Live Healthy Iowa Initatitive

This next week, our school district will be kicking off our start to the Live Healthy Iowa Initiative.  Our district is excited to help promote healthy living along with learning.  This initiative will kick off Mon., Jan. 28th and will end on April 5th.  With this program, we are asked to monitor our physical activity and eating, so that we may further our healthy habits.  Within our classrooms, we will be taking a few minutes each day to 'move' our bodies for a little extra exercise.  As we will be making more of an effort to 'get moving', we will be holding 'Movin' Mondays'.  Students are asked to come to school in their comfy gear and we will participate together in a fun movement activity!  With this program, we are also asked to keep track of our student's moving minutes and healthy eating.  In the first grade rooms, we will be recording the students' physical minutes such as recess, p.e., and any other movement activities in our day.  There will be a sheet sent home with each child for the next week.  If your child eats a fruit with breakfast/dinner, please mark how many fruits were eaten.  We also ask that you mark how many minutes your child was active such as outside playing, 'moving to the Wii', or participating in an outside sport.  We understand that this daily piece of paper may be hard to remember as we work through this program.  We thank you in advance for helping us with this and we move towards healthier living!

Friendship Groups

We had a great time seeing our friends this afternoon.  In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, our Friendship Group time focused around how each one of us is special to the world.  Students enjoyed discussing and sharing how our individual qualities help to make the world a better place.  Pictured below is the craft each student completed in his/her group.  The students were able to color and then write on this craft how he/she is special to the world.

Day 100 Fun!

Today marked our 93rd day of First Grade! Time has flown and our students are making great strides in their learning. We have begun preparations for our 100th day celebration in our classrooms. This week students created dalmations sporting 100 spots to help us decorate for this special occasion. We have also begun to work our way through our Day 100 packets. We began writing 100 words and some of our students have moved into practicing their 100 numbers. We have many fun learning activities planned for the 100th day of school!  Barring any snow days, we will be celebrating this special day on Wed., Jan. 30th.  If you already haven't been filled in by your first grader about our special friend, Zero the Hero, please check with your child about this zero counting hero!  Each '0' day of school, Zero the Hero has dropped in with a special note and zero treat to share with the first graders!  He will make his last appearance in 7 days when we hit 100!

Guidance

This week brought a friendly and familiar face into the first grade classrooms! For the next ten weeks, Nora Kehoe, our guidance counselor will be leading half hour guidance lessons in the first grade classrooms. Topics covered will include: feelings, friendship, problem solving, and safety. Mrs. Kehoe also brought along her pal, Carmen the Cat, who is pictured above with Mrs. Kehoe. Guidance is a great opportunity for students to learn new strategies for solving problems peacefully and making healthy choices.   

Jan Brett Author Study

As we get back into the swing of things after our nice break, we have been enjoying many of the books of the famous author, Jan Brett. Students were intrigued by a video featuring Jan Brett and how she illustrates one of her famous book characters, the Gingerbread Baby. As a first grade group, students then brainstormed a list of questions they wanted to find out about Jan Brett. Working together in partners, the students used a custom search engine on our blog to help them seek the answers to their questions.

The following questions were researched:
 How many books did she make?
 Why is she an author and illustrator? 
 How did she learn to paint?
 What other characters is she good at painting?
 How does she think of a story?

Ask your child if they discovered an answer to their question! We also enjoyed watercolor painting a pair of mittens. These mittens will be used to help us retell the story of Jan Brett's book, The Mitten, along with cutout animals from the story.

Please use the search engine below to find your Jan Brett information.