Happy Holidays!

I can't believe it will be 2018 when I see my students again.  The first half of our school year has really flown by quickly.  I continue to reflect on how lucky I am to work at Washington Elementary with all of your students.  It truly is a privilege to share our experiences in 1st grade with you.  I'll make this post brief to get back to my own family to celebrate this holiday time together.  Want to see just how fun these last few weeks have been in 1st grade, check out the photo slideshow here.  I compiled all of the photos from our journey with Scott as well as Grinch Day!  Thank you so much for making both experiences so engaging.  Your donations made them a great success.

We celebrated two more birthdays this month!  Happy 1/2 birthday to Erik and Josephine!

Meet Reed

Last week Reed was our Star Student in 1st grade.  Reed is full of energy and enthusiasm.  He loves to give me a hard time about the Bison and the Jackrabbits which always makes me giggle.  A fun fact about Reed is that he has two little brothers.  One of them is a Bison fan and the other a Jackrabbit fan! 

Meet Leah

This week Leah was our Star Student.  Leah is one of the most compassionate 1st graders I have ever had.  She wants to be a mom when she grows up and her compassion will come in handy!  Thanks for helping two substitute teachers this week when I was home with sick children, Leah!

Upcoming Reminders:

December 23-January 2: Winter Break

January 8: Reading Medalist Program Begins (Information letter will come home)

January 12: AIMSweb Testing

January 12: Book Orders Due!

Mystery Packages Excite and Engage!

Wow!  There has been a lot of excitement happening in first grade lately.  I'll try to document the events briefly with lots of photos as I know you would much rather see your amazing kiddos than listen to me blabber on!  We visited the Creative Art Studio located in the Plains Art Museum recently.  Did you know that the museum is now open to the public, for free?  Visit plainsart.org to learn more!  Your first grader can lead you on a guided tour following their visit, so check it out!

Each year students at Fargo Public Schools visit the Creative Art Studio to create a keepsake piece of art.  This year students were instructed in making clay penguins.  They did a great job following directions and made amazing pieces of art!  I hope you all received your action snapshot via Seesaw!

After filling our class incentive Gum Ball Machine we celebrated with a Board Game Day!  Never underestimate the power of classic board games.  With minimal teacher support and instruction, students were able to collaborate, communicate, and have fun playing games.  Honestly, we could have played games all day, but an hour was all we had.  Until the next celebration...

We also spent the week Ringing the Bell for the Salvation Army.  These firsties were sure cute.  I sent you individual photos via Seesaw, but these are too cute not to share!  Thanks for sending spare change with your students.  Mr. Cromwell's class will ring the bell for one final week December 11-15.

 

 Hip-Hip Hooray for Birthdays!  We celebrated two birthdays last week.  Happy 1/2 Birthday Leah and Happy Birthday Odi!

Meet Roman!

We had a great time getting to know the one and only Roman.  Roman is such a beam of joy in first grade, and he is also really good at sports!  The kids were especially excited to see Roman's Rubix Cube on his share day!

Meet Xander!

This week we spent some time getting to know Xander a bit more.  Xander is so sweet and kind to his classmates.  We learned that Xander plays the drums.  We can't wait to see Xander play in a band someday.  

A Peek At Our Week

Reading: In reading students will be reading At Home in the Ocean, a nonfiction text where students will practice utilizing text features to comprehend.  Students will practice reading and spelling with the digraph /th/ in the initial and final position of words.  We will begin a new spelling practice in first grade this week too.  Students will learn how to "sort" words into categories.  More information about spelling will come home in January.  

Math: We are busy learning about two dimensional and three dimensional shapes in math.  We utilized body gestures to remember the differences between sides, faces, edges, and vertices.  Students practiced sorting shapes by playing "What's My Rule" to identify similarities and differences between shapes. We will take our geometry unit test on Tuesday and then begin  learning about measurement and data.

