Oreo Truffles

We took a small break from our regular schedule today to make oreo truffles.  When we were done, we wrote a recipe for making them.  Recipes are a great example of a technical text.  We had to read the recipe to make them, and we are writing the recipe so we can share it with our friends and family!

Water Cycle

Our science unit has been focusing on weather and the water cycle.  Check out the first graders performing The Water Cycle Song to help them remember what happens during each step of the cycle!

Gingerbread Houses

We had a fabulous afternoon decorating gingerbread houses. The first graders are so creative! 

Speaking and Listening

We are working hard on our speaking and listening standard every day.  One part of this work is our weekly share.  We tell about things that are important to us, and our friends have an opportunity to ask us questions.  This week, one of our friends shared that she likes puzzles.  We enjoyed hearing this and commented that we like puzzles, too.  After, a few students worked together to put a puzzle together.

Here are a few other pictures from the day!

Thank you so much to those of you who have offered to send in a family tradition treat.  So far we have monkey bread and fruit salad coming.  If you would like to share something different, that helps you celebrate the season, please let me know!
Thanks!
 

Holiday Giving

Today, after we read another chapter in our read aloud.  We took time to make holiday cards that will be delivered to the VNA by the second graders at Porters Point School.  We really enjoyed making cards for other people and hope that it will make their day exciting when it is delivered.

Project Preparation and a New Math Game

We had some very helpful students help prepare for a project that we'll be doing at the end of the week.  They worked hard to prepare small pieces to decorate gingerbread houses.

We learned a new game in math today called Find the Difference.  We are working to find the difference between numbers.  Ask your first grader to teach you how to play!

We have been writing about our family traditions this week. We would love to celebrate our family traditions with a breakfast on Tuesday, December 23rd. If you have something that you and your family do every year around the holidays that you would like to share, please let me know so we can figure out what our breakfast will look like.  Because families are invited to our school-wide sing-a-long Tuesday afternoon, we plan to have the breakfast just as a class, but hope you can join us in the afternoon!  Some things that have been brought in the past for breakfast are, french toast bake, kugel, sticky buns, fruit kabobs, quiche, or yogurt parfaits. 

VSO Visits

We had an amazingly informational visit from the Vermont Syphony Orchestra today.  We learned new vocabulary words like percussion, timbre, and rythym.  We listened to songs from all around the world, and we saw many instruments.  What a morning!

Comparing Numbers

We worked in math today to compare numbers using the < (less than); > (greater than); and = signs.  We are such great comparers in math and in reading!

We had a record 10 Pax-It notes given out today.  We have been working so hard to be safe, respectful and ready to learn.  Wow! 

Technical Texts

In our second trimester we are learning about technical texts. Technical texts are texts that don't read like a story.  Technical texts can be informational books, recipes, charts, graphs, timelines, directions, magazines, or articles.  We have been creating our own technical texts by making science notebooks.  The writing we do in our science notebook is all true and factual and we add detail to our notebooks, not by adding more words, but by adding charts or diagrams.  We have enjoyed writing in our science notebooks because we can use bullets, numbers, and we don't always need complete sentences.  Check out these examples of science notebooks.

We respond to reading every day.  We can tell what happened in the story, and we have been learning to dig deeper into our reponses by adding what we liked or didn't like, or how it connects to our own lives.  The first graders today had fun responding because one of our characters wet his pants- everyone seemed to agree that that would be fun to write about.  We also had lots of personal connections to that experience... (as I'm sure you can imagine), which we wrote about too.

Another example of a technical text is a news magazine.  We have been reading Time for Kids all year, but today the first graders were delighed to see that I ordered Lego Magazine for them.  They read this technical text to learn about Legos, fun facts, and to follow directions.  They LOVE Lego magazine!  

We also learned a new math game called Base-10 Exchange.  You can play at home but instead of base 10 blocks, use dimes and pennies.  Your first grader can teach you! 

Four Winds

We had an(other) awesome Four Winds presentation yesterday afternoon.  We learned all about rocks.  There are three different types of rocks, be sure to ask your first grader to tell you everything they remember about how rocks form, and the different kinds.

We were lucky enough to make our own fossils, too!

Today, we learned a new game in math called 2-fisted penny addition.  Your first grader can teach you how to play today!