Fruit Salad..Yummy,Yummy!

For those of you who could not get enough of the Holiday Lunch Fruit Salad, here is how you can make it at home!

You will need :
-1 can fruit cocktail (drained)
-1 can pineapple (not drained)
-1 box pistachio instant pudding
-pecans
-coconut
-mix all together then chill for a few hours.

Slow and Fast Changes.. Erosion Here We Come :)

Pet Rock Posters

In order to evaluate students' understanding of the properties of rocks, they were asked to create a Pet Rock Poster. They had to create a name, describe the Pet Rock's features, and promote the purchase of their rock.

A Mem Fox Journey

During our Mem Fox Author Study, our students retold the events of the book, Possum Magic using a Google Map. A Google Map is an online map that contains satellite or traditional map images. We viewed the country of Australia via Google Map and used food placemarkers to ilustrate the journey taken in Possum Magic. Check out the magic :).

View Possum Magic in

Mem Fox Celebration Day!

Last Friday, we ended our Mem Fox Author Study with a smashing good time! We began our day with our First Award Ceremony and celebrating our strides in learning so far this year :).

We then took a journey around the small playground and participated in the Bush Olympics just like Koala Lou! There was a disc throw, a bean bag toss, long jump, and relay races. We all turned out to be the gold medal winner when Ms. Correia performed Bush Magic on the 6 winner's medals :). We then returned to our classroom to write BIG BOOKS to retell our favorite Mem Fox books in our own words in our Book Club groups. We illustrated and retold Mem's books with our friends until lunch. Upon our return, we prepared our class for our very first performance of Hattie and the Fox Reader's Theater for Ms. Sasso's Kindergarten Class. One of our students finished our performance by reading one of our favorite Mem Fox books for the Kindergarteners, Time for Bed. We ended our time celebrating Mem by tasting the foods from Possum Magic! We were so excited that our families brought in these Australian foods for us to try, Pavolva, Lamington, Vegemite, Anzac Biscuits, Mornay, and more :D. If you are not sure what some of these foods maybe check out our next post.. We took a trip around Austratlia to follow our tummies :D.

What an Australian Adventure! Check out the fun from our Mem Fox festivities:

What's Your Strategy?

In First Grade, we don't just want to show our answer when it comes to Math, we want our strategies to shine! As we approach separating and combining stories, we are looking to use our First Grade skills and solve our stories with atleast two strategies. Students are using sums that add up to greater or lesser amounts 5+5= 10 to solve 5+4=9 (one less). Students are also using tally marks and drawings. We explain our thinking in writing, pictures and words! Challenge your student at home, not just to write the answer, but explain their work. Ask them ,"What is your strategy?"

Book Clubs Begin!

As an extension of our work with Mem Fox books, we are gathering around a basket of our favorite books from this study and finding important story elements! Students are placed in groups known as Book Clubs. Students have chosen names for their groups and chosen roles each day. Students are using a focus directly from our Reader's Workshop mini-lesson to work together in their book clubs. Just like Ms. Correia meets with her friends at Starbucks to chat about books, our students are accountable to their friends concerning the focus for the day! Check us out!

Sweet Soil!

Have you ever wondered what was just below the surface of the earth? We have! We have been studying our soil samples, comparing what we find in soil, and recognizing that soil has layers. Yesterday, we made the layers of soil just below the surface that we could eat! First, clay and rocks: cookies :), Humus: pudding, living organisms: gummy worms, Top Soil: cookie crumbs, and leaves: sprinkles.
Soil is so sweet!

Literary Pumpkin Parade

Our class continued to celebrate literature by dressing as their favorite Book Character last friday for our annual Literary Character Parade! First Grade and Kindergarten join forces to show off their favorite characters and books.
Thank you for sharing with us, we loved hearing about your family's favorites!
We even got to celebrate one of our Principal's favorite books, "Stellaluna"!
Check out our fun day...

Where the Wild Things Are

We want to publicly say thank you to all our parents that attended our first Field Trip! It was so nice to celebrate literature and the great outdoors all in one trip :). We learned some valuable lessons from our dicussions about Max and the weather that day was just perfect!
Take a peek at the fun from our day!

