I Think I Can, I Know I Can!

The theme, "I Think I Can" from the story of The Little Engine That Could was our focus this week as we recognized and encouraged one another to think of something that we know we can do with continued work and practice.  Students were challenged to think of something that they know that they will be able to accomplish with the words, "I Think I Can."  We have shared some of the thoughts from our first graders below.

"I think I can lift a baibee shep.  I think I can read 5 boocs in a niet." (ex. in phonetic spelling)

"I think I can catch a butterfly and I catch it with my hands or a net.  I think I can count to 100.  I think I can count by 2's to 5."

"I think I can be nice to my brother and make a friend and be kind to others."

"I think I can help animals like duck-billed platypuses."

"I think I can practice going across the monkey bars by myself."

"I think I can count past a hundred by myself."

As a conclusion to this fun story and writing activity, we put our chef hats on and got busy putting together an edible train!!  Check out the pictures of these yummy trains below.  Also, ask your chef the steps to creating your own train at home.

Literacy Time in 1st Grade!

As growing readers and writers in first grade, there are many different literacy components that students engage in during the reading/writing block of our day.  Our literacy time is based off of the Daily Five philosophy, which promotes choice and independence during reading and writing activities.  We believe this philosophy develops greater student engagement and meaningful reading/writing activities for the students.  Each day, the first grade students have the opportunity to choose between four categories that will promote what he/she is learning within the classroom.  These categories are Word Work, Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Listen to Reading.  Students work on 1 or 2 of these categories when they are not meeting in a small group.

Here is Daily Five in Action!

 Work on Writing

Read to Self

Listen to Reading

Word Work

Small Group Time

Good Fit Books

This week in first grade students have been practicing choosing good fit books! We have discussed the importance of finding a book that is just right for each reader. The strategy we are asking students to use to find their good fit books is called "I PICK". There are four questions which guide students in their book selection:

1. Why do I want to read it?
2. Does it interest me?
3. Am I understanding what I am reading?
4. Do I know most of the words? 

Each first grade student has several good fit books in his/her reading bag at school. These books will change continuously throughout the school year as our readers grow and develop. When your family visits the library, we would encourage you to ask the four questions above to guide their book selection. Having these good fit books readily available at school and at home will promote independent reading. We are excited to see so many young readers coming into first grade with some great reading skills and are even more excited to watch them develop into readers who love to read!

Students enjoyed spending time reading their good fit books each day this week!

We are officially in 1st Grade!

What a great first week we have had in the first grade classrooms!  We have had fun getting to know one another a little more and reconnecting with friends.  We have focused our work this last week around sharing about ourselves and what it looks like to a first grader.  Ask your child to share a favorite activity from this week with you!!  Have a great weekend!

2nd Grade...Here we come!

Wow...here we are at the end of the First Grade year!  Our time together has been a blast and it has been so much fun seeing all of the academic and social growth your little one has shown.  We would like to thank all of you for sharing your special child with us and supporting him/her during the First Grade.  Children are such a gift to be celebrated each day and each one's unique qualities made our classrooms a wonderful place to be.

As we close out the year, we also had a chance to go over the End of the Year awards at the Awards Assembly this morning. It was great to see all of the WE students' accomplishments over the year and recognize the 5th graders as they head off to Middle School.  Last, there was a special recognition time to honor our retiring Principal, Mr. Parrott, for his 12 years of service to the Mid-Prairie District.  A video was put together by the staff and students to send him off, letting him know how much he was appreciated!  Enjoy the video!  Evan's Retirement

May you have a wonderful summer! 
Mrs. Droll and Mrs. Hunter

China Trip

First and second grade students of Wellman Elementary boarded a plane following lunch Friday afternoon and headed to the beautiful country of China. While we were there, each travel group visited the China Star Restaurant, played Chinese jump rope and hacky sack, created their own dragons to take home as a souvenir, and did some ribbon and fan dancing. It was a great way to end our week of learning!

 

Swimming

Our first grade friends got in some extra physical activity this week with an afternoon trip to the Washington pool! Despite cool temperatures and a cloudy sky good times were shared by all!

Fossil Gorge

The first graders have been busy, busy this past week!  We kicked off the beginning of the week with our field trip to the Fossil Gorge on Monday.  The students enjoyed walking through the exhibit center, examining fossils at the Fossil Gorge, enjoying a picnic/playtime, and making a surprise stop for ice cream in North Liberty.  It was definitely a fun day!

Developmental Reading Assessments-DRA

As the school year comes to a close, we have begun our end of the year assessments with each child.  Throughout the year, we are continually monitoring and assessing your child's academic skills.  One specific assessment that we use is the Developmental Reading Assessment, also known as the DRA.  In our district, the DRA is administered to all elementary students twice a year; Fall and Spring.  As teachers, the DRA is just one tool that we use to see the overall reading development of our students in the areas of reading fluency and accuracy, making predictions using text features, retelling and interpreting the texts.  If you would like to know how your child did on this particular assessment, please feel free to contact us and we would be happy to visit with you about your child's end of the year reading skills.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Mother's Day Video

The first graders would love to wish their mothers a Happy Mother's Day to all of our special moms!  It was fun sharing about what we love about our moms this past week and reading some special Mother's Day books!  Here are some cute tidbits about the moms from Wellman Elementary!

"My mom is so smart, she even knows how to love me."

"Before my mom had kids she had to find a house."

"My mom is so smart, she even knows how to count by 100's."

"Before my mom had kids she was having fun."

"If I could give my mom anything, it would be to get her a hamster."

"My mom is the prettiest when she is at church."

"My mom is so smart, she even knows how to go mushroom hunting."

"If I could give my mom anything, it would be a nine-carat diamond."

"If I could give my mom anything, it would be a castle full of cherries."

"I know my mom loves me because she gives me kisses every night."

"My mom can do many things!  I think she is best at working with dogs."

"Before my mom had kids, she went bowling."

Have a wonderful Mother's Day!!

Froggy Fun!!

We have had a fun week studying about frogs and toads!  Arnold Lobel has been an author name that we have heard a lot throughout this week as we enjoyed the famed characters, Frog and Toad.  Looking at the life cycle of a frog and discovering new kinds of frogs in our world was another favorite part of this unit!  We wrapped up this study by making our frog hats and drinking 'froggy float'!

May Day!

On Wed., May 1st, all of the K-2 classes visited Parkview Nursing Home in Wellman.  Students prepared special May Day baskets filled with goodies for the Parkview residents.  We also enjoyed sharing some of our favorite songs!  It was a great way to spend our May Day!