Week of December 6 – 10, 2010

We had a fun and busy week! Due to the cold weather, we had several indoor recesses but used our time to continue to explore the geoblocks that are “very cool” to build with and play with. Check out some of the week’s highlights below:

Where in the World?

Our “Exploring the World” social studies unit is well under way. This week we worked with a partner to make a map of the classroom. We added symbols to our maps for things that are in our classroom as well as used a compass rose to orient ourselves. We are learning the cardinal directions as well as how to read map legends.

Math in 3-D

We finished up our geometry study with 3-dimensional shapes. We learned their names, explored the faces on the shapes, built with them and made them with paper. We also focused on the differences between triangles and quadrilaterals. Another fun activity was copying each other's “cube thing.” We took turns making an object using ten cubes and our partner copied what we made. It sounds a lot easier that it actually is!

We Love to Sing!

We love to sing! Singing has so many benefits. Besides being fun and keeping us moving, the songs in the classroom are also teaching tools. Research shows that learning things like the continents, or the capitals of states is easiest if it is in rhyme or song form. Singing while reading also builds sight word recognition and fluency skills. Each week or so we add a song we have been singing to “Poetry and Song” folder. We re-read the folder with a buddy or by ourselves, highlight sight words and find rhyming words. As a bonus, we will have a collection of all the poems and songs that we learned in First Grade at the end of the year!

Week of November 29 - Dcember 3, 2010

It was great to see everyone again after Thanksgiving Break! In Reading Workshop we used the read aloud “My Father’s Dragon” to talk about story structure, especially the setting and characters, in our reading groups. We used a rubric to help make our writing more readable for our “Writing for Readers” unit. In math we continued our study of geometry and we started our new social studies unit, “Explore the World.”

Explore the World

In our “Explore the World” social studies unit, we compared and contrasted maps and globes. We also talked about the compass rose on a map and map legends. Looking at compasses was a great hit and we figured out which direction each of the walls of the classroom face.

Geometry is Fun!

We continued our exploration of geometric shapes this week using Power Polygons and Geoboards. We played the game “What’s my rule?” to focus on characteristics of the shapes. Then we concentrated on triangles and what makes a triangle. The biggest hit was making triangles on geoboards! The students worked together to make as many triangles as possible by connecting their geoboards. They go up to twenty-nine boards and then we ran out of rubber bands. They also discovered that it takes the same amount of time to make shapes on a geoboard as it does to take them off.

Mystery Reader

Quint’s dad, Tom Cunningham, was our Mystery Reader this week. He read some of his and Quint’s favorite stories. It’s always so exciting to see who the Mystery Reader is each week! Wonder who it will be this week . . . ?

Week of November 15-19, 2010

The Book Fair was a highlight of our week with our preview day on Monday and our shopping day on Wednesday. Those Wish Lists will come in handy for future books to borrow from the public library or purchase at a local bookstore! In Reading Workshop we have been enjoying Buddy Reading (see post below) and continue to add sight words to our Word Banks. We began our unit, “Writing for Readers” where we will focus on writing clearly, using correct capitalization and punctuation, writing as many sounds as we hear in words and using less “and’s” to connect our thoughts. In Math we had fun with the hundreds boards and began our study of geometry. We ended our week with “Colonial Day” on Friday and made toys and played games that were popular during the colonial period in history. We wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving!!

Differentiation in Action!

Playing “Guess the Number” on our hundreds boards was a great opportunity to design ways to play the game that would challenge our brains. Some of us preferred to play the game in our workbooks; some of us wanted to hide the numbers on a board that showed all of the numbers; and some of us wanted to play on the side of the board that had no numbers at all! We could also play on a board with the numbers 1-50 and a board that with the numbers 101-200. We didn’t know it but we were differentiating our instruction!

Conflict Resolution

Our guidance counselor visited us this week along with her special friends Kelso and Kirby. We compared how they were alike and different and realized that we are all unique but sometimes our differences can cause conflicts. We are learning about the differences between small and big problems and how to solve them. WE also found out that we have Peer Mediators in our school who are older students that help us work out our problems.

