Beach Party!
On Tuesday, April 5th, the first graders celebrated the filling of the class Pebble Jar by taking part in a Beach Day. We began the Beach Day by sorting long and short vowel sounds into buckets. Everyone knows you almost always bring buckets when you are visiting the beach! The first graders were very efficient with this activity. They used tools that they have been taught throughout the school year to successfully place the correct item into the correct bucket.
In first grade, we have weekly spelling tests, so in order to be prepared for these tests we practice the weekly words each day. On this particular day, the first graders were each given a spelling word (some were spelled correctly and some were spelled incorrectly), they then had to decide which beach towel the spelling word needed to be placed on. The bright and colorful beach towel where only the “correctly” spelled words belonged, or the black beach towel where the “incorrectly” spelled words went. Needless to say, the first graders were very successful at this activity; they all remembered the job of the “silent e” for this week’s words.
Throughout the month of February, the first graders worked very hard at recognizing the names of coins and how to count them correctly. During math time on our Beach Day, the students were all given a bagful of change, and then they had to visit my Beach Café, but the only way they were able to purchase any items was if they correctly used the menu, counted their change, and gave me the correct amount of change. Let’s just say I sold out of all of my items at my café. We then engaged in an ocean and fish activity. I asked the students to place a certain amount of fish in one of their oceans and then a certain amount of fish into their other ocean, once the first graders completed these two tasks, they then had to decide which ocean had the “greater amount” of fish in it. This activity reinforced what we have been talking about in math:
• Greater than
• Less than
• Equal to
The first graders thoroughly enjoyed this activity. Using our fish and oceans, we also worked on finding the “sum” of fish in the ocean as well as, the “difference” of fish in the ocean.
I shared a story about some characters spending the day at the beach. Following the story, we brainstormed all of the things that we can do when we visit the beach. We organized our thoughts using a graphic organizer, a concept map. The students then had to choose three items and journal about them. The first graders came up with very detailed sentences that explained their days at the beach. They all made sure that their illustrations then matched their writings. Some ideas that we came up with were:
• You can collect seashells.
• You relax.
• People like to splash water.
• You can have a picnic at the beach. (Many of the students used the prior knowledge from when we had our Picnic Day).
• People like to swim when they go to a beach.
• You have to remember to put sunscreen on when you go to the beach.
We ended our beach day talking about things we might see at the beach. On our day at the beach, we spotted some…LOBSTERS. Using our hands, feet, and red paint, the students made their very own lobsters. Thanks for all of the extra helping hands, so the first graders and I could make some good lucking lobsters.
Whew! Just another day at the beach…