Fall is Finally Here

Fall is Finally Here

        I am so glad that the weather is finally starting to cool down here. It also amazes me how quickly the leaves have begun to change! I LOVE fall!

        Things have been super busy in first grade! I was planning to talk about math journaling in my next post (this one), but I forgot to take pictures of our latest entries, so that’s not happening! Instead, I am going to share all of the things that we have been working on, and what is next to come in the next week or so.

        Today we started making town maps. Each student was given a large piece of cardstock (11 ½ x 17) and then glued down 1” strips of black paper for roads. They were able to decide where to put the roads in their towns. Then, they each cut out buildings (that I purchased from Lettering Delights) and placed them on the map. Later this week we will be coloring our buildings (to match our map keys) and writing about our towns. The kids really LOVED designing their own towns this morning, which made me even more excited about this new activity!

Here is my town so far:

        Tomorrow we will be making pumpkin glyphs. My former teaching partner gave me a book of classroom glyphs at the end of last year, so I am determined to use it as much as possible! Once the pumpkins are finished I’ll be hanging our ‘pumpkin patch’ in the hallway.

        On Thursday we are going to the FARM! The kids are sooooo excited (and so am I). It is a first grade tradition that I was not about to let die after my partner retired. The trip is a great opportunity for the kids to experience farm animals up close and personal. They can milk a cow, hold a chick, feed goats, watch a piggy race, go on a hayride, and pick a pumpkin.

        When I bought the clipart for the mapping activity, I also bought a bunch of other graphic and clipart sets. Lettering Delights was having a fall sale, so I stocked up on fall art! My new graphics inspired me to design a new newsletter template, and now I have different graphics to use each week for the fall.
        My next post will have pictures of our Pumpkin Patch, our town maps, and hopefully a few from the farm!