Mackarado Holiday Party

4th Grade Reading Buddies Holiday Celebration

We had a holiday celebration with our 4th grade reading buddies to show them how much we appreciate them and how much we enjoy our time with them. The Mackarados made cards and snowmen bookmarks for their buddies and our buddies made us special bookmarks with their pictures on them!
We celebrated with holiday books, hot cocoa and cookies! All the students had a great time together.
We are so lucky to have buddies to share our learning with and to teach us new things. We love seeing them every Friday! :) Happy Holidays Buddies!!

Thanksgiving Picnic

This year, to celebrate Thanksgiving, we decided to collect food items for those in need in our area. As a class, we collected over 100+ canned foods and many other food products! The students were so proud of themselves and Mrs. Alvarado was able to deliver it to a very appreciative family right before the holiday weekend.
With that in mind, we decided to forgo a traditional "feast" of Thanksgiving foods and focus on what is most important to us and our students.... our families. We had a Thanksgiving picnic outside on Tuesday. We brought our lunches and blankets outside to share a special lunch with the families who were able to make it. We had a great turn out and all the students were able to share that time with their family or the family of their friends. It was a beautiful day and we topped it off by sitting in a circle and letting everyone share what they are most thankful for this year. :)
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us and we hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. We are so thankful for loving students and wonderful parents like you!

Nonfiction Writing

Nonfiction Convention Chart

The Mackarados have been working hard at writing reports, "all about" books, and nonfiction writing. They have been learning about the different nonfiction conventions, such as: labels, captions, table of contents, index, glossary, bold words, maps, and real pictures. Students have not only learned to include these elements in their writing, but also are having great success at finding these nonfiction elements in different books that they are reading! For a few nonfiction reading strategies, click on the link below: http://educatoral.com/strategies_non-fiction.html

Writers' Workshop Song, Nonfiction Source book, Nonfiction Rubric

Mackarado Election

It's Election Day!
Last Friday, after a week of campaigning, the Mackarados narrowed it down to two Presidential hopefulls and their running mates. Almost every Mackarado wanted the opportunity to be considered to be a candidate and many campaigned with vigor! There were stickers, candy, baked goods and business cards- all to help get votes. (We had some pretty dedicated campaign managers working hard at home!). On Friday, they got up in front of the class and gave a speech about what they would do as president to help make our class better and why their classmates should vote for them. So glad I didn't have to vote...such a tough decision! Such great promises....like donuts once a week, longer recess and les work for teachers- aren't they sweet?!
But the Mackarados spoke and they each voted to nominatee a girl and a boy to be our candidates. The runner-ups girl and boy, then became the running mate for the candidate of the opposite gender so we had both "parties" represented in our election. Kendall and Meagan R. received the most girl nominations and after a revote (because of a 4-way tie!), Gavin and Rece were the boy nominees. So on election day it is Kendall and Rece running against Gavin and Meagan R. So exciting.
The most exciting part was how each and every Mackarado was truly deserving of such a prestigious honor. We are so proud of all of you and you should be very proud of yourselves, too!!!
And the winner is.... Kendall as President and Rece as Vice President!!!

Fall Celebration

Last Thursday was our class Fall Celebration day! We started our day by dressing up as a favorite literary character and we paraded around the school. Everyone loved our creative costumes.
Back in our classroom, we celebrated this fun season by doing five different craft stations. We made silly slime with Ms. Sanchez, a spooky frame, a creepy popcorn hand, a paper plate pumpkin and a little candy corn guy! It was so much fun! The Mackarados LOVE celebrating with stations!!
We ate lunch in the classroom and watched Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin while we pigged out on all sorts of yummy treats! Mrs.Alvarado, Shalyn and baby Canyon joined us for lunch. The Mackarados loved meeting Canyon!
It was such a fun day with some great memories made! Thank you to Cole's mom, Sierra's mom and Ms. Warden who stayed to help with stations and all the other parents who sent in craft supplies, paper goods and/or treats! :)

Literary Pumpkins

It is Literary Pumpkin week at CCE and it is one of our favorite events at school. Each class in the school decorates a pumpkin as a literary character and all the pumpkins are displayed in the front lobby for the week to celebrate our love of books and reading! Mrs.Alvarado and I have done many different kinds of pumpkins in the past but this year the Mackarados voted and chose to do one of our favorite Mem Fox books, Hattie and the Fox. They were very excited to have each table make a different character from the story. It seemed quite challenging to turn a cantaloupe shaped and sized pumpkin into a horse, a cow, a goose, a pig and a sheep but we have learned to never underestimate children's creativity...especially this little bunch! You have to see these animals! They are so cute! They really worked together as a table and used the book to make these characters come alive- as pumpkins! Ms.Sanchez and I supplied the materials they asked for but hardly any assistance or suggestions... we were so impressed with the finished products but also with the polite words and nice manners in which they were made! On your way in the building, check out the Hattie and the Fox display and see our hard (but super fun!) work. :)

