Grinch Fun

Students enjoyed our thematic fun with activities from the story of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.  This is a great story that lent itself to lots of great conversation on many things that can be gifted without having to purchase it in a store to help warm someone's heart.  Some of the great examples students shared were spending time with someone, sharing a toy and making something special as a gift to give.  We challenged ourselves to exhibit random acts of kindness and also to recognize others showing kindness.  Last, in the classroom, we had fun brainstorming ways we could get the Grinch to grin as well!

 Here are some of the ways a First Grader could get the Grinch to grin:
*Make him a Christmas meal
*Sing him a song and act out a puppet show
*Give him a candy cane to eat
*Read him his favorite story
*Clean his house

 Grinch faces completed by First Graders!

Students worked hard to add a heart to the Grinch door as they noticed someone showing an act of kindness to another friend!

Herbert Hoover Field Trip

On Tuesday, December 10th, the first grade classes at Wellman Elementary traveled to West Branch to enjoy the Herbert Hoover museum's annual holiday display highlighting Christmas trees from the Heartland. Students enjoyed the wide variety of Iowa themed Christmas trees, but some of the favorites included a tree featuring the state universities, a Star Trek tree, and a tree featuring the Iowa State Fair. Our learners also enjoyed some winter stories featuring Laura Ingalls Wilder, a young pioneer girl.  Ask your first grader what tree he/she enjoyed the most!

 First Graders enjoying the story time!

 Christmas tree tour!

Having some fun in the Heartland!

 Thank you Herbert Hoover Museum for the experience 

of seeing beautifully decorated Christmas trees!

Healthy Eating in Science!

We have spent a little more than two weeks in science discussing healthy eating habits. Students have enjoyed learning about balanced eating from their friend Moby on Brainpop! Students were challenged to create their own healthy and balanced meals. Encourage your child to plan a meal or two this month and see how he/she can incorporate the different food groups! After discussing the food pyramid, students had an opportunity to work together to create their own posters displaying foods from all 6 food groups. 

Native American Games

Pam Holz, our Washington County Conservationist visited our classroom yesterday to show students that you can have lots of fun without much equipment during the Thanksgiving season.  Students enjoyed playing 3 different Native American games: Shoulder Wrestle, Pebble Drop and One Pebble Game.  Students were challenged in their strength, patience, and cleverness to win these games.  These fun games tied in well with our Social Studies work as first graders have been learning about the First Thanksgiving and how young pilgrim and Native American boys and girls were creative in making up games.

Pam showing the students how to play Pebble Drop!

First Graders trying to 'trick' their partners with the One Pebble game!

 

Students using the upper body strength for Shoulder Wrestle!

Authors at Work!

Over the course of this school year, we have been encouraging writing through the use of free write journals during work on writing as a center. We also plan weekly mini lessons focused on writing in our classrooms.  This week, students had their first experiences with one-on-one writing conferences. We were excited to hear all of our students' ideas and see the growth they have made in their writing already! 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 the writing traits of: ideas, organization, and conventions. We will be teaching the traits of voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and presentation throughout the remainder of the school year.

Short definitions of the writing traits 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)

We are moving towards publishing a new piece of writing to be posted on KidBlog when they are complete. We will let you know when these pieces are posted on the blog!

Veteran's Day!

During our work in Social Studies this week, the students have had the opportunity to learn more about the national holiday of Veteran's Day.  We discussed the importance of our military and how soldiers help our country every day.  We also enjoyed the story, Saluting Grandpa (an explanation of the Honor Flights).  Students then brainstormed describing words for soldiers (e.g. protector, brave, strong, caring, amazing, nice, helpful).  Our school-wide morning assembly also allowed us the opportunity to see and hear about military artifacts.  Thank you again to the American Legion Veterans who came to share about this honoring day and a big thank you to our Veterans worldwide!

Happy Halloween!

Hoping your Halloween was full of more 'treats' than 'tricks'!  Thank you again to the first grade families for sending in paper products and goodies for this special day!!

50th Day

Wow....what a great celebration our 50th Day was in 1st grade!  Students were dressed to 'twist and shout' their way through the day and it was great fun to see everyone is their special attire!  Our morning started with 1st graders in awe of a 1950's video showing what school life was like many years ago.  Students also enjoyed hearing from a special guest speaker, Charlotte Morgan, who shared what life was like growing up in the 50's.  First Graders then challenged themselves to different 50's activities such as; how many bubbles they could blow, how many 'twists' twisted, how many bunny hops hopped, how many times they could hula hoop and how high they could count!  The young ladies and gents then put their writing skills to work as they sequenced the steps to making your own rootbeer float.  During math, students worked hard estimating how many tootsie rolls/fireballs would fit their 'records'.  Last, this fun day came to a close with music from the 50's, complete with a record player to play some of the oldies!

Charlotte sharing pictures and insight from the 1950's!

Bunny hopping, hula hooping, and bubble blowing action in 50 seconds!

Estimation and measurement skills hard at work!

A Step Back Into Time for the 1A Friends!

The 1B Class Enjoyed the Day in 50s style!

Mrs. Droll sharing music with the record player.

21st Century Learning with Mr. Slabaugh!

    Over the last week, the first graders have been uniquely working on publishing their pumpkin stories with Mr. Slabaugh. We are excited to share that these fall stories may be accessed under your classroom's KidBlog link!  Once in your classroom's KidBlog, you will be able to hear your child reading his/her own story!
    For families who may not know, Mr. Slabaugh is the Mid-Prairie Elementary Learning Design Coach.  As the Learning Design Coach, Mr. Slabaugh works hard to find innovative ways to meet the needs of our 21st Century learners.   He works closely with our Mid-Prairie Elementary teachers to integrate strategies and activities that will move our students forward.  He believes in providing purposeful, engaging learning through the use of technology as well.  We thank Mr. Slabaugh for his continued support with our students! 

Mr. Slabaugh explaining the purpose and steps with our activity.

21st Century Learning in action!

Pam Holz

Pam describes the characteristics of the critters students will be hunting and explains that good hunters must always eat their catch!

 On the hunt for prey!

 The spoils of the days hunt. Sadly, the predators have hunted their prey to extinction.

Last Friday, October 11, Pam Holz, our Washington County Conservationist, paid a visit to our first grade classrooms. Pam visits our classrooms several times throughout the year and provides her expertise and understanding about the great outdoors to enhance our learning in the areas of science and social studies. Last week, our first graders had an opportunity to take on the role of predators and quickly learned the harmful affects of abusing your natural resources. Pam has also helped us to expand our learning about trees this year. (Ask your child if he/she can name the parts of the tree!) Students always enjoy having Pam as a visitor and the hands on learning activities she prepares for us! Thanks Pam!!

Thank You Mrs. Danielson!

Yesterday we were sad to say goodbye to our student teacher in the 1A classroom, Mrs. Danielson.  The first graders put together a special book with advice on what to do as a teacher and what not to do as a teacher.  The students of 1A also presented her with a fingerprint canvas.  Mrs. Danielson was a great addition to our 1st grade family over these past 8 weeks and we wish her the best as she continues the last weeks of her student teaching in Washington.

Fire Prevention Week!

1st grade kicked off Fire Prevention Week with a visit from our Wellman Firefighters, Jeremy Peck and Jared Kinsinger.  It was a lot of fun to see the firefighters in uniform, examine the different capabilities of the fire truck, and have an opportunity to visit with our firemen about being safe.  Students were challenged from our local firefighters to visit with their family about their escape plan at their home, including designating a safe meeting spot for your family.  Thank you again to our great community helpers, the Wellman Volunteer Firefighters!

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!