Hello Awesome First Graders and Amazing First Grade Families!
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving break! Parents - I hope you enjoyed your child's Thanksgiving decorations!
This week and for the rest of December, we will study holidays for social studies, guided reading and writing. This week we began a unit on Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. Today we learned about the celebrations, traditions, and symbols of Kwanzaa. The children wrote about their favorite family holiday tradition. Tomorrow we will learn about a special Kwanzaa symbol, the mkeka (a placemat) and the children will write Kwanzaa facts and create their own mkekas. On Wednesday we will learn about how some holidays share similar symbols and transition to our Hanukkah study. The children will create a menorah. On Thursday and Friday, we will learn about the history and symbols of Hanukkah and the children will write a Hanukkah fact on each of the candles of the menorah.
In reading we are learning about different holiday traditions. We reviewed the words compare and contrast and we are comparing and contrasting different holiday celebrations.
The children enjoyed our holiday centers today! The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The children listened to "The Magic Dreidels," and they wrote about their favorite part of the story. After they wrote they created their own dreidel.
2. Science - The children enjoyed making their own butter last week and this week they got to do even more! The children followed a recipe to make their own potato latkes! The children measured, mixed and shaped the pancakes and the parent helper cooked it so they could try it.
3. Writing - The children practiced writing an acrostic poem with the word Hanukkah. This was a challenging activity and the kids did a great job!
4. Math - The children practiced counting by 10s into the hundreds in the shape of a dreidel. The children followed directions to play a dreidel counting game. This was a lot of fun for the kids!
5. Reading - The children read in small groups with me. We focused on sequencing and retelling with detail.
The children came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. There are some challenging holiday words this week! Kids - be sure to tell your parents about high-medium-low and grapevine. Practice these at home; they will really help you! In making words we are working on spelling words with the long i (as in both ride and high).
We created a gingerbread glyph in math today. We collected data in a new way today; we worked collaboratively as a whole class to collect our data and record it in the form of a bar graph. This was a challenging activity and the kids did well!
We are working in chapter 10 in math. This is a very challenging chapter focused on greater than, less than and equals. The children are working with their greater than and less than signs with pipe cleaners and practiced comparing numbers with their pipe cleaners.
There is a fun activity planned for computers on Friday. If you’d like to see what we’ll do, check back on Friday for the blog post called “Computers, 12/2.”
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
November 28, 2011
November 23, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! The kids had so much fun today! THANK YOU so much to all the parents who donated their time and supplies to help make our day special for the kids. The kids and I appreciate you!
This morning we heard a great story called, "The Night Before Thanksgiving," and then it was time to get our Thanksgiving Party Centers started! The Thanksgiving centers were:
1. I Am Thankful Turkey - The kids colored and cut a turkey body. They took colored paper feathers and wrote different things they were thankful for this Thanksgiving.
2. Potato Turkey - The kids colored and cut a turkey head, wings and tail feathers. I helped them attach the pieces to toothpicks and stick the toothpicks in the potato to make a darling turkey decoration.
3. Tabletop Turkey - The kids measured rice to fill a plastic bag. They put the plastic bag in a paper bag and used pieces of the paper bag and other papers to make a head, wings, a tail feather, and legs for the turkey. They finished their turkeys with a recipe to use with your leftover turkey!
4. Butter Making - The kids made their own butter using just heavy cream and arm strength! The kids were amazed that butter could be made by simply shaking a jar of cream! They topped cornbread muffins with butter and honey.
After lunch the kids used Greedy The Greater Gator to compare turkeys, counted Pilgrims and Indians with the book "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims" and made a movable scarecrow.
The kids had a great day!
Enjoy your time off and have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! I am cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner; I anticipate that it will be quite an adventure!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Johnston
This morning we heard a great story called, "The Night Before Thanksgiving," and then it was time to get our Thanksgiving Party Centers started! The Thanksgiving centers were:
1. I Am Thankful Turkey - The kids colored and cut a turkey body. They took colored paper feathers and wrote different things they were thankful for this Thanksgiving.