MOSH field trip

Our first 1st grade field trip went very well! We had a blast at the MOSH! It was an absolutely beautiful day and we had a great schedule. When we first got there- thanks to our chaperones (Mrs.Yaffee, Mrs.Roy, Mrs.Cebrian, Mrs.Reyes, Mrs.Jones and Mr.Abe) the students were able to explore the museum with their groups for the first hour+. Then we all met at the front doors to walk to Friendship Fountain for lunch. We were able to eat at the picnic tables right by the water. The kids loved running around in the great weather. The Mackarados played a few group games outside until it was time for our class session. We walked back to the MOSH and joined Mrs.Harbour's and Mrs.VanAlstyne's class for the Exploring Habitats lesson. The Mackarados did a great job answering questions and participating in the lesson. We discussed all the different habitats and what kinds of animals live in them. We got to see a live tortise and pet a corn snake on the way out. It was the perfect ending to our awseome day!

4th Grade Reading Buddies!

We were so lucky to be asked by Mrs. Constande's 4th grade class to be their 1st grade reading buddies!! Every Friday during our Reader's Workshop at 10:30 our 4th grade buddies join us for our Reading work period. Each Mackarado or pair of Mackarados, has the same buddy each time so they can get to know each other as readers. The 4th graders are prepared with shared reading materials and have been bringing fun activities to do with us. Our students have had to listen to their buddy read, visualize what they were reading and draw a picture to go with the story. We have also listened to, then discussed a poem they studied and then filled-in-the-blanks to make our own poem with our buddy. We are looking forward to many other activities to do together that allow the 4th graders to practice their skills and also reinforce the strategy work we are doing as first graders. This makes us look forward to Fridays for a whole other reason!
Thank you Mrs. Constande's friends for letting us be your reading buddies! :)

Mem Fox Celebration

Last week, the Mackarados celebrated the completion of our Mem Fox author study. In their book talk groups (students got to choose which Mem Fox book group they were in), each group made a presentation of their book to share what it was about. They came up with a variety of creative ways to present their book- posters of the beginning, middle and end, story maps, story board with pictures (and vocabulary words!), acting it out with masks, acting it out while reading the book, etc.
Ms. Sasso's class was doing the same with their book talk groups and invited us to celebrate together! They joined us in our classroom and both classes were able to share to a much larger audience! :) They loved it. We also made pirate hats and eye patches (thanks Ms. Sasso!). Then was the students' favorite part....we had our own Bush Olympics! Each student participated in an event. Events included a 3-legged race, Egg race, Scooter race, Long jump, Boomerang relay, Bean Bag toss and the Potato sack race. It was a sight to see! With such great sports and attitudes, everyone received a gold medal! WooHoo! And to wrap up a great day, the students enjoyed some yummy Australian desserts. Ms. Sasso made Anzac biscuits, Ms. Sanchez made pavlova and I made lamington. Not sure what those are??? Ask your student! It was delicious!
It was a super fun day and a great way to celebrate all they have learned. We were really proud and impressed by their presentations. A lot of cooperation had to happen to come up with an idea they all agreed on, make it together giving everyone an opportunity to help, practice presenting it with everyone having a part and then sharing it infront of a group. It was amazing! Ms. Sanchez and I almost had happy tears because it really created an opportunity for some of our little people to really shine! Great job Mackarados!

Great Educational Sites

Parents have been asking about extra curriculur/enrichment activities for children to do at home to reinforce the learning they are doing at school....some of you even asked for websites because your children love using the computer. What a great idea! So we got researching! We asked other teachers about the sites they like and use in their classroom. Listed below are four that we were referred and played around with to check out the content.
* www.starfall.com is a fantastic site that has skills that would coorelate with what we are teaching. Such cute little videos,too!
* http://pbskids.org has games that goes with their children's shows. Between the Lions is a show that teaches phonics and letter/sound skills.
* www.primarygames.com has just that- primary level skills in fun games.
* www.internet4classrooms.com has a great collection of activities from lots of different sites that directly teach a variety of skills.
Check out these sites and let us know if you have any other favorite kid-friendly and free sites your family uses at home. Usage of the computer is a great motivator to do homework, a great priviledge to earn and a fun way to learn. We are incorporating them into our classroom for those reasons!

