First Grade is Fun!

Fall is here! We have been talking about the wonderful changes that fall brings. We learned all about apples! We learned about the legend of Johnny Appleseed, the parts of an apple, how an apple tree grows, and we even had an apple taste test! We did a science experiment to see if all apples have the same amount of seeds. Ask your child for the results! Then we ended our apple unit by making homemade applesauce. It was a lot of fun! We learned some fun songs and poems about apples and we read some wonderful stories about apples.

Reading

In Reading we continued to work on the strategies that good readers use. Please see the link on the sidebar with some helpful strategies that good readers use. We worked on finding a little word in a big word to help us read and we worked on chunking out the words. We used little word wands and word windows to help us look for chunks and words in words. We also worked on making predictions. We read This is My House, Country Mouse and City Mouse, and Country Kid and City. These stories were a perfect addition since our theme in Social Studies is Communities! The children continued to work in Literacy Centers. We also worked on sight words. They are doing such a fabulous job!

Phonics/Word Work

In Phonics we are working on the short i sound. We did word sorts, created short i words with letter cards, and worked on the short i sound in various stations during Literacy Centers. We also worked on making words by actually being the letters! See below!

Math
We have been busy reading, using, and creating graphs in Class 1M! We learned about different types of graphs and why we use graphs. We learned how to make a tally chart and then use the information to create a graph. The children were paired up and given a tally chart with a survey question. They surveyed their classmates and then used the information to create a graph. We also worked on using a graph to answer questions. We used magazine photos to create our own graphs. They did an exceptional job and had a lot of fun too.

Ipad Fun!
This week we began our unit on Communities. We learned what a community is and that there are different types of communities. We used Ipads to look at different photographs of various communities and then we played a game where the children had to guess which type of community it was and then we talked about their responses. They had fun!

We also used the Ipads to practice our sight words and play some fun math games. On Friday we took pictures of ourselves making applesauce. Then the children wrote about the steps we took to make the applesauce. Each child typed a step on the Ipad. We compiled their work and created a slideshow.

I happened to take a peek in the keyboarding lab and I saw Mrs. Caldwell and our class using the keyboards and doing a wonderful job!