Happy Thanksgiving to Your Family!

Greetings 1st grade families!  I hope this blog post greets you enjoying time with your family and friends.  Even though it was a short week, we still managed to cram in lots of fun and memories.  We began our week learning a little bit about the history of Thanksgiving.  We read The First Thanksgiving and watched a short video as part of our Studies Weekly curriculum.  We then practiced retelling the story while making bracelets.  Each color bead represented a different event in our story.  Here is Connor showing off his work!

Next it was time to review verbs.  We read the story Run Turkey Run and then came up with our own phrases using different verbs.  We had some really cute ideas including: "Dance turkey dance, cartwheel turkey cartwheel and finally launch turkey launch.  Below Hazel and Aubrey work on their Turkey Verbs project.  The adorable projects are on display in our classroom right now!

Then it was time to work with non-standard measurement in math.  Students used a turkey feather to measure objects around the classroom, including their partner.  Below Coby, Aiden, Connor, Colton and Chace work on measuring.

In math we also played counting on Turkey Thump.  Partners practiced rolling a numeral dice and a dot dice to add and count on with numbers up to 18.  They covered a turkey feather with a candy corn and could "Thump" their neighbor off if a feather was occupied.  Below Isaac, Nico, Tina, Coby and Brookelyn play.

We then read the story, Turkey Trouble, where a turkey decides to disguise himself so that he won't be eaten.  Following the  story, the students worked to disguise a turkey of their own.  Below you will see turkeys disguised as a Ninja and Superhero.

In the midst of all of this Thanksgiving fun we had our November Character Assembly.  The following students were recognized this month:

Exercise: Ella

Patriotism: Preston

Giving: Coby

Character Champion: Carter

Finally, our class learned about the real meaning behind Thanksgiving, being with the people you care about and spending time together.  We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and then had a Charlie Brown Feast of pretzels, popcorn, jellybeans and toast.  The students each took turns sharing something or someone they were thankful for as we enjoyed our meal.  YUM!

Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday and break,

Field Trip Fun!

Happy Friday!  We had a great week in 1st grade, minus a few hurdles such as a sick teacher and snow!  It is definitely getting cold, so please send snow pants, boots and winter gear daily.  The students can store the items in their locker and bring them home on Fridays (or leave them at school if you have an extra set).  Remember, Fargo Public School students will go outside as long as the windshield is -15 degrees or above.

This week we prepared for Thanksgiving with a fun turkey project, which you will see on your child's locker.  We will make another turkey next week while learning about verbs which will be on display in our classroom.

We visited the Plains Art Museum on Thursday, November 19 where students learned about Picasso's art work as well as made their second clay project, the penguin!  The penguins will be brought home with students in about a month.  Your child should have brought home a bright, pink coupon for your entire family to visit the museum again, free of charge!  Enjoy this wonderful opportunity.  I am sure your little artist can share with you what they have learned.  While you wait to see the finished project, check out these great photos below!

In science we have been learning all about sound and vibrations.  We spent a day exploring like scientists with balloons, drums, string, harmonicas, and rubber bands.  The students were challenged to make the objects vibrate which would in turn make sound.  Check out some of our exploring below.

We celebrated another birthday, today!  Happy Birthday Sonja!

Upcoming Events

November 25-November 29: No School, Thanksgiving Break

December 7-13: Mrs. Sterling absent on a family vacation.  Mrs. Eide will be the substitute teacher all week.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and prepares for a short week where students will explore why they are Thankful, at the start of this holiday season!

No School Wednesday

Good morning!  As we begin our week, remember that there is No School on Wednesday, November 11 for Veteran's Day.  Book orders will also be due tomorrow, Tuesday, November 10.

Last week I was able to look at student growth and am excited to share results with you at conferences.  The students have been working so hard for the past 50 days of 1st grade and their work has paid off through evidence of growth and progress.  Conferences are just around the corner.  If something changes and you are unable to make your scheduled time, please let me know so that we can reschedule.

Last week students dove into our next unit in math with a cooperative exercise that involved counting large quantities of objects.  Working in groups, students were given a bucket of objects (candy, straws, bears, Popsicle sticks, etc.) and were asked to count these objects as a team.  The catch, there were several hundred of the object!  Students had do devise a plan, organize their process and in the end, determine how many they had.  Finally, students appointed a speaker to share their process and total with the class.  This cooperative lesson met so many standards not only in mathematics but with speaking, listening, and collaboration.  Check out some great pictures of the process below.