Soil Study

Take a look at the surface of the Earth, what do we find? SOIL! We are collecting soil samples, observing differences in soil, and the parts of soil. Who knew soil could be so much fun!
Use this link to do some investigation at home :).

Mem Fox Thoughts

Science in Motion

Here at the Sunshine Band, we are moving and grooving to the Science Beat! We have been learning how objects move whether by push or pull. Have your Super Scientist find objects around the house to push or pull. You might even be able to accomplish some chores in the process! Below is an online lab for motion. Check out motion! :D.

Mem Fox Magic

As you may have already heard from your First Grader, Mem Fox is magic!
We have already enjoyed so many of her books, Wilfred Gordon, Time for Bed, Possum Magic, and more! We have been predicting, collecting vocabulary, and connecting to the stories from Mem. For each of Mem's books, we have paid close attention to the "attributes". We are learning to make connections through her stories to our own lives and experiences. Ask you student how they "connect" to the books they have at home or in their book-in-a-bag.

Reading in First Grade is "magic"!

Math Choice Time :)

Students love to make choices when it comes to their learning and in Math it is no different! On Fridays, after our Math Quiz, we will usually have Math Choice Time! This is when students are able to choose from the various math games and activities that have accompanied the lessons from the previous week or two. This last Friday, We reviewed,Copying Cubes, Quick Images,Compare Dots, and Counting Pattern Blocks.

Matter Matters!

Our Amazing Scientists have been observing, sorting, and identifying the phases of Matter! We know that Matter is anything that takes up space. We have explored the 3 phases of matter through the creation of lava lamps and watching water in the three forms, ice, water, and steam. Check out our inquiries!

Journal Entry: What is Matter? Matter is the thing that can take up space like kites and water. All kinds of things take up space. Space is all types of things.

Our Observations Recorded:

Solid: Ice

Liquid: Water

Gas: Steam

We love comments! We love Open House!

Thank you to all of our families that attended our Open House! It was so wonderful to be able to share our day with you! We are starting to receive your comments and our kids love it! Thank you for supporting our Symphony of Learning Success!

Open House from Rachel Bridges on Vimeo.

Presidential Address

The students that participated in viewing this address had a few things
to say.. Check out what they learned:
-We need to stay in school.
- If you are sick you should stay at home to stay safe.
-It is important to do all your homework.
-Never quit.
-If you do your homework,you will get smarter.
-Listen to the teacher
-Put your things away
-Learning is our job

September Book of the Month

Get Well Ms. Correia! We miss you!

Ms. Correia has been out with the flu as many of us have been last week. We decided to create this video to bring her some cheer and show off our Sunshine Band style! We can't wait to have her back and show her in person :D!

Double the Fun.. Double Compare!

Today, we ended our Math Diagnostic and began our journey together in Number Sense with the game of Double Compare! Double Compare is a game to help increase student strategies when comparing amounts. Students are paired and given a deck of cards. The students split their deck of cards as if they were going to play the card game, "War". "One for you, one for me" we say :).

The students will each turn over two cards at the same time. Each student will total their own two cards and compare the total with their partner's. The student with the greater total, "wins"! Our First Graders were all winners today with this game. They worked quietly with their partners and even tried out the strategy, "Count On". Look for this game in your student's Communication Folder for extra homework. Your student will be happy to teach you how to play :)!

We are Super Scientists!

Learning about the world around us is our super power.......

We are the Super Scientists!
First Graders are not just going to sit back and leave all the discovery to grownups. We found out that we can be Scientists right now! We can use the tools that we already have (Our Five Senses) to observe and discover the world around us!

After going on our Science Field Trip ,(A Nature Walk) to the trail behind our playground, we made some amazing discoveries about objects. We each chose a single object to bring back to our classroom for futher observation. With the use of a hand lens, we attacked our task of describing our object in our Science Journal. We learned that this is called "recording data" or "recording our observations". Ask your First Grade Student, "What is a Scientist?", you may be amazed at their answer!

