The Very Full Weeks of February 10th & 17th

I guess we'll be tired and sore when we're 100...

100th Day by Joey Simpson
On the 100th day of school we got to dress up as old people and pretend we were 100 years old. We did 100 activities too. We named 100 animals. We counted and wrote numbers up to 100. We danced for 100 seconds. We counted collections that were up to 100 and we counted them by 2s and put them in groups of 10 to count more efficiently.

Points to Ponder
I often come across great websites, blogs, posts and videos which help me reflect as an educator, parent and citizen. Here is a blog called Creative Kids: The artful Joy of Parenting. In this post, the author writes about 100 Ways to be Kind to Your Child which is now a poster for sale on Etsy!
Alissa states, "...they are basically a reminder to myself of the simple ways I can connect with and be there for my children.  Many of them will remind you of ways you already are showing your love to your kids."
Enjoy!

PBS DUCKumentary
PBS has been showing their Emmy award winning An Original DUCKumentary over the last few weekends.  This 50 minute film displays duck behavior, habitat and life cycle. Students are amazed by the 2 day old wood ducks jumping out of the 70 foot high tree to go find their mother. If you have a chance, this film is worth watching. Click here to view the video on pbs.org or you can view it on our right sidebar.

Math In Focus Chapter 6: Ordinal Numbers and Position Words
As children continue to build their knowledge of number relationships, ordering numbers is an important skill. Children have learned in Kindergarten to order cardinal or counting numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 4. Numbers such as first, second third and fourth are ordinal or positional numbers.

Children need practice in identifying ordinal positions as well as the words (written and oral) associated with the positions. They have learned to use ordinal numbers in their full (first, second, ... tenth) and abbreviated forms (1st, 2nd, ...10th) to describe the positions of specific objects or persons in a row. Children also integrate their understanding of spatial relationships in the real world, and the concept of order and position. Relevant vocabulary that is essential for understanding relative positions in a row includes left, right, in front of, and behind. Practice with these words at home are helpful as we reinforce these skills in the classroom.


Have a safe and happy winter vacation!

The Week of Jan 27th-Feb 3rd

Sydney is back! We missed you!

Nonfiction Writing: Diagrams
First graders have spent most of the fall writing narrative stories. These stories are telling stories that include a beginning, middle and end using temporal words like, first, next, then, and finally. Writer's in 1S have created stories about birthday parties, holidays, vacation trips and other neat experiences. 

Since the New Year, we've turned our focus to Informative/Nonfiction writing-specifically research writing. We have learned several ways to use resources to help us gather important information. Did you know you can gather and identify facts about a topic just by looking at a picture? You don't need to read words, but you do need to know the difference between a fact and an opinion. When looking at a photograph of a sea turtle our class was able to create terrific sentences that describe what the picture shows. Here's what we wrote: 

Sea Turtles

A sea turtle has a black face with white and yellow spots in it. A sea turtle has bumps and designs on its shell. Some sea turtles might have scratches and spikes on their shell. Sea turtles have 4 flippers. They are used for swimming. 

As we began to read from multiple resources, we used an alphabox to locate the important words and phrases from books. These key words will help us remember to write descriptive sentences and draw informative diagrams.

These learners have proven to be natural researchers! I've had so much joy watching your children transform into scientists and investigators. Next week, each child will select their own topic to write about and research for facts and interesting information. 

New Classroom Games
Mrs. Surrette and Mrs. Damour have purchased new games for our class. Each game helps reinforce a different academic skill. 


Pop to Win is a math game that targets our state and national standards in building number sense & geometry skills, increases understanding of time & measurement and identifying coin values.



Camp is a fun way to educate us about the outdoors (something Mrs. Surrette LOVES). This game challenges you and all of your family members from ages 4-64 years of age. The object of this game is to be the first person to move around the board by answering CAMP questions and finish back at the campfire. Oh what fun!






Boggle is a hidden word game. The object is to list as many words as you can find among random assorted letters within 3 minutes. The words are formed from adjoining letters and they must join in the proper sequence to spell a word. After the timer runs out each player reads aloud his or her words. Any word that appears on more than one player's list must be crossed off all lists. 

Bird Feeder Program
Check out our first grade friends with Mrs. Chapman! On Tuesday Mrs. Chapman introduced our new bird feeder station. For the next several weeks first graders will be able to study and observe bird characteristics and behaviors. Mrs. Chapman has hung 4 feeders outside our windows in hopes to draw more birds into our schoolyard. 

This week we learned that different birds have different features. For example, a raptor has a sharp, hooked beak that's used for tearing meat. A duck's webbed feet is used for swimming, but not good for grabbing fish and flying away with them.

We're excited to keep notes in our observation notebook. So far we've seen a male and female cardinal as well as a female goldfinch. I wonder how many different birds we'll see outside our window.

