Sterling's Snippets: Welcome Winter!

Winter weather is officially upon us! I'll be honest, I don't love the snow. For me it means wet shoes, heavy backpacks, and freezing temperatures, yuck! 1st graders, on the other hand, seem to enjoy playing in the snow! Don't forget to send appropriate winter gear for recess. We go outside unless it is -15 (temperature or wind chill) outside.

November began with a series of assessments to measure growth during the 1st trimester of the school year. All I can say is WOW, and I think you will too when I share their progress at conferences. While all students learn at different paces, everyone grows as a learner. I can see more confidence in their writing and more fluency in their ability to solve addition and subtraction problems.

We had a blast at our pumpkin party! Thank you for bringing donations to help make this event successful. The morning began with all things pumpkins: books, carving, seed counting, taste test, and more! In the afternoon we had a short party where we decorated cookies, played bingo and played the doubles saran wrap game. I'll admit, I was worried as I began wrapping prizes and candy in the saran wrap that one student would get it all. We managed to pass the ball around the circle two full revolutions, ensuring everyone got enough prizes and candy! Part of our party still remains, Pumpkin Jack. Ask your 1st grader about our pumpkin and how we are observing it over time.

Star Students

Don't worry, Lewie was all smiles when he was our Star Student. Lewie is a huge Bison fan, and I can't help but get a little (just a little) excited for him each week when the Bison play. The class was amazed to learn he was even born with six fingers! They thought that was super cool!

We love when we can celebrate birthdays as the Star Student! Griffin was not only our Star Student, but also turned 7 on Halloween! He shared that he enjoys having his birthday on a holiday as it is always fun! Griffin is an excellent writer and often shares his writing skills in class by making cards for his classmates.

Zeke was this past week's Star Student. He also celebrated a birthday and turned 7. If you can't tell by the photo, Zeke loves Star Wars. He taught the class a little bit about the different robots this week. Classmates of Zeke would say that he always makes other people smile. They especially like his special birthday song!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: This week students will read A Musical Day in class. They will work to analyze and evaluate a text by thinking about character traits of the characters in the story. We will take some time to explore musical instruments as well. In grammar students will learn about different sentence types. This week we will focus on statements.

Spelling: An informational letter will come home this week regarding spelling. It will be attached to this week's homework and spelling sort. Please note, this is a "practice sort" and all students will be completing the same spelling list. Beginning after Thanksgiving, students will work in spelling groups within 1st grade. Some students may participate in spelling in Mrs. Volrath or Mrs. Braaten's classrooms. Spelling is just another way we can differentiate the learning in 1st grade. Please help your child practice his or her sort using the homework menu as your guide. We will take spelling tests every Friday.

Writing: Last week we made trail mix as an introduction to How to Writing. I modeled writing a simple how to story for students including each step in the process. Students then worked to generate a list of activities that they are good at. Some examples include tying shoes, riding a bike, throwing a football, making a bed, and more! This week students will learn how to begin drafting a how to story.

Math: Last week we took our Unit 3 math test on subtraction. I will get these graded and home for you to review this week. We also learned how to access the Everyday Math games on the iPad. We took some time to practice the partner games on Friday. This week we will begin our next unit on geometry where students will learn about 2D and 3D shapes.

Science: We wrapped up our STEM unit on motion with our final STEM challenge. Students were challenged with building a miniature playground slide that was not only functional, but also fast. Students worked through the STEM design look to plan, design, engineer, and test their models. Students did considerably better than our last challenge.