Apples!

Remember when we were in elementary school and the schedule posted on the board had specific times for reading, spelling, centers, math, science, social studies, writing, etc?  Our days haven't gotten any shorter, but it seems like there just isn't enough time in the day to have a designated time slot for each activity.  We try to get creative to make sure students are getting maximum exposure to all of these important content areas by implementing related text and activities into our reading, math and writing practice.   After all, some of these young people may grow up to be veterinarians, philosophers, farmers, engineers, inventors, or biographers.  

In case we have any apple farmers in the bunch... First grade is going to start the year learning about apples and the plant life cycle.  We will discuss how apples and other plants grow, the process that apples go through to get to our homes (in various products), and anything else these curious little minds wonder as they read and research.  Stay tuned for more posts on some of our discoveries!

We started our study with a schema chart.  Be sure to ask your first grader what schema means.  In case they forget we say... "What do we have? Schema  What is schema?  Knowledge!"