$ Earning Our Money $

During Junior Achievement lessons, the First Graders earn "Wildcat Dollars" for answering questions.  On Tuesday, students determined whether items were needs or wants. They also played a guessing game about different types of work. Their Wildcat Dollars are starting to add up!

Bye-Bye Butterflies!

On Friday we released our butterflies. We had watched them grow since they were caterpillars only about one centimeter long. It was exciting to watch them fly!

We also stopped to check out the dandelions that have gone to seed and talked about that life cycle, too.

Continent Hop

We learned to dance The Bunny Hop, so we could dance and sing the names of the seven continents to the tune of The Bunny Hop:

North America

South America

Europe, Asia

Africa, Australia

ANTARCTICA!

Where in the World...?

As part of our learning about maps, we examined small globes. We compared them to flat maps, and found that some parts appear s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out on the flat maps. We also learned a fun way to remember the order of the directions on the compass rose: Never Eat Soggy Waffles (North, East, South, West).

Data Collection

The next few math lessons are about collecting, organizing, and displaying data. Today we surveyed classmates about what they like to do at recess and created tally charts to show the data.

Ask a friend, record a tally mark...

...then ask another friend!

Lots of Learning Happening Here!

We were greeted by a surprise this morning. One of the chrysalises had hatched into a butterfly! It was days ahead of schedule, so we had to set up the butterfly habitat in a hurry!

We started the Junior Achievement "Our Families" program today. Mrs. Pampel from Cornerstone Bank will be coming in for five lessons that tie in with our social studies curriculum. Today's lesson was about how when people in families and in communities work together, life is better for everyone.

In Library, the students have been traveling the world through books this year. Today we had the library lesson in the classroom, due to testing in the computer lab. After traveling the world, they are ending the year right here at home, in the U.S.A.

Schlitz Audubon Nature Center

We had the perfect weather for our field trip to Schlitz Audubon Nature Center for the program "Water, We Can't Live Without It!" Our guides also incorporated much of the other science learning we have done this year. Here are lots of pictures from our trip!

a ball-tossing game to show the Earth's surface is more water than land

an evaporation experiment

other experiments to show "transpiration" -- leaves giving off water

hiking toward the tower

only part-way up the 60-foot tower

looking down from the middle of the tower

at the top

We were as tall as the trees!

Lake Michigan

getting closer to Lake Michigan

experiments with soil, sand, and water

pausing the experiments to admire a family of ducks that swam right past us

fun in the sand

using magnets to find magnetite in sand

learning about places water collects naturally

condensation from the water released from plant leaves

Thank you to Schlitz Audubon Nature Center and our guides! We can't wait to come back!

Getting Into Science and Social Studies

We haven't had any luck hatching our silkworm eggs, but Mrs. Piaro's class did! They were kind enough to share their tiny silkworm larvae with us. We're hoping the larvae eat lots of that green food made from mulberry leaves, so they grow quickly!

In social studies, we were learning about landforms. Here are some students turning themselves into mountains (tall) and plains (flat), in order to show the difference.