Marbles Field Trip

We had a great day at Marbles! Here are a few pictures from our day.

Field Trip Tomorrow!

Poinsettia Painting

We painted poinsettias on Friday to go with our Mexico Holiday Traditions lesson. We got to use water colors and black crayons. The students were very excited, and their paintings turned out great!

Holidays Around the World

Our class has been very busy learning about holidays around the world. Last week we learned about the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. We read many books including this cute book:

We also had a chance to hear some traditional songs and play the dreidel game. 

This week we have learned about holidays in Italy and Mexico. Did you know in Italy there is a story of La Befana who delivers candy to well behaved children? In Mexico, they celebrate "Navidad"with fireworks and pinatas! We have also been reading books about Ramadan, Holi, Kwanzaa, and the Chinese New Year!

Tens and Ones

This week we are learning all about tens and ones. This is a very important concept because of our base 10 number system. Here are some pictures of the hands on activities we are using this week.

Family Share

We are looking for families and friends of our first graders to share their family traditions. We are in the process of learning about different holidays around the world and would love to hear how your family celebrates holidays. It can be any holiday from any time of the year. If you have any questions before you want to sign up, feel free to send me an e-mail. Thanks for all your help with this fun event!

Holiday Share Flyer

Balance Experts

We have become balance experts. This week we have learned the vocabulary words: counter weight and balance point. 

Students have practiced balancing different shapes on popsicle sticks and our fingers. Today we had an extra hard experiment, when we had to find a way to balance a pencil (sharp side down) on a popsicle stick!

Syllable Sort

We have been practicing sorting words by the number of syllables. This week we made an art project out of those pesky sales ads.

Thanksgiving Story Bracelet

We've been working hard to learn the story of the first Thanksgiving. We learned that Pilgrims didn't use forks and ate off wooden plates. We also learned that there were 140 people that ate Thanksgiving together. Did you know, that along with turkey, the pilgrims and Native Americans also ate deer, fish, and mussels?  Today we made bracelets to help us remember the order of the story. Ask your child to retell the story to you using their bracelet.

I hope everyone has a great and safe Thanksgiving. I am thankful for our awesome classroom and their families! 

Senteo Response System

Today we got to use a very fun Smartboard tool. The Senteo response system is a set of clickers that students could use to answer questions from their desk. We warmed up with some easy questions. They practiced finding the correct buttons. Then is was on to review items. 100% voted YES for "Did you have fun with the clicker today?"

Tomorrow is our Write and Share day. Student who chose to complete a Quarter 1 enrichment homework project may bring it in to share TOMORROW. If your child did not complete a project, they are to bring in their favorite book. 

Gobble Gobble Turkey Patterns

We have been working on patterns this week in math. Students are asked to identify a pattern unit, as well as translate a pattern. One of our centers this week was to translate a pattern on a turkey to the feathers. The students had to figure out the pattern unit and repeat it using different color feathers.

Topple Tree

We are continuing to explore balance and motion in science. On Monday we did a few experiments with our newest classroom game.


Introducing:

Topple Tree! 

In this game players can use two different types of pieces. A straight piece or a V-shaped piece. After predicting which piece would make a more balanced tree, it was time to experiment. We recorded our observations in our science journals. 

Our tree built with straight pieces fell over on the 11th piece, while our tree built with the V-shaped pieces was still standing after all 25 were put together! 

We were even able to extend our thinking to real trees. Students noticed that many trees that fall over are the tall skinny trees, while the more balanced trees that stand through winds have lots of branches. This game will be added to our collection for students to play on Fantastic Fridays! 

Fabulous Fall!

Today during recess, the winds picked up and the leaves were falling by the masses. So what did our first graders do....

Patterns!

We had some of our favorite friends come teach us about pattern units today. Pattern units can be tricky, so it was nice for Spongebob and Patrick to help us learn this concept!