Happy First Day of Spring! The Question of the Day was: do you like to play outside when it is raining? This quite nicely foreshadowed today's lunch recess which started out dry and ended quite wet. The boys and girls loved seeing that their spring flowers are now on display in the classroom windows. By the end of the day, the fish prints were also on display, but they are in the hallway next to the paper people.
Morning work involved completed circles of kindness. Students wrote ideas about how they can show kindness to themselves, their family, their school, and their community. We shared thoughts and I have sent the papers home for further discussion. One of topics that arose was taking care of the school grounds. We noticed that the butterfly garden had not been treated well by visitors and talked about what we could do to remedy the situation. Ask your child about this! One of the ideas was to repair the stone borders to keep people from stepping on the plants that were beginning to sprout. Some of these sprouts are from the tulip and daffodil bulbs we planted in the fall! Several eager students decided to do some garden work during lunch recess. That was awesome--although parents of the children with muddy clothing may have a slightly different take on that!
The grains of rice delivered to Pong Lo continued to grow in A Grain of Rice. We are now at over one million grains! The Emperor is so anxious that he called in his Royal Mathematician. Ask your child about the developments in the story.
Morning recess time was spent inside the classroom. Had you walked into the classroom you would have seen students participating in the following activities: reading, small group art project, chess, checkers, exploring artifacts from Asia, and investigating fossils.
The first graders worked with partners again during math. Today, they worked on the chapter review together. I noticed great teamwork and overheard wonderful math conversations.
The specials classes of the day were ASL, STEAM, and Civics. In the latter, the students considered how one acquires responsibilities and thought about their costs and benefits. During Inner Explorer, the boys and girls practiced being comfortably quiet. This was extremely challenging for many of my little friends!
During science, the boys and girls each received a drawing of a horse skeleton. They then colored groups of bones in different colors. After this, they each received a drawing of a stegosaurus skeleton. Using the first skeleton picture as a guide, they matched up similar groups of bones on the dinosaur skeleton. First grade isn't too early for lessons in comparative anatomy, is it? :)
We moved on to learning about Korean culture and history in social studies. First, we read Bee Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park. The story made everyone hungry! Next, we continued with another book by Linda Sue Park: The Firekeeper's Son. Finally, we acted out the bonfire message system described in the book. Ask your child about this!
We will visit the computer lab to begin the life timeline project for our autobiographies tomorrow.
Morning work involved completed circles of kindness. Students wrote ideas about how they can show kindness to themselves, their family, their school, and their community. We shared thoughts and I have sent the papers home for further discussion. One of topics that arose was taking care of the school grounds. We noticed that the butterfly garden had not been treated well by visitors and talked about what we could do to remedy the situation. Ask your child about this! One of the ideas was to repair the stone borders to keep people from stepping on the plants that were beginning to sprout. Some of these sprouts are from the tulip and daffodil bulbs we planted in the fall! Several eager students decided to do some garden work during lunch recess. That was awesome--although parents of the children with muddy clothing may have a slightly different take on that!
The grains of rice delivered to Pong Lo continued to grow in A Grain of Rice. We are now at over one million grains! The Emperor is so anxious that he called in his Royal Mathematician. Ask your child about the developments in the story.
Morning recess time was spent inside the classroom. Had you walked into the classroom you would have seen students participating in the following activities: reading, small group art project, chess, checkers, exploring artifacts from Asia, and investigating fossils.
The first graders worked with partners again during math. Today, they worked on the chapter review together. I noticed great teamwork and overheard wonderful math conversations.
The specials classes of the day were ASL, STEAM, and Civics. In the latter, the students considered how one acquires responsibilities and thought about their costs and benefits. During Inner Explorer, the boys and girls practiced being comfortably quiet. This was extremely challenging for many of my little friends!
During science, the boys and girls each received a drawing of a horse skeleton. They then colored groups of bones in different colors. After this, they each received a drawing of a stegosaurus skeleton. Using the first skeleton picture as a guide, they matched up similar groups of bones on the dinosaur skeleton. First grade isn't too early for lessons in comparative anatomy, is it? :)
We moved on to learning about Korean culture and history in social studies. First, we read Bee Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park. The story made everyone hungry! Next, we continued with another book by Linda Sue Park: The Firekeeper's Son. Finally, we acted out the bonfire message system described in the book. Ask your child about this!
We will visit the computer lab to begin the life timeline project for our autobiographies tomorrow.