Reddy, The Red Panda (Student Blogger: Katherine)

Listen up I have to tell you something. This is my favorite animal at the zoo. It's a red panda. At the zoo I got a stuffed animal that is a red panda and I named her Reddy! I learned new things about the red pandas. I learned they are related to racoons, they live in Asia, they live in trees, they are omnivorous, but they usually eat bamboo, they are nocturnal, and they are endangered. They get endangered by people cutting down too many trees that they live in. And people like to catch them because they are beautiful. If you want to meet a red panda, you don't have to go to Asia, you can go to the Sacramento Zoo. The End!

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Skylanders (Student Blogger: AJ)

I have many skylanders.  I have many cards also. I have Giants.  I have lots of the traps but I don't have kaos or unknown.  I also have lots of skylanders.

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Pokemon (Student Blogger: Jacob)

I like Pokemon because they have collectible cards.  I use my cards to battle against other people, especially Jalen.

I started out with a Pokemon card with the maximum damage of 50.  Now I have a card with 150 damage.

Pikachu is my favorite Pokemon card, even though he only has a maximum damage of 40. This is Ash's beginner Pokemon. Ash is a Pokemon trainer. He also has Oshawott which is a water type Pokemon. Scraggy is another one of Ash's Pokemon. Snivy is also his Pokemon.

The object of trading cards is to get stronger Pokemon cards to win battles.

Ash travels with friends to different cities to earn badges. These badges help him become a Pokemon Master. A Pokemon master is the highest level of battle.

Pokemon evolve into stronger Pokemon. For example, Tangela is a basic Pokemon who evolves into Tangrowth. He goes from 20 maximum damage to 60 maximum damage.

One of my "EX" Pokemon named Gallade has up to 130 damage. You can only use 130 damage for one turn but not the next turn.

I like Pokemon!!!!!!!!!

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Everything is Legos! (Student Blogger: Amaru)

I love Legos!!!  Did you know that I have a new Lego set? It is a Chima set.

I have lot of Legos. Legos are bricks that you can stick together to build creations.  It's lots of fun!

My favorite sets are the Chima sets because I like Worriz. Chima is a series with bad guys and good guys. All the characters are different types of animals like ravens, wolves, lions, eagles, elephants, vultures, crocodiles, gorillas, bears, and beavers.  My favorite are the wolves because Worriz is a wolf.  Each animal boss has its own clan.

I like going to the mall to get new sets. The Lego Store has lots of sets like Ultra Agents, Chima, Star Wars, Ninjago, and Princess ones.

Legos are awesome!

(P.S. Comment under here.)

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One of the Biggest Animals on Earth...

Last week, we started our unit on Africa, and we learned that Africa is made up of deserts and savannas.

We learned about the largest animal of the African savanna, and also the largest land mammal in the world, the African Elephant.

We read this book, and LOVED it, because it taught us about all of the cool things that an elephant can do with its trunk.

We made this chart together, coming up with words to describe elephants, things that elephants do, and phrases to tell where they do these things. (Have your child show you how we use the chart to sing a sentence.)

On Tuesday, Miss Kloczko gave every team some cards with words from the chart, but they were all mixed up! Some teams had 5 verbs, but no noun, for example. It's pretty tough to make a sentence without a noun! Every team's goal was to make a sentence with 3 adjectives, 1 noun, 1 verb, and one prepositional phrase, so they could sing a song with their words. With a little cooperation, everyone was able to do it!

Thanks for reading! First graders, do you remember reading Little Elephant's Trunk? What can elephants do with their trunks? First graders, friends, and family... leave a comment below!

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Skiiing (Student Blogger: Milo)

I like to ski. It is very fun because you get to go very fast. I like to go down the bunny hill. I like to go on the ski lift. When you get off it there's a little bump, and it makes you go fast so you can turn. I took a ski lesson with my uncle. He is a ski teacher. I like Lake Tahoe.

