Watermelon Day

We had a fun day in first grade last Friday with a Watermelon Day.  We began by reading the book Peter Spit a Seed at Sue, which has a surprise ending.  We talked about how writers can write surprise endings for their stories too!

Then we shared watermelon as a class together outside for snack time.

Then the students completed a Watermelon Glyph to practice their listening skills and their ability to follow multiple step directions.

Meet the Teacher and School Supplies

Parents and students are invited to attend "Meet the Teacher" this Wednesday, August 13th between 1-6pm.  Please bring your school supplies with you so I can begin to get them organized before the first day of school.  Below you will find the first grade supply list.  I look forward to meeting you!!

- #2 pencils (normal yellow ones because we will share as a class)
- 1 large pink eraser
- 2 boxes of 24-count crayons
- student scissors
- 2 packs wide-ruled notebook paper
- 6 to 8 white glue sticks
- 1 pack dry erase markers (black fine point)
- 3 marble composition notebooks (wide ruled)
- pencil pouch (no boxes please)
- 2 plastic pocket folders (please do not get the ones that contain the prongs as they will not work with their binders)
- 1 one-inch 3-ring binder with clear front pocket (no trapper keepers, please)

** Optional but greatly appreciated: Clorox wipes, Ziploc bags (sandwich, qt, or gallon size), hand sanitizer, Kleenex

Welcome to First Grade

Hi!  My name is Mrs. McDowell, and I am going to be your first grade teacher.  This will be my 7th year teaching first grade.  I love first grade and all the exploring, learning, and fun we get to have!

I graduated from Clemson University with a degree in Early Childhood Education, and I enjoy going back to visit during the football seasons with my husband who is also a Clemson grad.

I grew up in Gaffney, South Carolina in a community called Grassy Pond.  All of my family lives there now, and we still go to church at Grassy Pond Baptist in Gaffney.

This summer I was busy teaching first grade at our district's Summer Learning Academy.  I made time to enjoy my family at the beach and the lake though.  I have also been spending lots of hours preparing for our baby girl who is due to arrive on October 18th. 

I am excited to spend the next year learning and growing with you!  Have fun on these last few weeks of summer vacation : )

My Favorites

Food: Mac and Cheese and chicken

Movie: romantic, comedies... some include While You Were Sleeping, The Proposal, The Holiday

TV Show: anything on Hallmark (especially the Christmas movies) or TV Land

Book: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers; I am currently doing a Bible Study with a group of ladies at my church called Anointed, Transformed, and Redeemed that is really wonderful, and I am reading Baby Wise to help prepare me for our upcoming baby girl's arrival.

Color: I love to decorate my home with green!

Drink: Water
Season: Summer
Sports Team: Clemson Tigers

Fast Food: Chick-fil-A and I love Panera if it counts as fast food since they have a drive through : )

Animal: Dog

Hobby: Spending time with my family and friends, cooking, decorating and taking care of my home, being near water (beach, lake, pool), reading, shopping, planning events and entertaining

Plant Unit

The past several weeks we have been learning about plants through our plant unit.  This is probably my favorite unit to teach all year because I have been around plants my whole life.  My grandparents started a greenhouse business over 60 years ago that now my mom and her sister own in Gaffney.  I spent many summers and days after school working there from Jr. High through college.  My dad owns a landscaping and irrigation business as well.  I have childhood memories of bagging vegetable seeds and weighing them for customers at his store.  Then I married a man whose degree is Turfgrass Management and he is a superintendent of greens at a golf course.  So, teaching our plant unit each year is lots of fun for me and I usually bring in my mom or husband to help with some of the activities.

The first week we learned about the characteristics of living and nonliving things.  We learned that living things grow and change, reproduce, and need air, water, and food to survive.  The second week we learned about the parts of a plant, each part's job, and the life cycle of plants.  This week we planted our garden that is right outside of our classroom.  We planted marigolds from my moms greenhouse for color and to help keep the bugs away.  Then we planted rows of lettuce, radishes, and beans.  My sweet husband came to help the kids with the planting.  We are hoping to see them begin to sprout soon.  Next week we will begin to learn about what plants give us and conclude our unit the following week with a fruit tasting party!!

Muffins and Moms

We had a wonderful turn out this year at our annual Muffins and Moms this past Tuesday.  Below are a few pictures of our wonderful mothers.

Surprise

There is a reason I have not posted to our class blog since January... I am expecting my own little one to arrive this October, and though my husband and I are extremely excited about our little blessing, the past few months have been rough.  I have been living in survival mode just trying to make it through the school day.  I usually do my blogging at home, but the afternoons and evenings were my sickest times.  The good news is I am not as sick, so I hope to do a few more posts before the end of the school year.  Thanks for being patient with me :)

Water, Water Everywhere but not Enough to Drink

Our class is currently hard at work on our water PBL for January.  We have been learning all about water in America and comparing and contrasting it to water around the world.  We have researched and made noticings charts of where water is located, how we use water, the water cycle, pollution in our water, and how to have clean water.  We have also read many informational texts and discussed and practiced how to determine importance while researching and how text features can help give us more information.  We are nearing the end of this unit and now students are working in groups to create a magazine modeled after the Time for Kids that we read each Friday.  In these magazines, the students are listing facts they have learned about water as well as facts they have learned about how water is different in Rwanda than in America.

In the pictures below, the students were experiencing what it is like to gather water from the cafeteria restrooms and transport it in buckets back to our classroom.  This was just a tiny glimpse of what children in Rwanda have to do each day; however, their water is not as clean looking as ours.

The first time they carried the buckets by hand back to the classroom, and the whole process took 23 minutes.  Then, we brainstormed ideas of how to make the process go faster.  One student mentioned that in the books he read, he saw the people in Africa carrying jugs while riding their bicycle.  We knew we could not ride bicycles down the hallway, but that lead to another student's idea.  Hunter suggested that we use one of the carts that roll on wheels so we could go faster and the buckets would not be so heavy. Jackson said we needed to add lids to the tops of the buckets so the water would not splash out.

Our new time was only 9 minutes!!  

We visited the Wonder Room to learn about rivers and how they flow.

We created a homemade water filter and found the dirtiest water puddle on the playground to gather water from to test.  If you look closely at the last filter picture, you will notice that our yucky, muddy water filter through and came out amazingly clear.

Stay tuned to see pictures of the magazines in the next few weeks!!