State Capitol visit with Harmony Science Academy

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the State Capitol with a group of students from Harmony.  We had the opportunity to meet with several Senators and Representatives. We took a tour of the Capitol which included visiting the House of Representatives, who were not in session.  

A few pictures from our visit to the House of Representative: 



We were able to sit in on a Senate session and be recognized by the Senate.  After we were recognized, we were able to take a group photo with Senator West. (I hope to get that photo soon.)

I was amazed by this beautiful building!

View of the dome from them  basement of the Capitol Extension Building.

The top of the dome from the Rotunda of the Capitol Building. The star at the top is actually 8 ft in diameter.  The tour guide said that the Statue of Liberty (minus the pedestal) would fit inside this dome.

Rotunda Floor 

Floor in the Extension Building

I absolutely love the door knobs and door hinges.  These are found throughout the main building.

This was a fabulous trip! I encourage everyone to visit the Capitol Building and experience this rich piece of Texas History and see where Texas legislature takes its shape.

Visit Texas Senate for Kids for more information about the Texas Senate.
Visit Kids' House for more information about the Texas House of Representatives.

Calendar Detectives

After break we started Calendar Detectives.  Some people have had some questions about what this activity should look like. I am including a picture to help. This activity is geared to help students practice ela, math, and social studies skills on a daily basis.
I hope this helps!

Each day students will use the day of the month for math portion of this activity.  For a challenge the students can use the number of days we have been in school.

Mrs. Nelson

Science Vocabulary

Today we worked on our science vocabulary. The vocabulary words for our Rock, Soil, and Water unit are:
Resource
Rocks
Filter
Water
Texture
Smooth
Product
Soil

Here are a few pictures from todays activity.

Rocks, Soil, and Water: Play Dough

Today we visited the other first grade classrooms and explored rocks, soil, and water.  We made rock patterns and observed several.  In our classroom, we got our hands dirty and made salt play dough.

Thank you to everyone who donated items to make this activity possible!

Onomatopoeia: Popcorn Poetry

Today we learned whathouse an Onomatopoeia is. An onomatopoeia is a word that imitates or suggest the source of the sound. Here are some of the examples we found:

We used our five senses to as we popped popcorn.

After our exploration, we wrote poems about our experiences.

Onomontopeia: Popcorn Poetry Continued

Here are a few samples of these fabulous first graders poems!

We all had a won

Alliterations

Today we learned about alliterations.  We read Dr. Seuss's ABC and we made alliteration sentences using our names.  We then made our faces with paper plates and put the alliteration sentence on a pink tongue!  The kids did a great job!
Here are a few samples: