First Grade News: Australia Studies.....

It has been a busy week here in first grade, as usual. We continue our study of Australia and we were fortunate enough to have Kathryn's Dad come and visit us. He showed us many pictures and a great slide show comparing the United States and Australia. There are some similarities but many differences as well. He discussed the difference between our governments, our money, our climates, our sports, and our schools (just to name a few). WOW! Your children learned so much. Thank you Dr. and Mrs. Brooks, not only for the presentation but for the wonderful Lamingtons as well. They were delicious!

The children have also started their Australian animal stories based on the popular children's book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt retold by Michael Rosen. Mrs. Waller is guiding your children as they create these amazing stories. They explore the land of Australia and eventually end up in the habitat of their very own Australian animal. They will be on display after spring break. Please feel free to stop by and take a look. They are turning into great writers as they learn about the process of writing: creating, writing, editing and publishing.

The beginning of our stories....

Caroline in the author's chair!

Miss Fate has been busy guiding the children in some great Australian crafts as they have been making lizards, jellyfish and other colorful fish of the Great Barrier Reef. For the International Festival we turn our room into this amazing natural wonder of the world. A special thanks goes out to Mrs. Rostron for helping us start this process!

Our lizards include interesting Australian facts!

Colorful fish!

Jellyfish!

A sneak preview!

Independently the children have been working on their spelling words, participating in listening centers, continuing to work in their Australian journals and completed some math games reviewing money, time and word problems.

Monday and Friday mornings we practiced our Australian dance for the International Festival which tells the story of the Aborigines, prisoners, settlers and animals of Australia. They learned the dance in no time at all....they are professionals now after our production of Bear Planet and Hooray for the U.S.A.

In Social Studies we continue through the pages of our theme notebook. On Monday, we discussed dreamtime and the spiritual lives of the Aborigines. We also learned a lot about the boomerang, which, believe it or not, was originally used only for hunting. The first boomerangs were non-returning boomerangs created many years ago. Returning boomerangs were invented only 200 years ago and are mainly used for sport. The children decorated their very own boomerang with dreamtime symbols. We have also talked about the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the climate in Australia. We are continuing to learn more about the Great Barrier Reef. We are having so much fun!

In Math, Miss Fate has been reviewing word problems and key words such as "in all" or "altogether". Together, the class completed several word problems and then they completed some on their own.

Tuesday and Thursday, Mrs. Waller introduced the students to Tic Tac Toe Math. Each child was given a tic tac toe board with nine different math centers on it. The center in the middle of the board is the "must do" center. The other centers may or may not get done. All centers review a certain concept we have been learning about: money, time, doubles, subtraction, double digit addition,etc. They were paired up with a partner and sent off on their own to visit the centers as they choose. Once a center is complete, they check it off on their board. They loved it and did really well with this new way of doing math. It is a great way to review and also a wonderful way for the teacher to stroll around the room and assess each student. Check out the pictures below.

Our board!

Shake, Spill, Graph and Tally!

COIN CLOTHESPIN MATCH-coin recognition!

Subtraction Review: the biggest number goes first!

During TNT this week, we got to see the middle school production of "Once Upon A Mattress". They were mesmerized and we all enjoyed it.

In Hands-On Science this week Mrs. Waller and Mrs. Wiedeman continued to discuss the Great Barrier Reef with the students. We used simple household items: water, salt, liquid bluing, charcoal and food coloring with the hopes of creating our very own coral reef. Mrs. Waller will take the beginning of our creations home and add more of these household items over break.....we will see what happens when we return! We had a blast!

The beginnings of our natural wonder!

In computer lab Miss Fate and Ms. Lorfing guided the children as they visited http://www.primarygames.com/ and completed a variety of money and time games to reinforce these concepts. After this was complete, they were allowed to play a variety of St. Patrick's Day games.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Waller was scheduled as the guest reader in her daughter's preschool class. Well, Ms. Farkas' class just got down creating and illustrating their very own story: "If You Give A Giraffe A Sausage". Mrs. Waller and Ms. Farkas thought it would be a great time to share a few of our very own stories from the first grade stories based on, "If You Give a Mouse A Cookie" (our cause and effect lesson). Thank you to Janey and Russell, who read their stories to the preschoolers. They loved hearing them and we all had a great time.

SUMMER AT ST. PAUL'S:
*Please remember to sign up for Miss Fate's summer camp classes. She is teaching the following classes:

June 11-15 from 9-12:00 Enhance Your Computer Skills
June 25-29 from 9-12:00 iPads At Your Fingertips

July 9-13 from 9-12:00 DIY Arts & Crafts

Please note:
There will not be a spelling list coming home over Spring Break or any Books In A Bag. Enjoy your break!

REMINDERS:

--Spring Break is March 10-March 19, students return on Tuesday, March 20th!

--Animals are due back on NO LATER than March 20th. We need them to decorate our room for the International Festival and to be a part of our dance.
--March 21st: The International Festival. Chapel will start at 8:45 and the festival will begin right after in the North MPR.

--March 23rd: Conference Questionnaires are due!!! You can send via email or a hard copy.

--March 30th: Literature Festival Field Trip to Rockhurst University

The animals are slowing coming in, take a look below: