First Grade News: Tick Tock Around the Clock

And the icing on birthday cupcakes is so good. William from the other class shared his bday treats with us. Ethan eats the cupcake just like I would--save the icing for last!

Freddie had another idea...

During Integrated Language one group enjoyed reading Best of Friends where the discussion was about scrapbooks. Lena brought her little photo album in and shared just like the boy in the story. One of our Famous Americans is Harriet Tubman. We also read Harriet Tubman's story and summarized it together. We read Jenny's Journey. Jenny received a letter from her friend Maria who had moved away. Jenny imagined all the things she would see if she traveled to see Maria. She would see tugboats, sailboats, the Statue of Liberty, motorboat, and dolphins. Jenny took us on an Imaginary journaey with her to see Maria. Next week we will make a class book to follow up on this fun story.

These first graders love to read! They read so well and they flock to the browsing boxes to read books on famous Americans or monuments or state books. Mrs. H. and Mrs. D came to help in the room and she played America JINGO with different kids in rotations. They said "they really know alot of facts. " It's because they are such active listeners and engaged readers!!!

They have become very independent little learners in centers.

We categorized objects and divided them in to two groups--living things and non-living things.

Ms. Lorfing is working with us on sentence building. Using Ipads was a choice in our centers and so was a listening center. We have continued our work in our Phonics books. These books are a great reveiw of skills we have taught and retaught. All the students are doing a great job with their books in a bag. They are so responsible and so are the parents for reading with them. We have had great feedback about bringing home one book each night.

Will, Lena, Freddie and Henry presented their famous Americans this week. We have in your child's own words what interesting childhood facts and what interesting adult facts they found out. We can't wait for you all to come to the commons after the performance and watch their own videos of their famous person.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Georgia O'Keefe

George Washington

Frank Lloyd Wright

We are telling time in first grade! The teachers stop periodically and sing, "Tick tock around the clock, tick tock around the clock "...and the students stop and tell the time singing, "Hip hop, hip hop around the clock it's 1:00" i.e.

Ms. Lorfing had the students using their own analog clocks while she gave them a time to demonstrate. We are just still on the half hour and hour.

Money counting will still be reviewed. Please always do math facts at home. We can't emphasize enough the importance of this.

In Science this week we did an experiment to see if fur insulates and keeps a mammal warm. We had a bucket of ice water and baggies with cotton. The thermometers were placed in the baggies. The tepmerature was written down before submerging the baggies in the ice water. Most of the thermometers dropped thirty degrees. We also learned about Sir Isaac Newton. We discussed and demonstrated the Law of Motion. For every action there is anequal and opposite reaction. We made hoop gliders. We tested them outside. Force at the beginning of the flight of the glider helped it soar and as it met the force pushing back on it---air--it came slowly down. These kiddos love to fly things.