December fun!

December was so much fun!

We read Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes.  We read Chrysanthemum earlier this year, by the same author.  We have been working on retelling stories this year, which helps us focus on key details and ordering (what happens 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.).  With Wemberly Worried, we read the story, then looked at different picture cards of key details and sorted what happened in the story from what did not happen in the story.  The details on the cards were so tricky and seemed like they could all have been in the story.  However, the kids were detectives and figured out which details were true to the story!  Here is what it looked like:

In Math, we worked on part-part-whole, which is leading us to understand how addition works.  As children play the games and record the numbers, we put the numbers into number sentences (which become equations).  For example, one child rolls 5 on the die and places 5 brown cubes on his "part".  The other child rolls 5 on the die and puts 5 blue cubes on her "part".  Next, the partners push their two parts together, up to the "whole" and count how many they made.  Last, they record on their paper "5 and 5 make 10".  The following week, we played the same game but this time the partners recorded their findings as "5+5=10".

It looks something like this:

The last week before winter break we focused on gingerbread men!  We read several versions of the Gingerbread Man story, comparing the stories, characters, and setting, as well as retelling different versions!  We made gingerbread men who RAN AWAY from us!  We had to write letters and make gingerbread houses to encourage them to come back.  The last day of winter break was all about the Polar Express!  We retold the story, began our own Polar Express stories, and enjoyed hot cocoa.  I was so busy and engaged in our activities that I forgot to take many pictures of the week!  Here are two pictures from the day we made our houses.

We have also been working very hard on our Weather Expedition.  I will post many pictures of our adventures and learning at the end of January, when we wrap up our expedition.  I can't believe we are almost finished!  These children have become quite the experts and I'm so excited for them to start on their final product!

Over 100 canned/boxed food items!

The first graders had a food drive during November and our class set a goal of collecting 100 items for the food pantry.  Each day we counted how many boxes and cans we had collected.  On Friday, we did the final count and we just a few short of 100. Fortunately, Ms. Connie came by and brought 2 bags of food for our class collection!  Thank you to all families who were able to contribute to the food drive.  The families in our community are very grateful for our support.

How to make shade

For the end of our first case study on the effects of the sun on the earth, the students became engineers.  They were given the task to create a shade over a pretend sandbox.  Each child first designed a shade on paper.  Then, teams of 2 were assembled and many materials were available to each team (parchment paper, wax paper, white and black construction paper, aluminum foil, masking tape, straws).  At the end, each shade was tested with a flashlight.  All teams were successful in providing shade!

Guest Expert

At the beginning of our weather expedition, we learned about different types of scientists.  Lucky for us, Mr. Eide is a scientist at OHSU and brought in some of the tools he uses for his work.  He even did an experiment with us!

Fall party!

Our fall party was a blast! Thank you to all the parents who helped organize, purchase items, and run the party.  The kids had so much fun! Most of the pictures I took were of the children having a great time, so here are a few that I can share on the internet! The activities included pumpkin bowling, Bingo, making a fall crown, painting a family tree, and snacks!

Spiders

For the last week of October, we learned a little about spiders.  We made a chart of the things we knew (or thought we knew) about spiders.  As we read books about spiders each day, we added to and changed the information on the chart to reflect our learning.  On the last school day of October, we made spider hats with 8 eyes and 8 legs!

Counting accurately

In math, the students have been practicing counting accurately and practicing different strategies to count accurately.  One way is to "count and scoot" where they physically move each object to a different spot as they count to indicate that the object has been counted.  Another strategy is to "count and touch" which is good for items that are printed on paper that can't be moved.  For small quantities, we can count and touch with our fingers, but for larger amounts, we practice counting and putting a mark on each object once it is counted.

Here are some pictures of some partner work around counting accurately.  Each team (pair of children) had numbers 6-10 and a paper full of pumpkins to cut out and place accurately above the numbers.  It was more challenging than they thought the task would be!