Dental Fun!

We have been discussing helpful tips to keep our teeth healthy during Science over the past couple of weeks! We were grateful to have a tooth expert visit our classroom this week! Dr. Teri Downes visited with the first grade classrooms, and quizzed the students on their knowledge of teeth and dental hygiene. A big thanks to Dr. Downes for taking time out of her busy schedule to encourage healthy habits in our little ones!  

Dr. Seuss Reading Week!

What a week of reading fun we had in first grade!!  We had fun first decorating our classroom doors, set to the theme of "Grab Your Hat and Read with the Hat."  We then started our week out with some cooking fun as we mixed up green eggs and ham on Monday afternoon, while also hearing this favorite Dr. Seuss story.  We then created a Horton glyph after hearing Horton Hears a Who!  These glyphs (a visual representation of information) turned out terrific and can be admired in the lower end hallway at school.  We also enjoyed wearing those comfy pajamas to school yesterday as we had an opportunity to spread out, read and feed on a yummy popcorn treat!  Our week ended with cupcake decorating and feasting today in the library.  Thank you to the Wellman PTO for providing the school with cupcakes for this fun event.  Ask your child what his/her favorite activity was during this week!

Spaghetti Fun!

Last week we enjoyed reading the well known Tomie de Paula story of Strega Nona.   In this special story, Strega Nona owns a magic pot that does all of the cooking for her when she says her magic words.  A character by the name of Big Anthony tries to run the big pot, but ends up with a tremendous amount of spaghetti to eat!  We then challenged the students to write about their own magic pot and what it would cook up.  It was fun to read through the different foods these pots would give them!  We then finished our spaghetti unit eating spaghetti of course!

Penguin Writing

We had a fun time writing silly stories or nonfiction writings about penguins!  Students did a wonderful job and used the Little Bird Tales website to publish these great writings.  A big thank you to one of our District Learning Design Coaches, Mr. Slabaugh.  He visited both first grade classrooms to introduce us to this great publishing website.  You will find your child's special story under his/her name on the 1A or 1B classroom page.  Happy Reading!

Writing as a First Grader

Over the course of this school year, we have been encouraging writing through the use of free write journals and small mini lessons in our classroom.  Our writing this year has focused around the philosophy of 6 + 1 Traits for Writing.  Through a lot of discussion and modeling, we have elaborated on the traits that you would find in pieces of good writing.  We have slowly covered one trait of writing at a time, so students can use the information received and then practice this trait with their story writing.

The following trait areas we are focusing on with our first graders are listed below:

Ideas (the meaning and development of the message)
Organization (the structure of the piece)
Voice (the tone of the piece-the personal stamp the writer leaves)
Word Choice (the vocabulary a writer chooses to use to make the piece interesting)
Sentence Fluency (how words and phrases flow together)
Conventions (the correct usage of grammar)
Presentation (the overall appearance of the work)

Next week we will be publishing a piece of penguin writing!  We will let you know when these pieces are posted on the blog!

Balls & Ramps

For about the past month, our first grade scientists have been exploring how different balls move when they are rolled, bounced, and thrown. They have had opportunities to put their new understanding of balls to the test while creating their own balls. This past week, we challenged students to create their own ramps and pathways to further explore the movement of balls. 

Here is a fun and easy activity you can do at home to help support your child's learning in the classroom!

Go on a tour of your neighborhood and try to find different ramps in the area. Ask your child how these ramps help different people. If you are able to capture a photo of any ramps, we would love to share these during science! Happy hunting!

Day 100

Well, we are officially 100 days smarter in first grade!  We had a blast celebrating this day with everything the 100 way yesterday!  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 and putting together a necklace of 100 Froot Loops.  We also enjoyed a 100 snack and received our certificates of achievement for our hard work in first grade so far to date!

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.