Busy Month of December

What a busy month! In math, we learned about ordering and comparing numbers. We also learned about the connection between addition and subtraction.

ordering numbers

using a number balance to see which number expression is greater

playing addition and subtraction games

In reading and writing, we have been focused on nonfiction.

finding key words in a nonfiction book

sharing a nonfiction piece of writing

In social studies, we completed our unit on history, learning about some groups of Americans and individuals from long ago all the way until today. We learned how life in America has changed over time.

Making timelines

We took a field trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum and participated in the A is for Art tour. 

We had a fantastic winter music concert! We're looking forward to more learning and fun in 2018!

Week of Nov. 27-Dec. 1

In reading, we have been reading LOTS of nonfiction! We spent some time walking around the room and chatting about what we have been learning in our nonfiction books. This sparked interest in new topics, and some of the students even traded books!

We have been focused on nonfiction in writing, too. Since nonfiction topics often involve long, difficult words, we learned how to break a long word into syllables, and then spell it one syllable at a time. Every syllable should have a vowel. Even if we don't get the exact grown-up spelling of a word, we are getting pretty close!

attempting the spelling of "defeated"

this writer attempted the spelling of "Scotland"

We shared our writing with a person who had not seen it before, so that person could help us realize if something was missing or confusing. These partners helped us improve our writing!

Week of November 13-16

This week, in social studies, we learned more about Native Americans, who were the first people to live in North America. Then we learned about Christopher Columbus, who was an explorer. Explorers came to find things like gold and spices, and then they returned to their homes. Next week we will learn about settlers, like the Pilgrims.

Columbus's three ships...

...the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria

We finished our Word Detectives reading unit with a mysterious message from the Super Secret Detective Agency.

Viewing the message

Using clues we found around the room to open the locks on a mysterious box

This clue was written in invisible ink that could be viewed with a special flashlight

A puzzle gave another clue

Opening the final lock

What will be in the box?

The box held Ring Pops and a note of congratulations! We will use all the skills we gained as Word Detectives to continue to solve the cases of tricky words we encounter in our reading!

HOORAY!

Week of November 6-10

We started learning about 2-D shapes this week in math class. Who knew shapes could be so much fun?

 The Math-a-Thon test is coming up next week, on Thursday, November 16th. 

These are the problems the 1st graders should study to be ready for the Math-a-Thon.

Field Trip to Lannon Stone Products Jackson Quarry

A highlight of the week of October 30-November 3 was our field trip to the quarry! The workers gave us a guided tour, connected to our science unit on Pebbles, Sand, and Silt.

We were amazed by all the big machinery as we drove in!

The green machine crushes big rocks into smaller pieces.

We loved being able to get off the bus and explore some machines that had been disabled for our safety.

We found some great rocks to take home. Some had fossils or crystals!

A HUGE thank you to Jackson Quarry for inspiring these 1st grade geologists!

Week of Oct. 23-26

Our first graders have been receiving top secret reading missions from the Super Secret Detective Agency. They have learned to notice problems in their reading so they can stop to solve the problems. They are looking carefully at all the parts of the word and doing a s-l-o-w check to make sure they got it right.

In math, we measured the length of objects with non-standard units, such as blocks or chain links.

In science, we learned about silt, which is made of pieces of rock even smaller than sand. We found out that clay is even smaller than silt!

In writing, we have started "How-To" pieces. We had a chance to put our knowledge of how-to writing into action when we followed instructions on how to make slime.