Beach Party (Just another day in the first grade)...
On Friday, September 23rd, 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.
In first grade, we have sight words we practice. On this particular day, the first graders were each given a sight 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. Needless to say, the first graders were very successful at this activity.
Throughout the month of September, the first graders worked very hard at our review (from kindergarten) on how to count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. During math time on our Beach Day, the students had to count by 2’s and 5’s when they came to visit my Beach Café. Let’s just say I sold out of all of my items at my café.
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 a beach.
• You have to remember to put sunscreen on when you go the beach.
On our day at the beach, we spotted some…LOBSTERS. We ended our Beach Day talking about things we might see at the beach. 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…I mean first grade!