Happy Wednesday! We eased into the day with the students sharing random bits of news with each other. 😊 Our Fun Facts of the Day taught us that the eye of a giant squid can be as big as a basketball and the White House has 132 rooms. We colored gumball number 132, wrote 132 in Roman Numerals, and read the Message of the Day. This led to a good discussion about being friends with someone who is different than you. The first graders were able to think of many examples of this including friends who have different skin colors, friends who like different things, friends who are older/younger than each other, friends whose families look different, friends who are girls and boys, and friends who are different sizes. A literacy example was Mrs. Silver and Mr. Hoppy in Esio Trot.
After a quick break, we read the lovely book Amos & Boris by William Steig. This is the same author who wrote another book we read together: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. William Steig also wrote Shrek! In the story, a whale saves an ocean-loving mouse. Years later, the whale is in trouble. Ask your child for details! This story with its rich language and caring characters deserves to be read again with your family.
During a second reading session with Amos & Boris, we circled back to the reading passage the students read on their own earlier in the week. Today, we discussed some of the words the boys and girls circled to identify words whose meanings they did not know or "squiggled" to show they were not sure how to pronounce them. We worked together to figure out the meaning of the words using context clues, background knowledge, word parts, illustrations, and the dictionary. The help with pronunciation came from the teacher. 🙂 We will explore more of the expressive vocabulary words in the story in the days ahead.
After a quick break, we read the lovely book Amos & Boris by William Steig. This is the same author who wrote another book we read together: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. William Steig also wrote Shrek! In the story, a whale saves an ocean-loving mouse. Years later, the whale is in trouble. Ask your child for details! This story with its rich language and caring characters deserves to be read again with your family.
During a second reading session with Amos & Boris, we circled back to the reading passage the students read on their own earlier in the week. Today, we discussed some of the words the boys and girls circled to identify words whose meanings they did not know or "squiggled" to show they were not sure how to pronounce them. We worked together to figure out the meaning of the words using context clues, background knowledge, word parts, illustrations, and the dictionary. The help with pronunciation came from the teacher. 🙂 We will explore more of the expressive vocabulary words in the story in the days ahead.
Following the morning break, the first graders practiced writing the D'Nealian capital letters U and H. The students then had asynchronous work time to study their spelling words and read books about Australia on Epic.
Our math session focused on representing subtraction situations with number sentences using a square symbol for the unknown number. The first graders shared their thought processes with aloud with each other and revealed their problem solving methods. Sometimes the subtraction situations described in the word problems were solved by thinking about them in terms of addition. Ask your child to explain how this is possible!
In science, we continued exploring fossils. Today, the first graders learned that there were different kinds of fossils as seen in the photo below. They also were shown several real plant and animal fossils including a huge dinosaur footprint, petrified wood, ancient ferns, a dinosaur toe bone, and dinosaur skin. Fossilized dinosaur poop was of special interest. Thank you to the first graders who shared some of their own fossil specimens. The class ended with a do-it-yourself fossil making kit. Students were encouraged to use playdough and shells to make a variety of temporary "fossil" impressions. They also have a recipe to make edible fossils. You may wish to make more permanent models of fossils using the technique described here. I have done this with groups in the past with excellent results.
In science, we continued exploring fossils. Today, the first graders learned that there were different kinds of fossils as seen in the photo below. They also were shown several real plant and animal fossils including a huge dinosaur footprint, petrified wood, ancient ferns, a dinosaur toe bone, and dinosaur skin. Fossilized dinosaur poop was of special interest. Thank you to the first graders who shared some of their own fossil specimens. The class ended with a do-it-yourself fossil making kit. Students were encouraged to use playdough and shells to make a variety of temporary "fossil" impressions. They also have a recipe to make edible fossils. You may wish to make more permanent models of fossils using the technique described here. I have done this with groups in the past with excellent results.
During social studies, the first graders were provided time to explore Australia using a Google Earth slideshow. We then got back together again for our Closing Circle. We listened to several more Terrible Stories before saying good-bye to each other.
Parents, please check the April 15 learning plan to prepare your child for class on Thursday. Thank you!
Parents, please check the April 15 learning plan to prepare your child for class on Thursday. Thank you!