Merry Happenings

A few of the holiday festivities from today...

The high school musicians came to play for us.

School wide sing-along

Holiday Party

Game on:

Snack time 

Craft time

 Wishing you the Happiest of Holidays

and all the Best in the New Year!

First Grade Goes STEM

I love having parents in to volunteer, and obviously so do your children.  We had a few special visitors this week! On Monday 3 parents came in to help us learn all about solids during some science centers. The children learned all about the the properties of solids and experimented with sink and float, hardness, and magnets. Here's what happened!

Hardness

Solids can vary in the way they feel. They can range from very hard to much more flexible. Children began this study by comparing a wooden bead  and a rubber ball. They noticed the difference in how "hard" or "flexible" each felt. Then they had a chance to explore with a set of solids, putting them in order of hardness.

Magnets

Children started off by discussing what they already know about magnets and magnetic surfaces. They then had a chance to explore the pull and push of magnets together. Next, they explored all of their solids against the magnets and sorted into two groups. They discovered that some solids are magnetic, while others are not!

Sink and Float

A favorite activity among all children :)

Once again children began by activating prior knowledge and brainstorming objects that either sink or float in water. Then it was time for the fun stuff! They made predictions about each of their solids and then put them in a tub of water one by one to find out what would happen. They found out that some sank, some floated,  and some 

did both!

Technology Connection

We participated in a VERY exciting program at the library this week called The Hour Of Code. Our awesome librarian, Mrs. Groden introduced us to an application called Scratch Jr.,that teaches children about the math and science  behind the electronic games they play. Children even got to try their hand at programming! They got to pick a background, character, and use several codes to make their character move and talk. I definitely think we have a few potential future programmers among us! Scratch Jr. is a free app that can be found on the IPAD. I definitely recommend installing it!

Hope you enjoyed learning about solids and coding with us! Next week will be a bit of a stretch...lots of fun holiday centers, a school wide sing along, and of course the parties! For those of you who celebrate, Happy Hanukkah! The kids listened to a really cute story at the listening center this week called The Chanukah Guest. Ask your child to tell you about the twist (hint: the guest was a bear!)

Have a merry weekend!

READ all about FLUENCY

When it rains....apparently it POURS! So glad that the children got to head out for a bit of fresh air this afternoon. 3 days of indoor recess two weeks before Christmas is just no good for anybody! But, while the ground soaked up the rain outside we soaked up some learning inside :)

This week I want to chat about fluency. Fluency is how good readers sound when they read. They read smoothly like a river flows and with good expression. Fluent  readers attend to punctuation, have intonation, and read with expression. They make their words touch as they read and they make their characters sound like they are talking when they see "talking marks."

The best way to build fluency is by voracious reading. This is our newest strategy card to be added to our CAFE menu of reading strategies. READ.READ.READ is the main idea behind voracious reading.  Find and read as many good fit books as possible. Listen to fluent reading. Model fluent readers. READ. READ. READ.

To help practice voracious reading each of my reading groups will be participating in a reader's theater.  The first group to read aloud to the class read the story of  The Three Billy Goats Gruff. There are many versions of this tale. Each group member had a role to read. We practiced reading our parts over and over paying close attention to how we sounded. Our goal was smooth reading with good expression. I think we achieved it!

Each group will have a chance to showcase their fluent reading-for now please enjoy our first Reader's Theater!

Tis' The Season

Tis' the season! The season for holiday themed learning, reader's theater, and nonfiction writing that is! We have a lot planned for this month...read on to find out about our busy first week of December!


Writer's Workshop
This week we began a new writing unit; Nonfiction chapter books! I am already impressed with the amount of writing that the children are producing! Filling whole pages with facts about sports, animals, games.....This is a shift in thinking, but it's also so empowering for them to be the experts teaching their audience all they know!

One of our first anchor charts to help us with the planning process.

Math
Survey says.....let's learn about collecting data and making representations! This week we continued to compare information (or data) collected from various quick survey questions about our class. We learned about morning routines like when you brush your teeth, if children are right or left handed, and if they would rather be a whale or eagle.  We took these surveys and learned how to make representation of the data using pictures numbers and words. Next up...children will create their own survey, collect data, and finally make a representation to share with the class!

Would you rather be an eagle or a whale?

"I can" statements for making representations.

Using tally marks...

Using pictures and numbers....

Comprehension
Good readers understand what they read. This week we added a new comprehension strategy to our CAFE menu board. We learned that good readers often make a picture in their mind to help them think about and understand what is happening in the story. I read the cute story Snowmen at Night without showing the class the pictures. I had them make a picture in their mind, (visualize), of the snowmen on all of their little adventures. Then we compared their images with the actual illustrations. This would work really well with a read aloud chapter book at home too! When children can visualize what is happening in a story it serves as a tool to understanding and remembering important events and actions. After modeling this strategy we added it to our menu!

Adding "make a picture" to our comprehension strategy menu boards.

Kwanzaa

One of the first December holidays we learned about was Kwanzaa. We read a story called Lil' Rabbits Kwanzaa and learned how Rabbit went on a search for the perfect Kawadi or gifts for his Granna Rabbit. We learned that Kwanzaa is represented by principles such as unity, creativity, and self determination! We even made mats at the art center to represent the colors of Kwanzaa.

Hope you enjoyed learning what we learned! 

A Little of this A Little of That

So Sorry for the lapse in blog post! Conference season can really mix up our regular routines! That said I LOVE sharing all of your children's successes with you. I know you are just as proud of their progress as I am! We are molding independent readers, efficient mathematicians, and thoughtful citizens!

Writer's Workshop

We started our week with an Author's Celebration! Children got to share their published stories with the rest of the class. It was magic!

As children read each others stories they signed the author's keepsake paper. The author's  were just so proud!! I hope you got to enjoy their take home stories too!

Science
We've started a new unit in science where children will learn all about solids and liquids. So far this week children have hypothesized about what they think makes something a solid. Lots of great ideas to start the process. Over the next few weeks children will explore a set of solids and learn about their properties.  Today we learned about color and shape. 

Math
Our new unit in math is all about collecting and representing data. We'll also practice how to sort and classify shapes and objects based on attributes, which ties in really nicely with our science! To start the unit children looked at a set of power polygon shapes.

Polygons are 2-dimensional shapes. They are made of straight lines, and the shape is "closed" (all the lines connect up).

We then sorted the shapes by attributes that the class came up with including shape, color, size, and number of sides. We've also begun a new routine called 'Quick Surveys." Children will respond to a survey question, such as did you drink milk today? We'll represent their answers using pictures, numbers, words.... then analyze the results. This is great critical thinking with a focus on math talk!


Learning about attributes....

Sorting by shape

Sorting by color

Sorting by size

Thanksgiving

I truly can't believe that Thanksgiving is 1 week away!! Next week is such a short week....the focus will be on the holiday. So far we've read a few stories that helped us compare Thanksgiving long ago and today. We located the Mayflower on our class timeline and learned it was actually Abraham Lincoln who declared the third Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. 

Next Tuesday we also get a special treat.. our class will be part of the audience at Mrs. Paget's annual Thanksgiving play, where we learn even more about the Pilgrim's voyage to New England!

Children drew pictures to compare the Pilgrim's Thanksgiving celebration with their own. No
cranberry sauce back then :) 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family both near and far! Enjoy the time with loved ones and especially all the yummy foods!