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.

Learning About the Weather and Welcome to Spring

Hello again everyone! Here is another update for you. 

Each year we move into the spring season with a discussion of weather predicting, weather instruments, and the water cycle.  Also, as we live in the mid-west, we talk a lot about weather safety!  We read many, many books about weather and refer to ourselves as "meteorologists" which is a BIG word for 1st grade kiddos, but they love it!

We begin learning weather words and all about weather instruments.  Next, we delved into the water cycle and created our own versions.  We also watched a Magic School Bus video pertaining to this topic.

Along with this we learned about various types of clouds and how they are used to predict the weather.  We read "The Cloud Book" by Tomie De Paola and then created a visual display of four types of clouds.

We also discussed the term "precipitation" and the various forms.  Then, the kiddos made a diagram.

While discussing severe weather and weather safety I always love to introduce the book, "Thunder Cake" by Patricia Polacco.  If you aren't familiar, it is a story about a grandmother teaching her granddaughter how to make "thunder cake" and in the process she also helps to calm the fears about the approaching storm.  It is also a great book for comparing/contrasting times long ago with today.

We also read many other books about severe weather.   

This led us into the spring season!  We used our five senses to write some spring poems after reading a couple of great books.

We also got out "real" rulers and measured some flowers!

Well, I have tried to cover just a few of the many, many activities we accomplished in learning about the weather and the beginning of a new spring season.  As this has been a long post I will end for now.  Next time I will update you on some special events that took place in April and May.  Bye for now and thanks for sticking with me until the end!