 

We made quick trip down to Mr. Seeba's room to work on a turkey project with our 4th grade buddies.  It is so fun seeing the relationships forming with these students.  I often hear my students say "I just saw my buddy in the hallway" with excitement.

Upcoming Reminders

November 10: Book Order's Due

November 11: No School

November 17, 19, & 23: Parent Teacher Conferences

November 19: Field Trip to Plains Art Museum

Pumpkin Fun and Much More!

Good Evening,

Wow, what a week!  I am exhausted but feel wonderful about the learning and fun that took place this week.  It was pumpkin week and we had lots of fun exploring pumpkins through science, math, and literacy.  Thank you so much to everyone that shared pumpkins!  A few wonderful parents planned and chaperoned our class party.  That's right, they did all of the work!  The kiddos had a great time!  There were so many pictures from the week and party festivities I decided to share them through a little slideshow!  Click here to see it!  Enjoy!

We also had the October Character Champion Assembly.  Five students in our class were recognized for demonstrating the weekly words, with one student highlighted as our class' Character Champion for the month.  Congratulations to all of our students.

Cooperation: Adrien

Respect: Colton

Politeness: Tinah

Golden Rule: Olivia

Our Character Champion for this month was Aubrey.  I shared how Aubrey has been extra helpful with a few recent guest teachers.  They both commented that she was helpful, kind and caring.  Way to go Aubrey!

Conference Notice will go home on Monday.  Please return the forms as soon as possible.  If your scheduled day or time doesn't work, please let me know and we can adjust.  I am more than happy to schedule a before school or alternate day conference if needed.  

The November Calendar has been placed in your child's G.O. Book.  Please check it for important dates including a few none school days and an upcoming field trip.

We had two birthdays this past week.  Happy Birthday Hazel and Aubrey!   These two girls were both pretty in purple on their special days!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: We are finishing up our third unit in reading next week.  The students have learned some important skills such as identifying a central message, recalling story events, and comparing two pieces of literature.  A key piece to 1st grade reading is grammar and conventions.  Don't worry if your child doesn't quite seem to understand nouns, verbs, adjectives, or pronouns.  We will spiral through the parts of speech and continue learning about them this year.  I will say, this is always one of the hardest skills for my first graders each year (understandably).

Math: We took our Unit 2 Math test last week and you were able to view the results.  Math tests are still new to 1st graders since they did not take them in kindergarten.  The "writing" component is quite challenging at this time of the year as well.  I am trying to keep the students positive and remind them to simply try their best.  You will be amazed to see some of their math thinking strategies that they were already able to share!  We took the Cumulative Assessment on Units 1 and 2 this week which I will share with you at conferences.

Writing: We are busy writing our Opinion, Blue Ribbon Papers.  Students are busy "judging" their own collections and writing about them using the word "because."  We added this word to our student dictionaries because it is "so long and so hard!"  

Upcoming Reminders:

November 2: Book-It Due (Optional)

November 10: Book Orders Due

November 11: No School

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!  It looks as though the weather will be nice on Saturday and Sunday!

Fall Break and a Little Rest

The students are busy at art class with Mrs. Dronen so I am able to blog a bit about our last couple of weeks and some exciting upcoming adventures in 1st grade!  I will apologize now, this is going to be a long one (lots of photos)!  I hope you enjoy these extra couple of days off.  We will be celebrating my son, Carson's 6th Birthday on Friday!

Last week brought a fun opportunity to do a few projects, science and social studies with Columbus Day.  We began the day with an anchor chart to look at the students schema, or background about the holiday.  Aside from "he was a boy" and "he had a ship" the learning that would occur was all going to be new!  We read several books about Columbus, watched a couple of animated clips and explored using mini-books to learn about Columbus.  The students then played a Columbus Day math game with their partner.

Tinah and Nico play Columbus Day Roll and Cover BUMP.

The highlights for the day were probably the snack and boat races.  Check out some photos below to look at our fun!

Columbus Boats

Chace and his Columbus Boat Treat. 

Aubrey preparing for her boat race.

When the day was through, we went back and added to our anchor chart (their schema is inside the bubble) and added.  Look at that new knowledge!

We also celebrated Aiden's Birthday.  Happy Birthday Aiden, we loved the Donuts!

This week we traveled by bus to MSUM to Fuego Tropical, a steel drum presentation.  The presentation was packed with over 850 1st graders.  The students sang and danced along to music from all around the world.  As usual, the students were well behaved, responsible and attentive.

