My Students

Did you have a mall pet store? I did and I remember standing in front of the tarantulas wanting to hold and own one. Children are inquisitive and they know there are more animals than the cats, dogs, and hamsters they have as pets. They just don't ever get the chance to learn about the other pets.

The first grade team at my school works very closely together.

We plan our lessons and activities together and work together to help all 65 of our first graders to be well rounded students. Our students are natural sponges and they love to learn about things that aren't every day situations in their world. They read through our nonfiction books on deep ocean animals, children on other continents, and events they can only dream of at their young age. They yearn for the knowledge that flat pictures and words can't provide. We have students who receive free or reduced lunch. Some students receive special education services for many different reasons. We also have many students who work above grade level. We all "live" together with the kindergarten in the lower level of our school that we lovingly call The Dungeon.

My Project

In first grade, we teach our students about different types of animals and their habitats. Cary from Creature Encounters brings tarantulas, lizards, scorpions, desert turtles, and HUGE snakes! Some students have pets, but this introduces them to wildlife suitable to be pets. Often Cary is asked to help rescue this type of animal because their habitat has become unsafe due to changes in their environment. Before Cary comes, our students will have the opportunity to read books about these animals to prepare them for his visit. They will also be creating an animal using the Model Magic. They will learn about how to research and write an informative paragraph. The books will help them research their animal choice. They'll learn how to stay on topic and find facts through research. They will learn that it's important to care for our environment to keep animals in their habitats. We'll brain-storm ideas on what they can do now to keep their habitat, and ours, safe for living in.

Sometimes our Dungeon Crew doesn't feel like the rest of the school.

We have our own school wing, little bathrooms, and even a small playground. We're the "little kids". The animals we want to get to know also don't fit in the regular pet mold. Many of them are wildlife in our state, but we don't encounter them. Our students will learn how important it is to be a good pet parent and more importantly how to respect all creatures, even those that seem scary or give their parents the chills.