My Cat Nae Nae (Student Blogger: Analisa)

I love my cat Nae Nae! She loves to sleep all day and eat and play when she is awake. She likes to sit on my lap and get brushed. We got Nae Nae three years ago from a nice lady at a pet shop. Her name was Neomi but we call her Nae Nae. It is fun having a cat!

My Sister (Student Blogger: Parker)

I have a baby sister named Emily!  

She is 1 year old.  

I love her silly "chipmunk smile!"

She is very ticklish.

I LOVE EMILY!!!!

Ninja Turtles (Student Blogger: Noah K.)

I like teenage mutant ninjas turtles because one has two swords, one has a long stick, one has nunchucks, and one has two knives. The master has a tail. It is very long. The master is a mouse. The fighters are turtles. They like pizza. There is a girl in the movie. They live in the sewer, and it has some computers in it, and it is awesome!

The Best Day of Writing Ever

Ralph, like many first graders, feels like he has no stories to write. When it's time to write, he asks to sharpen his pencil, get a drink of water... he wants to do everything but write! His teacher tells him that "stories are everywhere!" yet he is still skeptical. His friend Daisy helps him see that he DOES have stories to tell, that things happen to him all the time! He ends up sharing a silly, but action-packed story with his class about an inchworm that he met at the park. By the end, Ralph learns that he has tons of stories to write, that stories really are everywhere!

After we finished the book, we brainstormed some titles of real (and pretend!) stories that we could write.

Then, the kids headed back to their seats to start their stories, and I. Was. Amazed. 

So amazed, in fact, that I took a video of our class hard at work. They didn't even notice! They were so focused. When it was time to clean up for snack and recess, they were not happy with me! I promised to let them keep working on their stories tomorrow. :) 

Here are a few stories that I got a quick peek at...

Check back tomorrow to see what other stories these first graders have to tell!

Gymnastics (Student Blogger: Leila)

My name is Leila and I do gymnastics. I can do a pull over on the bars, cartwheel, splits every way, and lots of other things. I go to practice two times a week. I have a lot of gymnastic leotards. One is black on top and pink on the bottom, another one is pink and green, and there is a pink and sliver one too. The bars are my favorite event. I want to go to the Olympics one day.

Ninjago and More (Student Blogger: Jalen)

Ninjago is a pretty awesome series. It has Nindroids and all sorts of Ninjas.  Every episode it gets cooler.  Maybe you should watch it one day.

Fish Tale (Student Blogger: Katherine)

Hello! I am glad you are here! I wanted to tell you how I got two fish! One of them is Rudolph. He's from the North Pole at Santa's workshop! The other fish is Elsa because she is blue. She's from Pet Smart! I got Rudolph a year ago on Christmas. Rudolph is orange on the body and tail, but he has a teeny tiny spot that's blue on his tail. He's a betta and he's friendly to me. My friend, Kate, thought Rudolph was lonely. Last week, we went to Pet Smart. And guess what! I got a new fish. I named her Elsa. When I introduced her to Rudolph, he was chasing her and not being a good host. I hope they can become friends. The End!

Lion Dance (Student Blogger: Cedric)

Hello. One time I went to the mall for a Chinese New Years celebration.  While I was waiting for my friend Jershon I watched the Lion Dance.  There were lots of different colored lion costumes.  The lions were moved by having two people. The person that controls the back legs has to lean over and have a flat back.  The head person holds the head and can move the mouth, eyes, and ears. After the dance, I got to put on one of the lion costumes! It was AWESOME! Would you like to try on the Lion costume? 

All About Asia: Our Class Paragraph

Huge accomplishment this week— these first graders worked together to write an AWESOME paragraph about Asia and some of the animals that live there. Over the past several weeks, we studied the giant panda, the Indian peafowl, and the king cobra, and we watched some videos that included information on other Asian animals, like the red panda, the tiger, and the orangutan. But my favorite source for what went into this paragraph? Some kids did a little research at home on their own!

