Alison’s 260 Weblog

There really wasn’t anything too exciting that happened in my 1st grade classroom this week.  The students came in on Monday with a little extra spunk and energy which I am assuming from the fact that they had a snow day on last Friday.  Then Tuesday was another snow day which made them energized on Wed. as well.  With it being so cold and snowy outside there was inside recess in which the students actively played some games as a class.  One game I witnessed was one called “bump”.  This game consisted of the students forming a line facing the chalk board away from the word wall.  Starting at one end, Mr L would give the students a word from the word wall for them to spell.  The students would then spell the word one letter at a time passing the microphone down the line as the students say the letter they think comes next.  When the word has been completed it is the next student in line job to say bump.  Then the next student will sit down.  Students also sit down if they say an incorrect letter in spelling the certain words as well.  The game continues until there is only one student standing and they are considered “the winner”.  Then the students all stand up again and it starts over.  I feel it is a fun way to have the student practice their word wall word spelling without just implementing a spelling test.  It gives an alternative way of assessing their knowledge of the word wall words to the spelling tests.

I was also able to witness a social studies lesson this week with the topic being people you would see within your community (friends, family, salesman, trash collectors, mail person, teachers, etc.) and places you would see in your community (school, park, office building, houses, restaurants, stores, etc.)   It was interesting listening to the students’ list what they thought they would see.  Some students said things like sky scrapers and airports which wouldn’t necessarily work for Wooster but are things they would see in a city community.

I am continuing to enjoy my time at Melrose and maybe we will have a full week next week!