Karson's Melissa suggested www.spellingcity.com - you can enter the High 5 words of the week and it either tests you, teaches you or plays a game! Thanks! :)

Open House

If we may say so, our Open House was so great! It was a child-driven tour of our daily activities. Each Mackarado Tour Guide gave their Parent Explorer a tour of our classroom and the things we do everyday. The Parent Explorer had to answer questions about each "destination" on the Mackarado Map. They had to have their child read a "just right" book from their Independent Book Bag and the Parent Explorers had to write a strategy their child used. Students had to read a narrative story they wrote from their Writing Folder and the Parent Explorers wrote a compliment they gave them. They also had to show the Literacy Station they went to that day and write what skill their child practiced, their favorite Math Choice Station, the Calendar Math area to find how many days we have been in school and find our class promise to tell us their favorite part. The Parent Explorers wrote such great responses! They must have had such great Tour Guides!
We got excellent feedback about how parents liked the fact that it wasn't the teachers talking and giving information but they really felt like they got a glimpse into what their child does at school on a daily basis. We felt that because we are a looping class, it was a great way for Open House to be about the students and their work because we already have relationships with the parents. The students really seemed to enjoy being able to teach their parents about what we do each day and why. Thank you again for everyone who attended and gave their child an opportunity to show off his/her hard work! We appreciate you! :)

Celebrating Canyon and Mrs. Alvarado

Mrs. Alvarado joined us today after lunch for a little party to celebrate the new addition to her family, baby Canyon. The Mackarados were so excited to see her! They would have spent the whole rest of the day filling her in on every happening over the past two weeks (lost teeth, new babies in their families, which table had the most pennies, etc.)... but there were cupcakes and yummy treats to get to! The students loved watching Mrs. Alvarado open our class gift to her, which was the latest Mem Fox book that just happened to be about babies that each student signed, and other gifts from students. But I think Mrs. Alvarado's favorite part was playing Name That Mackarado Baby! Every student sent in a baby picture of themself and Mrs. Alvarado had to see if she could pick out each Mackarado! Everyone enjoyed seeing all the adorable baby pictures! Miss Sanchez and I even threw our own pictures in to see if we could fool her- but she got everyone right! Then students, parents and teachers enjoyed the yummy cupcakes, cookies, chocolate-covered strawberries and punch while Mrs. Alvarado made the rounds to give hugs. It was such a great way to celebrate the new baby and celebrate how much we love Mrs. Alvarado! :)

Mem Fox Author Study

The Mackarados are really enjoying our Mem Fox Author study! Just walk into our room and you can see lots of evidence of our learning!

Students first learned about Mem Fox, herself and then became emersed into her capitaving stories filled with interesting Australian animals and characters. They are such engaged readers!

As a class, we have studied Wilfrid Gordon Macdonald Patridge, Possum Magic, Koala Lou and will be getting into Tough Boris this week. We read each book several times and discuss many aspects of each book, including the characters, new and interesting language we noticed, wondering or questions we have, connections to the story and the overall theme of the book.

Then in Readers' Workshop, students use Accountable Talk to discuss their own ideas with a partner or with a small group. The Mackarados love the opportunity to share with each other and the whole class.

They have been working hard at staying on topic with so much to talk about!

As an independent reader, they take those same skills and apply what good readers notice in their own reading. And after each work period, students share and you would be surprised at the things they notice or were wondering about or connections they made, etc. They also use some of those skills to figure out new words or language they come across in their reading- we had to use these skills a lot with all of those new animals, food and cities we had never heard of!

In Writers' Workshop, students are writing their own Small Moment narrative stories and we use Mem Fox's stories of excellent examples of engaging writing. Students love trying to make their work as fun to read as the books they hear aloud each day.

The students are learning so much! We are even discussing new vocabulary (other then the funky Australian words!) that we notice in her stories. The students love showing off their knowledge of big words and begin to find them everywhere! We like to turn our vocabulary words from each book into a project to display around the room and keep them fresh in our minds!

Baby Alvarado is here!

Drum roll please.......

It's a BOY!

Canyon Jack Alvarado was born Saturday, September 6th at 8:05 p.m. He is 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches of absolute perfectness!!! He looks just like his big sister, Shalyn, did as a newborn- with beautiful eyebrows and eyelashes!

Mrs. Alvarado is feeling great and they are all so excited to have a new baby boy in their family. Shalyn (who turns 3 on the 28th) is such a great big sister already.