Check out that dancing!

A Peek at our Week:

Reading: We are busy in both whole group and small group reading.  By now you are seeing lots of books coming home with your child.  They are reading more fluently and beginning to monitor and self-correct when reading.  I can't wait to share their progress at conferences.  Students are learning about several parts of speech like proper nouns, verbs and adjectives.  Today we practiced using commas in dates by acing as "Comma Cops."  Next week we will read The Recess Queen, a darling story, and use it to identify the main idea and key details.  We will also use adjectives to describe a character, Mean Jean.

Math: Addition and Subtraction is our focus in math currently.  Students are using drawings, objects and equations to solve problems.  If you were wondering if I planned to send home the Math Home Links, I had decided NOT to.  I just feel there is enough homework coming home.  Students are playing "games" to learn important skills and I am meeting with two small groups daily to boost addition and subtraction fluency.

Writing: Did you read your child's information book?  All students presented an information book to their audience (our class) last week.  They were fabulous for only 35 days of school!  We are slowly moving towards writing opinions.  A letter accompanying a bag will come home with your child today asking for a "collection" to be brought to school.  Our first lessons in opinion writing will involve students judging their own personal collections.  Please help your child find a collection of 5, similar items to bring to school on Monday.

Upcoming Reminders:

• Happy Birthday Hazel - October 25
• Happy Birthday Aubrey - October 28
• Reading Raider Tic-Tac-Toe Due - October 28
• Learn Not to Burn Firefighter Visit - October 29
• Character Assembly - October 30 @ 9:00 
• Fall Party - October 30 @ 1:30 - No costumes please!
• October Book-It Due - October 30

Thank you for all of the pumpkins!  Enjoy your long weekend,

Horned Lizards, Jackrabbits, Blue Footed Boobyies and Scorpians Galore!

Good afternoon!  I will just blog briefly today about our week.   We had the opportunity to write and draw about animals we have been learning about in both science and reading.  After reading, What Do You Do With a Tail Like That? students drew a picture and wrote about an interesting animal.  Each of these animals have a special body part that helps them move or survive. These are a few exemplars I selected to share with the class.  Aren't theses just great!

These (above and below) are horned lizards who squirts blood out of their eyes.  GROSS! 

This is a scorpion with stingers.

This is a jackrabbit that uses its ears to stay cool.

This is a blue-footed booby that dances.

In math we have been learning about addition.  Students were human models in the communicative property.  They learned that in addition, the order of the addends does not matter, the answer will always be the same.  In other words, 2+3=5 and 3+2=5.

Upcoming Reminders:

• Weekly Word Writing is due every Friday.  We had 14 students participate this week, let's shoot for 16 next week!  
• The Reading Raider will be due on October 28.
• Book Orders are due on October 12.
• We will celebrate Aiden's Birthday on October 14.

Enjoy the warm weather this weekend,

Daily 5 Math

Okay, okay I know you are getting tired of hearing me say how amazing my class is, but they are!  I am always telling parents and other teachers how lucky I am, and it's true!  It is time for you to understand why!  Last week I began talking about Daily 5 Math to my students.  I explained that Daily 5 Math looks a lot like Daily 5 Reading and we have to learn the rules and routines before we can start it.  We spent a little time in math each day last week reviewing rules and learning about a few activities.  Fast forward to Monday of this week and the 1st graders were eager to give it a try.

Daily 5 Math is similar to Daily 5 Reading in that it provides me with the opportunity to work with students individually or in small groups while the other students are quiet and actively engaged in purposeful activities.  Eventually, students will participate in Math with Self, Math with Partner, Math on Computer, Math with Teacher and Math Journals.  For now, they have just learned about Math with Self and Math Journals.  Below you will see a few photos of students trying some of the Math with Self activities including Geoboards, Roll and Color, Roll and Count On, Dice in a Dice Addition, Addition Towers, and Tangrams.  In total, we have 10 different activities available right now.  It might look like playing, but each of these activities have students working on a variety of mathematical skills.

Now the really neat part about this all!  Watch and see just how quiet my room is during these student-led activities below.  WOW!  Have you ever seen so many six and seven year olds working so quietly?  Don't try to turn up your volume, that is really what the room sounds like!  You can only year a few dice being tossed and some unifix cubes being snapped.

 

I'll post a short weekly update at the end of this week.  For now, thank your child for being so amazing and working so hard in 1st grade!