Made in First Grade: Geometry, Grace Lin, and Pajama time

First of all I CANNOT believe we are coming up to April vacation!! The days can be long, but those months sure fly by....especially here in first grade where there is ALWAYS so much going on. This week was no exception. There was the excitement of pajama day, the anticipated visit from author Grace Lin, and of course all of the great learning that happened!

Geometry
The last 2 weeks of math have been all about exploring 2D shapes. The goals of this unit are to teach children how to develop language that describe attributes of shapes (including sides and corners), how to take shapes apart, and how to put shapes together in different ways. We used our pattern blocks and pattern block cut outs to fill various outlines, create designs, and play games like Fill the Hexagon.

Playing Fill the Hexagon

Filling the same outline in different ways

Filling an outline with more and fewer shapes

Pajama Day
They followed directions, they did their best work, they were kind and helpful to each other, they thought about expected and unexpected behavior at school and they earned .......PAJAMA DAY!!

Morning Meeting with a few extra friends

Reading to Someone during Daily Five

Working with Words

Reading to Self (and friend)

Reading table

A Visit from Grace Lin
What an exciting treat! Grace Lin, author and illustrator, came to our school for a visit. She taught us all about the difference between a published and not published book. She taught us all about the many people who help publish a book including an editor, art director, and binder. Some of us even got to volunteer! We got to hear her read from one of her books and learned about how the Chinese years were named. Ask your child about the Year of the Dog and The Year of the Pig. We even learned how to draw lucky Chinese Dragons. Ask your child how many whiskers they added to their dragon. :)