Friday, March 25, 2011

Student Reporting

We are drafting our All About story books in Writers Workshop. We listened to Miss Blake’s fancied-up stories. They did awesome!


We have been paying close attention to characters in Readers Workshop and found traits that we like and don’t like.

 
In math, we keep figuring out new strategies for hard problems. We even learned tips to use when the number is missing from the middle.

 
We reminded ourselves what we can do when we are finished.
 
Pennies for Patients are still being collected through March 31st.

 
The weather was bad and snowy on the first day of spring!

 
Student Reporting by Ben

 

 

 
Mrs. Mc wants families to know of some upcoming dates that were not on the original calendar:

  • Next Friday, April 1st: CLOTHING CLASH DAY(for some April Fool’s Fun)

  • May 4: Butterfly program at Ox Ridge by the Bruce Museum


  • May 9-11: The-Hunt-for-a-Good-Book Book Fair in the Library


  • May 26th: Field Day, 12:45 – 2:15 (for families!)


  • May 27th: Field Day raindate, 12:45-2:15


  • June 8th: Memory Share and Ice Cream celebration, afternoon (for families!)

 
**Be on the lookout for the Musical performance dates…..

 

 

 

Sunday, March 20, 2011

SPRING IS HERE!

STUDENT REPORTING

This week was Conference week.  Mrs. Mc had us work very hard!

We started our All About story books on our own in Writers Workshop.  We feel great about our stories! 

In math, we learned strategies for figuring out math problems.  One that is really tricky is called Fact  Families when you have 3 numbers in a family and can write 2 subtraction facts and 2 addition facts using the same numbers.  Doubling is also helpful.

St. Patrick’s Day made us feel very lucky for many things.  Some of us thought there was a real leprechaun on the playground.  It didn’t play any tricks in the classroom.

The first place winner of the Iditarod dog race in Alaska was John Baker.  This was the first time he was in the race and he broke the fastest record.  He takes good care of his dogs.

Mrs. Mc wants families to be on the lookout for some upcoming dates this spring (field day, musical performance, memory share).  Coming soon!

Student Reporting by Austin, Peter and Jeremiah on Friday afternoon.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Student Reporting

We continued to read Dr. Seuss stories and learned that Dr. Seuss helps us with rhymes and important messages.

We shared our non-fiction team reports with kindergarten classes. That made us feel great.

In math, we learned about Capacity of containers and comparing objects using a balance scale.

We put 3-D objects together to make a creation that looks like a space ship or cruise ship.

We checked into the Iditarod dog race in Alaska. We found out that they will finish at the town of Nome.

Student Reporting by Andrew, Jack W, and Jack Y

Friday, March 4, 2011

STUDENT REPORTING



We celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday by making rhymes and having moms and dads make us green eggs and ham.  We also read a lot!


Simone shares Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

We are working on non-fiction writing projects in teams of 3 students. Some of our topics are shooting stars, dolphins, glaciers, marvelous mammals, blizzards, and America.

When a character talks in a book, we try to talk like them.

In Math, we are studying 2-D, flat shapes and 3-D shapes.




Student Reporting by Jacqueline, Madden, and Valentina

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

MARCH MCMONTHLY NEWS

IN LIKE A LION, OUT LIKE A LAMB?
March is coming in like a lamb this year.  Let's hope the lamb weather gets a little warmer!  You will be amazed at how fast time will fly in first grade this spring!

We kick off the month with Dr. Seuss' birthday!  We will participate in "Read Across America" in honor of Dr. Seuss this Wednesday.  A few ways the children can show their spirit for Read Across America and our "Green Eggs and Ham" Activity Afternoon is to wear red, white, and black clothing as "Cats in the Hat."  Or, if your child has a favorite hat or some crazy or mismatched socks, he or she could wear them on Wednesday as well.  In addition, if your child has any favorite Dr. Seuss books, he or she should feel free to bring them in to enjoy with their classmates throughout this week.

LANGUAGE ARTS
We continue to review short vowels, long vowels, and we are learning tricky sounds that look a little different and "don't follow the rules."   Paying close attention to the longer stories we are now reading helps us to rigure out what to do when words are tricky, and it also helps us to "jump" right into books with characters!  We are increasing our writing skills and focusing on compete sentences, proper punctuation, and story details.  We have been enjoying non-fiction writing and we officially move into writing our own "All About" stories.

MATH
We now begin to enjoy a new understanding of geometric shapes and have fun with different units of measurement (perhaps we can help cook more now!)  By the middle of the month, we will return to focus on the parts and total in addition and subtraction stories by using strategies such as doubling, counting on, counting back, and more.

BIRTHDAYS
Wednesday, March 2:          Simone Yang

REMINDERS
Wed, Mar. 2:  Wear red, white & black clothing, crazy socks, or hats
(Class Spirit Day in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday and Read Across America Day)
Fri., Mar. 4:  Scholastic orders due
Mar. 7 - 31:  Pennies for Patients School-wide Fundraiser
Mon., Mar. 11:  Progress Reports home
Mon-Wed., March 14-16:  Conferences, 1:30 dismissal

SPECIAL NOTES
  • Thanks for the continued box tops. The collection continues through May.
  • Thanks for your generous support in the Daffodil Drive.
  • Continued thanks to our Room Moms, Marijke Hart and Nancy Lombra, and all families for all the work you do with your children supporting our first grade learning

FEBRUARY WORDS

any
ate
blue
by
fly
from
funny
give
live
many
may
our
out
of
pretty



STUDENT REPORTING

Wow!  It has been busy in first grade.

We worked really hard on HOW TO stories.  We are experts at lots of stuff.  Now we're starting a new unit on ALL ABOUTs.

In Math, we have been adding Tens and Ones with really big numbers.

We enjoy our Superstars of the week and whoever the Class Pets visit.

In January, most of us had fun playing on the snow days at home.  But some of us wanted the groundhog to predict an early spring!  On the playground, the first graders made some cool creations and enjoyed playing on the big hills.  Some days were so cold that we couldn't even go outside!  It has been quite a winter!

It was cool when High Touch High Tech visited first grade! We studied shadows. We learned that you need three things to make a shadow: some light, an object, and a spot for the shadow to go (a surface).


On the 100th day of school (which turned out to be Wednesday, Feb. 9th) we made marshmallow creations!  We were able to touch some animals from the Darien Nature Center.  We learned a lot about the way animals move.  We had lots of fun on Valentines Day.  We shared valentines and celebrated friendships.

Mrs. Mc wants to remind parents that conference week was changed due to the 5 snow days and will be held one week later.