December 16, 2016

This week we compared and contrasted two books by Jan Brett, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Snow Bears.

We made gingerbread cake.

We are learning about shapes in math.  We are learning the names and characteristics of the 3-D shapes.

We made paper gingerbread houses and hung them in the hall.

We had Multiage. We made cards for people in Lyme that do not leave their houses.

We are bringing ingredients to school to make dog bones and gingerbread houses next week.

Bonnie and Miss Tracy both retired this month.

First grade rocks!

December 9, 2016

This week we had the Talent Show.  Some first graders participated.

Miss Tracy is leaving us to take another job.  She wants to work with colors and fabrics.

In writing we are working on opinion pieces.

In math we are working on shapes.

First grade rocks!

December 2, 2016

This week we will finish Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Jack got caught in a trap that was for a bunny.  The turkey fell in the fire.

We made boats.  We tried to make "better boats" than the Mayflower.  We used egg cartons, pencils, paper towel rolls, other materials, and tape.  We sailed them in a sled full of water.  Then we got to improve them and try them again!  We were impressed with how much the boats improved!

We are studying Jan Brett.  We like her books!

We have guest teachers today.  They will teach us about evergreens and pinecones.

First grade rocks!

November 18, 2016

Over the past two weeks we learned about the Mayflower.  Most people left England and sailed on the Mayflower because the King was making them worship God his way.   One hundred-two passengers were on the Mayflower.    Many people got sick on the Mayflower.  Children liked to empty the chamber pots on the Mayflower  so they could get fresh air.  One man fell overboard, but was rescued.  A bad storm blew them off course.  They planned to go to Virginia, but landed on Cape Cod.  After arriving in Massachusetts, there were no houses, so they still had to live on the ship through the winter.  There were 2 dogs and 1 cat on the ship.  Water was not fresh and went bad, so everyone drank beer on the ship.

They made 7 houses by the end of the first year.  Half of the Pilgrims died the first winter. After their first year they celebrated with the First Thanksgiving.  They were thankful for the Native Americans teaching them how to grow food.  Squanto was the Native American that helped them the most.  Often the children did not have chairs to sit in at the table and had to stand during meals after their houses were built.  They made mattresses out of hay, straw, and grass.

First grade rocks!

October 28, 2016

This week we switched reading group teachers.

We went on a field trip to Cedar Circle Farm to pick pumpkins, we learned about where our food comes from,  did a dance to represent the life cycle of a pumpkin, went on a hayride, and picked radishes and spinach.  We learned that bees use the pollen from boy flowers to pollinate the girl flowers to grow a pumpkin.  We rode a bus and crossed train tracks to get there.

We had multi-age.  We painted pumpkins, made luminaries, played tag in the gym, read stories, ate cookies, drank cider, and colored.

We did Halloween math in computer.  We practiced making addition sentences.

First grade rocks!

October 21, 2016

This week we created a dinosaur and wrote about it.  We learned that dinosaur nests kept the eggs warm, moist, and protected.

The town firefighters came to talk to us about fire safety.

In math we are working on addition stories.  We are practicing counting on, math facts, counting back, and using  ten-frames.  We had a new mission about Mrs. Cook.  We needed to help her know how many hats she needed.

First grade rocks!

September 30, 2016

This week we learned that there were different periods the dinosaurs lived through.  We learned this by laying dirt, sand, rocks, and water.  The deeper the layers were, the older they were.  The three periods dinosaurs lived in were Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.

We started a new read aloud book called The Sasquatch Escape. 

We have new pets called Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.  We learned about them and how to take care of them.

We learned about number bonds in math.  Number bonds are the parts to the whole number.  We worked in partners and table groups to discover different number bonds.  Mr. Valence sent us another secret spy message to solve in math.

Friday is "Dance Party Day"!

First grade rocks!

September 23, 2016

This week we learned about fossils.  Fossils are things that hardened in the rocks. Some fossils are just impressions in the rocks, not always bones.  We found them millions of years later.

We started reading groups.

First grade rocks!

This week we learned!

We learned about numbers using cube trains. We are learning to read and write the number words.

We started to learn about dinosaurs.  The T-Rex tooth was 6 inches long!  They had sharp teeth too.

First grade rocks!

The best thing about first grade is...

-library. **
-2 recesses.  ****
-2 PE's. ***
-our teacher. *
-the students. *
-hot lunch. *

First grade rocks!

May 20, 2016

This week in PE we played Star Wars ( a teacher even joined us for this game) and Color Tag.

In Art we sewed a fish or a heart or other animals.

We are starting to write our final copies in Writing.

We had Junior Achievement.  They taught us about families, jobs, and needs vs. wants.

In Spanish we finished our story, so we are making our Spanish books.

In Music we sang songs.  We sang "Inch by Inch" and some other songs for May Pole next week.

We had a great week!

May 6, 2016

This week in Music we watched a movie, called Turtle's Tale.

After coloring our prints in Art, we were able to do choice.

We watched a funny Kitty video in Spanish.

In Social Studies we made maps of New Hampshire.

In writing we are writing fictional narratives.

We had a great week!

April 29, 2016

This week we played Smart Shot and Line Tag in PE.  We also played another tag game in which we only could walk.  We couldn't run, jump, or step on a line.

Mrs. G. challenged us in Art to print only by pressing down and picking up, not dragging the stamp.  We also only used skinny stuff to make a picture, for example a small plastic bowl.

In Social Studies we are drawing maps of the playground.  We are also working on reading maps.

In Spanish we are doing a story.

Many members of our class participated in the Talent Show this week.

We had a great week!

April 22, 2016

We are now studying maps. We are making a map of our classroom.  We read books about maps and learned about "bird's eye view".

We are studying a new Spanish unit about clothes.

In Art we are making lily pads in ponds.

In PE we are playing Star Wars.  We also played tag.

In math we are learning about ordinal numbers and positions.

In Music we played a BINGO game.

We had a great week!

February 12, 2016

This week we started a unit about Manatees.  Manatees are endangered mammals.  They are related to elephants.  They have toenails.  They are getting hurt/killed by boat propellers, so people should be careful driving boats.  Mother manatees nurse their babies under their armpits.  They have little hairs and algae on their skin.  They need to breathe air every few minutes, but when they are resting they come up for air every 15  minutes.  They eat sea grass.  They have no predators.  There are only 2,000 left in the world.  We hope to adopt one.

We had a great week!

February 4, 2016

This week in Spanish we started a new story.

In Art we got to have choice.  One choice was to paint a dragon mural.

If you didn't go skiing, you got to play Smart Shot.

We are learning to write informational pieces.

In PE we played Color Tag.

We played Guess My Number.

In math we learned about Fact Families.

We had a great week!

January 29, 2016

This week we continued to work on our paper dragon puppets.

In writing we are leaning to write non-fiction pieces.

In Math we got a new math book.  We also learned about Function Machines and some of us had to teach our parents how to do it.

Many of us have written so much that we need new writing journals.

It was a great week!

January 22, 2016

This week we played Smart Shot in PE with the K kids.

In Music we listened to music and we drew the pictures in our minds while listening to it.

In Guidance we learned to have good table manners.

We went to Art.  We read The Paper Dragon.  We made paper puppet dragons.  We also had some choice (one choice was Legos).

In science we are still learning about the Moon. We are sketching it every night.

We had a great week!

January 8, 2016

This week we in Music class we practiced drumming.  We also played a game called "Lord of the Rings".

We are learning about the Moon.

We are finishing our weavings in Art.

We had a great week!