Polygons and 3D Shapes

First graders were immersed with geometry this past week as they were introduced to polygons and 3D shapes!  First, students learned three very important rules about polygons; (1) they must have straight lines, they must meet at a closed corner and (3) they can never cross.  After some creative work with polygons, students were then introduced to the following 3D shapes; cylinder, cube, rectangular prism, pyramid, cone and a sphere.  It was definitely all 'hands on deck' as students worked hard to build all of these geometrical shapes!

Polygon Creations

3D Marshmallow and Toothpick Models

Spelling Fun at Home!!

Here are a few fun ideas to encourage our young readers to put in some extra time practicing their spelling words at home!!

1. Ask your child to draw a picture and "hide" all their spelling words within their artwork.

2. Challenge your child to write his/her words in shaving cream.

3. If you have extra magazines or newspapers lying around, search for the necessary letters and then glue the spelling words together.

4. There are several free recording apps out there that will record their own voice with an app on the phone or iPad.  Have your little one record himself/herself spelling out his/her words and then replay it and check to see if he/she spelled it correctly. 

5. Use a flashlight in a dark room to write the spelling words in the air.

6. Letter scramble- Write your child's spelling words on a piece of paper.  Cut apart each word and have them unscramble the word!

7. Scratch and Sniff-Have your little one write his/her words in glue.  Then, sprinkle dry jell-o onto the glue.  When the glue has dried, have your little one trace and scratch the word.

8. Sidewalk chalk-Use sidewalk chalk to spell the words!

9. Magnetic Letters-Using magnetic letters on any magnetic surface in your home or on a cookie sheet, have your child spell his/her words.

10. Jumping jacks-Have your child do a jumping jack for each letter in the word!

Valentine's Party

Students were 'tickled pink' as we celebrated the fun, loving holiday of Valentine's!!  Thank you again to the Valentine's Day committees who helped provide delicious snacks and paper products for our fun afternoon party!!  Our most favorite part of the day was sharing our special Valentine's with one another!  Smiles were definitely an abundance with the friendly messages and candy given away!

Enjoying the many Valentine's given....

 The sweet treats hit the spot!

Math estimation and graphing with conversation hearts!

All School Sledding Party!

It was a day of celebration for all of the students in Wellman Elementary as students received a sledding reward for the positive behaviors that they have shown throughout the school year already!  Students were challenged to 'fill the bucket' by displaying our three Golden Hawk promises:

I am respectful!

I am responsible!

I am safe!

We then finished our winter fun with some warm hot cocoa!  It was a terrific end to all of our sledding fun!  

Let the sledding fun begin!!

It was a fabulous day!!

Day 100!

Well, we are officially 100 days smarter in first grade!  We had a blast celebrating this day with everything the 100 way on Wednesday!  It was awesome to see the 'young spirit' of the age 100 shine through in the awesome costumes.  We made sure we were fashionably dressed on this day, constructing headbands and glasses to wear.  Putting our counting skills to the test, we worked in small groups to count to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's and created some colorful posters!  A highlight of the day was putting together a necklace of 100 Froot Loops.  We also took some time this week to enjoy the classic commercial of 'How Many Licks to the Center of the Tootsie Pop?'  Since we are an inquisitive bunch, we thought we would give it a try with at least 100 licks!  Ask your child how many licks it took for him/her!  We also enjoyed a 100 snack and received our certificates of achievement for our hard work in first grade so far to date!

First graders make very stylish 100 year olds;)

 Creating our 100 piece Froot Loop Necklace!

How Many Licks to the Center?

Our 100 Posters on Display!

Still teaching at 100 years??

Pick a Better Snack

Wellman Elementary first and second graders are very excited to take part in a healthy living curriculum, Pick a Better Snack. This initiative is organized by the Washington County Extension Office and funded by the local Wellman ALC club. The purpose of this program is to motivate students to eat more fruits and vegetables and to be more physically active. This will pair very nicely with the Live Healthy Iowa initiative the Mid-Prairie district will once again be participating in. A huge thank you to Laura Huber for her time and energy as a Wellman Elementary parent and volunteer to bring this awesome program to us for 9 weeks! Following are the "rules" of the Pick a Better snack program. They may come in handy at the dinner table as well;)

1. Be Brave

2. It's ok if you don't like it, but try it

3. Never say yuck

4.Use your manners 

  Laura introducing the new program to the students.

 1st graders will keep track of the new foods they try each week in their Pick a Better Snack Books!

 Laura visiting with the students about the 'rules' of trying new snacks!