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!