Happy Tuesday! When we gathered for our morning meeting, the first graders shared more of their stegosaurus projects with Stella Dino. She loved the careful, colorful, and detailed work! We took care of our Number of the Day tasks and learned a fun joke: What does a can of soda call its father? Pop! 😄 The morning message was an even bigger hit. I confess to having watched only the first three Star Wars movies, so I heard the names of many new characters today! It was nice of Yoda to join us for the day.
During literacy, we read "The Mud Family" in our Junior Great Books again. Afterwards, we discussed some of the wonderings the students had after the first reading. The first graders also looked for evidence in the text to support their responses to the following question: Why does Sosi say she won't move? Ask your child to explain what he/she thought and why.
Our May calendar only had a few events to note for this month. This was our first month without any Room 104 birthdays. After completing their May calendars, the first graders worked independently on their autobiography projects. Here are some of the chapters the in-person learners were writing or rewriting: the story of my name, my favorites, me as a baby, and the family chart. Everyone seemed to be off to a great start!
In the afternoon, we watched Ms. Miller's announcements and saw Gemma lead the Pledge of Allegiance. During math, the first graders put collections of coins in order from greatest to least value to find their total value. They also drew sets of coins in order the same way and wrote their total value. Keep practicing identifying the coins!
The focus of science for the rest of the week is amphibians. To get started, we watched the video Bill Nye, the Science Guy: Amphibians. One surprising facts we learned was that amphibians can breathe through their skin. Another interesting piece of information was that besides frogs/toads and salamanders, there is a third kind of amphibian. Ask your child to tell you about caecilians! You can read more about them here. We also quickly peeked at our resident amphibians: Pinky the axolotl and the frogs. We'll spend more time with them later this week.
After DEAR Time and a recess break, we reviewed the characteristics of amphibians. I read the book About Amphibians: A Guide for Children to the class before showing them a the ActiveWild website, which has much more amphibian information. The students completed a fill-in-the-blank worksheet based on the information from the amphibian video we watched. They then had the option to use the ActiveWild website to find answers to other questions about amphibians.
Our May calendar only had a few events to note for this month. This was our first month without any Room 104 birthdays. After completing their May calendars, the first graders worked independently on their autobiography projects. Here are some of the chapters the in-person learners were writing or rewriting: the story of my name, my favorites, me as a baby, and the family chart. Everyone seemed to be off to a great start!
In the afternoon, we watched Ms. Miller's announcements and saw Gemma lead the Pledge of Allegiance. During math, the first graders put collections of coins in order from greatest to least value to find their total value. They also drew sets of coins in order the same way and wrote their total value. Keep practicing identifying the coins!
The focus of science for the rest of the week is amphibians. To get started, we watched the video Bill Nye, the Science Guy: Amphibians. One surprising facts we learned was that amphibians can breathe through their skin. Another interesting piece of information was that besides frogs/toads and salamanders, there is a third kind of amphibian. Ask your child to tell you about caecilians! You can read more about them here. We also quickly peeked at our resident amphibians: Pinky the axolotl and the frogs. We'll spend more time with them later this week.
After DEAR Time and a recess break, we reviewed the characteristics of amphibians. I read the book About Amphibians: A Guide for Children to the class before showing them a the ActiveWild website, which has much more amphibian information. The students completed a fill-in-the-blank worksheet based on the information from the amphibian video we watched. They then had the option to use the ActiveWild website to find answers to other questions about amphibians.
During Closing Circle, I gave the class some tips about organizing their red folders. Let's just keep the tooth chart, bubblegum machine paper, passport, and a couple extra/just for fun activities in the folder. Please help your child sort through the other papers to see if any should go in his/her All About Me binder or Research Log. Also, as I told the first graders yesterday, they may choose some of the fossil or dinosaur activity sheets to place in their research logs.
Parents, please check the May 5 Learning Plan to prepare your child for class tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the teacher breakfast buffet today. It was quite the spread!
Finally, just a little heads up that I will not be in school this coming Friday, May 7. I'm sure everything will be fine with the class, but wanted you to know that I would not be available to respond to emails. If there are any time sensitive issues on Friday, please contact the main office. Thank you.
Parents, please check the May 5 Learning Plan to prepare your child for class tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the teacher breakfast buffet today. It was quite the spread!
Finally, just a little heads up that I will not be in school this coming Friday, May 7. I'm sure everything will be fine with the class, but wanted you to know that I would not be available to respond to emails. If there are any time sensitive issues on Friday, please contact the main office. Thank you.