Canyon weighs the same as Brandon did as when he was born and Jackson made the closest prediction of Canyon's birth weight! How cool!

Love,
Mrs. Mack

Jobs!

In honor of our character trait for August, RESPONSIBILITY, we have started to implement our new Jobs Chart. Three students were chosen from each table to take care of different jobs on our chart. The students will be rotated each week to ensure all students get the opportunity to perform each duty for their table. The students will also change the table they sit at periodically throughout the year to get the opportunity to do those jobs as well. Some of our jobs include; table helpers, water monitor, enegry supervisor, garbage engineer, closet keeper, pencil sharpener, clean sweeper, table cleaner, recess manager, hallway organizer and our favorite... the mystery job! This system will help all students to take an active role in keeping our classroom clean, organized and ready for the next day. Most importantly, it gives them a sense of importance, belonging and responsibility in our class community.

We also have some extra dining room responsibilities, such as two table cleaners and one table sweeper, that are given to special first time listeners! Such an honor!

Our Class Promise

The students wrote our new 1st grade class promise together last week. We were very impressed with their ability to think about what is most important to keep our class community a safe, happy and fun place to spend our days. We put their wonderful words into a promise that we will all say together each morning. We raise our right hands high in the air and then tuck those words into our heads and into our hearts to ensure we make great choices and help ourselves and others to have a GREAT day. :)

After reading our Class Promise together, the students each signed their name on a "hand." We put the hands together to make our Helping Hands Tree. During the year we will be adding things we have done together or individually to help others and the world around us.

First Day!

What a SUPER first day of 1st grade! The Mackarados were so excited to see eachother. Everyone was taller, tanner and had missing teeth! :) We also were so lucky to have three new friends join our class. Brittany, Jordyn and Jaden fit in perfectly with our very friendly, welcoming bunch!
We started our day this morning reading The Night Before First Grade and discussed our feelings from the night before... from some nervousness to can't-stand-it excitement!!! Then we took a tour of our new 1st grade classroom. They noticed new things and had wonderings about the different things they saw. They were really pumped about all the new responsibilities on our JOB chart.
Then it was time for the show! 1st grade was invited to the dining room for a special slideshow presentation by Bruce Junek. Mr. Junek had taken a bicycle trip with his wife around the world that took 26 months! He had amazing slides of the animals, people and beautiful places he saw on his trip. The children were captivated by his pictures, funny stories and message of following your dreams. Such a great way to motivate children to believe in themselves!
When we got back we played a game with the students in a circle that let us know what cool things everyone got to do over the summer....you guys had some fun!
Then we practiced our new dining room expectations and routines and it was time to eat.
We ate and went to recess. 1st graders are allowed to do the monkey bars!!!! :) Woo Hoo!
After recess, students decorated their own boomerangs and got to know or catch-up with their neighbors. We took a class picture with their new CCE shirts in the front lobby and after doing a practice run of dismissal, it was time for the real thing. Time flew by today so we know it was a great day! We're already off to a great start on our journey into the 1st grade! Da dun da da!

Duval County Character Trait of the Month

We will be incorporating Duval County's Character Trait of the Month into our daily Read Alouds, activities and social studies lessons. Because we have already built a classroom community as Kindergarteners, as First Graders can focus on learning these specific values. :)

What is Character Education?

-Teaching students how to take responsibility for their actions and to treat others with
respect.
-Showing students that there are specific payoffs in life for doing those things.
-Modeling that behavior for students every second that they are with us during the day, and expecting them to do the same.
-Creating an atmosphere at school where students can safely practice those behaviors until such behavior becomes the norm.

Duval County's 2008- 2009 Character Traits of the Month
August- Responsibility and Attentiveness
September- Citizenship and Cooperation
October- Fairness
November- Patriotism
December- Kindness and Caring
January- Courage and Initiative
February- Respect and Tolerance
March- Honesty and Trustworthiness
April- Self-control
May- Patience and Perseverance

August- Responsibility and Attentiveness
Responsibility- the quality of having moral, legal, or mental accountability. Reliable. Trustworthy.
Attentiveness- Heedful; being mindful of other's needs, feelings, etc.

Getting Ready

Mrs. Mack and Mrs. Alvarado have been working hard to transform our Kindergarten classroom to a First Grade room just for you!
We know you are all smarter, taller and if possible, even sweeter, than the last time we saw you! So we have been trying to build a learning environment that will keep that ball rollin'!
We are super excited to invite you to check it all out on Friday.
We'll see you there!