Pajamas and a Performance

Today was Pajama Day for Red Ribbon Week!

Sleepy kids in pajamas

The class perked up in the afternoon and give a musical performance for an audience of 5-K students. Check out all the different instruments they learned about, so they could create sound effects for a spooky story.

Descriptive Words and Contractions

We have been talking about words we can use in our writing to appeal to the five senses. Today we brainstormed words and phrases for how Pop Rocks candy looks, smells, tastes, feels, and sounds.

There were lots of different reactions when we tried the Pop Rocks!

The class came up with amazing ways to describe eating Pop Rocks. One favorite was, "It feels like glitter rolling around in my mouth!"

We learned about how contractions are formed, today, too. Ask your child about the "mean apostrophe" that "kicks out" some letters!

Making the contraction "don't"
(thank you to Talan, our photographer!)

Gourd Fun

We have been using gourds for our learning over the last few days.

We used pan balances to find out what was heavier than our gourds, what was lighter than our gourds, and what balanced our gourds. We were able to count how many objects we used by making groups of 10 and extra 1s.

Working with Pan Balances

We also wrote detailed descriptions of our gourds. Then we put our gourds in the middle of the circle, listened to a description, and picked out the correct gourd from the clues.

The NED Show

On Thursday, we had a special treat -- We got to see the NED show! NED stands for: Never give up, Encourage others, Do your best. The show brought a positive message and lots of laughter!

More information is available at thenedshow.com and information about yo-yo sales is here. Our school got to see this show for free because a school before us held a yo-yo sale. Our yo-yo sale will help send the show to another school.

Scientists at Work

Our First Grade geologists went on a hunt to find out how rocks are used in everyday life.

studying a brick wall to see evidence of rocks that were used

checking out the size of the rocks used to make the sidewalk

Clay

In science class, we learned that silt is smaller than sand, but there are particles even smaller than silt... clay! We had so much fun with this "earth material"!

Our clay creations and 3 vials of clay experiments

Busy Learning in First Grade

Here are a few things we have been doing recently.

Measuring with non-standard units, such as blocks, chain links, and paper clips

Using screens to separate mixtures of rocks into pebbles, gravel, and sand

Improving our math skills with DreamBox

Playing s-blend bingo

Properties of Rocks

We've been exploring so many types of rocks from rocks that came from volcanoes to river rocks to rocks that we found right around the school!

We have been sorting the rocks by their properties, including shape, size, color, texture and luster (dull or shiny).

Action!

In Writing Workshop, we have been learning ways to bring our stories to life. We have been making characters move and talk, stretching out the story to tell it bit by bit, and showing what the characters are thinking and feeling. 

Some of us tried acting out our stories, to see what we could add to make our stories even better!

Geologists at Work

We have started our first science unit, Pebbles, Sand, and Silt.  So far, we have been using 3 types of rocks. Our first experiment was finding out what happens when rocks rub together. (It makes sand!)

Our next experiment was finding out what happens when rocks are placed in water. 

The rocks changed colors and turned shiny. One kind even bubbled! The First Graders came up with even more rock experiments they would like to try. You may want to search for rocks around your yard or neighborhood and experiment at home.

Fiesta Time!

Last week, we had fun culminating our unit on different cultures by breaking a pinata.

 Everyone got to hit it a few times, even though it ended up on the ground.

At the very end, we got to grab the candy! Even though our unit on different cultures is finished, our learning is not. We will continue to learn about cultures from around the world throughout the school year, and beyond!