Class Promise

Each and Everyday, we promise to show respect to our fellow students, our teachers, and to our own learning. Together we have created a class promise that we say each morning after our pledge. We have committed this year to help eachother learn and grow in First Grade. Each student represented their committment by decorating their handprint to be displayed on our class promise.

Hurray for the First Day!

What a fabulous first day we had! We began our day by getting to know each other and learning the routines of our new classroom. Our WOW for the day was a special band appearance in the Dining Room. We danced, sang, and clapped! One of our students even got to play on stage!!!!
We had a yummy lunch, wrote to introduce ourselves, went on a Grand Tour of the school, and had a popscicle recess :). We were danced our way out the door to the tune of a Steel Drum Band. Oh my, oh my what a wonderful day! Check out a few pictures from our day :).

Hi Groovy First Graders!

My name is Heather Correia and I am one of your teachers this year! I hope you all are ready to disco down with Mrs. Bridges and I! We are so excited to teach you and to get to know each of you! We have a year filled with fun and learning and have many exciting things planned ALREADY!

I hope you had a wonderful summer...mine was VERY busy! In addition to teaching here at Chets Creek, I have also been a Tae Kwon Do Instructor for 16 years in Jacksonville Beach! This summer my school competed in an international tournament in Orlando, Fl. It was called the U.S. Open. Martial Artists from all over the world were there! It was so cool to all be together in one place like that! I will post more pictures later so you all can see! :)

I also did a summer camp this year! For the last 4 years I have done a 2 weeks summer camp after school ended. This year was our biggest year! There were quite a few Chets Creek students there! We did things like arts and crafts, piano lessons, guitar lessons, fear factor, dancing and outside games. The kids had a lot of fun...even though it was a lot of work for me! lol

Oh, also I live very close to Chets Creek and I have 2 dogs! Trey and Saki.....and they are both very spoiled! Trey is 14 years old and Saki is 9! I put a picture on here so you can see them!

I'll see you soon! Leave a comment if you read this so we can chat!

Miss Correia

Mrs. Bridges' Summer Adventures

Dear Fabulous First Graders,

My name is Mrs. Rachel Bridges and I am one of your new First Grade Teachers. I am so excited to meet you and for our Disco Party to begin! I can't wait to hear all about your summer adventures. I wanted to share mine with you as well as introduce myself.

The summer is always a wonderful time to spend with family and friends and this year, I did just that. I have throughouly enjoyed spending time with my husband, Zach (Mr. Bridges) and my two adorable sons, Josiah (2 yrs.) and Josh (1yrs.). We have had a great time visiting the Jacksonville Zoo, going to the beach, and spending time with our families. We have taken advantage of every opportunity to stay cool whether at swimming lessons or just under a beach umbrella. Have you been at the pool or the beach this summer?

I bet you have, it has been a scorcher!

I got to spend some sunny relaxation time in Key Largo this summer, where I went snorkeling for the first time! Mr. Bridges and I took a four hour boat ride to a Coral Reef Preserve in Key Largo, Florida to check out some of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen! We actually got to visit John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which has some amazing history and has the only live coral reef in the continental United States.

Well, I can't wait to meet all of you amazing First Graders and I know that together with Ms. Correia and Mrs. Matics, we will have a wonderful and successful year!

Far Out First Grade!

Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome back to school and to your new class! We are so excited about our First Grade Disco Party as Chets Creek orchestrates a symphony of student success. We have so much to learn and discover this year as we groove along as the Sunshine Band (Our class name). CB, stands for each of your new teachers, Ms. Correia and Mrs. Bridges. We will be introducing ourselves in future post . We are so excited to begin our musical learning journey together in First Grade. We hope that you have been getting ready all summer for this amazing adventure as a learner and/or as a parent. We can't wait to meet you at Orientation and show off our plans for the year. We hope that you will use this blog as a means to keep tabs on our class and communicate your thoughts and personal learning adventures. We would love to hear what you did over the summer. Please share your vacations, beach, pool, or just sunny stories with us as a comment. We would love to hear from you!
See you soon :), Ms. Correia and Mrs. Bridges