We are thankful for...

We have spent this week discussing all the persons, places, and things we are thankful for AND tied that into our focus of nouns!  Hopefully, your sweet little first graders have shared with you at home what we all agreed we are MOST thankful for...FAMILY!

Thanksgiving art on the playground by Byers!  GOBBLE GOBBLE!!

In literacy learning we introduced verbs and have reviewed nouns and adjectives.  We've been on lots of hunts in our reading to identify these parts of speech.  Our spelling focus is "u" words this week and we practiced these words with our pancake flip game.  We also put "u" words in ABC order.  We reviewed compound words with magnetic words and put them together when we found a match.  Our parent helpers played Thanksgiving Jingo with small groups.  This was a great way to review all the important facts about the holiday.

Recording the adjectives we found in our books

Working on reading comprehension skills with "Brother Bear"

Scarlett and Bella are practicing spelling words with the pancake flip game.

Thanksgiving with Mrs. H.

 In TNT we made corn in the husk and added real kernels. This went along with our discussion of the First Thanksgiving.

Playing "Sparkle" game to practice spelling words

Mrs. Wiedeman introduced Mountain Language to the class in small groups.  This is a fun activity that reviews many different phonics and grammar skills that eventually the class will be able to do independently.  We practiced identifying words with different vowel sounds with a card game.  We also practiced classifying one and two syllable words with word turkeys.  In writing we practiced writing e and k letters and got to try out a new app from the ipad called Wet, Dry, Try.

Sebastian is trying out the Wet, Dry, Try app to practice his handwriting skills.

Matching vowel sounds with cards

Story sounds like horse!

Practicing syllables with turkey words

Mountain Language

This week in the listening center we read "The Magic School Bus at the First Thanksgiving."

 We had a wonderful opportunity this week to see an amazing performance from Quixotic.  This talented group of performers danced and twirled in the air with beautiful costumes and makeup which made it even more spectacular!  They were accompanied by a talented violin player who stunned the crowd with his electronic violin!  This performance was brought to us from the parents on the Cultural Arts committee.  Thank you parents!!

In math we continue to work on subtraction and have started focusing on place value as well.  Using base ten blocks helps to learn this important concept.  We use ten rods and blocks to show ones and tens.  When we build a word such as 57 we use 5 rods and 7 blocks to show the number.  Then, if we take 23 away we would take 2 rods and 3 blocks.  This is a great way to show the numbers in each place value. 

We helped out with the delivery of several donations to the food pantry.  We used our strong muscles to haul toilet paper.  This gave us a chance to see the pantry and all the wonderful food and supplies that have been donated and will help so many people in need.  Thank you parents so much for contributing to this cause!

In social studies we have focused on the First Thanksgiving.  We discussed the journey to America and the reason the Pilgrims left Europe in 1690.  We also talked about the first meal they had and where it came from.  We learned about the Wampanoag Indians and how they helped the Pilgrims learn how to adjust and live in the new land.  We also discussed the importance of the food pantry and why our donations are so greatly needed.

In hands on science we took our experiment from last week to a new level.  We discussed last week how black skin from a polar bear absorbs heat which is one of the ways the polar bear stays warm.  This week we made sun prints which shows the sun's absorption on black construction paper using items glued onto the paper.  We put the papers with the items in the windows and will look next week to see what happens to the paper after it is exposed to the sun.

In computer lab we went to primarygames.com to play Thanksgiving games.  This is a fun website with many different games from all subjects.  Check it out over the Thanksgiving break!
 
Last week both first grade classes celebrated a wonderful Sporting KC season by singing "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" to Jimmy Nielsen.  He returned the gesture by bringing us all donuts! 
Thanks Jimmy, we loved them!

 Have a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!
Mrs. Wiedeman and Ms. Lorfing