What have the 1M O.W.L.S Been Up To?

We are having so much fun in First Grade! Read on to see what new and interesting things we are doing in our class...

Technology News

We are so excited to have a Smartboard in our classroom! We have been using it for calendar routine in the morning and we have used it for many Math and Science lessons throughout the week. The children LOVED using an interactive dice to play Roll a Fraction. They were able to learn about what the numerator is and the denominator and create fractions using this fun tool!

Science

We started our Animal Kingdom/Habitats unit. We will be working on this unit for the rest of the school year. We started off by learning about the concept of Living and Non-Living. The children did a fun activity using our Smartboard and then we went outside and used a checklist to search for living and non-living things.

Then we learned what a habitat is and what a good habitat needs. Today we went into the Science Lab and we created habitats for our pet mealworms! Each child got their very own pet mealworm and created a habitat for it using oatmeal and an apple slice. We named our mealworms and we observed them too. We did a few fun experiments with them, such as blowing on our mealworms, tapping the table near the mealworms, and we even used a dropper to drop a little water on them! We discussed our observations and recorded the data in our mealworm journals. The children had so much fun! Ask them to tell you more about it!!

Meet our Pet Mealworms!

Fairy Tales
Once upon a time we started our fairy tale unit and now it is coming to an end. We finished up our unit by reading many different versions of Cinderella. We used a map to locate the different countries that the different versions came from. We compared and contrasted the versions and we analyzed characters. We just started publishing our own Cinderella stories, which are enchanting! Stay tuned for information about our Publishing Ball!! The children used puppets to act out different fairy tales that they created with a partner. We also finished up our digital storytelling project where the children wrote their own Three Little... fairy tale and then practiced reading it with expression. Each child made a recording of their fairy tale. The children did a great job writing and reading their stories with expression. I will email the recordings on Friday.

Reading
We had a great time learning about making Inferences. We kicked off learning about inferences by solving a mystery. We broke up into four groups and each group got an envelope of mysterious evidence. Together they had to make a list of the evidence and then infer what/why it was used. Then we got together as a whole class and shared our evidence. We puts the pieces together and solved the mystery of what Tim and his Grandma did on the snowy day! We practiced using inferences in our Guided Reading groups and in our centers. We also worked on visualization.

We began Literature Circles. Each child is assigned a role, such as Artful Artist(visualizes), Connector, Detective(asks questions), Word Wizard, and Super Reader. We read a section or chapter of our guided reading book and each child is responsible for their role. Then we discuss the story using our information to help us.

Fun with Fractions

We had a blast working with fractions. The children used playdough to show fair shares, made fraction pizzas, played fraction concentration, and roll a fraction.
We created fractionpillars and fraction kites to also reinforce the skills learned. The children used the Smartboard to play some fun interactive fractions games. We had a fun time using bubblegum to practice fractions. We all tried blowing bubbles and then wrote a fraction to show how many students at our table could and could not blow a bubble. Here are some pics...

The Quilt Project

The children have been busy sewing their quilt squares together. Please send in all quilt squares by Monday. Jayne's aunt will be sewing our quilt together. Thanks so much for helping out with this fun project! The children are so excited!
We even created a paper quilt. Each child designed a paper quilt square using different shapes. Then they compared what shapes they used and we put all of the squares together.

Trips

Our trip to see Seussical is this Friday, 4/20. We will NOT be eating lunch in the AP Room so please send in a lunch from home. We will be eating in the classroom at 11:00 and then leaving for the trip at 11:45.

On Monday, 4/23, we will be going to Kateri. Please make sure your child is dressed down in clothes suitable for a nature walk. Make sure they wear closed toe sneakers/shoes. It is an all day trip so please send a lunch with your child.