Friday, December 6, 2013

December 6, 2013

This week we started a new play in Spanish.  It is about a girl named Sparkles who wants to read.  She can't find any books, so she has to travel around the world looking for books.  She ends in New England where there are books.

A demonstration of the Menorah was done in an all school assembly.  Some of our students helped in the demonstration.

There was also some skits to teach us about the "Unthinkables" during the all school morning meeting.

We finished our unit about the Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving Story this week.

In PE we are learning how to roll carefully.  We are working on gymnastics.

We filled another bucket.  We have filled Mrs. Wilcox's bucket nine times!

We had an amazing week!


Friday, November 22, 2013

November 22, 2013

This week we studied the Pilgrims.  We looked at Plimouth Plantation.  We read about the life of a Pilgrim girl and Pilgrim boy.  (We learned children got "the rod"--spanked with a stick-- if they talked out of turn.)  We also learned most girls did not get schooling, but could if their fathers taught them at night.  We found out the roofs of their houses was made out of dried grass (thatched roofs).  The children had alot of chores to do every day.  There was a watchtower that the men took turns watching for enemy ships or attacks of any kind.

We filled another bucket this week.  We have filled Mrs. Wilcox's bucket 8 times!

We learned how to add ending sentences to our writing.

We had an amazing week!


Friday, November 15, 2013

November 5, 2013

This week we had short days.  We had Parent - Teacher Conferences all week.  Our teacher told our parents that we are doing a good job and are good friends.

We got to watch a show after school about Narnia.

We learned the new glued sound "all".

We saw pictures of the Mayflower.

We have been filling Mrs. Wilcox's bucket.

We are reading Thanksgiving on Thursday.

We had an amazing week!

Friday, November 8, 2013

November 8, 2013

This week we made masks for Day of the Dead in computer.

The firefighters came last Friday to teach us about fire safety.

We filled another bucket for Mrs. Wilcox.

We are making books in Spanish.

We are learning about the Mayflower.  There were 102 passengers on the Mayflower.  We learned there were some animals on the Mayflower, like two dogs.  We also learned that they had chamber pots instead of toilets.  There were cannons on the ship too.  They got caught in a bad storm in the middle of the ocean. After the storm they had to fix the ship.  They got very sick on the ship.  They landed in Massachusetts instead of Virginia.  There was a baby born on the ship and they named him Oceanus.  Many of them did not survive the first winter.

Last Friday a person from the Montshire brought some fossils for us to look at.

We had an amazing week!






Friday, November 1, 2013

November 1, 2013

This week we went to Morning Meeting.  Mr. Valence talked and teachers talked about safety.  There was a creepy poem about skeletons.

Last week we went on a hayride.  We participated in Octoberfest.

We are finishing up our dinosaur unit.

Firefighters are coming today to talk about fire safety.

We are working on trick words and know them better.

We had an amazing week!

Friday, October 25, 2013

October 25, 2013

This week we had a Dinosaur Dig.  The sandbox was sectioned off and we dug up bones.

We had  Open House this week.  We showed our classroom and school to our parents.

In math  we are looking for patterns.

In Language Arts we have reading groups.  We read and write in our journals.  Today we are presenting plays to each other.  We also switched reading group teachers. We are reading new books.

Today is Octoberfest.  We get to paint pumpkins, go on hayrides, make scarecrows, hear scary stories, and have a treat at the end.

We had an amazing week!





Friday, October 18, 2013

October 18, 2013

This week we did an experiment about dinosaur nests and eggs.  The jar with just the paper towel evaporated more than the one with leaves and sand on it.  We found the sand and leaves protect the eggs, helps keep the eggs hydrated, keeps the eggs hidden, and keeps the eggs warm.

We measured how long an Apatosaurus was.  All 16 of lying head to toe wasn't long enough!  We also measured the Stegasaurus, Dimetradon, and Tyrannasaurus Rex.

Our Spanish teacher was out alot this week with his sick child.  We watched Pocoyo, but missed him.

We have reading groups and we read lots of books.  We are learning how to read!

We had an amazing week!


Friday, October 4, 2013

October 4, 2013

This week we learned that some creatures we thought were dinosaurs were not dinosaurs.  A dinosaur did not fly or live in the water.  Dinosaurs only walked on land.  We also drew dinosaurs and placed them in the periods they lived- Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous.

In math we played "PIG OUT".  We had a board of numbers to cover.  We could roll a die and keep the number of chips we rolled or risk it and keep rolling hoping not to get a 1.  If you rolled a 1, you lost your chips.