Miss Kloczko, did you know that the orangutan is endangered, too, just like the panda?

I LOVED having first graders come up to ME to teach ME things they learned at home!

The kids worked in pairs on Monday to write sentences about animals from Asia. Then, on Tuesday, we spent about 45 minutes tearing and rearranging and rereading and revising to make our paragraph perfect (with a few exercise breaks sprinkled in, of course!) and I was so impressed!

Read our finished version, and see the illustrations below!

Power Rangers and More (Student Blogger: Michael)

Hi! My name is Michael and I am going to tell you about some of the things I love. I love super heroes. I love Spiderman, Ironman, and Power Rangers.

Power Rangers are cool. They protect people. A Power Ranger can fight back evil. A Power Ranger Time Force can have two swords and a Power Ranger Time Force can have a gun too. The Red Power Ranger Jungle Fairy has red nunchucks. I like Power Ranger shows and the songs. I play them on my iPod Nano and can do some of the moves.

Thank you for reading my blog post about Power Rangers.

This is the Red Ranger from Power Ranger Dino Charge.

Jelly Beans and Me (Student Blogger: Parker)

I like jelly beans.  Some are red, and blue, and green.  They are sweet.  They are good.  My favorite flavor is birthday cake.

I Love Basketball (Student Blogger: Rohin)

My name is Rohin, and I'm 6.5 years old. I love basketball! I play for the league in Natomas. My team is called the Warriors. I play a few different positions on my team. Sometimes I play shooting guard, power forward and I also play small forward. It's always fun playing-especially when we WIN! 

Not only do I like playing basketball but I love to watch basketball too! I love watching the games live on tv and going to the Kings games with my dad! I love eating hot dogs at the game. My favorite players who play for the Kings are: Rudy Gay, DeMarcus Cousins, Jason Thompson, Darren Collison, Ben Maclamore and Quincy Miller. Quincy Miller is one of the newest players on the team and he's playing pretty well. He scored 15 points last week, when the Kings played against the Warriors. 

I love watching and playing basketball!

Soccer (Student Blogger: Hailey)

On Sunday my two friends and I play soccer and we are on a team. The team is named Liverpool. My friends' names are Abby and Mariah. Last time when we played the game it was 8 to 0. The other time it was 1 to 3. We tried our best.

Marshmallows and ME (Student Blogger: Parker)

I like marshmallows.  They are sweet.  They are squishy and fun to eat.  I LOVE marshmallows!

By,

Parker 

Onomatopoeias

This week we learned about onomatopoeias, or words that make sounds! There were a lot of them in Froggy Eats Out by Jonathan London. Check out the list below to see what onomatopoeias our first graders came up with!

meow -Analisa
ow -Noah T.
woof, ring-a-ling -Olivia
splash -Michael
boom -Ariana
jingle -Milana
snort -Thomas
zap -Amaru
ring -Jacquelyn
flop -Hailey
beep-bop -Parker
ding-dong -Katherine
zoom -Courtney
knock -Wesley
roar -Ainsley
moo -AJ
neigh -Milana
stomp -Rohin

Nature at Disneyland (Student Blogger: Katherine)

Oh!  Hello!  I didn't know you were there.  I am going to tell you about my Disneyland trip.  My favorite ride is Splash Mountain because I get to hear my favorite song, Zipadi-do-da!  I like all the nice animal characters.  The mean characters are a wolf, a bear, and two vultures.  Even though I like the characters and rides, I really like the nature at Disneyland.  I have seen a Hawaiian flower, 

hummingbirds, ducklings,

coniferous trees,

rosemary bushes, a white plant called Dusty Miller,

an earthworm,

a racoon, lizards, and butterflies.  I even got to plant something with Tinkerbell.

I bet you didn't think there is so much nature at Disneyland.  I bet you didn't know you are nature, too!