Chp 5 Shapes & Patterns
Children have learned to identify, name, describe and compare a variety of plane shapes such as circles, squares, triangles and rectangles as well as recognize solid shapes including spheres, cubes, and pyramids. We continue to extend their knowledge by describing their geometric attributes and properties and determining how these shapes are alike and different. 

Geometry can relate to objects in the real world so be on the lookout for these basic shapes in our environment. Take a nature walk or a drive and see how many solid figure or shapes you can find. 

WIN
First graders are back into WIN (what I need). On Monday and Wednesday mornings we flex all 50+ learners into small groups based on what they need for hearing sounds in words. Some groups are working on short vowel sounds. Other groups are working on long vowel patterns or digraphs & blends. Instructors include all of the first grade teachers (Ms. Nichols, Mrs. Pepper, Mrs. Forgiel and Mrs. Surrette) as well as Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Codd & Mrs. Cannon. Ask your child which group he or she is in and what they're working on this cycle.

The Week of Jan 21

*Written by the students in 1S (with a little help from Mrs. Surrette)

Beaver

We have a beaver in our classroom now, but it is stuffed. It was alive at one point. We don't know how it died, but we do know that it was not hunted. It came from Elm Brook Park. Ms. Nichols had it in her room and now we get to have it. 

We are learning that beavers build dens and in the winter they can go into their space and can get sticks under the water. Sophia and Cassidy made signs so people will only look at it instead of touching it. The beaver has a split toe. We are curious to know what it is used for. Please help us discover why beavers have a split toe. We will come back to school next week and share our thoughts.

Library

Last week you read about our class learning the difference between fiction and nonfiction stories. This week, in library, we continued that discussion with Musical Books and nonfiction I Can Read books.  

In the library there is a whole section for the I Can Read books. These are great for 1st graders because there are a lot of words we can read. There are fiction and nonfiction books. To become more familiar with these stories we played musical books. This is like musical chairs except on the chairs there are books and when the music stops, you find a seat and read the book that is sitting on the chair. As the chairs get taken away, students have to squeeze onto a chair with a friend and buddy read. It was fun, but Mrs. Surrette forgot to take a picture. We'll play again in our classroom and take pictures this time. 

Scholastic News

Check out our Scholastic News this week. Every year In China they make an ice city with ice slides, ice restaurants and ice castles. This celebration is called the Ice Festival. We made paintings of our own ice castles. Nolan and Malcolm created an ice roller coaster in their paintings!

Did you notice this issue talks about a glossary? This is another part of nonfiction books! We learned that a glossary is where you look up key words in a book. A glossary tells you what the words means and how you pronounce it.

Check out next week's blog post! Here are some topics we'll be writing about:

Pop to Win

Chp 5 Test: Shapes & Patterns

Olive came to school on Tuesday

WIN

The Week of January 13th

1S working on a digital version of Scholastic News

MLK, Jr. 

On Monday we are not going to be at school because it is Martin Luther King, Jr Day. It is a day to celebrate his ideas and how he saved the world from the "white only" signs. When the laws were changed the "white only" signs were taken down. He changed the world with peace. We learned through our Read Aloud today that when he was young he was no longer allowed to play with his friends because of his skin color. Today, we can make all kinds of friends!

Mrs. Maynard
Mrs. Maynard came to our class last week. It is such a special treat to have her come in to read to us because she finds some great books for us. We've recently come to enjoy an author named Olivier Dunrea. He wrote A Christmas Tree for Pyn and Hanne's Quest. On Monday Mrs. Maynard brought us some of his small picture books about Gossie. Cole thinks that Olive will LOVE them!

Check out the Hopkinton Library website here to see the exciting and upcoming Library Events.

Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
We spent last Friday learning how to identify fiction stories and non-fiction stories. One trick is to think about the beginning sound of fiction-it starts like fake. Fiction=Fake. Fiction is not real. Non-fiction means that it is not fake or real. We can tell that a story is a fiction book because most times it has illustrations or drawings or paintings and we know that animals can't talk or walk on 2 feet so that makes it a fiction book.

A non-fiction story usually has pictures or photographs that looks like real stuff. Most times it has a table of contents and has factual information.

Math: Geometry
In Kindergarten children have learned to identify and describe plane shapes such as circles, rectangles, squares and triangles as well as recognize solid figures like a sphere, cube and pyramid. This year in chapter 5 children will extend that knowledge to compare shapes and determine how they are alike and different by describing the shape's attributes and properties.

