We have been so bust in First Grade! We had the Senior Buddy assembly and we got to meet our senior buddies Ashani, Jonathan, and Daniel. They even stopped by during D.E.A.R. time to read with us.
Fall Fun!
We finished up our Apples unit. We had fun learning all about apples and Johnny Appleseed. We did a fun experiment to see if all apples have the same amount of seeds. What do you think the answer is?
We got together with class 1J and did an experiment to see which would sink... an apple or a potato or a pumpkin! The apple and the pumpkin floated because it they are denser and have more air inside. Next week we will take it a step further and do an experiment based on a question that a few children had today which was, Do all fruits float?We had so much fun making applesauce as our final apple activity. The children read directions, measured, mixed, and mashed all of the ingredients. Then they got to eat the applesauce. We had mixed reviews! Then we read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. After reading this book we decided to research where all the ingredients from our applesauce came from and also found the countries on our map. Click on the Smilebox below to see the children making applesauce. Enjoy!
http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a4d314d4459324e44413d0d0a&blogview=true
Fall is such a fun time of the year! We have been discussing the changes that take place during the fall and we wrote about what we like to do in the fall and created fall trees. They are hanging on the bulletin board outside our room. Please stop by and see them.
Graphs, Graphs, and more Graphs
In Math we have been working on graphing. We learned how to read, write, and create tally charts, bar graphs, pictographs, and pie graphs. The children worked in pairs and came up with a title for their graph and then they surveyed the 4th graders and tallied up their responses. They wore little moustache disguises and said, "I moustache you a question..." They took the information they gathered and they created a bar graph. They really seemed to enjoy this activity! Here are some pics...
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 I "moustache" you a question! |
We also did a fun activity with Mrs. Burg using the laptops. We created M&M candy pictographs. We each got a small packet of M&Ms and we sorted the candy by color. Then we created a pictograph using the laptops. We learned how to copy and paste the different colored M&Ms to make our graphs.
We also worked on using graphs to answer questions and we used pictures to create different kinds of graphs, which are hanging in the hall. We also just finished up working with patterns. We used a fun app on the iPad called Farm Fun, which was a great app to reinforce patterns.
Reading
We have been working on the short a and i and o sounds, beginning blends, sight words, and word families in Phonics. We have also been focusing on the strategies that good readers use. We have learned that good readers point with their finger(track), use pictures(eagle eye), cross check the pictures and the text, stretch out the words(stretchy snake), chunk up the words(chunky monkey), look for patterns, look for words in words, and make predictions. The children have been practicing these important strategies during Independent reading and have a special reading tool kit to help them. The Reading Fairy stopped by to drop off some magic reading wands! We have started to work in our Guided Reading groups. The children are doing a great job and are very enthusiastic about reading and literacy centers.We also have been busy working on reading with expression. We have learned to use punctuation cues to help us read with expression.
Writing
In Writing, we have just finished our Adventures of Super Me books! They came out ADORABLE! We have been busy working on using proper spacing, punctuation, capitalization, and penmanship. We have also been reading many different versions of the story I Know an Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly . We are in the process of writing our own versions.
We learned that all stories have three parts, which are the beginning, middle, and end. The middle is the longest part of the story. We read Where the Wild Things are and then retold the story using pictures and writing. We put everything on a large storyboard and then identified the beginning, middle, and end of the story and created a large storyboard.
Social Studies and Technology
We began our communities unit. We learned what a community is and what a neighborhood is. We talked about our school community and made a list of school community workers and came up with three questions that we would like to ask them during an interview that will take place this week. We also learned about the three types of communities, which are rural, urban, and suburban. We used the iPad to locate a farm, suburb, and city using the Google Earth app. They had a blast doing this! We read some great books calledCity Kid, Country Kid and Country Mouse and City Mouse and used a double bubble to compare and contrast them.
OCTOBER REMINDERS
1. Library day is Tuesday.
2. Wednesday, October 31 is Halloween. The children will change into their costumes after the class Halloween party. We will have the party, change into costumes, and then go to the Halloween parade in Laidlaw at 2:00. All parents are welcome to attend.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Jennifer Molloy
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