We looked at the clock closely and worked on telling time to the hour.  We also looked closely at pennies and nickels.

In computer, we worked on dinosaur books.

We had an amazing week!

Friday, September 27, 2013

September 27, 2013

This week we played PIG OUT in math.

In PE we had a lot of fun playing Smart Shot.

In Music we played Follow the Leader.  (We even ran in the halls!)

We are doing What's Up?  1, 2, 3.  This is when we talk out our problems.

We are discovering dinosaurs.  We found that the bones get lost.  It is not easy to put the bones back together.  We made molds and casts of dinosaurs. 

We are learning how to read books in reading groups.

We had  an amazing week!



Friday, September 20, 2013

September 20, 2013

This week we started learning about dinosaurs.  We learned how fossils got in the ground.

We have worked on our letter sounds for the whole alphabet!

We met Seymour.  He is the class stuffy.  We get to bring him home for the weekend to read to him.  We can bring him on adventures too.  We will write our adventures and share them on Monday with the class.

We have Art this afternoon.

We met 2 dinosaurs.  We can read books to them.  

We are still working on reaching our Hopes & Dreams.

We played Take Off in math.  We had to take off chips from our board.

We had an amazing week!

Friday, September 13, 2013

September 13, 2013

This week we finished our Hopes & Dreams for the school year.

In math we worked on whisper counting.

In writing we wrote about our Author of the Month, Robert Munsch.

In Music we sang John Jacob Jingleheimer  Schmidt.  We also played the "Closet Key."

We colored books and drew people.

In Computer we made a self portrait.

In Library we took out books.

We had an amazing week!

Friday, September 6, 2013

September 6, 2013

This week we counted by 5's and 1's in math.  We learned how to play Monster Squeeze, Top-It, and Penny-Dice.

In science we are learning to observe.  We went on the playground to find lots of greens!

We made books!

In Guidance we made faces out of nature, called "Acorn People".

We are learning Spanish.  We have class everyday for a half hour.

We had an amazing week!

Friday, June 7, 2013

June 7, 2013

This week the kindergarten kids came in for step up day. We told them all about first grade!

Today in morning meeting we shared our large Save the Manatee poster.

We started to bring our projects home in art.  We also sketched nature outside.

In social studies we did mapping and learned about a birds eye view.

We had a visit from Rachel from the Montshire and she brought aquatic pond bugs for us to observe.

We will have a multi-age activity this afternoon.

We had a nice week!


Friday, May 31, 2013

May 31, 2013

This week we had the Mayfair! It was a celebration of spring. We sang songs about spring and the fifth grade braided ribbons around the may pole. We also passed out flowers.

In art we painted our clay projects and had a choice. We were able to bring our projects home.

In writing we are working on informative writing. We also wrote letters to the K kids about what they should look forward to in first grade.

We are doing a review in math and have finished our math journals!

In reading groups we are all having check ins.

We are still working on mapping in social studies.

We had a nice week!




Friday, May 17, 2013

May 17, 2013

This week we started a new read aloud book called Nicholas:  A New Hampshire Tale. 

In math we finished fractions and now we are reviewing the year.

In social studies we started to learn about maps.  We are working on creating a "bird's eye view" of our classroom.  We learned about the Compass Rose - N, S, E, W.  We are working hard to learn the continents by singing a song.

We had choice in Art this week.

We had a nice week!


Friday, May 10, 2013

May 10, 2013

This week we watched a skit about Cinco de Mayo in Morning Meeting.

We worked with our Artist in Residence, Lily.  We finished our animation.

More mealworms turned into beetles.

Today is our Junior Achievement volunteer's last day with us.  We learned about families.  We learned about jobs, food, and shelter being important.

In writing we finished our narratives.

We finished Owls in the Family.   It was a sad but funny book.  It was based on a true story.

We worked on fractions in math.

We are reading a new Author of the Month, Patricia Polacco.  Most of her stories are based on her life.

We had a nice week.

Friday, May 3, 2013

May 3, 2013

This week in art we worked on animation.

This morning we had a talent show and some of our friends participated!

One of our mealworms turned into a beetle!  Also, we watched a mealworm turn into a pupa in real time!

In math we have been working really hard on fractions. We learned that 2/4 is equal to 1/2.

A volunteer has been coming in for Junior Achievement. We are talking about families and why they are important and also what we need vs. what we want.


We had a nice week!


Friday, April 26, 2013

April 26, 2013

This week we had choices in Art.  We could sculpt, paint, or weave.

We started a new read aloud book called Owls in the Family.

Some of our mealworms turned into a pupa.