Next week you'll see a math practice packet come home with more details and objectives and how you can help reinforce these concepts at home. Here's what the class wanted to share with you on the blog:

Cody has learned that a square has 4 equal sides. Sophia knows that a circle has 0 sides and 0 corners. Cassidy shares that regular (or plane) shapes are flat and solid figures are objects you can hold. Nolan knows that rectangular prisms have rectangles in them. Cole has observed that a diamond (or rhombus) looks like a square, but just flipped around. And a big reminder for all: a triangle has 3 sides.


Nice work everyone! Keep up the great work. And thank you everyone for making it such a special day for my birthday today.

The Week of January 6th

Happy New Year

Welcome back to school! On Tuesday our class rang in the New Year. Every hour (on the hour) our timer would alert us. We shouted "HAPPY NEW YEAR" and opened a surprise bag. Each hourly celebration was connected to our curriculum (graphing for math, new pencils for writing) or sparked a discussion about traditions throughout the world. Here are some of our celebrations throughout our day:

9:00 Start the New Year off "Write"

The new year is all about making good choices and thinking about change. Choose the pencil you would like best to help you start the new year off "write". Then write a resolution. Think about what would make you a better person in 2014. Choose something you would like to start doing and something you would like to stop doing.

10:00 Eat 12 Grapes

The Spanish eat 12 grapes so they will have 12 months of good luck in the new year.

(We were out of the room for 11:00 and 12:00)

1:00 New Year's Calendars

Getting organized is a wonderful way to start a new year. Try to get everyone's birthday recorded on your calendar before time runs out. Then you'll be able to think of our class for the whole year and remember our friends on their special day!

2:00 New Year's Toast

Fill your glass and toast the new year. Be sure to wish those near you the best of luck in 2014! If you can't reach their glass, you can look them in the eye and nod your head.

A Native American Welcome
For Thanksgiving our class created a quick 3 day play performance about the Natives and Pilgrims. I've had trouble loading the video onto our blog, but hopefully you can now view our exceptional dramatic skills. Check it out on the right sidebar.



December Holidays Around the World

Holiday Concert

1S making gingerbread houses for Holidays Around the World: Germany

George Washington's Breakfast

Mmmm.... Cassidy and Nolan cooked up this grand idea to share their reading group story with the class by feeding their friends.

In George Washington's Breakfast a young boy named George Washington Allen wants to find out more about his namesake. He already knows so many interesting facts about our first president, but he doesn't know what he ate for breakfast. Well, we now know he enjoyed 3 indian hoecakes swimming in butter and honey and as many cups of tea.

Cassidy and Nolan have researched just what an indian hoecake is and made them for everyone in our class to try. Check out the recipes here. There's also a quick video about 4 chefs recreating this tasty breakfast on the right sidebar. Mmmmm...I love reading group!

The Week of December 9th

The Week of November 18th

Fire Prevention Week

On Monday the Hopkinton Firefighters came to HMS to talk about fire safety. We learned a lot about what to do if there is a fire at our house. If we're in our room and there's a fire and your bedroom door is hot, then put a blanket under the crack so smoke will stay out, then go to your window and yell out anything you want, including "HELP"' or "SPONGEBOB SQUARE PANTS!" As long as you are yelling for help, the firefighters will come and help you. 

If your clothing is on fire, you cover your face and STOP, DROP, and ROLL to put the fire out. 

When we went outside we explored the fire engines. Joey saw the chainsaw that can cut through concrete and metal. The engines are full of 500 and 1,000 gallons of water. They also have a ladder that goes really high (75 feet) which Malcolm discovered could reach about a 3 or 4 story building.

Our homework from the fire department was to ask mom and dad to find a meeting place at home in case there's a fire. A meeting place should be somewhere away from the house where all family members meet so incase you can't go out of the house together you'll know everyone is out and safe. 

Thankful Trees

We made trees that showed what were are thankful for. We traced our hands out of paper and wrote 5 things we were thankful for. These will make great Thanksgiving displays! Keep an eye out for them on Monday.

Library

Did you hear? It was a tie for first place for the Ladybug Book Award at Harold Martin School. The two books that won were Stuck by Oliver Jeffers and Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic.  More students in our class voted for Stuck than any other Ladybug book. Mrs. Alibrandi said we'll probably find the official winner in December or January. 

Today in the library we read 3 books today about bunnies. One book was called The Snatchabook. We liked that book the best. 

Native American Play

The majority of our class shared that their favorite part of our week was learning about the Pilgrim's Journey. To reinforce our leaning about the hardships and struggles as well as the success the Pilgrims experienced,  we're working on a Thanksgiving play in our class. Be on the lookout next week and maybe we can make a video of our dramatic play!

Elements of a Story

Speaking of videos, take a look at the rap we've been singing to help us understand the 5 parts of a short story. The video is posted on the right sidebar. Be careful....it's a catchy tune!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving with your family and friends and a Happy Hanukkah too!