Grandfriends’ Day

Posted on March 18, 2019 by elysevanetti

On Friday we had lots of special visitors in our classroom! Students invited grandparents and special friends to join us for a morning to celebrate our school and spend time together.

Each class performed some music to welcome our guests. Then, we enjoyed recess and refreshments together. There was also a photographer on hand to take some sweet portraits.

Next, the students escorted their guests to the classroom. First graders created a book with their grandfriend all about first grade! They discussed what first grade was like back when their grandfriend attended, and they compared it to what first grade is like now.

Finally, we toured the campus to meet our specialist teachers. We had an early dismissal so that students and grandfriends could go enjoy more quality time together.

Playing Spanish vocabulary Jeopardy

Music demonstration

100 Days of School

Posted on February 21, 2019 by elysevanetti

Today we celebrated our 100th day of the school year! We began by displaying collections of 100 items and traveling to each of the other classrooms to see everyone else’s collections. The collections were quite varied: 100 cheerios, 100 Pokemon cards, 100 LEGOs, 100 sequins, 100 paper airplanes…

It was fun to see what everyone thought of!

Next, we made some predictions with the number 100. Students were asked to predict where they would end up if they took 100 steps from our door, how many hops they could do in 100 seconds, how many tallies they could make in 100 seconds, and how many dots they could make in 100 seconds.

Then, we tested to see how accurate our predictions were.

Many students realized just how long 100 seconds is when they became exhausted hopping, only to find that they weren’t even halfway through!

We also recognized that counting tallies was easier than counting dots because we could count by 5s. Many students opted to just note whether their estimate was too large or too small rather than actually counting the hundreds of dots they had made.

We read the book 100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler. Here’s a description from Amazon:

When Jessica’s teacher tells everyone in class to find 100 things to bring to school for their 100th day, Jessica starts to worry. She wants to bring something really good. but what? 100 marshmallows? No, too sticky. 100 yo-yos? Nah, that’s silly. When Jessica reaches the 99th day, she really starts to worry. She still doesn’t know what to bring! Could the best collection of 100 things be right under her eyes?

Finally, we celebrated as a school with a display of 100 cupcakes after lunch — one cupcake per child, of course.

We are so happy to have completed 100 days of learning this year!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 13, 2019 by elysevanetti

Our Valentine celebrations began earlier in the week as students performed appropriately themed songs at Tecolote Tuesday.

Three first grade “Annies” performing the classic song, “Tomorrow.”

First Grade class performance

We were also treated to a short performance by a barbershop quartet! The teachers were given a special serenade and a daisy. We felt so appreciated!

Since we are having parent conferences tomorrow, we had the bulk of our Valentine’s Day celebrations today. We began our morning with an appreciation circle. During this time, students shared specific things they appreciate about their classmates. Several students appreciated the class as a whole for being such nice friends! Next, we had several choices of Valentine’s Day language arts and math activities. Some students chose to write Valentine letters to friends or family. Others worked to solve addition problems to “Crack the Code” on a secret message.

Then, our room moms arrived! They transformed our class for our Valentine’s Day party. They brought decorations, fun snacks, and Valentine’s Day crafts for all to enjoy!

Our awesome room moms!

Our room moms put together these amazing goodie bags full of crafts for each child.

A Valentine’s Day Rubik’s cube

Beautiful heart cookies

Making love monsters

Paper bag owls

After our crafts and treats, students exchanged Valentines! Each student made a box to collect his or her Valentines. I didn’t manage to get as many photos as I would have liked, but there were so many creative boxes! We had a papier mache jaguar, a hockey goal complete with goalie, a wooden box, and even this big Quidditch field box!

The fun chaos of passing out cards!

We hope you have a happy and love-filled Valentine’s Day!

St. Lucia

Posted on December 18, 2018 by elysevanetti

We are finishing our unit about winter holidays from different cultures this week. Yesterday, we were treated to a special lesson about the Swedish traditions of St. Lucia by our very own Ms. Svedlund. Did you know that Ms. Svedlund has Swedish heritage and that she even speaks Swedish?

