The Barleyne's Blog

Open House

2009-09-24T16:21:00.002-04:00

Thank you to everyone who attended open house. We had a great time and we know our friends really enjoyed showing you their life as a first grader. We would like to thank everyone who donated and helped us prepare for this special night. We are so happy to have your child in our class. This is going to be a bumpin' year!

Our first week!

2009-08-30T12:25:00.004-04:00

Our first week of school was a huge success! We met new friends and caught up with old friends. On the first day of school we watched a cool band. We had so much fun singing and dancing. Our PTA gifted everyone with a cool shirt to wear and the entire school wore it the next day. In class we jumped right into the swing of things. We had Skills Block, we reviewed our sounds and letters using the Smart Board. In Readers' Workshop, we listened to stories and wrote responses about them. During Writers' Workshop, we made self portraits and wrote biographies. In math we had a chance to explore math manipulatives and start our diagnostics. This week was a blast! We even had fun Friday treats! What a great way to start off the year. :)

Disco Fever!

2009-07-29T18:44:00.007-04:00

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer break so far. We have been relaxing and enjoying our summer as well. Now it is time to get ready for school. Our theme for this year will be Disco for 1st grade. Each grade level is a different genre of music. Don't forget to send us a letter or post card this summer. We will see you soon far out first graders!

Check out the theme video for this year!

2009-04-16T16:27:00.002-04:00

Our school is having an author visit! Leslie Helakoski who wrote our March Book of the Month,Big Chickens, is coming to Chets Creek. To prepare for her visit our class did a retelling of that book. Each student helped illustrate a page. As a class we then voted on which students should retell the story. See if your child is a star in our retelling below!!

Garage Sale!

2009-01-09T13:44:00.001-05:00

This year Chets Creek Elementary will be hosting and participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event. The event will take place in May. To raise money for this fantastic event, Chets Creek will be hosting a Garage Sale. On Saturday, February 7th, from 8am-12pm, we will host a garage sale in the front of the school. You can help by donating gently used items and by attending the event! Donations can be brought to Chets Creek on Friday, February 6th. For more information look for a flyer going home with your child this week!

P- Party!

2009-01-03T19:00:00.005-05:00

Our P-party was a huge success!! We had a fantastic fun filled day! The day kicked off by decorating our party pails with fun holiday and seasonal stickers. We then watched Polar Express and drank some delicious hot chocolate. After the movie our tummies began to tell us we were hungry. It was time for a lunch filled with P. We had pizza, popcorn, pretzels, potato chips, and pink lemonade. What a great lunch! But, there was still more to do! Our Afternoon was filled with craft stations. We made snowmen, Polar Express necklaces, popcorn strings, decorated cookies, and coloring sheets. We also had an extra bonus, we were allowed to were our pajamas all day!! What a great way to end before winter vacation! We couldn't have had this much fun without the help of our special friends who donated many of the items! Thanks!

Math Time!

2009-01-03T18:40:00.005-05:00

Choice Time

In our class math is always a blast! That's because of choice time. During choice time students are allowed to choose what they would like to work on. Students are allowed to choose from different games and activities they learn throughout the week. In the pictures below students are having fun playing Math compare, Grab and Count, and Compare Tens. Math compare consists of a deck of cards where students have to identify which card is the highest. Grab and count consists of a basket of manipulatives. Students have to grab a handful and then count to see how many they have. They must also then show a representation of the amount. In compare ten, students are given five items and unfix cubes. Students must first make the tower, often using the unfix cubes, then measure the items to see if they are longer, shorter, or the same as a tower of ten.

Wow Pow Wow

2008-11-25T06:40:00.003-05:00

Friday, we celebrated the culmination of our Indian unit with our annual Kindergarten Pow Wow. Every Kindergartener was dressed to perfection. We started our day outside with singing and dancing. Our fantastic resource team then lead educational Indian centers throughout the day. Our Lenape friends were able to make clay medallions, paint with natural resources, sing and dance to an Indian tune, taste different foods, go on and scavenger hunt and even hear a fantastic story in a class size teepee! Wow!! What a day! I know our Lenape friends will never forget this special time. We are so proud of all of them!

Literacy Week!!

2008-11-05T21:01:00.003-05:00

We had an awesome literacy week!! Students had fun dressing up as book characters, decorating pumpkins, making candy apples, decorating cookies, and a picture frame. By the end of the day we were all wiped out!! But, there was still more to do. Our Fall carnival was later that night. Students went trick or treating in our school, then out to the carnival. What a fun day and night!!!

What an awesome day!

2008-10-16T22:30:00.005-04:00

We had a great day today! Our first field trip was a huge success. We had fun playing at Kids Kampus as well as watching the play Harry The Dirty Dog.We came back to school and cooled off with ice pops. It was such a long day. The students were all wiped out by the end of the day. Ask your child about their favorite part. We can't wait until the next field trip!

Barleyne Outtakes

2008-10-01T19:49:00.002-04:00

It is official we have the cutest class in all of Florida, if not the world. We spend so much time with our students and they keep us smiling and laughing all of the time. It is true that “kids say the darndest things” and we wanted to share a few of our favorites since the beginning of the school year.

1. We were having a conversation with our class about making good choices. We had a friend in our class raise her hand and say, “I know a person who made a bad choice once. We came out of the store and a man put a boot on Mommy’s car. That was not a good choice at all, but I guess he was kind of nice he left a note on the windshield.”

