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: Wood Gatherers, Pebble Drop and One Pebble Game.  Students were challenged in their 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.

Students playing pebble drop-it is definitely harder than it looks!:)

Pam working with a student on One Pebble Game!

The Wood Gatherer game!

First Graders worked hard to try and capture the firewood!

A student being sneaky!

Veteran's Day

Students were enlightened on the holiday of Veteran's Day and what it means to each American in our country this past Tuesday.   During our Veteran's Day assembly, students learned more about the history of this day, the branches of the American services and enjoyed seeing the attire used by soldiers.  A big thank you goes out to the Washington County American Legion and Charles Singleman, who addressed the Wellman Elementary students and shared more about this day.  We finished our day together meeting in our Friendship Groups and writing thank you letters to Veterans who are hospitalized in the VA Hospital in Iowa City.  Thank you to the men and women who have and continue to protect our freedom!

 American Legion Veterans

 American Legion Veterans explaining the history of the flag.

 A demonstration of how to properly fold the flag.

 Charles Singleman shared about different equipment pieces a soldier must use.  Students found it very interesting that a pair of socks was the most important piece of equipment for a soldier.

Andy Blauvelt, a Gulf War Veteran, stopped by to visit with the first graders about his experiences as a soldier. 

Measuring in Math

This week first graders have spent several days working on their measuring skills. In one of our lessons, students measured objects around the classroom using nonstandard units, including digits (finger widths), hands, fathoms (arm spans), and hand spans. One of our discoveries was that we got different measurements for the same object if different people do the measuring using these units. We then introduced standard units, including feet and inches.

50th Day Fun!

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, Carol O'Rourke (Brock's grandmother), 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 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!

 Carol O'Rourke with proud grandson, Brock Fisher

How many bubbles can we blow in 50 seconds?

How many bunny hops can you do in 50 seconds?

We enjoyed writing the steps to make a root beer float!

How refreshing the root beer float is!:)

First Graders worked hard at putting their estimating skills to the test!

Working in our 50th math books counting everything the 50th way!

 

We had some expert hula hoopers in the crowd!

 

 Mrs. Droll sharing the sound of a record player!

1B is all smiles...and a little tired at the end of our 50th day!

The 1A Friends taking a 'step back in time'!

Science and Air Explorations

Our first grade meteorologists have been LOVING our new science kit, Air and Weather! This week we had an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather outdoors as we used bubbles to explore wind strength and direction. Last week, during our science time together, we focused on air pressure and compression. We wrapped up this study with a truly engaging activity this week-Balloon Rockets! Our focus question was presented to students-"How can you use compressed air to make a balloon rocket?"Groups were given fishing line, a ziplock bag, a straw, tape, a balloon and an air pump. It was great to watch problem solving and cooperation in action. What a fun learning activity!

Daily Five Literacy Time

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 five categories that will promote what he/she is learning within the classroom.  These categories are Word Work, Read to Self, Work on Writing, Read to Someone and Listen to Reading.  Students work on 3 of these categories when they are not meeting in a small group.

Here is Daily Five in Action!

Students working in small guided reading groups!

Listen to Reading is offered through iPods, iPads and our laptops!

Students enjoying read to self time!

Work on Writing in progress!

Word Work can be a wide assortment of 'word tools' to build words as a 1st grader!

Read to Someone is definitely a 1st grade favorite!

A Visit From Clifford!

 Big hugs to our furry friend!

  First Graders enjoying some funny riddles with Clifford!!

 Smiling faces of joy with this furry friend!

 Clifford stopping by the WE office to make sure all is running well!:)

It was a VERY exciting afternoon yesterday as the first graders received a special visit from our furry, caring friend Clifford!!  We enjoyed some of Clifford's favorite riddles and a story about his best friend, Emily Elizabeth!  Last, Clifford left us a healthy red snack of strawberry applesauce to enjoy!

Guidance Time with Mrs. Bender!

Some of you may not know our new Guidance Counselor to WE, Mrs. Bender!  (Yes...she is the other half of Mr. Bender, our PE teacher:)  Leanne Bender, our guidance counselor will be leading half-hour guidance lessons in the first grade classrooms. She will be in the first grade classrooms for a total of 18 weeks during our school year.  Over the coming weeks, Mrs. Bender will focus her lessons on skills that will promote an understanding for one another's feelings and and how to communicate effectively.  Mrs. Bender also brought along her pal, Carmen the Cat, who is pictured above and the students made 'me' puppets to show their special qualities.  Guidance is a great opportunity for students to learn new strategies for solving problems peacefully and making healthy choices. 

NED Assembly

Thursday morning, the students of Wellman Elementary enjoyed an assembly with a great message! A cartoon character named Ned and several awesome yo-yo tricks helped to entertain and lead us in our character building. NED is an acronym which stands for

Never give up!

Encourage others!

Do your best!

For more information on the NED show check out their website!

http://www.thenedshow.com/