Thank Goodness for 30's!

The melt is finally on!  If your weekend has been anything like mine, I have been busy chipping away at the ice on my driveway.  With all of the melting, that also means wet and messy snow pants and coats.  The first graders have been working hard to position their winter gear in the lockers for adequate drying - boots on the floor and snow pants and coats hanging on individual hooks.  The lockers tend to get a bit smelly if the gear is all balled up on the bottom.  With the warm temperatures, we snuck in an extra recess on afternoon last week.  How could I pass up upper 30's temperatures and sun?

Meet Skyler

Last week Skyler was our wonderful Star Student!  Skyler is one of the most hardworking 1st graders you will meet!  He always keeps a huge smile on his face and never gives up.  Skyler loves anything to do with Pokemon!  He knows much more about the characters than I do and has an extensive collection of cards at home too!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: In reading we have been working hard on story sequence.  The students know that good readers think about what happens next in a story.  Additionally we have been working hard on reading and writing words with wh, ch, and tch digraphs.  

Math: We just wrapped up our study of 2D ad 3D shapes in math.  Below students describe shapes to their partner without seeing.  Their partner was challenged to make the same arrangement with only their descriptions of sizes, colors, vertices, edges and sides.  Our next unit focuses on place value to prepare students for addition of numbers beyond 10.  I am so impressed with just how fluent students are becoming in their math facts.  Don't forget to return the Unit 4 Math Test that came home last week.  Check out some of our Daily 5 Math action below!

Science: In science we are busy learning about matter.  Students are busy trying to figure out of Oobleck is a solid or a liquid.  This week we will experiment with gasses using antacid tablets.  Wish me luck!

Upcoming Events:

January 26: Steam Night at Washington

February 2: 100th Day of School (Letter to come home tomorrow!)

A little Cosmic Yoga!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  We jumped right back into school on Tuesday preparing for the second half of the year. We began our morning with a quick review of school rules and routines and updated our class rules.  We wasted no time at all as on Tuesday morning, students completed the AIMSweb assessments.  I also have been busy completing some mid-year assessments in the classroom.  It is a great time to see just how far students have grown and make plans for new teaching.

You may have noticed on the calendar that the "Reading Medalist" program begins on Monday.  If you have had a 1st grader at Washington in the past, you are already familiar with this program.  An information packet and the first recording form will come home on Monday.  There are a few changes to the program, so please keep the packet handy for all of the rules and requirements.  If you were wondering where the January Book-It log is, there isn't one.  I will use the Reading Medalist tracking forms to award pizza coupons too.  No need to record books on two forms.

We celebrated two birthdays this week in 1st grade!  These cupcakes aren't helping with my New Year's resolution!  Happy Birthday to Jocelynn and Bentley!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: We began Unit 3 in reading with the story At Home in the Ocean.  Students are working to identify the author's purpose while reading.  Additionally, they were introduced to proper nouns.  In phonics students are working on writing words with the digraph th.

Math: We began our geometry unit in math this past week.  Students were introduced to plane shapes and began to understand the defining attributes of each.  Next week we will work with three-dimensional shapes.  Addition and subtraction are reviewed daily and I am seeing huge gains in fact fluency as of recently!  The students are working really hard at Daily 5 Math too.  We just recently introduced some Everyday Math Games on the computer as well as Math with Partner.

Alexis and Sam play building towers to work on addition.

Saad uses the Everyday Math website.

Finn plays Rocket Math on the iPad.

Bo completes his math notebook (independent practice).

Pyper and Gabrielle make shape monster at math with teacher.

Science: We finished learning about seasons very briefly this week.  Next week we will begin learning about the states of matter.  We'll start with a fun Oobleck experiment that is sure to be exciting!

Writing: In writer's workshop we are working on our "How To" texts.  We had quite the lesson on adding details to our writing while the students instructed me in how to make a jelly sandwich.  They learned that they leave out quite a few details, such as spreading the jelly from the knife onto the bread.  I played it up and we were all giggles as I spread the jelly jar on the bread!

Upcoming Reminders:

January 10: Washington Skate City Night

January 10: Reading Medalist Begins

January 13: Popcorn Sales

January 13: Book Orders Due