What a Week!

We have been so busy this week I haven't had time to update the blog. For the past three days we have been working on making a mural of Antarctica. We have been very busy making seals, Orcas, and Penguins to go in our icy mural. To make sure that our mural was realistic, we looked in books to see what animals we might find, what they look like and what the scenery of Antarctica looks like. Our mural is still not finished, but I took some
work-in-progress pictures.










The students carefully looked at the pictures of the animals they were making.

I thought that the animals turned out so great that I had to take a picture of them before they went on the mural. I think the penguins might be my favorite. They all turned out so nice!

The Orcas and Seals also turned out really cute.





We did not have time to finish gluing our animals onto the mural today, so we will have to finish that on Monday. The Antarctic mural is up in the hallway outside of class. If you do not have time to come by and see it I will post pictures of the finished product. Here is what it looks like penguin-less:

I had to take two pictures of the mural because it is so big. For some reason I am having trouble getting the images to overlap, but you can see the general idea. On Monday we will add the penguins!

Journey to Antarctica

Oh my, what a magical day! As we were finishing up our passports it started snowing big, fluffy, beautiful flakes. The ground was white, covered with a thin layer of snow. This made us very excited but once it was lunch time the snow had melted. But that's ok because today we are traveling to Antarctica! We handed Mrs. Sisto our boarding passes and found seats on the plane. It is a very long flight to Antarctica, all the way down to the bottom of the earth. While we were on the plane we went on a virtual tour of McMurdo Station, the largest community on Antarctica. Scientists from all over the world meet in McMurdo to share ideas. We learned that all our waste (recycling, food scraps, garbage) has to be flown out of Antarctica to other countries like New Zealand. We also learned that it is summer in Antarctica right now. We checked the weather and it is only twenty-six degrees fahrenheit in McMurdo and it is summer! Then we wrote down what we brought with us on our journey. For about the next month we are going to be scientists studying ice, penguins, and other creatures that live in Antarctica.

North Pole South Pole

Today was the first day of our Antarctica unit and what an exciting day it was! The first lesson in the unit is understanding how the North Pole and the South Pole are different. We made a list of what we thought we knew about the North Pole and then a list of what we thought we knew about the South Pole.



We looked at a world map, a globe, and learned mnemonic phrases for the cardinal directions like never eat soggy waffles or never eat shredded wheat. Then we read a book called North Pole South Pole by Nancy Smiler Levinson. After the book we filled out a Venn diagram about how the North Pole and South Pole are similar or different.


We learned that ice, snow, seals, whales, and sea birds are at both poles. In the South Pole, Antarctica, there are penguins, midge, and scientists. The south pole is the coldest place in the world. It is summer during January. The South Pole is land surrounded by water. The North Pole, the Arctic, is where polar bears, walrus, fox, wolves, caribou, snow rabbits, and owls live. People are native to the North Pole, but scientists also study their. The North Pole is water (covered by ice) surrounded by land.


We also finished our penguin math folders and began making our passports to Antarctica! Tomorrow we are going to finish our passports and take off on our journey to study penguins and the other Animals of Antarctica.

Pre-assessment for Antarctica

I gave my pre-assessment to the students today and it went about how I would have predicted. I had pictures of different animals that you would find in the Antarctic and the Arctic regions and then asked the students to circle the animals they thought lived in Antarctica. They all circled penguins but the rest were pretty random.

I then asked the students what they know about Antarctica. I was surprised when some of them said they didn't know anything. I thought that they all would say that it is cold and icy. Others gave a little more detail.

My next question was what they know about penguins. Most of them said that they slide on their bellies or that they waddle. None said that they are white and black. A few kids said that they did not know anything about penguins. I wonder if maybe they thought the answer was too easy and was looking for something less obvious. We started reading Mr. Poppers Penguins and a few of the students quoted lines from the book about penguins.

My last question was why is it important to learn about Antarctica. Many of the students said they did not know. A lot said because it is a dangerous place and a few said in case we go there.

I am really looking forward to teaching them about Antarctica and I am glad that they do not already know a lot about the continent. It will be interesting to compare the pre and post assessments.

Needs and Wants Assessment

Today I told the students in my first grade class that I will be teaching a unit on Antarctica. I then asked them if there was anything that they really wanted to learn about. Their responses were basically what I predicted.
They would like to learn about:

• penguins
• polar bears
• seals
• water
• walruses
• fish
  
• snow wolves
• igloos
• snow
• Alaskan huskies
  

I am really excited about their ideas because my first lesson is about how the North Pole and the South Pole is different. It would seem that the majority of the class seems to believe that they are basically the same. I will find out more information after I have completed my individual pre-assessment.

Getting Ready...

I begin my adventures as a full time student teacher on January 26. I am currently scrambling to complete my work sample, a unit on Antarctica, for my first grade class. There is still so much to be done! However, I am getting very excited. Luckily I already know my students. I have been in their classroom observing, aiding, and teaching small lessons every Tuesday since the beginning of the school year. On Thursdays, I have previously been with my fifth/sixth blend class. In two weeks I will say good-bye to them until after spring break. Then I will be their full time student teacher.

I am fairly new at blogging. The concept was just introduced to me earlier this year in my technology class. However, I am very eager to use this blog as a way of communicating to my student's parents, my family and friends, what my students are learning, as well as what I am learning from them. Hopefully in the very near future I will get this blog up and running with frequent updates as well as pictures. For now, my focus must return to my work sample.