California Adventure

Hey Everyone! It has been just over a month since my last post and I hope all of you have been enjoying the past month as much as me. Summer time is a great opportunity for travel, sports, family, holidays, barbeque, and all kinds of other things. I must say I have been keeping busy with all of the above and then some! 

This post was inspired by my recent visit to the big Legoland in Carlsbad, California. Given the way District 97 has started incorporating Legos into the curriculum and the first grade field trip to the Legoland location in Schaumburg, I thought it only fitting to see the theme park in southern Cal.

Oh and I also made Legoland a destination because one of my life best friends is currently employed in the park as a artist drawing caricatures. He has amazing talent and it was an incredible opportunity to be sitting in a chair with one of my best friends drawing me. Take a look for yourself and see if this is how you imagine Mr. Reynolds to look as a cartoon. Some of you out there may recall the Olympic Day shirts for the 'Reynolds' Rhinos,' well this caricature is drawn by the same artist.

Hopefully you and your family have had some enjoyable experiences thus far in the summer of 2009.  If not, there is still half the summer remaining before the first day of a new school year.  Remember, it will only be the summer of 2009 once!  Haha!  In parting, I will leave you with a link to a blog post about music.  I know there are many of you searching for new, good, and FREE music appropriate for ears of all ages.  Check out this post, and see what you find.  Happy listening!  

Golden Apple Orientation

Tonight was a unique experience that welcomed me to the Golden Apple "Family". I was invited, as a 2009 Teacher of Distinction, to attend an orientation session at the headquarters on Michigan Avenue in Chicago where I became acquainted with Golden Apple staff and fellow "TODs". We were given a thorough background of the foundation and learned about the seemingly endless ways to get involved in preparing excellent teachers in the state of Illinois. I had no idea my nomination would lead to such an outstanding opportunity in the field of education! The biggest project currently is the Golden Apple Scholars program which filters determined and ambitious high school students into a scholarship program that prepares them to be teachers at "in-need" schools. These "scholars" are granted terrific development programs, many taught by Golden Apple Fellows, TODs, and staff, to better prepare them as successful teachers.

As the summer days begin passing by I have found a new purpose for the blog - to keep readers up to date with my experiences as they relate to the realm of education. Everybody has unique experiences in their life but what do we learn from them? How do we apply them? Are these experiences of great value or simply experiences of joy lacking application of a greater significance? I like purposeful and valuable experiences. Prepare yourself readers for a new venture in my blogging. I have stayed strictly focused on Room 108 for the past two years and will return to that foci again in the fall but this summer I am continuing my path as an "educational risk-taker" and am going to extend my posts to hopefully a greater audience.

The greatest value I took from orientation tonight was the incredible network of people in which now I am interwoven. The educators I met tonight have dedicated their lives to imparting knowledge, teaching skills, and providing guidance for the youth (future) of not just America anymore, but the world! The Golden Apple is a tremendous network and it grows as teachers and its members continue to learn, share and lead! I look forward to the days and opportunities ahead and am excited to share with you some of what I discover! Hope you keep up! (Twitter helps for that too!)

The End of the Year

It has finally come.  The day so many kids and teachers look forward to.  But now the feelings of excitement for summer and freedom are coupled with some feelings of sadness to know our time together in Room 108 is over.  This has been an outstanding in year in so many ways for children, parents, and teachers.  The last hour of school will be bittersweet indeed.  

So what now?  Are you going to escape the realm of academia?  If not, how are you going to keep your little students sharp for the fall?  Well a very simple way to stay intune with some basic academic concepts is to come right here, Mr. Reynolds' First Grade Blog!  I will continue to post over the summer and add links as I find them.  I've had some difficulty with my mobile posting applications but as I figure out what's wrong, posting via my iPhone will continue.  I will be doing a fair length of traveling this summer and will have lots of neat finds to share.  I'm sure of it!  

Thank you all for following along with Room 108 this year and I wish you the best of days this summer.  The students from our classroom are indeed much more able to learn now than ever before so feed them information, share with them knowledge, and most importantly involve them in as many learning experiences as possible!!  Learning never stops!

Eric Carle Project

Maybe you 'heard the tweets,' maybe you read the blog, or maybe you just heard the good ol' word of mouth about this project. Here is a picture sample of the kind of illustrations created during a tremendous author extension activity. Our school librarian brought the popular, uniquely talented, and self proclaimed 'picture writer' Eric Carle to life by guiding kids through one of his illustrating techniques. This technique had students wildly painting colored tissue paper, cutting it apart, and artistically using paint brushes with glue to paste them into all different kinds of bugs. This was an outstanding connection to many of the wonderul themes we have been exploring recently in first grade.

A Distinguished Classroom

The final weeks of school are buzzing by us all in Room 108 as we have been focused on final academic challenges and cherishing the limited amount of learning we have left together.  The month of May has evolved into reviewing a variety of skills and narrowing in the on the strategies that will prove most valuable in second grade!  It seems only days ago sentences were being pieced together, now paragraphs are beginning to emerge. Words used to look like letters jumbled together, now chapter books are merely a title.  Numbers used to appear with the greatest of confusion, now some are wondering if numbers go on forever. Those early September days are fading in the distance as sights are jumping ahead at a horizon full of opportunity and information!  

As Unit 9 zips along, knowledge is spouting everywhere.  Children are readily connecting skills to concepts, tying strategies to new problems, and unfolding new discoveries into foundations for further investigations.  Discussion is seemingly ongoing during whole class reading as students are beginning to understand stories and authors on a deeper level than previously known.  Participation is overflowing as students are eager to read aloud, answer a question, or share some unique insight.  Likewise, mathematical skills are bursting to be applied on new problems, games, and puzzles.  Now is truly an enjoyable time in the classroom as many students have earned the freedom to explore application in a variety of previously unknown ways.  

So what now?  Well an Olympic Week is set to take over the school next Tuesday, May 19.  In the spirit of "Chicago 2016" the school has chosen to embrace the Olympic mottos in a 16 day stretch leading up to our Olympic Day, June 3.  Each classroom has been randomly assigned a country to represent in an all-school Opening Ceremony.  Over the course of these days students will be presented themed lessons and activities in special area classes like Art, P.E., Music, and Spanish. Room 108 was selected to represent India!  Students located India on the map, identified bordering neighbors and geographical features, made personal connections to it's people, and are asking all kinds of questions!  Hopefully you know a thing or two about India, if not, here is the World Fact Book page for it.  (And the Wikipedia page, for good measure.)

Be sure to check the "Upcoming Events" on the right hand column of the blog.  It is loaded with important days for students in Room 108.  As the school year winds down there will be an assortment of special events and experiences designed to capture some of the final days we share together.  Hopefully you have had some time to talk with your child about the tremendous things that have occurred in our classroom over the course of the school year, but especially in the last month.  It is truly an honor and privilege to teach the children of this community and I hope everyone will enjoy the final weeks ahead.  

The Great Ball Game

Last week the students in Room 108 performed a play for kindergarteners. The children created scenery and created a stage for which to sit behind. When they read their parts, each child held up a self created puppet to depict their interpretation of their character. Plays and readers' theaters are a great way for children to strengthen reading skills such as comprehension and fluency.