First Graders are Famous

Uncle Sam wants you to begin the New Year with an All American Attitude! 
We are coming out of our Christmas vacation fog.  The students have been pouring through their famous American biographies this week with the teachers. While the teachers were doing that Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Greaves were making it possible to take down the Christmas decorations and put up red, white and blue.  The paper doll forms that came home were traced by Mrs. Greaves.  Thank you volunteers.

Our resident Betsy Ross found right away in her books that the original flag had only 13 stars.  Bravo Keira!  We discussed the original 13 colonies and are going to practice those in centers next week.  We will learn about some of our Nation's most famous symbols in this unit.  We discuss everyday famous people who have made their mark in our nation's history. 


In computer we played Stack the states.  We used huge maps with capitals on them to answer some of the questions.  Your child may ask for this app at home. 

Math was a review of place value on Monday and math facts on Tuesday and Thursday.  Wednesday we worked in our new theme notebook on USA math problems.  This first grade will now all be all about learning money and time.

How in to this research are the first graders getting?  I asked Sebastian to look for one grown up fact in his MLK, jr. book and then to come and tell me what he found.   He came back and told me what he found and my heart almost stopped!!!  I stopped class and had him tell the class.  Here is what Sebastian paraphrased from what he read:  "Martin Luther King, Jr. came up with a plan because he didn't think it was fair that the black people had to sit in the back of the bus.  He told them all to boycott the buses and walk everywhere instead. The buses would lose money."
Everyday we experience the beauty of learning. 

Our centers this week were few because we worked on finding the birthdate and information of our famous American.  We are writing a rough copy and then we will make a final draft next week and present it to the class.  We would like the students to know all the information so well they don't have to read from the report.  "Official report" covers go around this report and it's a keeper!

Uncle Sam was made with many shapes!  We all did a great job of following step by step directions.  The first graders in here  have made so much progress in limiting the amount of elmers glue they use.  They came out of kindergarten reciting "a dab will do ya... " but they still loved to pour it on!

The highlight of our week was when Mrs. N and Meredith came to talk about their trip to Haiti to help in an orphanage.  Medill was so proud, as she should be.  When Mrs. W. asked Meredith what she took away thinking about from that experience she said..to be thankful for my family, my home and my friends.  The picture story they told about the children, the smiles, the hugs, the love that was shared was moving!  These children have nothing.

One student in our class asked why doesn't Santa bring them toys?  

I answered for Mrs. N that they don't know what they don't have so they must not make a big list for Santa.  

 

 Remember to mark the date of February 6th at 9:15 for our Hooray for the USA program.

U. S. Senator Roy Blunt is coming to speak to the kids on Wednesday.  Look for information on that.  Eva is especially excited her grandfather can help us talk about US symbols and read a book about a mouse in the senate...

Open house went very well.  The school looked great!
Enjoy the weekend.

Mrs. Wiedeman and Ms. Lorfing