We kicked off our new mapping unit this week!  Students learned about the importance of a compass rose on a map and practiced giving each other directions using north, south, east, and west to find hidden pennies in the classroom.

Students continue to read and write poetry in writers' workshop.  We've started talking about revision, word choice, and line breaks too!  Here's a collaborative poem we wrote this week about recess:

Students have been observing the nature outside our window and adding leaves of poetry to our poeTREE!

In readers' workshop, students are practicing becoming the characters in their books.  They are looking at punctuation, tag words, and the storyline to help them figure out how the character is feeling and use proper tone of voice.  This is all practice for our class plays, which we will start working on in mid-May!  The big performance will be Monday, June 15 in our classroom.  More info to follow in the coming weeks!

April Showers...

In science we've been studying rain this week.  Students made clouds rain in the classroom!  They used pipettes to add colored drops of water to shaving cream clouds.  When the clouds got too heavy with water, they rained!  Students predicted how many drops of water it would take to make the clouds rain.  It took one group's cloud 180 drops of water before it rained!

We also made rain art.  Students used watercolors to paint a weather related picture.  Now, we're waiting for the  perfect rain to let the raindrops 'finish' the painting!

Math was all about fractions this week!

Poetry is our new writing unit!  Ms. Honan helped us kick-off the new unit with the first of three first grade poetry meetings.  We brainstormed what we know about poetry, learned a fun poem to recite out loud, and wrote a collaborative poem about spring.  Students are now searching for the just right poem to share at next week's meeting!

What A Week!

We've been studying the water cycle in science this week.  One of my top 5 first grade favorites: The Water Cycle Song performed by The Smart Owls!





We had a great visit from author and Yarmouth teacher, Charlotte Agell.  She shared her illustrating and writing process with us.  She even had a book with her which she wrote at age 8 and 3/4!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our author showcase!  The students were SO excited to share their writing and illustrating with you!