Family Read Along

On the first Friday of each school year we host a First Grade Family Read Along.  All three first grade classrooms participate.  The Read Along is inspired by the book, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.  The Relatives of our first grade students are invited to the event.  Moms, dads, siblings, aunts, uncles, and friends attend.  They bring books, blankets and snacks.  During the last 30 minutes of the school day the relatives knock on the classroom door and to our surprise the relative arrive!  It's an exciting event and it's a great way to kick off a new school year of reading, sharing and connecting with our first grade school families.

Lots of relatives are reading on the stage.

Dads attend the Read Along

Moms and Siblings attend the Read Along

Parents Attend the Read Along

Dads attend the Read Along

These first graders are reading with their moms in the cafeteria.

These first graders are reading with Mrs H. a school volunteer.

What kinds of reading events do you host at your school?  How do you make connections with your school families?  What are some of your favorite books that you share with your family or friends?  Please leave your comments below.

Welcome Primary Blogging Community

Hello Friends,
We are a first grade classroom in Rochester, Michigan.  Our school is in a suburban district which is located 30 miles north of Detroit.  We love our town.  We have lots of beautiful trees that change colors in the fall.  We also have great parks and lots of wooded walking trails like the Paint Creek Trail.  Our school is one of 13 elementary schools in our district.  The name of our school is McGregor Elementary School.  Our school mascot is the Cougar.  One of the things you will hear us say is, "KEEP CALM AND COUGAR ON!"  We have three first grade classrooms at McGregor.  There are 22 students in our classroom.  Here are some of our favorite classroom activities.

Daily 5

Math Rotations

Maker Spaces

Friday, October 9th is our Fun Run!  We'll post some pictures and tell you more about it.  Thanks for stopping by our blog.

We Fish You a Hairy Chrismoose

We love to read poems for fluency practice.  Sometimes we sing songs too.  These poems and songs are added to our poetry notebooks each week.  Here is our most recent song.  It's called We Fish You a Hairy Chrismoose.  Sound familiar?  We hope you enjoy it.

We Fish You a Hairy Chrismoose from Valerie Ruckes on Vimeo.

It's Mine! By Leo Lionni - Read Aloud

Our Read-Aloud time is one of our favorite times of the day. One of the books we shared this week was, It's Mine! by Leo Lionni.

We created a Padlet to capture our thoughts about the book. We started with questions that we had about the book based on the title and the cover pictures.  Mrs. Ruckes read a portion of the book and then she asked this question: What are the characters (frogs) like? We used the Padlet again to capture our responses. After finishing the book, we discussed the lesson that was learned. Take a look at our Padlet below.

Created with Padlet

Pumpkin Pumpkin!

We love to read poems to practice our fluency.  Each week we add a new poem to our Poetry Notebooks.  We also enjoy adding hand motions.  We hope you enjoy the poem below.  It's called Pumpkin Pumpkin!  It is sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  Enjoy!



Pumpkin Pumpkin from Valerie Ruckes on Vimeo.

Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm

Our class went on a field trip to the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm.  We learned about life in a village.  We learned that the pioneers use the land for all of their wants and needs.  They choose this area because of the fast running streams and the trees.

We had fun doing chores at the museum.  We cooked in the kitchen, stuffed mattresses, collected eggs from the hen house, carried buckets of water, hung clothes, carded wool, and even played with old toys.

It was a lot of fun!

Welcome To Our Classroom

We are a 1st Grade classroom and we are located in Rochester, Michigan.  Rochester is about 30 miles north of Detroit.  The name of our school is McGregor Elementary School.  McGregor is a K-5 building.  We have four first grade classrooms at McGregor.  Our school mascot is a cougar.  One of the ways that teachers get our attention is to shout, "Cougars" and everyone replies, "Keep calm and Cougar on!"

Here are some of the things that we enjoy doing in our classroom and at school:

• Daily 5
• Math Rotations
• Brain Breaks using Go Noodle
• Classroom Celebrations-Face Painting, Bring Your Own Device, Stuffed Animal Day
• Writing Workshop
• Specials Classes-Gym, Music, Art and Library
• Playing math games on the computer
• Using the wireless laptops
• Sitting on our new Stability Balls
• The Fun Run
•  Recess
• Brain Pop Jr.

We would love to tell you even more about our classroom.  Please leave us a comment and ask us a question.  Thanks for stopping by!