Friday, September 14, 2012

Hello Everyone!

What a great week it was in first grade! Our math objectives for the week were learning about the features of a calendar as well the routine of tracking the weather everyday. We spend time together as class practicing the basics of a calendar as well as recording the weather on the Smart Board. Temperature and the thermometer will be introduced to them next week. If anyone has an extra outside thermometer hidden deep in their garage, we would love to borrow it  and put it outside our window! The students are slowly starting to understand how we put our math materials away in the correct bins. I stress to them everyday how important it is to put materials and tools we use away in the correct places so that we can find it easily next time we go to use them.

Frogs, frogs, frogs! The children have really been diving head first into various resources to find more about frogs. This interest came about when we were out in the garden and we saw a frog hopping around.  The students have been learning through both non-fiction and fiction books, Ipads, and the laptops. The Ipads are their favorites, but they get really excited when I get new frog books at the library for them to explore with! With this project, the main objective, among others, is for them to understand that all living things have basic needs to survive. What are the basic needs of a frog? What are the basics needs of humans? Are they the same or different? They are interested in comparing the needs of different animals and plants. The children are learning to communicate with one another to share information and research that they find.

On Tuesday, we spent some time out in the garden thinking about what recipes we could come up with using the vegetables from all the gardens. Thought I would share a few:
  • Kaydence: Vegetable soup
  • Michael: Spaghetti with tomato sauce (making sure I was aware that we would need to buy the spaghetti at the store)
  • Isabella A: A salad
  • Melania: Pumpkin seeds
We sure did get a plethora of ideas! The children decided they were going to make spaghetti sauce because we have so many tomatoes in the garden. Our chefs will be making this on Friday, September 21st.

Also, today we had our first Chinese class! Wow... I still can't get over how engaged the student's were. They were asking Jing, the Chinese teacher, so many thoughtful and serious questions. I just had to sit back and enjoy! The students today learned how to say hello, eyes, nose, and mouth in chinese. Next week, they will be learning their Chinese names.


Thank you to Mrs. Neel for donating 4 amazing "I wonder why..." books to our school library! I just know the children will be so excited for these!

Starting Monday, I will be sending home reading folders for your child to work on throughout the week. The children will choose one good-fit book, as well as the guided reading book they will be working on in class with myself and a small group. The purpose of the reading folders is for your child to build fluency by reading the same book numerous times, as well as for you to sit and listen to your child read at their independent reading level.  Just like last year, there will be a log included that has different suggestions on ways you can enhance this reading time. The directions will be in the folder, so be on the lookout!

Have a terrific week! Looking forward to next week!

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