2. Potato Turkey - The kids colored and cut a turkey head, wings and tail feathers. I helped them attach the pieces to toothpicks and stick the toothpicks in the potato to make a darling turkey decoration.
3. Tabletop Turkey - The kids measured rice to fill a plastic bag. They put the plastic bag in a paper bag and used pieces of the paper bag and other papers to make a head, wings, a tail feather, and legs for the turkey. They finished their turkeys with a recipe to use with your leftover turkey!
4. Butter Making - The kids made their own butter using just heavy cream and arm strength! The kids were amazed that butter could be made by simply shaking a jar of cream! They topped cornbread muffins with butter and honey.
After lunch the kids used Greedy The Greater Gator to compare turkeys, counted Pilgrims and Indians with the book "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims" and made a movable scarecrow.
The kids had a great day!
Enjoy your time off and have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! I am cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner; I anticipate that it will be quite an adventure!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Johnston
November 21, 2011
Weekly Update, November 21 - 23
Hello Terrific First Graders and Tremendous First Grade Families!
Homework Information
There are no new spelling words this week. Spelling will resume next week. There will be a modified reading log this week along with some practice math homework. Kids – remember to be responsible and turn in your homework! Normal homework will resume next week.
Thanksgiving Information
We have a short week this week! Our class party is Wednesday, November 23 from 9:00 – 11:00. Parents are welcome to attend! Check the blog on Wednesday for a wrap up of our fun party day!
Pajama Day
This Wednesday, November 23 is pajama day for the whole school! Be sure to wear your pajamas!
We had a wonderful week last week learning all about Thanksgiving. We began work on persuasive writing. The kids wrote from the point of view of a turkey and persuaded the reader not to eat them! The kids really enjoyed writing these persuasive essays and they came out great!
This week is a short week in first grade and there are a lot of exciting Thanksgiving activities planned, including our party on Wednesday! This week we are doing several hands on activities to learn more about Thanksgiving. Today and tomorrow, the kids will go to 3 centers! They LOVED going to 3 centers today! The centers for today and tomorrow include:
1. Thanksgiving Finger Puppets - The kids color pictures of Pilgrims and Indians, cut them out and use them for finger puppets. They are so cute!
2. Turkey Hands - The kids paint their hand prints to make an adorable turkey.
3. I Am Thankful - The kids write a short story about all the things they are thankful for this Thanksgiving.
4. Turkey Counting - The kids make a paper plate turkey. The feathers are numbered and to put them on in the correct order, the kids must count by 10s.
5. Happy Thanksgiving Turkey - The kids make a turkey and attach it to a sign that says Happy Thanksgiving.
6. Movable Turkey - The kids received a picture of a turkey (head, body, feet and feathers) and they colored them and cut them out. The pieces are attached with brads so the turkey can move.
This week in writing we are working on thank you notes and the kids are so good at these! The kids get to choose someone who has helped them recently and write a thank you note. We will also make another class book, "We Are Thankful." We already have several class books (we do one each week to correspond with our current unit of study) and the kids really enjoy reading these.
This week in math we began chapter 10, a challenging chapter about greater than and less than. The children made greater than/less than signs with pipe cleaners to help with this difficult concept. We reviewed the concepts in this chapter and the kids took a test today. Tomorrow we will make a turkey glyph.
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
Homework Information
There are no new spelling words this week. Spelling will resume next week. There will be a modified reading log this week along with some practice math homework. Kids – remember to be responsible and turn in your homework! Normal homework will resume next week.
Thanksgiving Information
We have a short week this week! Our class party is Wednesday, November 23 from 9:00 – 11:00. Parents are welcome to attend! Check the blog on Wednesday for a wrap up of our fun party day!
Pajama Day
This Wednesday, November 23 is pajama day for the whole school! Be sure to wear your pajamas!
