First Days!

We are off to a great start and hope you enjoy this glimpse into our first days of  school!

The Rain Forest, Shapes, and a Special Day

We complimented our Earth Day focus (mentioned in the previous post) by learning about the rain forest habitat.  The boys and girls learned why it is so important to protect the many plants and animals that depend on this precarious environment.  Of course we began by reading many books, both fiction and non-fiction and watched videos to provide background knowledge.  Just a few of these are pictured below.

 

After reading a book about saving the rain forest trees we discussed the terms "main topic" and "story details" and located these in the text we read.  The kiddos recorded these on the organizer below.

Next, we learned about the four layers of the rain forest through poetry, song, and books.  Everyone created a flap booklet.

Finally, each student wrote facts about a particular rain forest animal and created a colorful tissue-stuffed version of that animal.  These are displayed on our bulletin board.

The last couple of weeks in math we have been learning about plane shapes and 3-D shapes.  We learned characteristics of the various shapes, compared and contrasted shapes using correct vocabulary, and wrote about each as it is represented in the real world.

Grandparent/VIP Day is always a special time each year.

 The girls and boys read to their guests and performed some songs they had practiced along with the rest of the student body.  It was a great morning!

These are just a few of the many things we do each and every day in our 1st grade classroom.  Reading and writing are a vital part of our daily routine.  We wanted to share a few pictures below:

 Writing a story with a partner.

 Voracious reading makes for awesome readers!

 Until next time!

Earth Day, Endangered Animals, and Measurement

We celebrated Earth Day by reading a variety of books about taking care of the Earth.  The boys and girls learned different things they can do right now to help save our natural resources, as well as, protecting the animals that share the planet with us.  

 We completed the 'Taking Care of the Earth" booklet shown above while learning related vocabulary such as recycle, reduce, reuse, pollution, etc.  We also practiced answering true/false questions, sorting, and sequencing. Everyone then completed the following as a review.

The students also wrote about an action they can do to help our planet.

To incorporate further vocabulary and spelling development, partners worked on a "Making Words" activity.  In this they used the letters in the words "Earth Day" to make as many "real" words as they could.

Also, in honor of Arbor Day we learned about the special significance of trees in our lives and how important they are to the survival of humans and animals.  

  We love to use Scholastic News and Science Spin magazines with the related activities to help with our learning.  This issue provided us with some graphing practice as well.

The issue to the left provided us with information regarding water pollution and how it effects both humans and animals. 

 

We learned about endangered animals while reading about beach birds called "plovers".

 The related lesson gave us practice with the terms "problem" and "solution."

In math during the last couple of weeks of April we practiced different types of measurement, both non-standard and standard.  Weight and length were explored with a variety of activities.  Students used "teddy bear" manipulatives to determine the "weight" of different sizes of rocks.

The boys and girls measured the "length" of a variety of objects using links, paper clips, and rulers.

We also continued with math fact fluency practice, as well as, reviewing problem solving, telling time, and many other math skills on a daily basis.  

Next time, we'll let you know all about our study of the rain forest, practice working with shapes, and we'll share a few pictures from the annual Grandparent/VIP Day.

What's the Weather?

Through our study of the weather, we are practicing many things such as: reading for the main idea and looking for supporting details, writing poetry (see a previous post), and learning about different types of measurement tools and what they are used for.

We learned about key ideas and details while reading our Scholastic News.  It was an article about the good and bad things that the wind does. 

We also read some books about rain and used excerpts from the text to discover details used to support the main idea.  The boys and girls got into groups and used highlighters to discuss and look for repetitive words that would give them a clue as to the detail the author was emphasizing in that passage.

                    

We learned about the water cycle and made a diagram.

We wondered about clouds and practiced writing questions.  Later we read some books about clouds and used an internet site Weather Wiz Kids to answer as many questions as we could.

                          

We also learned different types of clouds and the type of weather they bring.  Then, everyone created examples of four cloud types.

 

We also learned about many different instruments meteorologists use to measure and predict the weather.  

 

We will be finishing our weather unit this coming week along with learning about Earth Day.  Stay tuned!