Sterling's Snippets: February 2018

It's hard to believe we are already halfway done with February. The last few weeks in first grade have been filled with hard work and fun. Today we celebrated friendship with a Valentine's Day breakfast. Thank you to all of the families that provided sweets and treats for our breakfast. It was a feast for (1st grade) kings and queens.

Students really enjoyed handing out and READING their Valentines as well. I enjoyed the sweet messages from the first graders.

We celebrated a birthday today in first grade! Happy Birthday, Roman!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: This past week we worked on the comprehension skill of main idea and details. This is one of the more challenging skills for first graders as they often think that the entire text is important. Students practiced reading, answering and writing questions as well. Next week we will spiral back to a skill we worked on earlier this year, compare and contrast. We will work to differentiate between the two terms as we read a fiction and nonfiction text.

Writing: We have jumped back into narrative writing for the second time this year. During our lessons, we will focus on adding more detail to our writing by telling our stories "bit by bit." Students are encouraged to add vivid verbs and dialogue to their stories. I'm excited to compare their writing samples today to those written in the beginning of the year. The growth I am seeing is amazing.

Math: Students are busy learning about time and money in math. First graders learned all about digital and analog clocks. They practiced telling time on both clocks to the hour and half-hour. We have also been working hard on identifying and stating the value of the penny, nickle, dime and quarter. We have practiced adding and subtracting coins, primarily the penny and dime.

Science: First graders have become geologists in science. We began our study of rocks and soil by learning about soil layers. We explored various soil samples and then created an edible demonstration of the layers of soil. Next we learned about rocks. Students learned that rocks are not alive. They also learned that all rocks are formed with various minerals. We compared this to a chocolate chip cookie, with lots of ingredients composing the entire cookie. Students used toothpicks to remove "minerals" from their rocks (cookies). Students were asked to bring a rock (fist sized or smaller) to school next week. We will begin to explore the properties of rocks on Tuesday.

Social Studies: Students learned about wants and needs from our Junior Achievement Volunteers. The volunteers will continue implementing lessons over the next few weeks.