We had a wonderful week last week learning all about Thanksgiving. We began work on persuasive writing. The kids wrote from the point of view of a turkey and persuaded the reader not to eat them! The kids really enjoyed writing these persuasive essays and they came out great!
This week is a short week in first grade and there are a lot of exciting Thanksgiving activities planned, including our party on Wednesday! This week we are doing several hands on activities to learn more about Thanksgiving. Today and tomorrow, the kids will go to 3 centers! They LOVED going to 3 centers today! The centers for today and tomorrow include:
1. Thanksgiving Finger Puppets - The kids color pictures of Pilgrims and Indians, cut them out and use them for finger puppets. They are so cute!
2. Turkey Hands - The kids paint their hand prints to make an adorable turkey.
3. I Am Thankful - The kids write a short story about all the things they are thankful for this Thanksgiving.
4. Turkey Counting - The kids make a paper plate turkey. The feathers are numbered and to put them on in the correct order, the kids must count by 10s.
5. Happy Thanksgiving Turkey - The kids make a turkey and attach it to a sign that says Happy Thanksgiving.
6. Movable Turkey - The kids received a picture of a turkey (head, body, feet and feathers) and they colored them and cut them out. The pieces are attached with brads so the turkey can move.
This week in writing we are working on thank you notes and the kids are so good at these! The kids get to choose someone who has helped them recently and write a thank you note. We will also make another class book, "We Are Thankful." We already have several class books (we do one each week to correspond with our current unit of study) and the kids really enjoy reading these.
This week in math we began chapter 10, a challenging chapter about greater than and less than. The children made greater than/less than signs with pipe cleaners to help with this difficult concept. We reviewed the concepts in this chapter and the kids took a test today. Tomorrow we will make a turkey glyph.
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
November 18, 2011
Computers, 11/18
Thanksgiving Web Quest!
Let's start by voting on this week's poll. After you vote, please come to the floor in front of the Smart Board and we'll learn about today's activity.
It was fun learning about Thanksgiving this week! What could you do if you wanted to find out more about Thanksgiving? READ TO FIND OUT!!! Today we will do a Web Quest to find out more about Thanksgiving!
Go to: http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/feast/webquest.htm to play the Thanksgiving Web Quest. You'll work with a partner to complete this activity. There are several questions to answer. You can answer them in two ways: you can use your schema about Thanksgiving to answer the question, or you can do the webquest! If you don't know the answer, click the button that says "Visit the Web site to find out." This game is a lot of fun! Watch and I'll show you how to play!
After you play the Web Quest you can explore the websites on the links section of my blog.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
Let's start by voting on this week's poll. After you vote, please come to the floor in front of the Smart Board and we'll learn about today's activity.
It was fun learning about Thanksgiving this week! What could you do if you wanted to find out more about Thanksgiving? READ TO FIND OUT!!! Today we will do a Web Quest to find out more about Thanksgiving!
Go to: http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/feast/webquest.htm to play the Thanksgiving Web Quest. You'll work with a partner to complete this activity. There are several questions to answer. You can answer them in two ways: you can use your schema about Thanksgiving to answer the question, or you can do the webquest! If you don't know the answer, click the button that says "Visit the Web site to find out." This game is a lot of fun! Watch and I'll show you how to play!
After you play the Web Quest you can explore the websites on the links section of my blog.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
November 14, 2011
Weekly Update, November 14 - 18
Hello Super First Graders and Spectacular First Grade Families!
I hope everyone had a nice weekend! The kids are still talking about our Awesome America week! They really enjoyed this unit and they LOVED meeting Major Russell! The kids loved listening to him talk, asking questions and learning about his uniform. They did an excellent job of writing thank you notes to him. They thanked him for visiting our class and they asked a lot of good questions in their notes too! It was a fun day!
