Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Four Winds Learning

We have been learning about new things in Four Winds.  (Eliza) We learned about life cycles. (Alee)  We learned about how plants die and how they grow. (Avante)  We made our own plants.  (Madison)  We watched a non-fiction puppet show that taught us real facts. (Ben P.) We learned important words like: dormant, hibernate, active and migrate.  (Maggie)  We also learned about water cycles. (Landyn)  We learned how animals help to spread seeds. (Jayden)  Some animals stay up (active) in the winter.  (Tola) Migrate means animals fly to a different place in winter. (Andrew)  Birds are an example of an animal that migrates. (Colby)  Some animals hibernate during the winter, that means, sleep! (Noah)  Trees can sleep during the winter too, that is called dormant. (Alee) When whales hibernate, they travel to new, clean, good water to look for fresh food. (Ben C.)


We had a fun time at Four Winds today! (Makayla)

Love,
The First Graders!

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Magic "E"

We had some very careful readers today who found words with Magic "E" as they were reading in their book bins!


Monday, January 25, 2016

Surprise Baby Shower

Wow!  The first graders (with the help of some very generous adults) threw a surprise baby shower for me on Friday!  I was TOTALLY surprised!  We had a wonderful time celebrating, opening presents and eating lots of treats!


Thank you so much to everyone who helped us have such a fabulous Friday afternoon!


Wow!





Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Word Work

We have been busy this week in first grade.  Yesterday, we wrote opinion pieces about why Martin Luther King Jr. was an important person in history.  The first graders wrote extremely impressive opinions about how MLK Jr. helped to change our world. 


Today we wrote about our favorite drink.  We all had different favorite drinks, and some of the reasons for them, made us wish we had them right now! Can you guess our favorite drink based on these reasons? 


Clara F's favorite drink is served with an orange...
Ayson's favorite drink is served with cherries...
Maggie's favorite drink is good for your bones...
Makayla's favorite drink is frozen and delicious...
Andrew's favorite drink is lemon-y...


Ask your first grader what they wrote about today!


These first graders are working on writing "snap" words.  Words they should be able to write by heart.


Friday, January 15, 2016

DARE

We have started having Officer Fontaine come to our classroom each week to talk about safety and D.A.R.E.  We have learned about when to call 911, our phone numbers and addresses and today we talked about road and sidewalk safety.  We learned to read signs on roads and paths.


We also welcomed a new student to our classroom this week!  We are so happy to have an addition!


We learned about Martin Luther King Jr. this week and how he helped the world become a better place.  This morning at school-wide morning meeting Ms. Millham lead us in a sing-a-long of "We Shall Overcome."


Please remember there is no school on Monday in observance of MLKjr. Day!

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Greater Than, Less Than, Equal To

We have been comparing numbers in math.  We look at numbers to see which is greater, which is less, or if they might be equal!  Today, we had an interesting problem:


Change 1 number or symbol to make this number sentence true:
 4+2=7


Some first graders changed the number sentence to read:


4+2=6


Others changed it to read:


4+3=7


I asked if we could change it to read this:
4+2<7


The first graders were not convinced that that expression would work because there was no equal sign.  We will continue to explore this idea for the rest of Unit 5!


This week in word study, we are focusing on adding "s" to show more than one.  We are also learning that for *most* words, simply adding an "s" at the end to show more than one works.  However, when a word ends in s, z, x, sh or ch we need to add "es" and if it ends in y, we drop the y and add "ies"!  So many rules!


The first graders were very excited to participate in a whole class word sort and then practice with plurals on their own.  They have been working very hard!


Thursday, January 7, 2016

More 10's and 1's

Today we used dimes and pennies instead of tens and ones to play Penny-Dime Exchange.  The first graders were excited to realize that they could use different items that are worth the same amount.  We also solved a riddle:


Angela had 11 pennies in her pocket and said she has 11 cents.


Marcos said he has 11 cents, but only two coins. 


Can Marcos be right?


Ask your first grader how they solved this riddle and if they changed their thinking while solving it!


We read more about Blue Whales today but as we read, we kept track of important vocabulary words.  We also sorted words with ending blends by their vowel sounds.


First grade is a lot of work, but we're having fun!  We have LOVED earning Dojo points for being on task and ready to learn.  If you haven't signed up for Classroom Dojo yet, please do!

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Main Idea and Key Details

Today we learned how to play Base-10 exchange.  We collect ones until we have ten, and then we exchange! Our goal was to get 10 tens, or 100!  Some first graders were having so much fun, they set a new goal of getting to 1,000!


We read about the blue whale again, but we read with a different purpose today.  Today, we read to find the main idea and four key details.  Our main idea was, "Blue Whales are Giant Mammals."  The first graders had to read through their books to find details that showed just how giant the whales are.  Ask your first grader to tell you how large the blue whale is today!


We sorted our spelling words today based on their vowel sound.  The first graders did a wonderful job looking and saying short vowels and writing them in the correct column.


We are still writing about our opinions in writing and remembering to use capitals and periods as we go!

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  We have had a wonderful two days back at school.  We came back from our holiday recess well-rested and ready to learn! I have been so impressed with all of the first graders this week.


We are learning about ending blends in word study.  We have been writing and reading words with ending blends and noticing them everywhere!  Our red word (words we have to be able to spell) this week is "for". 


Unit 5 in math is all about place value!  We have been discussing groups of 10 and using 10's and 1's to build numbers.  Today, the first graders taught me why 15 and 51 are NOT the same number, even though they are each have a "1" and a "5".  We learned that where numbers are (their PLACE) MATTERS! We also played Build the Bigger Number and Guess My Number.  These are all things you can do at home.  Ask your first grader to teach you!


We are continuing to learn about literary non-fiction and we've been comparing it to fiction and non-fiction.  Today we read a non-fiction book about Blue Whales and completed a KWLS chart in our literacy notebooks.  This chart helps us assess what we Know.  What we Want to know.  What we Learned. And what we Still want to know! We had a great time learning about the largest mammal on earth!


As the weather is extremely cold, please remember to send your child to school in warm clothing!