Day 100!

Well, we are officially 100 days smarter in first grade!  We had a blast celebrating this day with everything the 100 way on Wednesday!  It was awesome to see the 'young spirit' of the age 100 shine through in the awesome costumes.  We made sure we were fashionably dressed on this day, constructing headbands, badges, and glasses to wear.  Putting our counting skills to the test, we worked in small groups to count to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's.  We then challenged ourselves to have some fun with movement activities to 100 (not too challenging for our 100 age;)  and putting together a necklace of 100 Froot Loops.  Last, the students enjoyed the classic commercial of 'How Many Licks to the Center of the Tootsie Pop?'  Since we are an inquisitive bunch, we thought we would give it a try with at least 100 licks!  Ask your child how many licks it took for him/her!  We also enjoyed a 100 snack and received our certificates of achievement for our hard work in first grade so far to date!

The 1A Counting by 1's Group!

 1B Friends Counting by 1's!
  

 The 1A Counting by 10's Group!

1B Friends Counting by 10's!

The 1A Counting by 2's Group!

1B Friends Counting by 2's!

The 1A Counting by 5's Group! 

1B Friends Counting by 5's!

Here is 1A all adorned in their Day 100 homemade attire!

 

1B All Geared Up for 100 Fun!

Stringing 100 Froot Loops and not eating them, yet;)

 

 Oh my....100 can make us grumpy!

How many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

 YIKES.....our teachers.....100 and counting!

Explorations with Balls

Our first grade scientists have recently begun exploring how different balls move when they are blown on, rolled, and bounced. Students were challenged to move or knock over different items using a straw paired with their own wind power and a variety of balls.

We will continue our learning with balls over the next several weeks, and expand our explorations to include ramp building! Students love this fun, hands on science unit and it provides great early encounters with physical science! 

We are One and the Same!

This week in Social Studies, we enjoyed learning more about the historical figure, Martin Luther King Jr.  Students were introduced to his life as a young boy and adult and how his courage to speak up helped changed many things for our country.  Some of the 'big' words that we discussed were segregation, racism and courage.  First Graders were very involved in our classroom discussions as we centered much of our great conversations on how there are differences amongst us, but more similarities between us.  Here are some of the great ideas of similarities that were brainstormed:

WE ALL:

-want to be loved

-need air

-can be a friend

-want to help

-have feelings

-are special

-have a heart

Students showcased their idea through a self-portrait of themselves, visually portraying our uniqueness, but how we are united.  Ask your child to share his/her idea with you!

Little Bird Tales

As we develop our writing skills in First Grade, students have been introduced a little more to Writer's Workshop and how to work as editors.  Students were challenged to add details to their stories and check for punctuation/capitalization errors, as well as focus on spelling the word wall words correctly.  With the help of our Literacy Design Coach, Mr. Slabaugh, students were able to publish their writings with an online program called Little Bird Tales.  This fun publishing tool allows students to type, illustrate and record them reading their stories to you!!  You will find these great writings under your child's blog in the 1A or 1B Kidblog Link above.  Please feel free to post a comment to your child and show off their hard work to family members or friends who may also want to leave some words of encouragement.  They love the feedback!!!