll keep you posted as to when we do that.

For now though....check out my teacher web page (www.floydboe.net).  It's not glamorous, but there are several pages that may interest you.  I have some pictures uploaded, some websites to visit, and one or two videos I found to be inspirational.

Hope you and yours are having a fantastic week!

Mrs. Montgomery

Worn out!

I'm not sure about you and your kiddos, but I am WORN OUT!  We had a great week together but I forget each year how hard to it to get back into the swing of things.  I fully anticipated the children to be whiny and irritable by Friday afternoon.  They were awesome though.

We had our first (practice) spelling test.  Amazing!  They are ready to rock and roll next week.  Look for homework to come home on Monday.  Sneak peek - it's already posted online if you check out "spelling".

We have worked super hard in math this week.  We had some great conversations about multiple ways to represent numbers.  We played a game called "shake those disks".  We also shared our class work under the document camera for everyone to see.

Since it was Friday we had to work in an art project.  We are in the process of making our own version of David from the book "David Goes to School".  Next week we will incorporate our writing lessons into David's First Grade Rules as an extension of the story.

We went to the computer lab, played inside for recess and opened the CARE store today.

To celebrate EMMA and ABBY REED's birthday, we ate yummy cupcakes with Capri-sun.  I question whether some kiddos actually got any cake into their mouth.  By the looks of the desk and floor (and chair and face and hair) I think most of the cupcake never made it to their lips.  I should have taken some photos of their green, blue and pink icing covered faces.  There again...I need a photographer and a videographer ( and a secretary, nurse, counselor, clone) to follow me around all day.

I've got the pictures in my heart though.  Have a great weekend.

Life's great in first grade

Today was another fantastic day in Mrs Montgomery's room.  We worked hard, played hard, and even danced hard (some of us that is). The turtles are loving all the attention they are getting each day. They are putting on quite a show bee bopping around the tank each day. (The same can be said for the kids in the room too!).

We are movin and groovin as we get more into our routine.  We visited the computer lab today. The students had a chance to explore www.abcya.com. There are many games and activities on this site you may want to check out.  I am really looking forward to when we go back to the computer lab to begin writing and publishing. I'll keep you posted on that.

I'm looking forward to having some guest bloggers soon so check back often.

Until then.....keep smiling!

Yours truly,
Mrs Montgomery

Second Day of School

Monday, August 4, 2014

We had another outstanding day again today.  The children could not be better!  I woke up anxious and excited to see them all this morning.  No tears or whining at all.  Can you believe it??  I'm sure I'll have a post soon titled "The Honeymoon Is OVER"  haha.  For now though, I am thankful for the good times.

We jumped right in to our regular schedule today.  Math seemed to take foooorrrrrrever.  Between passing out new math notebooks, labeling these with our name, learning how to do sprints, number bonds, making 10 frames,.....whew, I was worn out by 9:30.  The kids were troopers though.  This math curriculum is fast and rigorous.  But, our kids will become much stronger mathematicians by the end of the year.  (Hang on parents :)

Next we took a little break for one of my favorite things.......reading.  Each student got their own book box.  They decorated these and selected 3 books from our classroom to keep in their own box.  We have sooo many books in our room that you could literally spend 20 minutes just trying to find one you want to read.  So, we have these books boxes already filled with books we want to read. Once a week the kids can go shopping for new books - kinda like our own library of sorts.  The kids like it and I do too!  When the kids get done with their work early, they can just grab their box and open up a good book.

Then it was on to spelling.  Taking spelling tests are a rite of passage for a first grader.  We practiced how to color, sort and glue our words in our notebooks based on the spelling patterns.  They did a great job with this.  Tomorrow we will write our words rainbow style.

By now we are getting hungry for lunch and our energy is waning.  Lunch was great but I do have to ask....."Who decided that pudding cups should be super glued closed?"  Seriously, do they not have a test market of consumers of pudding to try taking these tops off??????  Not to mention how tempting it is for a starving, stress eating teacher to be tortured by smelling that delicious chocolate and vanilla flavored pudding.  

After lunch the kids shared their "All About Me" bags.  PRECIOUS!  I always love to see what the children decided to bring in to share.  I can tell I have some future athletes and inventors.  After we shared these we worked on our Learn About Me posters.  You will have to come to the parent orientation on Thursday night to see the finished products.

PE and recess concluded our day.  Quite honestly I was glad because I was running out of steam.  But, as we were getting ready to go home a sweet little one said,  "Mrs. Montgomery, I don't want to go home.  I want to stay here with you at school."

Warms my heart every time.

Mrs. Montgomery