April 25

*Welcome back from vacation! I hope you all had a chance to relax and have some fun!
*We are continuing our character study in reading. Students will be reading to get to know characters and their importance in stories.
*Grade 1 is going on a field trip to The Old York Museum.  Our class will be going on Thursday May 19th.  Permission slips went home today.  Please sign and return by Tuesday May 10th.
*Today we began our study of plants.  We will be investigating ways plants meet their needs so that they can survive and grow.

  

Native Americans

Today we had the honor of hosting two Native American visitors! Ed Bullock and Ken Hamilton spoke to the students about story telling, music, and tools that were used in the past.  The students also made Wampum Necklaces.  The patterns in the students' necklaces symbolize peace, friendship, acceptance, and unity.  For more information please visit Ed's website http://www.thelittlebull.com/Education.html

Thank you Ed and Ken for your visit! 

Color Poems

Today students wrote color poems.  We read excerpts from Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neil to get us thinking about colors and our senses.  Our poems were written following the scaffold of our mentor text February by Charlotte Otten.  Check out your student's SeeSaw account for a video of them reciting their poem!

February by Charlotte Otten

February turns everything to gray;

gray lakes, gray fog, gray sun.

Gray squirrels lose their bearings 

hunting for acorns buried 

beneath thick gray snow.

 

April 7 Rainy Day

Today we made it rain in class! The students had a blast filling up their clouds with tiny water droplets.

April 4

*Parent Teacher conferences will be this Monday April 4.  Please check your time online. 

*The students enjoyed studying cumulus, stratus, and cirrus clouds last week.  We enjoyed reading about the different types of clouds and creating clouds in the classroom.  This week, we are going to make it rain!

*We will be starting our study of story elements in reading this week.

*We will also be starting our new writing unit focusing on poetry.   

Gumdrop Structures

Our coding lesson today focused on persistence and how to try and try again when you are faced with a challenge. The students worked with a partner to build gumdrop structures that could support a book.