Today we began our social studies and guided reading/writing unit on Thanksgiving; we are learning about the Pilgrims and Indians. There are several fun projects planned and the kids will come home with a lot of cute Thanksgiving decorations. Today we read a neat story called "The Tale of the Bear's Tipi." The kids learned about tipis and learned that there are two ways to spell it: tipi and tepee. After the story, the kids made their own tipis and wrote about what it would be like to live in a tipi. This was so much fun! On Tuesday we will read "The North Wind and the South Wind" to learn about pueblos and the kids will make their own pueblos. On Wednesday we will learn about the history of The First Thanksgiving and the kids will create their own cornucopia and write about what they are thankful for this year. Our studies on Thursday and Friday will focus on Pilgrims. On Thursday the kids will learn about how Pilgrims had a very different life than we do. The kids will compare and contrast elements of our lives to those of the Pilgrims. On Friday the kids will learn about what it was like to be a Pilgrim kid. They will decorate their own pilgrim kids to bring home.
The kids had a great time with the Thanksgiving centers today. The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to a story called Giving Thanks, written by an Indian Chief. They created a traditional Native American story sack. They decorated the bag with symbols and then filled it with found objects. To use the story sack, the kids pull an object from the bag and tell a story about it. They had so much fun gathering objects and sharing their stories!
2. Art/Social Studies- The kids used the inside of a paper grocery bag to write an Indian symbol story. The kids received a page of symbols and then they used them to tell a story. They could only use the symbols (no words).
3. Writing - The kids did a neat color poem. They colored a picture of pottery and then used the colors they chose to write a poem about it.
4. Math - Pottery geometry and Indian Symbol addition. The kids created patterns with pottery and they used symbols to write number sentences.
5. Reading - The kids read Thanksgiving books and did a Thanksgiving word sort.
The kids have new spelling words this week. In addition to our spelling words, we have Thanksgiving theme words. The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. In spelling and making words we are working on long vowel sounds. The kids have a new spelling challenge this week! If the whole class spells Thanksgiving and turkey (another alliteration test!) correctly, the class will get a prize.
We took our chapter 8 test in math today. There were some difficult concepts with related facts and fact families, so we spent a little extra time to cover the material. We will begin chapter 9 later in the week. This chapter focuses on groups of 10 and place value. The kids will practice counting in 10s and adding on by 1s, writing number sentences and identifying numbers by looking at pictures of groups of 10s and 1s.
We have a fun activity planned for computers later this week. If you'd like to see what we’ll do, stop back at the end of the week to view the blog posting called “Computers, 11/18.”
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
I hope everyone had a nice weekend! The kids are still talking about our Awesome America week! They really enjoyed this unit and they LOVED meeting Major Russell! The kids loved listening to him talk, asking questions and learning about his uniform. They did an excellent job of writing thank you notes to him. They thanked him for visiting our class and they asked a lot of good questions in their notes too! It was a fun day!
Today we began our social studies and guided reading/writing unit on Thanksgiving; we are learning about the Pilgrims and Indians. There are several fun projects planned and the kids will come home with a lot of cute Thanksgiving decorations. Today we read a neat story called "The Tale of the Bear's Tipi." The kids learned about tipis and learned that there are two ways to spell it: tipi and tepee. After the story, the kids made their own tipis and wrote about what it would be like to live in a tipi. This was so much fun! On Tuesday we will read "The North Wind and the South Wind" to learn about pueblos and the kids will make their own pueblos. On Wednesday we will learn about the history of The First Thanksgiving and the kids will create their own cornucopia and write about what they are thankful for this year. Our studies on Thursday and Friday will focus on Pilgrims. On Thursday the kids will learn about how Pilgrims had a very different life than we do. The kids will compare and contrast elements of our lives to those of the Pilgrims. On Friday the kids will learn about what it was like to be a Pilgrim kid. They will decorate their own pilgrim kids to bring home.
