Hello Fantastic First Graders and Fabulous First Grade Parents!
Today was a great day in first grade! Once again, we were busy, busy, busy bees! We learned a lot of new rules procedures today because we began centers! This was very exciting for the kids and they did a great job of practicing the procedures and working hard!
This week we begin our science unit on The Five Senses. Today we learned about how our eyes help us. We did a fun activity to see what it would be like if we didn't have our eyes. The children worked in partners. The first partner closed his/her eyes, while his/her partner gave directions to draw a face. This helped us to think about how important our sense of sight is. This challenge caused us to use our senses of hearing and feeling. The kids had a lot of fun and everyone was glad to have their sight back! The children had a good time and they got to see that science is so much fun! There is a fun science experiment each day this week related to each since. Be sure to ask your child about our daily experiments!
After learning about centers, we got to do centers! There are five centers per week, so the children will do 1 center per day. There is also daily Self Selected Reading (SSR) time where I read with small groups of children. The 5 centers are:
1. Listening - The children listen to "School Days" on tape. After listening, they fill out the name of the book, author and illustrator. Next, they write their favorite thing from the story and draw a picture.
2. Science - This week our science center is based on the 5 senses. I have four jars with a food item in each jar. The jars are covered up. The kids smell the jars and guess what they are. After they guess, they write about what it is like to depend on sense of smell without sense of sight to identify the item.
3. Writing - The children are wrote about what they want to be when they grow up. These are so much fun for me to read!
4. Math - This week our math center focuses on pattern blocks with an integration of the five senses. The children have a chance to first explore the pattern blocks. After that, they partner up. The first partner makes a shape, but does not show it to the second partner. Then, the first partner must teach the second partner how to make the shape with words only.
5. Reading - The children explored the Bee Quiet Corner. They enjoyed snuggling with pillow pets and reading free choice books.
This week in reading we are focusing on the reading strategies "Chunky Monkey" (looking for a familiar word chunk) and "Stretchy Snake" (reading all the way through the word to read all the sounds). We are also working on vowel patterns. In comprehension, we are focusing on sequencing and retelling.
We practiced our new spelling words. The children came home with Rainbow Words for practice today and they are due tomorrow. This week we are working on the "am" family. Our making words activities will focus on spelling practice and "am" family practice. The children also need to read tonight and fill out their reading log.
Today in math we made an apple glyph. The kids did a great job following the multi-step directions and successfully completing the glyph. Parents - be sure to ask your child what the word data means and what they learned about their classmates from the glyphs. Tomorrow in math we will analyze the data from our glyphs and finish chapter 1, an addition chapter.
We had our first computer class on Friday. If you'd like to see what we did on Friday, click on the blog posting directly below this one, "Computers, 8/26." The kids learned how to use Internet explorer to find my blog. This is a great activity to practice with your child at home. The blog has a lot of great stuff for kids, including Raz-Kids (there is a link to Raz-Kids on the right side under the calendar. The username is: mjohnstonai).
Reminders for the week: Kids - please bring your yellow or blue folder to school each day. It is YOUR responsibility to remember your homework and your folder!
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I liked coloring the apples and cutting out the apples. We got to smell the cups. They had liquid in them. Raz Kids was really awesome because I like to read on Raz Kids.
ReplyDeleteHi Kaelan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by the blog! I always love when my kiddos use the blog. :)
I'm glad you enjoyed making the apple glyph; I thought it was fun too!
Did you like smelling the cups? Which smell was your favorite?
I'm glad you like reading on Raz-Kids!
Have a great afternoon and I'll see you tomorrow!
Mrs. Johnston