Rosemary Kenrick
Elementary Educator
A Peek into Ms. Kenrick's Classroom
First Grade is full of fun adventures and activities! I love to teach with engaging, hands on lessons. I love when the students learn from each other as well. We do a lot of work independently, but also as a whole group, with partners and in small groups. Here is a peek at just a few of the fun things we do in my classroom!
A World In Motion (AWIM)
AWIM is a hands-on six week science program that allows the 1st grade students to build a non-electric pinball machine by trial and error. The students are placed in groups and have a different role in the group every week. The students get new directions every week and continue to build on their design from the previous week. At the end of the six weeks, they present their pinball machine to the class.
Reading and Phonics
Reading is a huge part of my first grade classroom. We read all day! We spend time reading as a whole group, with partners, and in small groups. We read from our textbook, decodable readers, and from books from our classroom library. We also do The Daily 5 every day. The students love building their words, breaking apart their words, and finding their words in books while they are reading. To make reading exciting for the students, I love to share stories from my childhood. When teachers are excited about reading, it gets the students excited! I try to make Reading Month extra fun! I love to bring in surprise guest readers. Here are pictures of my mom and Rhonda Walker from Channel 4 News being guest readers.
Books my students donated to charity during Reading Month.
Engaging Students
I love to do fun and engaging crafts and activities with my students. They get very excited about them and love to share them with the class. Here are a few examples.
Left and Right: Students using manipulatives with a partner in Math.
Below: Students reusing toilet paper rolls to make bird feeders. Part of our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle unit in Science.
Religion
As a Catholic School teacher, Religion plays a big part in our daily life at school. In first grade, we start to focus a lot on the sacraments the students will be making next year. We spend time praying; learning our prayers and also praying our own prayers. We learn how to behave in church and the parts of the mass. Here is just one example of a craft we did to enhance our faith learning during Lent.
