W Day

Today was W day, and we were very busy! In the morning, we had our first grade picnic! We all wore our tie-dye t-shirts and looked great! The first graders were provided with watermelon at the picnic which fit in great with our W Day theme! It was a lot of fun and great to see so many parents were able to make it out. We got a little soggy from the rain that ended our picnic early, but that didn't stop us from having our W Day "Water Balloon Toss!" When the rain shower stopped, we paired up and went outside. We tossed the balloon, and if our balloon didn't pop, we took a step back. If our balloon popped, we were out. Soon there were only two left. Om and Alex went the longes without their balloon popping!

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The Winners of the water balloon toss:

V Day

V is for Video and today we watched a movie. We were going to watch Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, but there was something wrong with the DVD! So instead, we watched Ratatouille. It seemed like everyone enjoyed it!

U Day

U is for United States! Today we wore red, white, and blue to school. We also did "Flag Math" where we described the american flag using numbers, symbols, shapes and patterns. Another activitiy allowed us to explore the White House.

T Day

T Day was Tie-Dye Day. Everyone broght in a shirt to tie-dye. We all used the same color, so when we have our class picnic we can easily spot our class! The shirts turned out great and we can't wait for the picnic!

S Day

S is for Sports Day. Today, everyone wore shirts of their favoritie teams. There were many teams represented in our class. Tomorrow we will be making Tie-Dye shirts to wear to our First Grade picnic next week!

R Day

Today we celebrated R Day by wearing Red. We also had a "Read-A-Thon". After a morning full of fun Field Day activities, a Read-A-Thon gave us the rest we needed to finish out the day! Some of us seemed a little sleepy and even fell asleep while reading! I guess we really needed the rest!

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Q Day

Q is for Quiet Day! Today was quiet day, and we were only allowed to talk in a whisper when we were in the classroom. Of course, we were allowed to talk normally at recess and music class! At times we forgot, and had to be reminded that it was quiet day!

P Day

P is for Pajama Day! Today everyone looked like they were ready for bed! Everyone was really comfy in their PJ's all day! Luckily no one fell asleep!

O Day

Today was Orange Day. You could definitely tell our class apart from the rest of the classes out at recess. We looked like we were ready for Halloween! Monday is P Day. Don't forget your PJ's!

N Day

N is for Neck Tie Day! Today the students looked super fancy in their cool neck ties! Tomorrow is orange day!

M Day

M is for Memory Book! Today we created a book of our favorite memories from our year in first grade!

L Day

L Day was "Lunch with the teacher Day! Mrs. Cossiboon bought pizza for the class and gave out Lemon-Lime soda. Then everyone got a lollipop for an L Day treat!

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K Day

For K Day, we have "Kickball Day". Some of the students seemed nervous about playing kickball, so I told them to make sure they practiced at recess. After math, we divided into two teams and had a blast playing a game of kickball. The final score was a tie! 8 to 8!

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J Day

J is for Jumping Jacks. Several times throughout the day, we stopped what we were doing to do some jumping jacks! It was great exercise! Monday is Kickball Day. We will play a game of kickball!

I Day

Some people thought our class might have gotten dressed in the dark this morning, because we were all inside-out! Everyone looked a little silly, but had a great time. Tomorrow is Jumping Jack Day!

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H Day

Hooray for hats! Today we celebrated H Day by wearing our favorite hat to school! Tomorrow is inside-out day!

G Day

Anyone looking in on our class today may have been confused into thinking that it was St. Patrick's Day. But we were just celebrating G Day by wearing Green! Don't forget to wear your favorite hat tomorrow!

F Day

For F Day, we had Funny hair day. It was interesting to see the many things the students were able to come up with for their hair. Our classroom was full of pony tails, braids, and spikes and even a little color!

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E Day

E Day was Extra Recess Day! Not only did we have our usual morning and lunch recess, but we also had one in the afternoon! We had beautiful weather for it! Don't forget, Monday is Funny Hair Day!

D Day

D is for Drop Everything And Read Day! For D day, we all made sure that we had a book or two at our desk at all times. When Mrs. Cossiboon rang the bell, it was time to stop what we were doing and Read!

C Day

C is for Clash day! Today we celebrated C Day by wearing clothes that didn't match. Many students got very creative with their outfits! Tomorrow is Drop Everything And Read Day!