One reading group started a new chapter book called Dolphins at Daybreak.

In Spanish we started to learn a new song, "Se Va, Se Va".

We had a nice week!

Friday, April 5, 2013

April 5, 2013

Over the last few weeks...

In math, we have been studying fractions. Yesterday we made Fraction Monsters where we made monster bodies out of colored squares. We counted how many there were total, then how many of each color, and made them into a fraction.

We shared money with our friends in math. We spent $1.00 at our class school store. We had to figure out how much change we would get back from our purchase.

We made portfolios in art.

In writing most of us finished our final drafts and shared our stories that we wrote. We liked how we got positive, friendly comments from our friends.

We are learning to observe mealworms closely and are waiting to see what they turn into. This week we generated a list of questions and will choose a few to create an experiment. We are learning to be gentle with a live creature!

We had a nice week.




Friday, March 15, 2013

March 15, 2013

This week we painted cardboard pictures in Art.  We used the cardboard to make prints.

In Science we experimented with ice cubes.  One day we tried to melt the ice cube the fastest.  Some people were able to melt their ice cube in 48 seconds!  One day we watched and timed the melting of an ice cube on its own.  Today we will try to keep an ice cube from melting!

In math we worked on polygons.  We found out pyramids come to a point at the top, but cylinders do not.  Yesterday we played with symmetry.

In one reading group we put eggshells in soda to see what happens to our teeth if we do not brush them.

We had a nice week!

Friday, March 8, 2013

March 8, 2013

This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday and Read Across America Week!

We dressed as our favorite book characters. We had a green snack on Wednesday. On Tuesday we wore crazy socks for Fox in Socks.  On Monday, we participated in Drop Everything and Read with the whole school.  On Thursday, we read with our buddies in the 5th grade.

All week long we had guest readers including teachers, parents and the principal!

We started a new unit in science on states of matter.

Some of us made paintings with cardboard in art.

We had a nice week!

Friday, March 1, 2013

March 1, 2013

This week we chose the manatee that we want to adopt.  We want to adopt Margarito.  He is missing his right flipper.

Some of the class played Tric-Trac in math.  We learned about measuring in centimeters.  We talked about quarters. 

We had a snow day on Wednesday.

We are learning about blends in Fundations.

One reading group is learning about snakes. 

We had a nice week.

Friday, February 15, 2013

February 15, 2013

This week we started a new science unit on manatees.  Manatees eat under water plants.  They are sometimes hit by boat propellers. There are only about 2,000 manatees left. They are related to elephants.  Manatees have toe nails just like elephants.  They can hold their breath for 15 minutes.  Also, they do not have front teeth and they are very gentle.  They have big lips that can grab plants and they have algae that grows on their back.

We celebrated Valentine's Day and got a lot of valentines from our friends. We made a pictograph with candy hearts.

We had free time in art.

We had a nice week!

Friday, February 1, 2013

February 1, 2013

Happy One Hundred Days of School!

This week we made paper dragons in Art.

We are ending our Moon Unit this week.  Many of us did a good job sketching the moon in our journals.

We got new Math Journals this week.

We learned about the planet Uranus and Neptune in Library.

We wrote friendly letters back to our friends in class.

We had a nice week.


Friday, January 25, 2013

January 25, 2013

This week in first grade we read a book called Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett. 

Yesterday we watched a movie of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. 

In writing we wrote a friendly letter to a classmate about our favorite animal.

We finished our Math Journals.

In Art we read a book called The Paper Dragon.

In science we drew the phases of the moon.

Some of us are enjoying snowshoeing at recess on Fridays.

We celebrated some birthdays this week.

We had a nice week.

Friday, January 18, 2013

January 18, 2013

This week we finished our paper playgrounds in art. We also made splatter paintings.

We are writing letters to our classmates. We are telling our friends about our favorite animals.

We did an experiment in science where we made craters on the moon. 

We started a new book for read aloud called Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

We wrote letters to ourselves in the future to remind us not to destroy snow creations made by smaller children. We will put them in a time capsule.

We started a new song in Spanish.

We had a nice week!


Friday, January 11, 2013

January 11, 2013

This week we made paper playgrounds in Art.

We are learning about the moon.  The dark spots on the moon are called "seas".  Big rocks hit the moon to make craters.  We have a Moon Journal to watch and sketch the moon.  If you weigh 60 pounds on the earth, you weigh 10 pounds on the moon. The phases of the moon are caused by the shadows of the earth.

In writing, we are learning how to write letters.

In math, we are learning about the greater than and less than signs.  We work in our Math Journals.

We had  a nice week!