Zero the Hero

During our first 100 days of school, we will be counting each zero day until we reach 100!  In First Grade, we have a special helper named Zero the Hero who shows up for each of our school days that end in a zero.  The students enjoy reading a special letter from him and enjoying a tasty 'zero' treat.  It is hard to believe that we have already been working and learning for 33 days together!  We are looking forward to the continued fun ahead!

He always has a special note to share with us!

Clifford the Big Red Dog

During this week, we enjoyed learning how to be a good friend from the famous dog, Clifford.  Students were challenged to find ways to describe Clifford and also show good manners as Clifford would display to others through the fun play of charades.  After reading Clifford's Birthday Party, students were challenged to write about one gift they would get Clifford and explain why they chose that gift.  Last, we finished our thematic Clifford fun with our own birthday party for Clifford, complete with party hats and cookies.  Check out the pictures below showing off the great cookie cutouts!

Apple Fun!

Over this past week, the first graders have been enjoying many nonfiction books regarding apples and the life cycle of an apple tree.  Student have also discussed the many uses of apples and how they are harvested to provide many yummy foods for us.  Our trip to Wilson's Apple Orchard on Tuesday was definitely a highlight of this unit!  Students enjoyed a tractor ride through the orchard thanks to 'Bessie' the tractor and sampling different varieties of apples.  Ask your child what fact he/she learned about apples from this special trip.  Last, we enjoyed 'cooking' up a tasty apple treat in the classroom with our apples from the apple orchard.  Our 1st grade chefs cooked up apple sandwiches using sunbutter (sunflower spread), granola, chocolate chips and apples.  What a yummy end to our apple fun!

Thank you Wilson's Apple Orchard for providing a lunch shelter out of the rain!

A beautiful view with a good lookin' set of First Graders!

Dot Day at WE!

On Monday, Sept. 16th, we enjoyed activities that went along with the story, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.  Within the classrooms, students discussed how their uniqueness and special qualities can impact our world, as the book's motto is "Make your mark, see where it takes you."  Many different activities centered around 'dots' were encouraged throughout our day.  In first grade, we took some time to decorate large dots with markers and giving them a finishing look with a spritz of water.  Our day concluded with our PreK-5th friendship group time together decorating bracelets and creating a special dot poster.

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!