Pam's Visit with the Water Cycle

The first graders truly look forward to our visits from Washington County Conservationist, Pam Holz.  Pam does a great job of not only sharing her enthusiasm for our natural environments, but helping our students learn about our beautiful world.  This past week, students were introduced to our Earth's water cycle and the unending cyclic process it goes through.  Students visited different stations that represented landforms/clouds and built a bracelet the represented all of the areas the water traveled to through the cycle.  We are looking forward to Pam visiting with us more during the school year!

Thanks Pam for all that you do!!

Pies in the Face!!

As we continue to recognize students displaying the three qualities of a person of character; respectfulness, responsibility and being safe, we are celebrating each Friday with a short assembly!  During these assemblies, students from each grade level are being honored for demonstrating these characteristics.  Mr. Poock has definitely motivated students to work hard at being aware of their Golden Hawk character by being willing to have pies thrown in his face!  Today he received 3 pies in his face!  Ask your 1st grader about this fun observation of Mr. Poock!!

Clifford-The Big Red Dog

We have thoroughly enjoyed a week of activities centered around the famous character of Clifford.  Clifford is truly a lovable favorite as he always is carrying out good deeds and is a great friend to others.  We helped Clifford celebrate his birthday, which was September 5th, by making 'doggy party hats' and chewing up some sugary 'dog bones'!  Ask your child what his/her favorite Clifford story was for the week! 

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.  We have already been working and learning for 12 days together!  We are looking forward to the continued fun ahead!

He always has a special note to share with us! 

Magnificent Firsties!

We have enjoyed many read alouds during this first full week of school! One of our favorites was The One, The Only Magnificent Me! written by Dan Haseltine. The small boy in this story discovers the importance of being true to himself. After reading this story, our firsties had a short discussion about our unique qualities and the value in these differences. Lastly, we put our fine motor and listening skills to the test and put together large paper people resembling ourselves! If you happen to visit the building over the next few weeks be sure to check out these awesome creations displayed in the hallway. 

Official First Graders!!

Wow...what a fun first three days we have had together already!  We are getting to know one another more and will continue to do so in the weeks ahead!  We also have discussed how we demonstrate that we are a person of character and how this looks and sounds at Wellman Elementary!  As we also enjoyed a 'Friendship Salad' which included yummy ingredients that reminded us of being a respectful, responsible and safe first grader.  The first graders did great 'cooking' up this salad and then we enjoyed eating together!

Swimming Fun!

First grade has experienced a whirlwind of a week! We started with a school trip to the Kalona pool. Although we started the morning with a cloudy sky, a great time was had by all and the sun decided to peek out mid swim!

Fossil Gorge Field Trip

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!

Track and Field Day!

It has been many years since WE has hosted a Track and Field Day!  There was a large interest amongst staff to host a 2014 Track and Field Day and it definitely was a huge success!!  1st Graders had the opportunity to work through a gunny sack race station, sponge bucket filling station and a 'move it' station filled with hula hoops, jump rumps and frisbees.  We then had an 'A' versus 'B' grade level tug-a-war!!!  Ask your first grader if 1A or 1B was the winner!  The staff also challenged each other in a 3-legged gunny sack race.

Trip to Australia

The First and Second Graders headed to Australia on Friday afternoon and had a ripper (great) of a time on this trip!!  We had a bonzar (terrific) time as we played games, heard music from a didgeridoo, created our own aboriginal artwork  and had some yummy tucker (food) from this beautiful continent/country.  Ask your little traveler what his/her favorite part of the Australian tour was!  A big thank you to the many hands that helped prepare for this special day!  This day would not be possible without all of the help from parents!

 On the way to Australia receiving instructions from our flight attendant.

An aboriginal story from Australia being shared.

Enjoying some 'damper' from Australia.  

 Creating stories with our own aboriginal inspired artwork!

Moving and Grooving to the tunes of the didgeridoo!

An Australian game being enjoyed!!

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 

We would like to take the time to wish all of the first grade moms a very Happy Mother's Day!  We are hoping you enjoy your day/weekend with your little one(s) and maybe get some quiet time of your very own!  Please enjoy the special song that the 1st graders have shared with you for this special day by clicking on the link above.  Also in preparation for this special day, the 1st graders enjoyed writing special thoughts about their moms.  Here are some of those great examples...

"Before my mom had kids, she ate better food."

"My mom is so smart!  She even knows how to do 7 x 84 x1000 x 1000!"

"Before my mom had kids, she had a white car."

"My mom is prettiest when she is just being herself."

"If I could give my mom anything in the world, it would be a Barbie."

"My mom is so smart!  She even knows how to ride her bike!"

"Before my mom had kids, she was looking for a husband."

"My mom is special because she is sweet."

"Before my mom had kids, she didn't have to deal with me crying."

Opinions to Share!

As we have shared over the last couple of weeks, the 1st graders were newly introduced to a new genre of writing when we 'dove' into opinion writing.  Students did an amazing job of challenging their thought processes as they shared their supporting rationales for others to ponder.  Your child has published his/her piece of writing on our KidBlog site!  Just hit the 1A/1B blog at the top of this page and you can find your child's name.  Enjoy reading through these awesome pieces of writing and leave a comment for your little one!!