Catch the Latest BUZZ in Room 102!!!!

Welcome to this Special Edition of "Catching the BUZZ" in Room 102!  Last week was AMAZING!  Our focus wall was jammed-packed with new learning-Take a peek!

Our sight words are Antonyms! 

This was the perfect time to bring out the Really Good Stuff flip chart and practices our Synonyms & Antonyms chants!

Our Phonics focus was the Long Vowel E with a spotlight on two special vowel teams:  (ee) and (ea).

Students searched for these vowel teams in our daily poetry-

Then got to make words with the patterns too!

We also use these fluency passages to "see" the vowel teams working in text.  These passages are awesome for partnership activities! :)

Here we are practicing good fluency with our daily phonics poems-

The kids absolutely LOVE our daily read alouds!!

Since the vowel team (ee) was so awesome, we decided the theme of BEES would be a great reading topic for the week!

We read some interesting articles on Bees and discovered that Bees are very busy insects! 

Together as a class, we created this bee hive to organize our thoughts and ideas to create some informational writing on our topic of Bees.

Then the students got BEEsy writing on their own!

I absolutely LOVE how students are going back to the text and looking for interesting vocabulary words to use in their writing!

My favorite part of the writing process is this:

Pictured above: We revised our writing rubric to showcase what first grade writing should like at this point in the school year.  We again incorporated our Levels of Learning to label each of the four samples and this made the job of student-led self assessment EASY-PEASY!

 

Our  rubric is rated from 1 to 4.  (4 being the "Expert Writer")

Students were invited to come up several times throughout the writing process and "rate their writing!"  It made my heart melt to see them using this self-assessment tool to rate themselves so effectively and the meaningful conversations they were having during this interaction was extremely inspirational! :)

After writing was done, we used this adorable SMART ART project to create some bees for the hallway bulletin board!

Ta-Da!!!!!

Here are the featured Writers of the Week!

 Now I need to give a HUGE HUG to my very sweet friend Katie Knight over at Teaching to the Core for sharing her latest BUGGY unit with me!  It inspired all this BUGGY learning in my classroom recently!!!

 

 I already own Katie's Busy Bees unit because the 

SMART ART Bees are to die for!!! :)

 

  I also purchased Katie's incredible seasonal units which include her Close Reading passages, comprehension quizzes, writing organizers and Smart Art that is so engaging and fun...My kids keep begging for more each week!!!   Be sure to check it out by clicking on the image below.

 

In other news...the teachers at my building have been BUZZING with excitement this week!  I am so Proud and Honored to share the following Press Release with all my blogging friends!

Press Release from OAESA:

(Columbus, Ohio) (April 15, 2015). The Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators announced that Coy Elementary in Oregon City School District has been selected as a 2015 Hall of Fame School.  Principal Amy M. and her staff will be presented with the award, including $1,000 to be used at the principal’s discretion.  OAESA will recognize ten winners of the Hall of Fame Award during an Awards Luncheon to be held June 12, 2015, at the Hilton Columbus at Easton.

The Hall of Fame School award recognizes schools that go above and beyond the call of duty to get students, teachers, and community members excited about education.  The school staff submitted an extensive application documenting the quality of their educational program in the following areas: instructional system, student achievement, student development, personnel, administration, school management, and stakeholders.

Hall of Fame Schools were chosen by two committees of OAESA members; one of which read and scored the applications and the other which conducted on-site evaluations of qualifying schools.  Committee members wrote that, “Each stakeholder group reinforced the strong message of family and relationships, from the students to parent volunteers; from the principal each staff member to the Superintendent of Schools.”

Located in Columbus, the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators serves Ohio’s pre-K, elementary, middle level, and central office administrators by providing professional development, legal consultation, professional publications and networking opportunities.

I am so stinkin' excited to be apart of an incredible 
Hall of Fame School!  :)  WooHoo!
Have a fabulous week!