An Exhausting Full Week.....ha! ha!

We have gotten a lot done during this full week of school! It has been great, since we are busy preparing for next week's performance. We are having a blast!

We continued in our centers as the students worked hard with Mrs. Waller to alphabetize all fifty states. While they practiced this skill they were also learning FIFTY NIFTY, a song they will sing next week. The students placed the states on a pocket chart as they discovered the correct order. As a final step we sang the song! This really did help. Mrs. Waller also worked with the children as they practiced their speeches for the Hooray for the U.S.A. performance. The Oscar went to Miss Devin Dickey for her amazing enthusiastic performance. Andrew Carr was a close second! Great job kids....keep practicing.

We also created valentine animals to decorate the bulletin board as we get ready to celebrate Valentine's Day. The children had so much fun and really enjoyed this activity. Please see the above picture but also please come visit and take a look up close! On Thursday, Madeleine's Grandma helped the students play Valentine Jingo. The kids had so much fun and learned many facts about the up and coming holiday as well as other things that occur in the month of February. Thank you to our extra special helper who also got to watch and listen as the students practiced their songs for next week's performance!

Miss Fate continued to guide the children through the pages of their theme notebooks. Independent centers included writing and illustrating thank you cards to Senator Yvonne Wilson for speaking to our first grade classes. They also made Valentine's Day cards for their buddies and on Wednesday their buddies joined us for a special buddy celebration. Your children showed their buddies around the room and enjoyed a special treat with them. They were so excited to show off their Hooray for the U.S.A. creations! The students also listened to California or Bust in a listening center and learned about the great rush for GOLD. They finished up their State Web Quest on the computer. Thursday the students navigated their way through the computer game Tommy the Time Turtle in an independent center. This helped to reinforce telling time, a concept we have introduced this week in Math.

On Wednesday, Miss Fate introduced them to Spelling Baseball and they teamed up out in the commons. Game number one included the Royals v. Fire Blades (winners), game number two included the Dallas Cowboys (winners) v. the California Crushers and game number three went to the Royals who were playing the Electricity Monsters! The game was a "hit" as the students practiced this week's spelling words. They advanced bases as the spelled words correctly and were out if the word was spelled incorrectly. The MVP award goes to George Mathews this week. He spelled every word given to him correctly! We are talking about hard words. Once Miss Fate finished up with this week's list, she advanced the words as appropriate to challenge our incredible first grade spellers! She even "threw" in some silent letter words such as comb or caught. Great job, George and the whole first grade!

In Math we have introduced time and fractions. Your kids have learned a lot this week and have been working hard. Miss Fate introduced fractions and how they relate to time. First she introduced halves and half through the use of Stuart J. Murphy's "Give Me Half". Miss Fate used 3-D magnetic apples representing 1 whole and 1 half. Wednesday Miss Fate used magnetic pizzas to take the concept of fractions even further. Seems how we all love pizza, the kids could relate to these fractions really well. They took a further look at fractions and divided the pizza in the thirds and quarters. They talk about how the whole pizza can be divided up into equal parts. Miss Fate even ate pieces of the pizza and had students tell her what part of the pizza was left....such a yummy treat!

Last week Mrs. Waller introduced the beginning concepts of time which your children have a very good "handle" on. On Tuesday, Mrs. Waller followed Miss Fate's lesson on halves and wholes by introducing half past the hour. Mrs. Waller placed number cards around the carpet circle out in the commons. The children then used a yardstick (hour hand) and a broom (the minute hand). The students were given a time and had to show that time on the huge clock by moving the yardstick and the broom. On Thursday, we took it even further by exploring a quarter past and a quarter after. The students felt up to it, so we then counted by fives around the entire clock and learned about the minute hand and its movement around the clock. The New York Jets and the Australian Stompers competed in the commons as they worked together to create the correct time (given to them by Mrs. Waller) on our handmade clock. They had such a good time and were challenged by this activity. We will continue to work on telling time and placing the minute hand in the correct spot, but your children are well on their way becoming experts on time and they are having fun.

In Social Studies this week we finished up our Famous American reports, which were wonderful. Your children have come such a long way since August. Their reports were great and they learned so much from one another. We filed the reports in the children's memory books that they will take home at the end of the year. They have also learned about the White House with Miss Fate and have compared and contrasted the White House to their own home. Davis was excited to tell the children that he has been in it and told them the exact colors of each room. He also told them many informative facts. They loved listening to Davis explain his experiences. What findings!

We will keep TNT a surprise this week with Valentine's Day right around the corner....all we will say is that the kids had fun and created something especially cute for you!

In Computer lab this week, the children played Valentine Day games on http://www.primarygames.com/ with Miss Fate and Miss Taylor.

In Hands-On Science this week we celebrated Dental Awareness Month. We discussed the importance of brushing our teeth and consuming high sugar foods in moderation on special occasions. We looked at the sugar content of a variety of foods and talked about the acid that forms on our teeth/gums when we don't brush regularly to get rid of the plaque. We then placed a penny in an acidic solution of vinegar and salt and watched the reaction that took place! It was amazing and showed us how strong acid can be and how it can create cavities if we don't take proper care of our teeth. Ask your children about the results! They had a great time!

Spelling - February 11th-February 18th, 2011

Word List: how, cow, found, round, town, flower, loud, about, count, house

Challenge Words: money time hour cent

Surprise the teacher word???

Keeping up with the Calendar....

2/10 White House Social Studies Homework is Due

2/11 Bring in your Valentine's Day Box

2/14 Valentine's Day--Bring in your valentines to school for the entire first grade to handout & Valentine's Day Party

2/17 Come to school dressed up as your Famous American & Hooray for the U.S.A. Program at 9:15am in the stage MPR wing.

2/18 Spelling Packet is due & Spelling Test

2/18 Books in the Bag are due back to school so we can switch out the books--make sure you have the 5 books in the bag.

2/21 No School---President's Day!

2/23 Scholastic Book Orders Online are Due if you want to order any books.

2/28 Field Trip to the Folly Theatre to see "Duck for President" leaving at 8:45am & returning to school at 11:00am-permission slips will be coming home soon!

Thank you for the support you have shown us during this wonderful theme. We couldn't do it without you and the kids have had so much fun. We will wrap up Hooray for the U.S.A. next week with our performance on Thursday. We are all so excited! See you then and have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs. Waller and Miss Fate