Week 32

The math farm unit is here! This unit involves place value, money, area & perimeter, mapping and computation. As part of the unit, first graders will be building and maintaining their own "farms." :)

For Junior Achievement the first graders learned that in order to get their needs and wants, they need money, and to get money they need jobs! They did an activity where they came up with different clues to guess the jobs - HUGE thank you to Ms. Amy for being a great Jr. Achievement teacher.

In honor of National Prevent Animal Cruelty month, we had a visitor from the Humane Society come talk to the first graders. They learned all about what the Humane Society does and even met one of their 4-legged employees! 


Reminders:

5/1 - 5/5 -- Staff Appreciation 
5/5 -- 1st - 2nd Musical @ 1:30pm 
5/9 - 5/11 -- Used Book Sale @ 2:15 - 6:00pm


Here are some photos from the week...

Week 31

Here are some highlights from the week...


While we should celebrate and take care of the Earth everyday, we celebrated Earth day on Friday by reading one of my all time favorites, The Lorax, and cleaning up the Stephenson playground and walkways. The first graders truly took the Lorax's words to heart "unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not."

After wrapping up our non-fiction writing unit, we are beginning our opinion writing unit. First graders can be very opinionated :). This unit helps them develop their opinions and plan/write their reasons to support them! 

In Junior achievement, Ms. Amy taught the kiddos all about the difference between wants and needs. Although toys and candy might sometimes seem like needs, the first graders did a great job distinguishing the difference :)

On Thursday, we went to the second grade circus showcase! We got to see our second grade friends spin plates and balance feathers all thanks to Run for the Arts!

Reminders:
4/25 -- Vision/Hearing Screening
4/27 -- Humane Society Visit @ 10am 

Week 30

It was a busy week in Room 112!

The first graders have been working hard at reading and writing non-fiction books. They are becoming experts on topics and teaching others through their writing. In writing, they practiced organizing their books using the "table of contents" as a tool. They are reading like writers and writing like expert readers! 

During buddies this week, the first graders showed off their reading and writing skills and taught the fourth graders about the topics they have been studying! Afterwards, the fourth graders showed off what they have been studying... owl pellets! They got to see owl's prey, but in skeleton form :)

A HUGE thank you to Amy Tradewell (Keira's mom) for teaching Jr. Achievement! Her first lesson focused on family and community, and encouraged the first graders to think about all of the ways that families and neighborhoods work together. We have a pretty great Room 112 family :)

On Friday, we had our publishing party! The authors got to chew gum while they wrote and finished their non-fiction chapter books. Jack, our favorite four legged friend, also visited and was quite the captive audience :)


Reminders:
4/17 -- Progress reports go home
4/19 -- Spirit Day - Sports day!
4/22 -- Spring Clean up @ 8:30am-12pm


Here are some photos from the week...

Week 29

Here are some highlights from the first week back after spring break...

In math we started exploring fractions. The first graders did an amazing job dividing up their whole sandwiches (paper squares) into equal parts to share with friends. Next time you have sandwiches, pizza or cake with your kids ask them how you can cut it so that each person will get the same amount!


The first grade readers have been working hard on their non-fiction reading strategies. They have been practicing:

• Taking a sneak peek
• Stopping and studying each page
• Guessing what might come next
• Chatting about a page
• Making their voice smooth and lively 
• Finding & thinking about keywords. 

This week we discussed how expert readers mark pages so that they can pick out interesting information and share with other expert readers. They did an amazing job adding questions and comment post-it notes to their non-fiction books!

To honor the blossoming trees outside our classroom window, Mrs. O'Connor taught the first graders how to create their own tree blossoms using tissue paper! Now we get to enjoy blooming trees outside and inside our classroom :)

The week ended with a bang! There was a power outage at school, but the kiddos did an incredible job staying calm, cool and collected! It was business as usual in Room 112 and the first graders got to learn and play by natural light!

Reminders:

4/11 -- Book orders due! 

4/14 -- Mother/son kickball game @ 6:30pm

Here are some photos from the week...