Weekly Update, March 7 - 11

Hello Sssssssssuper First Graders and Stupendoussssss First Grade Families!


The 1st grade musical, The Cheese Stands Alone, is this Thursday, March 10 at 6:30 pm.  The kids have been working very hard and they are extremely excited!  They will spend all day with Mrs. Brower on Wednesday to rehearse for their play.

Our reading celebration pizza party is next Friday, March 18th.  We will have a picnic pizza lunch during lunch time.  Your child does not need to bring a lunch that day.

The kids loved our bug study last week!  We watched a few short video clips about amazing insects on Friday.  Kids - the link to the website with the bug videos is now on my blog!  It's in the LINKS section and it's the link called "Bug Videos."  Enjoy!

 Sssssss....this week we are learning about snakes in science and guided reading and the kids love it!  Today we learned about the characteristics of the Western Diamondback.  The kids learned some great new snake vocabulary.  Kids - be sure to share it with your parents!  The rest of the week we will learn about king snakes, garter snakes and green snakes.  I personally had a lot of fun researching for this slithery unit.  I can't wait to teach the kids slithery, slimy information and show AWESOME snake pictures to them!

In writing we are working on sssssssuper snake writing!  Today we wrote "How To Be A Diamondback" and the kids had so much fun with these!  They have made so much progress in poetry!  Their "How To Be A Diamondback" poems are hung up on the wall in the shape of a snake (complete with a head and rattle!), so be sure to stop by to check out the kids' ssssssuper sssssnake writing!  Tomorrow the kids will make king snake crowns with 8 different facts about king snakes.  On Thursday the kids will practice their alliteration skills by writing 4 alliteration sentences on a swirly garter snake.  On Friday, we will read the book "Verdi" to go with our green snake study.  Verdi is a special python snake who learns how to be green.  The kids will get to make their own Verdi snake and write about their favorite part of the book.

The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow.  This week in making words we are work on tricky vowel combinations.

The kids had fun in their slithery, slimy snake centers!  The centers for the week include:
1.  Listening - The kids listened to "I Can Read About Reptiles" and they identified reptiles from the book based on different clues.
2.  Social Studies - The kids tested their bug knowledge from last week with a game.  They worked in partners to answer questions about bugs.  For each question they answered correctly, they got to move along the snake shaped board.
3.  Writing - The kids colored different pictures of baby snakes.  They wrote about adventures of their baby snakes.
4.  Math - The kids got a picture of a diamondback snake and they colored the diamonds in an ABBC pattern.  After they colored, they cut their snake and they have their own swirly snake.  These turned out great!
5.  Reading - The kids read different snake books and they shared new snake facts with their reading group.

In math we are busy working on both measurement and assessments for the 3rd quarter report card.  The kids are practicing measuring with inches and centimeters.  They are learning to estimate measurements and compare measurements.  The kids are taking report assessments on skip counting, addition, subtraction, place value, calendar elements, patterning and measurement.

The kids had fun in computers today.  If you'd like to see what they did, please click on the blog posting directly below this one, "Computers, 3/7."

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston