Peeps and Jelly Beans

We wrapped up our short week with some Peeps fun!  The students were each given two characters (Peeps) to create a story with.  It was suggested that their Peeps go on some sort of adventure or journey.  These writers had great imaginations.  We had Peeps going down rivers, in enchanted forests and even in jail!  A second grade teacher stopped by and commented that "this is some of the best 1st grade writing I have ever seen!"  All of their hard work during Writer's Workshop is paying off!  Our most recent focus has been on Author's Craft, and they are really making their wiring exciting for their readers.

This afternoon we also did "Jelly Bean Mystery Math" which was just my fancy way of making math with jellybeans exciting!  The students counted, sorted, graphed and interpreted their data.  They then practiced some addition facts with their jellybeans.

We celebrated two birthdays this week in 1st grade too!  Happy Birthday David and Nico!  We sure enjoyed your treats!

 Upcoming Reminders:

March 25-28: No School, Spring Break 

April 1: Operation Big Band-Aid Field Trip (9:45-11:45) at Essentia Health

April 8: All Star School Carnival

Shaving Cream, Bubble Gum and Rainbows....Oh My!

Have you heard the news?  Bubble Gum Math is a hit in 1st grade!  I decided to try something new this year to improve the student's fact fluency.  While the students have learned many strategies to add and subtract, they aren't yet speedy.  Now I know, this isn't the most important thing, yet I also know that our teachers appreciate students knowing their math facts prior to 2nd grade.  So that's how Bubble Gum Math came about!  We spent a full week learning the rules and routines.  I modeled the process and we hit a few bumps in the road as we practiced.  This week has been our first full week of implementation.  Students work with a partner to take their test.  The partner times, supervises, and grades the test using an answer key.  You may see some errors on the correcting, but I am working with them on how to fix the mistakes with a simple "ok."  Independence is key as I am working with small groups on a math lesson during this time.  After the test, the students graph their results on their individual graphs, and if they score twelve or more correct in one minute they earn a gumball sticker to add to their machine!  On every third test passed they earn a penny for my real gumball machine and a piece of gum.  When they have mastered all of their addition facts through twelve they will earn a larger gum prize and then they will begin the subtraction facts.  Who would have thought one minute time tests could be so fun?  If a student is stuck on a test, a set of flashcards for that specific test will be sent home to practice.  Please watch for these and practice with your child if necessary.

We had fun with shaving cream this week too as we practiced words that end with /ng/ and /nk/.  The students did a great job following the number one rule for shaving cream, only one hand in the cream!  

The first graders were a little disappointed that the leprechauns didn't visit our classroom.  My teacher heart sank a bit, but knew we had other fun in store!  We made rainbow pots of gold earlier in the week that turned out darling!  Today we made St. Patrick's Day Rainbow kabobs that we could eat, YUM!  Even though the leprechaun didn't visit our room, we still had fun together!

St. Patrick's Day also included a birthday in our classroom!  Happy 7th Birthday to Tinah!  

Upcoming Events:

• Please keep bringing items for our Carnival Basket.  Our theme is "Summer Fun!"
• March 24: Family Interview/Recipe Due (Letter to come home tomorrow)
• March 25-28:  No School Spring Break
• April 1: Operation Big Band-Aid Field Trip to Essentia Health

Seusstastic Fun!

Good Afternoon 1st Grade Families,

We had a Seusstastic week in 1st grade this week!  We took some time each day to celebrate reading and Dr. Seuss by sharing some favorite books and completing a few projects.  We began by reading Green Eggs and Ham.  The students loved the rhyme and repetition and were also excited to be told they could read many Dr. Seuss books independently due to his use of high frequency words!  The students sampled some "Green Eggs and Ham" and then made their own eggs writing a sentence them. I've made several versions of green eggs and ham over the years, but this year I thought I would go for a version I thought most students would like!

Here Tinah makes her own green egg.

We then read the story, One Foot, Two Foot, Red Foot Blue Foot.  Students put their sorting and graphing skills to work with a fun Goldfish Cracker math activity.  We also practiced estimating a bag full of gummy fish.  Lucky for us, the student that guessed closest and won the fish decided to share them with his classmates.  How sweet!

Here Preston works on graphing with his Goldfish Crackers.

There were 38 gummy fish.  David guessed closest with 34. 

We wrapped up the week reading The Lorax.  Students then made Truffula Tree Pencil toppers, though I neglected to take any photos!  Oops!  Perhaps the students will bring these home for you to see how cute they turned out!

Students also participated in the Washington All School Read-a-thon on Wednesday afternoon.  I again, failed to take photos as I was enjoying reading with my students.  It is always important to model reading for the students, so I brought a novel I am reading into the gym and enjoyed 20 minutes of silent reading with the students.

This week in math, we began learning about Equivalency.  What a big word for 1st graders!  Students learned that there are many different ways to represent a number.  They worked collaboratively to create a poster and presentation to share with their class.  I'll be honest, this was hard for the students!  We will need to practice more with collaboration and teamwork.  Some strong personalities took over whereas others sat back and didn't engage too much in the activity.  In the end, I still felt successful about what they had completed because they seemed to grasp the concept well!  Below are the three teams in action!

There are just over 7 weeks left to participate in the Reading Trophy Program.  Has your child already earned his or her trophy?  All reading logs are due on Wednesday, April 27.  It seems far away, but the days will creep up on us quickly this spring.  Please help your child achieve the goal of reading 50 books, independently!  Have you marked your calendar?  The trophy presentation and 1st grade music concert will take place at 1:15 on Friday, May 13.

Upcoming Reminders

March 7: Homework to begin in class

March 8: March book orders due!  This is a quick turn around to ensure delivery prior to Easter!