Writing: Students will be recording themselves reading their latest published pieces of writing this week to incorporate technology into the process.  We will begin learning about opinion writing for our next unit of study.

Social Studies: We have been having a blast learning about holidays around the world with our pal, Scott.  So far we have received packages from France, Uganda, Italy, Germany, and Mexico.  The weeks leading to winter break can be challenging. Thankfully this unit is so exciting and engaging that the students haven't had time to think about the holiday break.  I'll post a video slideshow of the fun unit at its completion.  We still have 9 more boxes scheduled to arrive!  

Gingerbread Men from Germany

Secret Notes from Italy

Pinata from Mexico

Drums from Uganda

Buche De Noel from France

Upcoming Reminders

December 19: Students attend Choir/Chimes Concert

December 22: Grinch Day! 

December 25-January 2: Winter Break

Thankful for Firsties!

Good Afternoon!  I can't believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  I have so much to be thankful for again, both personally and professionally.  Today we were able to take some time to share all that we are thankful for in 1st grade.  The "tablecloths" made great canvases for some thankful writing and drawing.  Look for a Thankful Turkey that should have made it home today.

We had so much fun at our Thanksgiving Feast, inspired by Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.  Keeping with the theme, we had our own feast filled with pretzels, popcorn, jelly beans, punch and of course, buttered toast!  Check out some photos of our fun-filled day in 1st grade!

Decorating our Thankful Tablecloth

Decorating our Thankful Tablecloth

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Our feast of buttered toast, jelly beans, pretzels, popcorn and punch!

The coming weeks will be VERY busy in 1st grade.  We will attend a class favorite field trip to the Plains Art Museum for the gallery tour as well as Creative Art Studio where students will make their penguins.  Watch for photos on Tuesday on Seesaw!  I'll be sure to snap the cuties in action!  Just a heads up that I will be absent on Thursday and Friday (November 30-December 1) for a funeral.  Mrs. Pochmara will be there, so rest assured that all will flow as usual.  Beginning on December 4, our class will be ringing the bell for the Salvation Army.  Send you spare change and try to swing in when your kiddo is ringing the bell.  A schedule came home last week, but I will also list the schedule on the December calendar that will come home next week.  If your child is unable to ring the bell on his or her assigned date, I will do my very best to reschedule.  December will also bring our study of holidays around the world.  This is a HUGE highlight for our students as the packages begin to arrive from all around the world.  I'll be sure to post highlights from the event.  Looking ahead, on December 22 we will celebrate in our classroom with Grinch Day!  More information will come for that fun celebration.

All About Eva

Eva is full of smiles and kindness in 1st grade.  She brought the most adorable book to share with the class called The Twelve Dogs of Christmas.  If you haven't read it yet, it is adorable.  Eva loves dolls and My Little Ponies.  The students enjoyed seeing her pony that could flip on her show and tell day.  We are so lucky to share Eva in our classroom!

Another 1st grader has turned 7!  Happy Birthday, Daphne!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: Things are moving along nicely in reading.  Students are busy learning about main idea and supporting details.  In phonics students are learning about initial and consonant blends in words like spin, past, plan, frog, etc.  We had lots of fun practicing our words on our Boogie Boards.  In grammar students will learn about plural nouns next week.

Writing: We have almost finished our third writing unit on procedural nonfiction texts.  Students will learn to add introductions and conclusions to their writing pieces as well as publish their favorite piece.  Students will work with their writing team to share and record their writing during a writing celebration.  I'll apologize now, the camera work may be a little shaky, but the students will take great pride in completing the recordings on their own.

Math: We will begin learning about plane the three-dimensional shapes next week in math.  Students will also be introduced to the fractions half and fourth.  Math Workshop continues to be a favorite part of our day.  I enjoy meeting with students in small groups daily.

Social Studies: We will finish our study of USA next week.  Students will learn about voting after reading Duck! Rabbit! and then voting in a mock election.  They will also learn about the final US symbol by making torn paper flags.