The kids had a great time with the Thanksgiving centers today. The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to a story called Giving Thanks, written by an Indian Chief. They created a traditional Native American story sack. They decorated the bag with symbols and then filled it with found objects. To use the story sack, the kids pull an object from the bag and tell a story about it. They had so much fun gathering objects and sharing their stories!
2. Art/Social Studies- The kids used the inside of a paper grocery bag to write an Indian symbol story. The kids received a page of symbols and then they used them to tell a story. They could only use the symbols (no words).
3. Writing - The kids did a neat color poem. They colored a picture of pottery and then used the colors they chose to write a poem about it.
4. Math - Pottery geometry and Indian Symbol addition. The kids created patterns with pottery and they used symbols to write number sentences.
5. Reading - The kids read Thanksgiving books and did a Thanksgiving word sort.
The kids have new spelling words this week. In addition to our spelling words, we have Thanksgiving theme words. The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. In spelling and making words we are working on long vowel sounds. The kids have a new spelling challenge this week! If the whole class spells Thanksgiving and turkey (another alliteration test!) correctly, the class will get a prize.
We took our chapter 8 test in math today. There were some difficult concepts with related facts and fact families, so we spent a little extra time to cover the material. We will begin chapter 9 later in the week. This chapter focuses on groups of 10 and place value. The kids will practice counting in 10s and adding on by 1s, writing number sentences and identifying numbers by looking at pictures of groups of 10s and 1s.
We have a fun activity planned for computers later this week. If you'd like to see what we’ll do, stop back at the end of the week to view the blog posting called “Computers, 11/18.”
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
November 7, 2011
Weekly Update, November 7 - 10
Hello Awesome First Graders and Amazing First Grade Parents!
The kids are still batty for bats! They are still talking all about bats and sharing what they learned. It is so great to see! Be sure to check out the links section of my blog for the echolocation video that we watched in class. We watched this again today and the kids LOVE it! Kids - watch the video and sing the song to your parents. You can show them how much you know about echolocation and bats!
Our patriotic week is off to a great start! Reminder: there is no school this Friday, November 11 in honor of Veterans' Day. Our spelling test will be on Thursday.
This week we are doing a social studies unit on Awesome America. Kids - we did Outstanding Owls, Perfect Pumpkins, Brilliant Bats and now we are doing Awesome America. What is this called??? Today the kids had a guest teacher. Mrs. Seiferth taught the kids what the word pledge means. They studied The Pledge of Allegiance and the kids learned the meaning of all of the words. They also wrote a pledge to themselves. The rest of the week we will learn all about the things that make America great. On Tuesday and Wednesday we will learn about the symbols of our country, we will learn about and make a flag and have a parade with patriotic music. We will learn about the reason we don't have school on Friday: Veteran's Day. A member of the military, Craig Russell (Ryan’s dad) will come to our class to talk with the kids on Thursday.
In reading we are working on reading for meaning. We will explore commonly read and used words and dig deeper into their meaning to read for understanding and comprehension. We are working on reading and making words with the “in” chunk, as well as the digraphs “sh” and “ch.”
The kids had a great time with our patriotic centers today. The kids went to two centers today! The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to a CD of patriotic American songs. While they listened, they drew pictures of what they heard in the song. They also wrote their favorite parts of the music.
2. Science - The kids looked at different symbols of The United States. They looked at pictures of astronauts and they discovered that American astronauts often take a symbol of our country, the flag, with them. The kids used various items to make their own space shuttles. The kids loved this center!
3. Writing - The kids wrote about promises. They wrote about a promise they made and a promise someone made. They wrote about what the promise was and how they felt about it.
4. Math - The kids looked at a flag and they estimated how many stars and stripes are on the flag. After they estimated, they discussed the best strategies to find the number of stars and stripes on the flag. After they talked about their strategies, they counted the stars and stripes on the flag.
5. Reading - The kids read 1:1 with me.
We have new spelling words this week. In addition to our spelling words, we have America - theme words. The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. Since the kids did so well with their challenge last week, I gave them a new and more difficult challenge. There is a bonus word this week, allegiance. If the whole class spells the bonus word allegiance correctly, the class will get a prize.