2. We were in the middle of a Math Investigation mini-lesson, where we were reminding the students to do their very best work, because we were going to hang the work in the back of our room for the families to see at open house. A little boy interrupted “ARE YOU FOR REAL!?!” We replied, “Yes”. He states “NO, LIKE REALLY FOR REAL, YOU’RE SERIOUS!?!” We replied, “Yes, we are for real.” He follows with “WHOA, I NEVER HAD TO DO THAT IN PRE-K!!”

3. The day before our first Flag Raising as a school, we were preparing our Kindergarteners with the rules and expectations for flag raising. One of our friends went home to tell her mom that she had to wear sneakers for “flag racing” and she couldn’t wait to race. She made her mom stay to watch the flag racing.

4. We were sitting outside on the playground, one sunny afternoon. One of the students saw a bee pass by. She then proceeded to ask us, “Did you know that bees have pointy butts, and if they sting you they hurt!”

5. Our PTA had a fantastic Pancake Breakfast one Friday morning. One of our friends came in so excited. He came in shouting enthusiastically that he had “pannycakes” for breakfast, and his aunt let him have her sausage. The same friend that day at lunch said that he couldn’t hold on to his milk because it was “snippery”.

6. Today, in Science we had Five Senses Centers. At our listening center, there were six plastic eggs with items inside. The students had to shake each egg and determine what was inside. One little boy shook an egg and said, “I know what’s in here, it's jingle berries!”

We enjoy coming to work each and every day, and with a job like this, who wouldn’t. We will blog again soon with more Barleyne Outtakes.

Reading with Ms. Sasso's 1st grade class!

2008-09-30T00:25:00.002-04:00

Readers Theater/Partner Reading

In Readers' Workshop we have been practicing our re-tellings. One fun way to re-tell a story is by acting it out. We call this Readers Theater. Miss Sasso’s First Grade class is in the middle of a Mem Fox author study. We had the fantastic opportunity to observe her First Grade class in Readers Theater by acting out the story, Hattie and the Fox. Our students’ loved every moment. Thank you to Miss Sasso and her friends.
We have also been practicing partner reading. We thought this would be a great opportunity for our Kindergarten friends to show off what they have learned. The First graders were very impressed. Check out the pictures below. Wow!! We were so proud of our students. Great Reading!!

Fun Fridays!!

2008-09-29T23:20:00.012-04:00

Fun Fridays!

Students love Fridays in our class, not just because of the special fun Friday treats, but also because of our Smart Board. Friday is our Smart Board day! By now I'm sure you've heard of the Smart Board, and if you came to Open House you were able to see just how awesome it really is. A Smart Board is an interactive whiteboard that uses the power of your computer. It allows you to use your fingers as the mouse, as well as write on the board. This fun board allows instruction to be taught in a fun and unique way. It also engages all types of learners. We use our Smart Board to help enrich the lesson we have been practicing in class. We use the site http://www.starfall.com/ to help review the sound card letters we learned that week. Ask your friend about our Fun Fridays!

Re-tellings

2008-09-29T21:33:00.012-04:00

Re-tellings

In class this week we have been working on re-telling our Star Books. We have been practicing our re-tellings using the book The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Practicing re-tellings helps students' comprehension. In Readers' Workshop we've done many activities with re-tellings. We used oral re-tellings, where we sat with a partner and took turns retelling the story. We used readers theater, where we were able to act out the story, a song a friend taught us, and our felt board to help retell the story. We as a class know that reading and writing are connected. We extended our knowledge of retelling into Writers' Workshop. We decided that it would be neat to write our retellings of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We broke down our retelling into three areas: the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Watch our video below and see just how good we are getting at retelling a story!

Open House

2008-09-22T21:17:00.017-04:00

Open House

Tonight was an awesome night!! We enjoyed seeing all of our friends. Parents, we hope you had a great time seeing the morning routine, as well as listening to all of our lovely songs! :) We know you received a lot of information tonight, but if you any questions feel free to e-mail us or call. Thanks for coming!! :)

Sound Cards

2008-09-21T20:25:00.035-04:00

Sound Cards

We have been learning our letters and sounds in a new way! In our class we use sound cards! Each day we are introduced to a new letter. We learn each letter with the sound, a word associated with a picture, and the sign language letter.This helps all types of learners. Visual, Auditory, as well as Kinesthetic learners. Whenever students think of words that begin with one of our sound card letters, students must say the letter, make the sign, say the word associated with the picture and the sound. They must also do this when stretching out words. So far our class has learned the letters A-K with the exception of the letter I. On Friday, we introduced a new activity with sound cards and shaving cream. After listening to a word, students had to write the beginning sound they heard inside the shaving cream. We had fun being messy, but it was also educational!!

Welcome

2008-09-16T23:59:00.003-04:00

Welcome

Well Aloha,

We are delighted to have you visiting our blog. We have 36 friends in our class and it can be hard for us and parents to communicate. Each week we will update our blog with things happening in our class, as well as things happening in school. You will be able to get a closer look into our daily learning here at Chets Creek Elementary in the Barleyne's classroom. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Snap Words

2008-09-16T23:20:00.003-04:00

Snap Words

We are starting SNAP WORDS this week!!!

Snap words are high frequency words that are seen often in print. Every week we will introduce two new words to the students. We call them "SNAP WORDS" because they know them in a SNAP. Students will begin to recognize these words quickly which will help them with their reading. Please feel free to practice them at home. Our words this week are:

and
the