Sunshine and Warm Weather!

Happy Sunshine, finally!  Just a short blog post before I depart for the weekend!  We are so happy that the weather has finally decided to cooperate to allow for some time outdoors at school.  We were able to grab a couple extra recesses this week and it was great to see the students interacting and playing together.  We continue to work through problems that arise on the playground by talking and listening to one another.

Meet Erik

Erik was our Star Student last week and probably brought in one of the most interesting show and tell items: dead scorpions.  The students seriously were amazed and loved looking at the creatures!  Erik also shared his car from Cub Scouts which was pretty cool!  Erik is an all-around great kiddo to have in class everyday!

Meet Ashtyn

Ashtyn was this week's Star Student in first grade.  He really mastered the art of leading the students in Calendar.  Ashtyn also brought in an excellent monster book that I shared with the class!  I am always excited to share a book I have never seen and boy was it fun!  We love having Ashtyn in our class!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: In reading students worked to identify cause and effect relationships while reading Whistle for Willie.  Next week we will practice sequencing events using transition words.  We are busy learning about more complex vowel teams in phonics.  Guided Reading will continue for the next couple of weeks and then I will begin assessing students on their reading.  

Math: Students worked with place value to add two digit numbers this week.  Next week students will work to mentally solve problems using the most efficient strategy.  Students will take several end of year math assessments in May.

Social Studies: We are busy learning about maps in Social Studies.  The students enjoyed getting creative by making maps of their city.  Check out these creative maps!

Writing: Our All About Animals research project is going great!  Students have finished their research and are working hard in the drafting stage.  Next week we will create an All About the Author and Dedication page.  We will also work on citing sources.

Upcoming Reminders

April 26-27: No School

May 3: STEAM Night

May 9: Firetruck Visit

May 11: Muffins for Moms (Please let me know if you are unable to attend and I will join your child for a muffin)

Field Trip Fun!

Greetings!  We have had a busy couple of weeks in first grade with lots of learning and fun!  Last week we visited Essentia Health for Operation Big Band-Aid and had a blast.  Students all took part in a mini-play about visiting the hospital.  We had amazing actors and actresses in our class!  I hope you were able to view the photos via Seesaw.

Hip-Hip Hooray!  We celebrated a birthday in 1st Grade.  Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: While reading Amazing Animals, we will work on using text evidence to draw conclusions about what an author doesn't directly say.  We will pair this text with several others written by Sandra Markle including What Would You Do with Animal Teeth?, What Would you Do with Animal Feet?, and What would you do with Animal Hair?.  These texts will pair nicely with our unit in writing as well.  We continue to learn about R controlled vowels (ir, er, and ur) this week.  Last week we had a blast learning about ar and or on our treasure hunt.

Writer's Workshop: Students participated in a gallery walk to showcase their writing skills with one another as we wrapped up personal narrative writing.  Now, we are knee deep in research in first grade!  Students began the research process by selecting a topic (animal) to learn more about.  Students will utilize both print and digital resources to answer research questions.  Last week we began collecting information working hard to identify key words.  Over the next month, students will continue researching, draft and publish an All About _____ book.  We are hoping to have our books complete for the Reading Medalist program where students will also share art work and writing in the classroom after the program.

Math: We continue to work with two and three digit numbers and place value in math.  Students are working to decompose numbers in their expanded form.  Last week students were introduced to the symbols for greater than and less than with a fun alligator chant: "Hungry for lunch, hungry for lunch!  Find the greatest number and munch, munch, munch!"  

Social Studies: In social studies students began learning about maps.  This week several hands on activities will allow students to create maps of the school, classroom and their neighborhood.  We will introduce key vocabulary words including map keys, symbols, cardinal directions and compass.

Upcoming Reminders:

April 13: School Carnival & Book Orders Due (Don't forget to use the coupon)

April 18: Camp T-Shirt Orders Due 

April 19: Reading Medalist Forms Due (partial forms are accepted)

April 20: Washington Movie Night