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"B" Day

B is for Backwards! Today we celebrated "B" day, by wearing our clothes backwards. We also did our daily schedule in reverse. (Except of course for Lunch and Art, because we couldn't change those!) We had a great time and are looking forward to wearing "Clashing" clothes tomorrow for "C" day!

Last 26 Days!

Today marked the start of our last twenty-six days of school. We're celebrating by doing ABC days! Today was "A" day and we did a special art project. We're in a "Springy" mood and we're making dragonflies. The students had to use markers to color patterns to make the "wings", then trace and cut the dragonfly's body. The students concentrated very hard as they colored the patterns! They did a great job!

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Happy Earth Day!

Today is earth day and Prairieview did many activities for Earth Day. Many students turned in creatures for our "Recycled Creature" project. They were very creative and turned out great! Thanks to those who put in the time to create them! Watch the slide show to see all the creatures!

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Our other Earth Day project was recycling old tennis shoes so that they can be ground up and made into playgrounds or sports fields. Our class collected 18 pairs of shoes!

Book Fair

Yesterday, during our library time, we got to shop at the book fair! Many of us got some great deals on books because it was Buy one Get one Free! Thanks to all the parents who helped out!

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Welcome!

On Monday, we welcomed a new student into our classroom! We are very happy she is here and we are doing our best to make her feel comfortable. Welcome Melissa!

Our Trip to the Planetarium

On the bus.

The Planetarium

"The Star Machine"

Today we had the opportunity to go to the Elgin Planetarium. While we were there, we learned a few things about the earth, sun, and moon, but mostly we learned about stars. We sat in a big dome and were able to look at pictures of these things. We learned that blue stars are the hottest stars and red ones are the coolest. We also learned a little bit about constellations. We were given the opportunity to find constellations in the night sky. When we look in the Northeastern sky, we can see the big dipper! The big dipper actually points directly at the "North Star" which is also the handle of the little dipper! We looked in the Southwestern sky and found the constellation "little dog". We realized that "little dog" looks more like a hot dog! It was quite an interesting trip and we all had a great time!

Specials

Specials are classes we go to once a week. Our specials classes include art, music, P.E., computer lab, and library. When the students go to spcials, they get to do things they usually don't do in the classroom. Because of this, many of the children get very excited about them and really look forward to them. Last Friday, we had P.E. class. The students were able to play with the parachute. They all held onto one colored part of the parachute. When they raised the parachute up, Mrs. S. called out a color. Anyone holding onto that color had to run under and find a spot of the same color on the other side of the parachute.

On Tuesday, we had music class. The students were very excited when Miss Ellis told them they would be playing the drums. They sang songs while playing the drums, and even communicated with Miss Ellis through their taps on the drum!

You're not Mrs. Cossiboon!

This morning, the students got quite a surprise when they walked into the classroom. Instead of seeing Mrs. Cossiboon, they were welcomed by Mrs. Corirossi! Many of the students thought that Mrs. Cossiboon was not here today and that Mrs. Corirossi was going to be their sub. Mrs. Corirossi tried telling the students that they had entered the wrong classroom, but the kids were pretty sure they were in the right room! After a few minutes, Mrs Cossiboon returned to the room. It turns out, the sneaky first grade teachers were playing an April Fool's Joke on the first grade students by switching classrooms!

First Day of Spring?

Today is the first day of spring, but it sure didn't feel like it! When we went out for morning recess, the temperature was still in the 30's! We did our best to run around and keep warm. We're hoping warmer weather makes its way to Bartlett soon!

St Patrick's Day Math

On Monday, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by doing a special math activity. Each student got a scoop of Lucky Charms cereal. Once they separated the ceral from the marshmallows, they made tallies to count how many of each type of marshmallow they had. When they were done tallying, they made a graph. Then, we tallied the entire class and made a large class graph to see how many of each type of marshmallow were in our box of Lucky Charms!

Making Words

Today we tried a new phonics activity called "Making Words". For this activity, we were given the letters - a, i, o, b, n, r, and w.

The first thing we did was come up with words that were one letter long. We found two!

Next, we used our whiteboards to come up with two letter words. Sometimes it was tricky because we kept trying to add extra letters, but we found 6-two letter words.

Three letter words came next, and we were able to find 12 of them!

Now it started to get a little harder, but we were still able to come up with 6-four letter words.

