Eggy Fun!

As the Easter holiday is upon us, we took some time to get our hands dirty and attempt a 'yarn egg' to celebrate the season!  This was a great project that fostered teamwork and definitely taught us to persevere!  We were so proud of the first graders for their hard work with this project and the helpful friend they were to each other.

Spring Concert!

Despite the cold outside, we definitely enjoyed the lovely songs of spring Tuesday evening!  The first graders did a great job sharing their special songs and looked handsome and lovely at the same time!

Shape Fun!

Over the course of this week, students have enjoyed working with shapes throughout our world.  We were introduced to the term, polygon and the rules of polygons.  Students did a terrific job using their creative thinking with straws and twisty ties to build their own polygon.  Looking at 3-Dimensional shapes such as spheres, cylinders, cubes, cones, and prisms was an exciting time during math as well!  Marshmallows and toothpicks were our math tools to use, as students worked to create 3-D figures within the classroom. 

Dental Fun!

We have been discussing helpful tips to keep our teeth healthy during Science over the past couple of weeks! We were grateful to have a tooth expert visit our classroom this week! Dr. Teri Downes visited with the first grade classrooms, and quizzed the students on their knowledge of teeth and dental hygiene. A big thanks to Dr. Downes for taking time out of her busy schedule to encourage healthy habits in our little ones!  

Dr. Seuss Reading Week!

What a week of reading fun we had in first grade!!  We had fun first decorating our classroom doors, set to the theme of "Grab Your Hat and Read with the Hat."  We then started our week out with some cooking fun as we mixed up green eggs and ham on Monday afternoon, while also hearing this favorite Dr. Seuss story.  We then created a Horton glyph after hearing Horton Hears a Who!  These glyphs (a visual representation of information) turned out terrific and can be admired in the lower end hallway at school.  We also enjoyed wearing those comfy pajamas to school yesterday as we had an opportunity to spread out, read and feed on a yummy popcorn treat!  Our week ended with cupcake decorating and feasting today in the library.  Thank you to the Wellman PTO for providing the school with cupcakes for this fun event.  Ask your child what his/her favorite activity was during this week!

Spaghetti Fun!

Last week we enjoyed reading the well known Tomie de Paula story of Strega Nona.   In this special story, Strega Nona owns a magic pot that does all of the cooking for her when she says her magic words.  A character by the name of Big Anthony tries to run the big pot, but ends up with a tremendous amount of spaghetti to eat!  We then challenged the students to write about their own magic pot and what it would cook up.  It was fun to read through the different foods these pots would give them!  We then finished our spaghetti unit eating spaghetti of course!

Penguin Writing

We had a fun time writing silly stories or nonfiction writings about penguins!  Students did a wonderful job and used the Little Bird Tales website to publish these great writings.  A big thank you to one of our District Learning Design Coaches, Mr. Slabaugh.  He visited both first grade classrooms to introduce us to this great publishing website.  You will find your child's special story under his/her name on the 1A or 1B classroom page.  Happy Reading!

Writing as a First Grader

Over the course of this school year, we have been encouraging writing through the use of free write journals and small mini lessons in our classroom.  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 one trait of writing at a time, so students can use the information received and then practice this trait with their story writing.

The following trait areas we are focusing on with our first graders 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)

Next week we will be publishing a piece of penguin writing!  We will let you know when these pieces are posted on the blog!

Balls & Ramps

For about the past month, our first grade scientists have been exploring how different balls move when they are rolled, bounced, and thrown. They have had opportunities to put their new understanding of balls to the test while creating their own balls. This past week, we challenged students to create their own ramps and pathways to further explore the movement of balls. 

Here is a fun and easy activity you can do at home to help support your child's learning in the classroom!

Go on a tour of your neighborhood and try to find different ramps in the area. Ask your child how these ramps help different people. If you are able to capture a photo of any ramps, we would love to share these during science! Happy hunting!

Day 100

Well, we are officially 100 days smarter in first grade!  We had a blast celebrating this day with everything the 100 way yesterday!  We made sure we were fashionably dressed on this day, constructing headbands, badges, 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.  We then challenged ourselves to have some fun with movement activities to 100 and putting together a necklace of 100 Froot Loops.  We also enjoyed a 100 snack and received our certificates of achievement for our hard work in first grade so far to date!