The Week of October 21-25

Chart: Find at least 5 sets of rhyming pictures

Literacy Workjobs

During our 90-minute literacy block your first grader independently completes various tasks throughout the classroom. We have a work board to help keep us organized and on task. On the work board there are 4 activities to complete. Each picture icon represents a different center around the room. These activities reinforce skills and concepts within our curriculum. Centers may include computer, journaling, a word sort, spelling, rhyming, listening center, reading around the room, buddy reading and many others. 

While learners are engaged in their individual jobs, I meet with reading groups to provide small group instruction. Students are encouraged to problem-solve or ask a friend if they need help before coming to a teacher. We encourage learners to talk with peers and utilize resources around the room (dictionary, word wall, posters etc.)

Here, you'll see some of the jobs that your child engages in.

Journal: Use quality handwriting, correct letter formation and quality, detailed illustrations. Write until you reach the bottom line.

ABC: Hearing Sounds in Sequence-choose a minimum of 5 picture cards.  Write the letter for each sound you hear. Then read it to a partner.

Spelling: Letter Stamps-practice making your spelling words using pencils, stamps and markers.

Math

On Wednesday our class learned a new activity called SCOOT! We had to "scoot" around the room to find different numbered cards with number lines on them. Each number line had 1 missing number. We had to count the numbers until we figured out which one was missing and then write it in the box for that numbered card. We had 24 cards to find. We thought this activity was fun, but hard. It was great learning about missing numbers. 

We also LOVED addition baseball. In honor of the Red Sox entering the World Series we played Addition Baseball on the IWB (Interactive White Board). We roled the dice on the computer. If we got a sum of 2 or 3, it was a strike. If the sum was 4, 5, or 6 it was a single so we ran to first base (Cassidy's coat on the floor). If the sum was 7, 8 or 9 it was a double and so on-you can see the rest in the picture below.

Our class kept score by using tally marks. We scored 12 runs! We thought it was great because we got to move our bodies around the room and run and we slid into home. We also got to practice our addition skills.

Addition Baseball

Brockway Field Trip

1S at Brockway Nature Preserve
(click the link to visit the Hopkinton Conservation Land and Trails Site about Brockway)

Today's blog post was written collectively by 1S. We have 4 goals for narrative writing. 
1. Write a story in sequential order using the words First, Next, Then, Finally.
2. Include details
3. Tell how you felt about your experience
4. Provide a quality ending to your story

Our class had a great time visiting the John Brockway Nature Preserve on Thursday. We went with Ms. Nichols' class.

First, on our field trip we met with Kevin Wall, Environmental Educator. He took us ponding. Ponding is when you catch bugs in a pond. We used nets and dug through the muck at the edge of the pond to find giant water bugs, backswimmers and other creatures. We found salamanders, snails, a leech, tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs and damselfly nymphs. Before we left the pond, we let them go back into their habitat.




Next, we went with Mrs. Chapman, Environmental Educator. We identified a wetland by digging up the soil, touching it and smelling it. We observed that the soil was cold, wet, muddy, stinky and clay-like. The soil in the uplands was dry, like garden dirt and it smelled earthy and like pine needles.

Then we went to the vernal pool. The soil was bouncy, dry and smelled like salad or sphagnum moss. The vernal pool was dried up because there was no water. It got dried up by the sun. In the springtime it will fill back up by the rain and melting snow.


Finally, we went up on the look-out and we could see an old beaver lodge. We identified another wetland by finding wetland plants like cat-o-nine tails and again, smelled the stinky, mucky soil. We finished our field trip by hiking back to the trail and seeing the Welcome Tree. It's big and fat and it welcomes everyone when they first walk onto the Nature Preserve.







On our trip we learned:

• That backswimmers can bite.
• That backswimmers have 2 sides. One side is dark to look like the pond so predators from above can't see it. The other side is white/blue to look like the sky so predators from below can't see him either. That's called being camouflaged. 
• Bullfrogs lay their eggs in ponds not vernal pools because they take 3 years to become an adult bullfrog. If they layed their eggs in a vernal pool they would dry up and die.
• The soil in a wetland acts like a sponge and it absorbs water to help prevent flooding.
• Wetlands act like pillows because it's where animals lay their head (it's their home).
• Wetlands act like a strainer to filter and clean the water.

We had lots of fun. It was a great adventure and we were excited to see all of those creatures.