The Last 1-S Tiger News Broadcast of the School Year

Well we end another successful year.  The fifth graders completed their editing and producing of our last episode of 1-S Tiger News.  Christa and Fallon did an amazing job and showcase their iMovie skills with all of the special effects and their creation of special backgrounds.  The first graders report the functions of different parts of plants and what food we eat that comes from those parts.  To make this video the students first read a variety of texts (both online and print), took notes, synthesized the information to create a script, and reported their news.  Bravo to all!

Olympic Day 2012

We had beautiful weather for the 2012 Olympic Day. All of the teams earned extra points for sportsmanship and in the end the white team won. Watch some of the highlights in the video below.

May Event Pictures

The month of May has flown by.
We had a Family Play in the beginning of the month. We went to Bear Mountain Zoo on the 17th. We got to see all of the animals we have been researching. Then Api Garofano taught us about pollination to enhance our plant unit in Science. The slideshow below captures all these great events and even some photographs of times I "caught" our fabulous readers choosing to read during free moments such as before the school day or snack time. Can you find Pigeon?

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Bear Mountain Zoo 2012

The sun shone brightly as the Cherry Lane first graders wound through the Bear Mountain Zoo. There were many woodland animal experts available to speak about the animals. I was able to catch up with many at the zoo (and the rest back at school). Here is what they had to say...

Dinosaur Rocks!

 

We thank the Cherry Lane PTA very much for supporting and organizing the Dinsosaur Rocks program.  We had a great time looking at real dinosaur bones and fossils. Not only did we look at the bones we got to dig like real archeologists.

Our Theatrical Debut

We have been working on reading with greater fluency when we read. We worked on reading in small phrases with the goal of reading in longer phrases. Another goal was to change our voices when we see specific punctuation marks. Take a look at our Readers' Theatre Folk Tale plays.

Holiday Celebrations

Although I am a bit late, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We had a busy December. We worked on a Cinderella Around the World unit and there are a good number of stories that span the globe. The class found similarities in these stories and were able to figure out the characteristics of fairy tales based on this work. We are now working on the latest episode of 1-S Tiger News: Fairy tale edition.

The students shared their family traditions for the holiday season. Some brought in things to share, especially dreidels and stories of the Elf on the Shelf. Thank you to one student for bringing in and reading a book about Hanukkah. Here is a video of her reading.

Also for your listening pleasure... excerpts from the holiday concert.

Thanksgiving Feast

It was time to meet together just like the Pilgrims and the Native Americans did to show thanks for all that we have. The day started with a math lesson involving measuring as we measured out our ingredients. After mixing everything together we poured our muffin batter into the muffin tins. It was exciting to be able to eat them and our fresh popped popcorn (from an airpopper) with the rest of the first grade. Before we ate we shared all of things that make us thankful. Below are some pictures.

Halloween Fun

Where do I begin?
Well we started with a first-rate laser light show sponsored by the PTA on Friday. Even though Halloween day was cancelled at school we still carried on a few days later. Better late then never. Our spooky houses were on display for the kindergarten and 2nd grade to view on Thursday and later in the day we had our annual Halloween parade.

Character Ed Awards

Throughout the year Cherry Lane gives out awards for students that show they show TRRFCC qualities (trustworthy, respectful, responsibilty, fairness, citizenship, caring). Wednesday, October 19 we honored three of our class' students for the caring and citizenship they have shown in the classroom.

Congratulations!

Mark Kistler Came to School

3D Artist, Mark Kistler came to Cherry Lane today to teach our school how to draw. It was a great assembly sponsored by the PTA. The kids brought clipboards and pencils and were drawing alongside this professional artist. I even tried using one of my drawing apps on my iPad (see below).

Here are some of the pieces created at the assembly.

Check out more on Mark Kistler's website.

We are Authors

The class has written several booklets of writing since the beginning of school. Today marked the first author celebration where their published books are now bound in a book and illustrated. All of the children now have a book in our classroom library for all to read and enjoy!

Hip Pickle Assembly

Today we participated in an assembly presented by the PTA. The Hip Pickles started our school year on the right beat. We learned about sharing and respect, along with an anti-bullying message. Some of the class got to come and perform with rhythm instruments or dancing. Check out our talents.

The Beginning of a New School Year is Here!

The first days of school have been very busy. There is so much to do and learn! The sun finally showed up today and allowed for the first outdoor recess. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to so far this year.

We observed the math manipulatives

We wrote stories from our imagination.

And we even have visited the computer lab already.

Skyping with Montebello

We had an exciting day today. We finished our packages in time to talk with the first graders at Montebello via Skype. We showed our packages that would safely hold a plant and talked about what materials we used. Then we told what functions of a package it had. Last, we explained how our package was designed to meet the needs of plants.

Olympic Day 2011

It was a beautiful, sunny (not to mention, hot) day at Cherry Lane for our Olympic Day. Check out all of our athletic prowess in these highlights.

Channel 1-S Tiger News Episode 2

Our reporters worked hard in the field to bring coverage of the woodland animals on Bear Mountain Zoo.

Episode of Channel 1-S Tiger News

Our team of "growing" reporters and botanists are firmly "rooted" in the research process. [insert your groan here].

The class was divided into research teams to find out information on roots, leaves, flowers, and seeds. After reading books and taking notes, each group created a script and props for a newscast. And thus, Channel 1-S Tiger News took seed. Now we present the World Premier of our newscast about the parts of plants.

We are Learning About Engineers

We are learning how to be package engineers with a program developed by the Museum of Science. Our learning begins with the story of Fadil and Bashira who live in Jordan. Their older sister is getting married and is moving to a far away city. They want her to remember them so they decide to give her an Amaryllis from their garden. Fadil and Bashira learn that one cannot simply put a plant in a box and hope it will survive.

Our class will be asked to design a package so that we may send a plant to Montebello school, while keeping in mind the needs of a plant.

We read Pierre the Penguin and made connections to the engineering process. Then we watched the Live Web Cam. You can watch Pierre and his friends now too.

Fun With Poetry

We are currently reading and writing poetry. The new ideas presented in poetry have been very exciting. We noticed that poetry has rhythm. The class was inspired to turn Myra Cohn Livingston's poem Street Song into an actual song with a tune they came up with themselves. Below is a video of our song.