Field Trip Fun

We truly enjoyed ourselves Tuesday afternoon after we had the opportunity to tour through beautifully decorated Christmas trees that centered around a 'Cowboy Christmas' at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum.  We also enjoyed a story about a cowboy gingerbread and decorated a snowman in his cowboy gear!  Hopefully your child shared about his/her favorite part from the trip!

Herber Hoover Museum Field Trip

On Tues., Dec. 14th, both first grade classes will be visiting the Herber Hoover Museum in West Branch, Iowa.  During this special visit, students will have the opportunity to see beautifully decorated Christmas trees themed around a  'Cowboy Christmas'.  Your child does not need to bring anything for this special trip.  We will be leaving school at noon (after lunch) and returning around 2:45 p.m.

Social Studies Learning!

In first grade, Mrs. Hunter teaches the Soc. Studies to the first graders at separate times three times a week.  Some of the Big Ideas we have focused on are:
*We can be safe and responsible (bus, home, school).
*We are all part of a community and celebrate different customs (schools and neighborhoods).
*We have wants and needs.

This past quarter, we have been keeping busy focusing some of our work on the current happenings in the world.  We focused a lot of our learning time around the topic of citizenship and how people in our country practice their civic right of voting.  We learned about the role of the president and why an individual may run for this position. Students had their own idea of why they would be president as well.  Here are some of their ideas:

If I Were President....

*I would go to lots of meetings.
*I would fix the world.
*I would live in a big house.
*I would help people.
*I would make gas prices lower.
*I would make lots of animals.

(Love these statements from the mouths of 1st graders!)

Over the month of December our big idea will be 'Holidays Around the World' and focusing on  how the countries of Holland, Sweden and Germany celebrate 'Christmas'. We will also learn about the holiday of Hanukkah.

Scientists at Work!

Greetings from our first grade scientists!

Following are a few important bits of information for families regarding our science learning, directly from the mouths of first graders;) 

"Scientists are important because they find out things."
"In science we learn experiments."
"The best part of science is always thinking."
"The best part of science is finding new stuff."
"The best part of science is when we have Pam over."

In first grade, Mrs. Droll leads science for both 1A and 1B at separate times, three times weekly. So far this year we have explored the following Big Ideas:

• Trees have many important parts.
• There are parts of soil.

This week we wrapped up a health and wellness unit focusing on germs and proper handwashing. We are looking forward to starting a new unit, Balls and Ramps next week! For this unit, we will be collecting a few items from home. If you have any of the following items lying around the house we would love to take them off your hands!

• empty wrapping paper tubes
• aluminum foil
• rubber bands
• newspapers

Grandparent's Day

It was a fun filled day with our special guests here!  First graders shared a Thanksgiving poem as well as a Grandparent's song with our visitors.  As a class, students shared what he/she was thankful for and then worked with his/her visitor to assemble a thankful turkey.  In the season of gratitude we would like to express our thanks for sharing your special child with us each day.  May have you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Math Skills

Over this next quarter students will be working hard on the following math concepts:
* Counting combinations of pennies and nickels
* Exchanging pennies for nickels
* Telling time to the hour and half-hour
* Ordering and comparing numbers
* Counting up and back on the number grid to 100
* Solving +/- problems using the number line/grid

Within the classroom, students' skills are being reinforced through playing games with partners or in small groups.  There are also many great iPad apps that we are using to allow for an interactive way to strengthen our skills.  Thank you for working alongside your child with his/her weekly math homework!

 Playing a first quarter game, Number Line Squeeze, as a whole class. (This is similar to Monster Squeeze, which students played in kindergarten!) This game provides opportunities for students to develop their number sense, including more or less.

Over the past two weeks, our young mathematicians have been challenged to add, subtract and skip count on their number grids, number lines, and with calculators. *A simple calculator would be a great stocking stuffer for the upcoming holiday season! Students love working and exploring with these tools.

50th Day!!

Well, we must say that our 50th Day celebration is definitely going to be one of our highlights from the first grade year.   We had a great looking bunch as many of the students showed up in their 50's attire! Our morning began with a special speaker, Charlotte Morgan, who shared about what life was like as a child growing up in the 1950's.  Students were also intrigued about the school life of a child in the 1950's as they were able to watch an old movie recorded in a school setting during this time.  We then challenged ourselves to see how many twists, hula hooping, bubble gum blowing and bunny hops we could do in 50 seconds.  After looking at some records on the record player, students put their math skills to work estimating how many fireballs/tootsie rolls it would take to fit around and inside different sized records.  Last, students wrote directions to prepare a rootbeer float and of course then made their own to enjoy!  Also, check with your child to see if he/she can do the 'hand jive' for you!