Upcoming Reminders:

November 22-24: No School - Thanksgiving Break

November 28: Field Trip to Plains Art Museum

November 30-December 1: Mrs. Sterling absent

December 4-8: Mrs. Sterling's class bell ringing

Pumpkin Fun!

Well we did it!  We survived Halloween (and the days after) in 1st grade.  Don't get me wrong, I love all things pumpkins, however, 1st graders seem to get a bit busy during this exact week each year!  We managed to pack a lot of fun into the day beginning with our exploration of our class pumpkin.  Since we have been learning about adjectives, students worked together to describe our pumpkin on the outside. 

We then dug in, literally, and used adjectives to describe the inside, too! 

 After we collected all of the seeds, students estimated the total using their super estimating powers!  The students then devised a plan as to count the seeds after reading Margaret McNamara's How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?  While all groups chose to count by 10's, one group decided to count by 2's.  They later decided it would be easier to count by 10's, so made the switch!  Activities like this foster excellent  communication and collaboration skills for our students.

  Our pumpkin had 677 seeds!  Dawson was only 23 away with a guess of 700!  Way to go, Dawson!

Next we read, Vote for Me! by Ben Clanton.  The students were inspired to vote for our Jack-O-Lantern Face.  I forgot to snap a photo of our finished Jack-O-Lantern, but don't worry, he is still a guest in our class!  Below Daphne votes in our own, secret voting booth!

As I said, our Pumpkin Jack is still in our classroom!  After reading Pumpkin Jack, by Will Hubbell, we sealed our pumpkin in an airtight, clear tote for the students to observe.  We will watch him decompose (and even mold) over the next month or two.  It is quite gross to see, but the students get to see first hand how a pumpkin and its seeds can begin the life cycle again each year!

The afternoon was a ball with our pumpkin party!  We made beaded pumpkins, went on a scavenger hunt, played make10 bowling, bingo, and finally decorated cookies, YUM!  Thank you to Mrs. Johnson (Leah's Mom) and Mrs. Pochmara (Elizabeth's Mom) for volunteering at the party!  

 Meet Odi

Have you met Odi?  I have had the pleasure of having both Odi and his older brother Rylee in my 1st grade class!  Odi is one of the sweetest kiddos you will meet.  He may be quiet, but has a great laugh to share (when he thinks his teacher isn't listening).  He was excited to share that neither Mrs. Baarstad nor I have ever had an Odi in our class!

Meet August

August is such a star in our class, too!  He is very kind and conscientious of doing his best.  During his share week, August brought in a really cool Pokemon set that the class loved to see.  His desk was definitely the hang out during snack break!  Keep smiling in 1st grade, August!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: In reading students utilized headings to determine a text focus for a particular section of a nonfiction text.  They are also busy learning how to use commas in a series in grammar.  We practiced writing sentences with our favorite foods to put this skill into action.  In phonics students are working on l and r blends in words such as crib, blink, and truck. 

Math: Yippee!  We started all four rotations of Math Workshop!  The students learned to navigate through each station as well as visit me for small group math.  We had three really successful days of learning about subtraction by taking away and counting back.  It was also fun as our new class iPads arrived just in time!  If you are looking to boost subtraction fluency with your kiddo, practice counting back from any given number.

Students work at "Hands On" Math independently.

Students play "Subitize Tree" to practice subitizing rapidly.

Writing: We have finished another writing unit!  Students published their first personal narrative story last week.  They will participate in another writing celebration on Monday where they will share their piece with a small group.  I can't wait to share their pieces with you at conferences!

Upcoming Reminders:

November 6: Picture Re-Takes (Send your envelopes in if you would like a re-take)

November 9: Book Order's Due (Use class code HXPY7 at scholastic.com)

November 10: No School - Veteran's Day

November 14, 16, 20: Parent Teacher Conferences (Reminder notes will be sent home)

November 22, 23, 24: No School - Thanksgiving Break