Geometry

In Math Workshop we started our unit on geometry by exploring pattern blocks and other shapes both in the classroom and in the Computer Lab. There are so many interesting things we can do with geometric shapes including making designs and patterns, sorting them by attributes and solving puzzles like tanagrams and pentominoes. When we work with geometric shapes, it helps us develop our spatial and problem solving skills.

We LOVE to Read!

Buddy reading is a fun way to practice our reading skills. Each week we have one or two books that we read over and over to work on decoding strategies, word recognition and fluency. One of our favorite ways to do this is to read with a buddy. Sometimes, we take turns reading to each other and other times we read at the same time.

Colonial Day

As part of our Past, Present and Future Social Studies unit, we focused on the lifestyles of people that lived in the Colonial period in our country’s history. We learned that made their own clothes and toys with materials they had on hand. We wove a paper quilt, and made spinning tops, Bilbo catchers, fans and finger puppets. We also enjoyed a snack of apple cider and ginger snaps.

Weeks of November 1 – 12, 2010

In the past two weeks, we have been busy in and out of the classroom. Our efforts to raise money for the homeless were rewarded with a beautiful day for our walk around the field. We walk through the Courtyard Garden as much as possible to see what we can find and you’ll see our latest discovery below. We finished up our science unit with our own inventions and started our Social Studies unit on “Past, Present, and Future.” In Writing Workshop we prepared our “Small Moments” story for publication and in Reading Workshop we are enjoying reading a variety of books and adding new sight words to our Word Wall. We are getting lots of practice with subtraction using games on our iPads and iTouches in addition to our workbook and games from our Investigations curriculum. We have mastered addition facts to six and will move on to sums to nine.

Homeless Walk for ASPAN

Our Homeless Walk for ASPAN was a great success! We had fun carrying the banners e made during art class on the walk. The entire school came out for the walk and we raised nearly $4,000.00 for our homeless neighbors in Arlington!

Pavos!

In Spanish class we learned a song and made a turkey to help us remember the color words in Spanish.

First Publishing Party

We were excited to see so many parents at our very first Publishing Party on Friday. We enjoyed sharing our “Small Moments” stories with them. To get ready for the party we practiced reading our stories to each other.

A New Addition to our Classroom

On our way back from the Library on Friday we discovered a swallowtail caterpillar in the Courtyard Garden. He will stay with us in the classroom where wee hope he will make his chrysalis and then change into a butterfly in the spring.

Mystery Reader

Our Mystery Reader for the week read some of his childhood favorites to our First Graders. We LOVE to guess who our Mystery Reader will be each week!

Week of October 25-29, 2010

Happy Halloween! The primary team teachers got together and dressed up like dice in honor of all the fun math games we get to play with them. Our week was filled with pumpkins and bats and writing our own Halloween stories as well as hearing them too. We started our subtraction unit in math and are wrapping up our “What is a Scientist?” unit. The Halloween Parade and Party were a great way to end an exciting week!

Technology in the Classroom

For the first time this year, we got to practice our math facts using iPads and iPad touches. There are lots of fun applications to use and we will do this every Monday for the rest of the year to improve our math skills.

Scientists are Inventors

We used the recyclables that we have been bringing in to make up our own inventions. We had lots of opportunities to make mistakes and fix them and learn from them. Our inventions are on top of our lockers so be sure to come by and take a look!

Bat Rulers!

We had fun measuring things in our classroom with a “bat ruler.” After talking about the difference between standard and non-standard measuring tools (like a bat ruler) we measured everything from chairs, to pumpkins to ourselves! Then we decided to see how many bats long our classroom is. It is 154 bats long!

Measuring Pumpkins

We had a fun Friday even before the parade and party! We measured our mini pumpkins in a variety of ways to bring our science and math skills together. We used regular scales and balance scales for the weight; cubes for height; and a tape measure for the circumference of our pumpkins. We estimated first before measuring. We also compared our pumpkins’ statistics with each others to come up with some subtraction sentences. We also tested our pumpkins to see if they would sink or float.

Halloween Party

Our parents did a great job planning a fun Halloween Party. After listening to some fun Halloween stories, we paraded around the neighborhood with the rest of the school. Then after a yummy snack, we had a relay race outside. Then, we made lanterns, popcorn hands and felt some witches parts that one parent found on her door step that morning! It was yucky!!