Grandparent's Day

Thanks again to all of our special visitors for making Grandparent's Day an extra special day! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Here are visitors in the 1A classroom:

Here are the visitors in the 1B classroom:

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.