Ms. Svedlund shared that every year she participates in a celebration of St. Lucia with her local Swedish women’s group. She explained the themes of the celebration for our class, along with giving the reasoning behind the holiday:

Ms. Svedlund shared that the story of St. Lucia tells about St. Lucia bringing food to people hiding in underground tunnels in winter. Her hands were so full of food that she wore candles on her head to light her way in the dark tunnels. For this reason, each year, one young lady is selected to play the part of St. Lucia in a procession. She wears a crown of lit candles and walks slowly and carefully. She is followed by other women, girls, and boys as they sing various songs. You can see a procession and learn more here:

A traditional St. Lucia celebration includes saffron buns and cinnamon buns. Ms. Svedlund was kind enough to bring some saffron buns to share with us! They were received with mixed reviews, as saffron isn’t a common ingredient here, but most students gave them a try.

Ms. Svedlund also shared some pictures from her own St. Lucia celebration. Can you find her below, with her daughter, Wren?

Finally, as we listened to a medley of St. Lucia songs, we created pomanders! This is an easy holiday craft to make. You will need:

oranges or mandarins (mandarins are easier to work with)

whole cloves

twine, ribbon, or string

To create these beautiful and delicious-smelling ornaments, simply press the cloves into the peel of the fruit in concentric circles or whatever design you like. Tie your ribbon, string, or twine around, and hang wherever you like! The cloves will help preserve the fruit so that you can enjoy your pomander for a long time.

Lucky the Leprechaun

Posted on March 20, 2018 by elysevanetti

Over the weekend, our classroom was visited by a leprechaun! She left a mess in our room and a message on our board:

She also left a leprechaun treat for each of the students, and some fun St. Patrick’s Day activities to complete!

Our St. Patrick’s Day celebration was kicked off last week when we had some bagpipers visit us during Tecolote Tuesday. They played different bagpipes from Scotland, Sweden, Spain, and of course, Ireland. It was interesting to hear the differences between instruments from different countries. (Consider lowering your volume before playing these, as some of them are quite loud!)

Grandfriend’s Day

Posted on March 19, 2018 by elysevanetti

On Friday, we had the honor of hosting several grandparents and special friends at Laguna North. The day began with musical performances by each class in the auditorium. First grade performed three pieces.

The whole school joined together for the last song.

In our classroom, the first graders worked with their guests to create a book, “First Grade Now and Then.” Half of each page was devoted to what first grade was like when their special guests were young, and the other half showed what first grade is like now.

Finally, we showed our guests around the rest of our campus, and they had the opportunity to meet each of our specialist teachers. In music, Mrs. Markstrum and the first graders taught the grandparents a dance.

What a fun way to share our school community!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 15, 2018 by elysevanetti

We celebrated Valentine’s Day yesterday with a fun party! Our wonderful room parents put together themed snacks to eat and a craft to do.

Red chips with heart-shaped strawberries, watermelon, and cheese!

Enjoying our snacks

For our craft, the students made Valentine trees. They traced and colored their hands for the trunk and branches before using finger paint to make fingerprint heart leaves. These were so colorful and fun!

Artists at work

Finished products

Then we enjoyed passing out cards and treats to all our friends!

We hope you had a love-filled Valentine’s Day!

First Grade Movie Premiere and Multicultural Feast

Posted on November 30, 2017 by elysevanetti

Yesterday, we celebrated the wonderful projects the students made on our Apple Store field trip! Families joined us, bringing special dishes to represent their own respective heritages.

After the students introduced their projects, we settled in for our movie premiere. The movies included titles, music, clips of students talking about their heritages, pictures of their families and ancestors, and even maps showing where their families came from*!

An example of a map graphic used in our movies

After our movie premiere, we headed outside. Each family introduced the dish they brought and explained its origins. The students did a great job of trying a little bit of everything, and families happily joined in.

Thank you so much to our room parents for providing cups, plates, napkins, and utensils, and thank you to ALL of the families for supporting this amazing project. Congratulations on a job well done, first grade movie-makers!

*Due to the personal nature of the movies, they will not be posted publicly. The first graders each received a copy of their own movie to share as they see fit. Thank you for your understanding!

Fabulous in First

First Grade at Laguna Blanca

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