Preparing For Our First Class Party!

Hello First Grade Families!

How are you?  I am well.  I began knitting a scarf for my mum this weekend with some cotton/linen yarn that is lovely.  That makes me happy!  I hope you were able to do something that makes you happy this weekend, too.

This week we were busy planning for our up coming Character Party.  As we do with many things, we had a great discussion about Halloween and what about this was important to the class.  They decided that the most interesting part for them, lately, was the costumes and becoming a different persona.  We are tying this in with the interest in storytelling and how we have been trying to flesh out characters to make them more interesting.

Friends are encouraged to come up with the name for their character and write a short description about what makes them unique. They often like to read these descriptions to the class.  (See above) Already we have seen friends adding more details as the class continues to give feedback for each character.  We plan to create a character wall where you can find different personae to choose from when writing a new story.  It will be like a smorgasbord of possibilities for storytelling. 

Tomorrow we will finish up the sign ups for the party which will take place on Monday October 31st; All are welcome!  The morning celebration will include a non-scary and scary storytelling area, both with stories that the students have written as well as library books that families can bring in for us.  There will be a face painting station, a game station where students can play the two board games that they have created from scratch and also a snack station- of course!  All of this will be while we are wearing our fun costumes from home.

Stay tuned to see how you can help out and join in!  The students are hard at work at getting everything ready.  Here is a list of how each student is helping to prepare:

Decoration Committee: Natanya, Rainli, Bridget, Silas, Avery, Kaylie, Milayna, Tennacee
Sign-up Committee:  Peyton, Solomon, Niko, Joey, Levi, Ocean
Games Committee: Henry, Abdullah, Greer, Paz, Aidan, Ben, Jayden, Parker
Face Painting Book Committee: Addison and Jenna

The committee concept has been a great lesson in communication, creating and keeping agreements and compromise.  Each group had to come up with themes or agreements to follow and also to multitask so that the work is all getting done efficiently.  These types of discussions are helping the students to realize the importance of clarifying questions and of raising above the back and forth type disagreements that won't support them to move forward as a group.  There is so much to be learned and so much fun to be had in all the preparation and follow-through!

Here are two snapshots from a discussion we had this week.  We are always sharpening the skill of brainstorming and of constructive critique.  Here two students shared the beginnings of their stories and the class gave them suggestions.  This got many friends' creative taste buds salivating!  These friends were really excited about the possibilities in writing our own stories.

Natanya explained her story was about Ocean and Natanya and a ghost. Her story begins, "One spooky night in the forest..." After Natanya explained the beginning concepts of her story,  some of the questions and comments that came up:
Avery: You could say how big the forest is.
Jennifer: So she could describe the setting a bit more?
Avery: Yeah.
Jayden: Maybe the ghost is going to scare them.
Solomon: Maybe you could say what the ghost's name is.
Natanya: My ghost's name is Spooky.
Henry: What color is the ghost?
Ocean: You could tell if the ghost is afraid of the characters.
Natanya: I think we should be scared 'cuz the ghost is really mean.
Jayden: Maybe there's two ghosts that like each other and they both scare... the people.
Aiden: They could be inside the people.
Henry: Could the ghost go through the wall?

Next we heard from Peyton.

(A pumpkin was asleep until boys came.  The evil pumpkin woke up.  then the pumpkin did an evil laugh.)

After Peyton shared what she had written so far, the friends commented:
Joey: What's the boys' names?
Bridget: Maybe, how old is the pumpkin?
Jayden: What's the evil pumpkin's name?
Henry:  What evil powers does he have?
Solomon: Does the pumpkin have arms and legs?
Addison: Is the pumpkin actually nice, but like, a part of a scary half scarecrow?
Henry: Can it go on fire?
Jenna: What do the boys do to the pumpkin?
Parker: Do the boys carve the pumpkin?
Paz: Does the pumpkin patch owner know what's happening?
Jennifer: Do we know that that's the setting?
Solomon: Does the pumpkin loose a tooth?
Parker: Is the pumpkin a mom or a dad?

What amazing questions!  I am often bowled over by the astuteness and creativity of this group!  I know that these type of brainstorm sessions are great for the writer, but also for all of us.  These students are bringing up elements that are essential to a story, such as plot, setting, a problem to be solved and character motivation.  It is also interesting to see how the student's life and the things that are important to a First Grader influence their ideas and questions.  For example, THREE times this week a student had a tooth fall out during a class discussion!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and reliving this memory with your child.  I want to thank all you families who took time to bring your child for their Student Lead Conference.  It was so nice to see them show the confidence to speak about their work and to think about things they could still get good at.  It was a lovely week for me.  I feel lucky to know all of you and to be able to share in your child's learning.

I wish you a nice night!  Love, Jennifer