First Grade News: Practice Makes Perfect!

It has been a busy week full of fun and excitement. We have started our "Book in a Bag" program, attended the book fair, practiced for our performance, attended "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" at the Folly Theater and continued with our somewhat normal routine!

On Monday afternoon we visited the Book Fair and had a great time browsing books. Mr. N read a great story to us and then we shopped and had a treat. Who could ask for anything more? Thank you to Mr. N and all of the parents who helped put on this amazing event!

In our Language Arts block this week Miss Fate has continued guided reading with the students. They have chosen books for themselves at their level and placed them in their bag. So far, so good....the bags have come back with the books in them. Thank you for your support with this! We will continue this next week.

Mrs. Waller has continued working with the students as they master their lines for Bear Planet. She also guided them through a "Writing Words Book" activity, which helped them learn how to use their Writing Words Book more efficiently. The children use this book as a dictionary when they are writing their stories. This book is kept in their cubby and will come home at the end of the year. We have also completed a short Veteran's Day packet and discussed the importance of this holiday.

Independently, the children have continued their listening centers, working in their grammar books, and they had the chance to write their spelling words in sand. Check out the pictures below.

A large part of social studies has been Bear Planet rehearsal. We have gotten to rehearse with Mr. Held this week, which is always a delight! Your children are born performers. We can't wait. We have also continued to work in the theme notebook as we learn about all the different bears. Below the children fill out their bear boxes....for each letter of the alphabet, the students have to come up with a word that has something to do with bears.

In Math, Miss Fate introduced cuisenaire rods. Each rod represents a different value (1-10). They learned how to compare each value and what it looks like in a staircase format.

Mrs. Waller continued her work with ten frames and number sense. We continued our math riddles with Greg Tang's book, which encourages counting by groups. Your children are doing really well with this concept. Thursday, each child was given an envelope of items and asked to place the items in groups of equal sums on their own. This is a challenging activity. We will turn this into a classroom book. They are learning multiplication and they don't even know it.!

Wednesday we visited the Folly Theater to see "If You Give a Moose a Muffin". It was excellent. Your children were dancing in their seats and laughing out load. We had such a good time. A special thank you to Mrs. Chu and the Cultural Arts committee who sent us to the performance and provided us with muffins after the performance!

In computer lab on Friday our class visited http://www.pbskids.org/ to play Berenstain Bear games. Today was our last Friday to study bears. We will be sad to leave them behind.....time is flying by! We had a blast in computer lab and you can try these games at home.

In Hands-on Science this week the children explored SOLAR POLAR POWER! Take a look below at the pictures. This lesson helped the students understand how the polar bear's black skin helps it to stay warm as they placed ice cubes on a sheet of white and a sheet of black paper. Which cubes would melt first?

Reminders:
Bear Planet: Thursday, November 17th @ 9:20 am!!!!! GET READY!!!!!
*****Please let Mrs. Waller (swaller@speds.org) know if you have any costume questions or concerns. We do not want this to be an inconvenience for anyone. Many of you are bringing in clothing to share, this is wonderful. Thank you for your support.

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FOOD DRIVE

Thank you for your amazing support! ***Especially to the Murphys for bringing in 350+ boxes of kleenex on Friday!!!!

Here is next week's schedule:

Monday, November 14, Double points for personal hygiene items

Tuesday, November 15, Double points for dry beans and rice

****Wednesday, November 16, 20 points for each multi-load bottle or box of laundry detergent ******************

Thursday, November 17th, double points for disposable diapers (they will count each diaper in the package!)

Friday, November 18th, BIG BONUS DAY TBA!

The children are so excited about this big event. People keep asking our class what our secret is (as usual).......????? There is no secret. They are working together as a classroom community which results in hard work, determination and excitement; not to mention a stronger classroom community. The most important lesson we are teaching them is that this is all for the pantry and by helping out our food pantry we are making a difference in the lives of others. We can't thank you enough for all of your hard work and determination as well. Here are a few pics: