Last Day of School in 2014

What a fun day we had! We exchanged gifts and took some time to enjoy them with friends.

The Girls

The Boys

This is what the girls were doing while the boys were getting their picture taken.

Fun with mustaches and kazoos!

We played Candy Cane Bingo with high frequency words.

Those blurs are girls jumping up and down because they only needed ONE MORE WORD!

We did some crafts.

decorating Christmas trees

Nutcrackers

The kids did a fabulous job at the Winter Concert!

Back at school, we enjoyed some good food and more time with good friends.

Thank you to the whole class for the flowers, the gift, and the book about what I will do over Winter Break!

Most of us were tired after this busy day, but very excited for the next two weeks. Enjoy your Winter Break! See you in 2015!

2-D Shapes

We have been working with 2-D shapes in many ways.

sorting shapes in our math journals

using geoboard apps to create shape pictures

building tangram puzzles

Holiday Cheer and New Science Learning

The holiday excitement is really starting to set in! The students even found out that if you bring 3 clementines for a snack, there is a good chance Mrs. Kempfer will juggle them for you!

We had the opportunity to make cards for troops deployed in Iraq and Kuwait to help brighten their days while they are away from their families this holiday season.

We're also doing our best to keep the learning going all the way until Winter Break. In science, we began to learn about liquids. (Thank you to all the families who sent in science donations for us!)

Here are some photos of our first liquid experiments. The students were finding out if liquids are the same or different by testing:

* What happens if you tip the bottle slowly?

* What happens if you spin it or roll it down a ramp?

* If you shake it, does it bubble or get foamy?

* Can you make a tornado in this liquid?

PAWS Assembly

Here's what happened at our last PAWS (Positively Awesome Woodview Students) Assembly!

Some of the teachers looked a little different as they performed a song about
 R-E-S-P-E-C-T at Woodview..

Wait a second... Is that Mr. Joynt?!?

Mrs. Lyneis and Mr. Pabst showing their school spirit during the Respect song

We were treated to a performance by the GHS Chamber Choir.

And... Our class was awarded the Bookworm Big Ticket for their at-home reading! Hooray!!! Keep up your great reading work, First Graders!

Engineers at Work

The First Graders became engineers during our last science class. We read about towers, then used what we learned to experiment with building our own towers. We talked about the properties of materials that worked best for building.

Towers

More Towers

Some students also tried building bridges.

Towers made from different materials -- marshmallows & spaghetti

In math class, we began learning about angles that make up the corners of shapes. We classified them as "pointy" or "not as pointy". As we built with the marshmallows and spaghetti, the students started seeing examples of these types of corners in real life!

Math, Science, and a Principal-in-Training!

In math we are learning the double + 1 strategy. If you are adding two numbers that are right next to each other when you count, you can double the small number and add one.

4 + 4 = 8, so 4 + 5 can be solved as double 4 and add 1 to make 9

In science, we explored the materials that make up different solid objects in the classroom.

We found these items made of plastic.

More plastic!

Cardboard (top) and wooden blocks in a metal can (bottom)

Mr. Joynt drew a PAWS ticket out of our class bucket. The lucky winner got to sit in his chair and wear his tie for the day! 

Future principal?

New Science Unit

We have begun our study of solids and liquids! We are starting out with a focus on solids. This week we are comparing solids and talking about their properties. We observed cloth, wooden cylinders, plastic triangles, clear plastic tubing, craft sticks, screws, and plastic-coated wire.

At home, you can have your child find solids that are "flexible" or "rigid" -- two of our new vocabulary words!

Missing: Lots of Teeth

The class has lost 27 teeth in the first 60 days of school! I think they are trying to set a record!

Nouns

A while ago, the class worked in small groups to create collages of nouns, using the Pic Collage app on the iPads. Here are a few of the noun collages they made. (Technical difficulties prevented me from sharing them earlier!) If you ask your child, he or she should be able to tell you that a noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing.