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!

Updates From First Grade

These first graders have been excitedly working their way through the publishing process in preparation for our author showcase next Friday at 2:15!  Here is a little sneak peek at their masterpieces...

Our new science unit focuses on weather!

Students made a weather word wall.

We learned more about weather symbols and the importance of correctly forecasting the weather.  Students brainstormed some professions that rely on weather predictions.  Here are just a few from their list:

pilots
bus drivers
Hannaford truck drivers
teachers

Then, we all made our own five day forecasts to hang in the hallway!

In math, we added dollar bills to our money pouches.  We've been practicing counting money and making exchanges with dollars.

Happy Spring!

We welcomed spring with a class mural, symmetrical shapes, and an epic marble runway!

Highlights From Our Week

In math we made attribute trains!

 We had special guests from community services visit and teach us about animal tracks!

We worked together to make wheel and axle systems from cups that roll straight. 

We are back to writing small moments stories.  We've been reading lots of Donald Crews books to learn the craft moves he uses to make his books extra special.  Students then tried using them in their own writing.  Their stories are AMAZING!  They are very excited to share them with you on April 3!

What We've Been Up To...

Here are some updates from room 108!

We led the March community meeting on Monday.  It was a Dr. Seuss celebration!

We've been working on deepening our comprehension and strengthening our fluency in reading.

Science has consisted of designing wheel and axle systems, and seeing which ones roll the farthest.

In math we've been practicing telling time to the minute!

Happy Valentine's Day! Happy 100 Days of School! Happy Vacation!

We celebrated the day away, packing our highly anticipated 100th day of school celebration and our Valentine's Day celebration into one school day!

We had a Valentine's Day party!  We ate special snacks, did some special math activities, and exchanged valentines.

We made 100 day museums!  Mrs. Lincoln's class toured our museums, and we also got a chance to tour theirs.  We had quite the cornucopia of 100 items!  Everything from bandaids, to baby pictures, to buckeyes, to beads!



And to top it all off, at our February community meeting, our name got picked from the hat to host the March community meeting!

Happy everything, everyone!  May your vacations be filled with things other than just piles of snow!

From Balance to Motion

Our science focus shifted this week from balance to motion.  I'd been getting requests for motion experiments from the students for the last week of so.  Needless to say, they were very excited to get started!  We used straws and disks to make a variety of different top designs.  The goal was to see which design spun 'best'.  Students also got to make colored designs on paper to attach to their tops to see what happens to the colors when the top is spinning.

In math we've started learning about fact families.

Writers' workshop has been a steady stream of persuasive letters!

In readers' workshop, we've been practicing a new book sheet in which the student gets to be his/her own teacher and decide how to respond to the books she/he is reading.  This process encourages students to think about their reading and practice written comprehension.

REMINDER:
The 100th day of school will fall on Friday, February 13, as long as we don't have any more snow days (that might have just jinxed it!).   In our class, we'd like to celebrate the day with a variety of activities that involve the number 100. Please help your child find 100 items from home to bring to school (in a bag is fine-not glued to cardstock).  Children could use 100 Cheerios, 100 buttons, 100 pennies, 100 toothpicks, 100 words, 100 cards, 100 stamps...The possibilities are limited only by the imagination!

When the special day arrives, we'll pass out black paper for our students to use as a base to organize their collections into 10 rows of 10.  Then we'll walk around the room to check out the many wonderful, creative ways to represent 100.  We'll also take a trip to Mrs. Lincoln's class to see their representations of 100!

Please send in your child's collection any time before the 13th.