Halloween!

Our Halloween parties were a great success thanks to the many wonderful donations of goodies for the classrooms to enjoy.  Thank you again to the families of the Halloween committees for helping make this day extra tasty!  We also enjoyed seeing all of our Wellman Elementary friends as we paraded through the classrooms.

Persuasive Writing

Our students did an awesome job this past week discussing the word persuasion.  As a class, we chose a topic that was near and dear to our hearts....recess!!  Students decided they needed to convince Mr. Parrott that an extra recess in our school day would be beneficial to them.  Each class, together, wrote a very convincing letter to Mr. Parrott, and he agreed to give each first grade one extra recess for one day.  This was definitely a highlight to the friends of 1A and 1B!  We hope you enjoy their convincing letters!

Dear Mr. Parrott,

    We would like an extra recess.  We will get more exercise in the day.  It will give us energy to get stronger and smarter.  The exercise will keep us healthy at school and the sun will give us vitamins.  Our playtime helps us be nice to each other!  Thank you!

                                                                                                        Love,

                                                                                                        1A Friends

Dear Mr. Parrott,

     Could we please have an extra recess?  An extra recess would give us exercise and make us healthier.  This week is sunny, so we would like an extra recess before winter.  Thank you for reading our letter.

                                                                                                       Love, 

                                                                                                       1B Friends

Reading Skills

The end of the first quarter is upon us and our first graders have made great growth in their reading skills! At this point in the school year, we have reviewed all the short vowel sounds students were introduced to in kindergarten. Your child should now be easily sounding and blending three letter words with a vowel in the middle (cat, rug, van, etc.) In addition to phonics skills, we have also been working on boosting students' reading comprehension. Great readers need to understand and make sense out of what they read. Following are the comprehension strategies students have been introduced to already this year.

• Sequencing
• Making Predictions
• Summarizing
• Compare and Contrast
• Cause and Effect
• Noting Details
• Questioning
• Fantasy vs. Realism
• Story Structure
• Topic and Main Idea
• Categorizing and Classifying

These skills have been taught and reinforced through a variety of literacy activities in the classroom. Whole group reading instruction allows for new concepts to be introduced to students. Guided reading in small groups and independent work during centers provide students time for practice new skills! All three settings are a part of our daily reading instruction. 

Math in First Grade!

Over the past week in math, students have been working hard continuing visual patterns, skip counting on a number grid/line and working with numbers that come before and after.  Students are seen working on a fun card game called Before-and-After.  In this game, students are challenged to get rid of all of their cards by playing a number that comes before/after on the stacked number card.  Last, with the help of a little candy corn, we solved number sentences to sums of 10.

Important Papers!!

Your child's Friday Folder will be bursting with papers when they arrive home this afternoon! Here is a quick explanation of some of the information coming home with your student today.

Conference Slips-Please be sure to fill out and return the bottom of the this tan paper to help schedule our upcoming parent-teacher conferences!

Spelling-Your child should be bringing home their spelling test from today, as well as a new list for next week.

50th Day-We are very excited to be celebrating this special day in first grade this year! Please read through the paper to get an idea of how you can help your child to participate in this fun filled day!

Homework-Math homework looks a little different this week! There are two pages stapled together and both need to be completed and returned to school on Monday. One page is practice on your home address and the other page provides review with even and odd numbers.

Curriculum Night Papers-Families who were unable to attend last night's curriculum night will find several papers outlining some first grade expectations. Please be sure to let Mrs. Hunter or Mrs. Droll know if you have any questions about these papers!  

Fire Safety Week

During our Fire Prevention Week, students worked hard learning fire safety tips, practicing Stop, Drop and roll and enjoying a visit from firefighter, Kenny.  The week's highlight was definitely our visit from Kenny, along with one of the Wellman Fire Department firetrucks.  Our first grade students were super excited as they worked hard on helping Kenny shoot water from the firehose.

Spirit Week!

First grade friends at Wellman Elementary had a blast showing off their school spirit this past week in honor of homecoming! Pictured above is the whole Wellman Elementary first grade crew showing off their black and gold!

1B on tie-dye day

1A on hat day