Five letter words were even harder, we only got four of those and we didn't fine ANY six letter words!

Last, we tried to figure out the "mystery word" by unscrambling the letters we were given and seeing if we could make one big word out of all seven letters. It took awhile and some clues from Mrs. Cossiboon, but finally we were able to figure out that our mystery word was:

RAINBOW!

Trying to come up with words.

The words we created

Jump Rope for Heart

Today during gym class, everyone participated in Jump Rope for Heart. Each student was put into a group. The groups then rotated between seven different stations. At each station, the students had different jumping challenges. Some of these activities included using different types of jump ropes, jumping over things, and jumping on one foot over hula hoops.

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Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Sunday, March 2nd was Dr. Seuss's birthday! All week long, we are talking about and celebrating him! We have read several of his books and have even watched some of them on video. We listend to The Cat in the Hat, and then thought of words that rhyme with cat and hat! We love Dr. Seuss!



Some of our classmates reading Dr. Seuss books!

Penguins

This week we learned all about penguins. We read a non-fiction story on the different types of penguins. One of the interesting things we discovered was that penguins have wings, but they don't fly! We also found out that penguins go for weeks at a time not eating so that they can stay seated on their egg and keep it warm. A video on penguins let us see them in action and gave us some more interesting facts. On Thursday, we created penguins by tracing our foot (for the body) and adding wings, eyes, a beak, and feet!

Math Explorations

Every unit in math, we have a day called "Math Explorations". On these days, we get a chance to explore some of our manipulatives while we practice skills that we have learned in the past or will be learning in an upcoming unit. Today, we had 3 different stations. At the first station, we used geoboards to make different sized triangles, because in our next unit, we will be exploring geometry. In our second station, we received a sheet of paper with different shapes on it. We used our pattern blocks to see how many of a different shape we could fit into that one shape. (For example, how many triangles will fit inside a hexagon?). At the last station, we cut out some fact triangles and practiced our fact familes with a partner.

Dental Health Month!

Jennifer's Mom.


The proper way to brush teeth.


Don't forget the tongue!


February is Dental Health Month. Today, Jennifer's mom (a Dental Hygienist) came to our classroom to talk about Dental Health! She talked about our teeth and told us that once we get our permanent teeth in, we want to keep them. To do this, we have to take care of them! We were shown the proper way to brush our teeth, and got to brush a gorilla's tongue. Each of us was given a toothbrush and a flosser to make sure we are brushing at home!

Phonics

In phonics we are learning about digraphs. We talked about how digraphs are two letters put together that make a new sound. The first thing we did was think of words that started or ended with certain digraphs. Then, we played a game called "Digraph Lotto". We each got a paper with squares on it. In each square was a word that either began or ended with a consonant digraph. Then we picked up a card with one of the digraphs on it. We colored in a square that had a word that started or ended with that digraph. The first person to color in their whole card, won the game!

Valentine's Day

Today we celebrated Valentine's Day. Yesterday, we decorated our boxes to look like Valentine's Day mailboxes by painting them red and gluing hearts on them. During our party, we put on "Valentine Mail Carrier" hats to pass out our cards. The volunteer moms worked really hard and gave us a great party! We decorated cookies and then got to eat them! Later, we played a Candy Heart Relay Race and Valentine Bingo! It was a wonderful day!

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100th Day of School!

We are 100 days smarter! Today we celebrated our 100th day of school. We found out that there are many ways to count to one hundred! We counted by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's. At recess, some of our classmates made 100 snowballs! At snacktime, we had a 100th day trail mix. For a fun activity, we saw how many times we could write our name in 100 seconds. We found out that people with shorter names were able to write their name a lot more times! In the Library, Mrs. Ray read us a book called The 100th Day of School. After lunch, we made patterns out of 100 blocks! We took a break and did 100 exercises followed up by 100 seconds of silence so we could rest and catch our breath! To end the day, we filled up gumball machines with 100 gumballs and told Mrs. Cossiboon what we would want to buy if someone gave us $100!

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Groundhog Day

Today we celebrated Groundhog Day. We talked about how the Groundhog saw his shadow on Saturday so we will be having six more weeks of winter instead of an early spring! Although with the rain we had today, it felt a lot more like spring than winter!

For a special Groundhog Day activity, we solved math problems and then colored the ground hog based on the special code. When we were all finished, we glued him together!

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