We began chapter 8 in math today. This chapter focuses on more difficult concepts of subtraction: counting down, vertical addition, related facts and story problems. Your child came home with a parent letter that provides information on this chapter. The kids did very well with the subtraction and they got some good practice learning about related facts. This is a tough concept and the kids are doing a nice job.
Have an A+ Week!
Mrs. Johnston
The kids are still batty for bats! They are still talking all about bats and sharing what they learned. It is so great to see! Be sure to check out the links section of my blog for the echolocation video that we watched in class. We watched this again today and the kids LOVE it! Kids - watch the video and sing the song to your parents. You can show them how much you know about echolocation and bats!
Our patriotic week is off to a great start! Reminder: there is no school this Friday, November 11 in honor of Veterans' Day. Our spelling test will be on Thursday.
This week we are doing a social studies unit on Awesome America. Kids - we did Outstanding Owls, Perfect Pumpkins, Brilliant Bats and now we are doing Awesome America. What is this called??? Today the kids had a guest teacher. Mrs. Seiferth taught the kids what the word pledge means. They studied The Pledge of Allegiance and the kids learned the meaning of all of the words. They also wrote a pledge to themselves. The rest of the week we will learn all about the things that make America great. On Tuesday and Wednesday we will learn about the symbols of our country, we will learn about and make a flag and have a parade with patriotic music. We will learn about the reason we don't have school on Friday: Veteran's Day. A member of the military, Craig Russell (Ryan’s dad) will come to our class to talk with the kids on Thursday.
In reading we are working on reading for meaning. We will explore commonly read and used words and dig deeper into their meaning to read for understanding and comprehension. We are working on reading and making words with the “in” chunk, as well as the digraphs “sh” and “ch.”
The kids had a great time with our patriotic centers today. The kids went to two centers today! The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to a CD of patriotic American songs. While they listened, they drew pictures of what they heard in the song. They also wrote their favorite parts of the music.
2. Science - The kids looked at different symbols of The United States. They looked at pictures of astronauts and they discovered that American astronauts often take a symbol of our country, the flag, with them. The kids used various items to make their own space shuttles. The kids loved this center!
3. Writing - The kids wrote about promises. They wrote about a promise they made and a promise someone made. They wrote about what the promise was and how they felt about it.
4. Math - The kids looked at a flag and they estimated how many stars and stripes are on the flag. After they estimated, they discussed the best strategies to find the number of stars and stripes on the flag. After they talked about their strategies, they counted the stars and stripes on the flag.
5. Reading - The kids read 1:1 with me.
We have new spelling words this week. In addition to our spelling words, we have America - theme words. The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. Since the kids did so well with their challenge last week, I gave them a new and more difficult challenge. There is a bonus word this week, allegiance. If the whole class spells the bonus word allegiance correctly, the class will get a prize.
We began chapter 8 in math today. This chapter focuses on more difficult concepts of subtraction: counting down, vertical addition, related facts and story problems. Your child came home with a parent letter that provides information on this chapter. The kids did very well with the subtraction and they got some good practice learning about related facts. This is a tough concept and the kids are doing a nice job.
Have an A+ Week!
Mrs. Johnston
November 4, 2011
Computers, 11/4
Bat Facts!
Let's start by voting on this week's poll. After you vote, please come to the floor in front of the Smart Board and we'll talk about today's activity.
It was so much fun learning about bats! What is your favorite bat? What is your favorite thing you learned? What would you want to tell someone about bats?
Today we are going to practice writing...on the computer! Watch and I'll show you how to write in a word document. You will work with your bat partner to complete your task. Here are your jobs once you open a word document.
* Write your names (then skip a line).
* Write your favorite bat (then skip a line).
* Write your favorite thing you learned.
Print your paper and turn it in to me! Watch and I'll show you how to print.
When you're done, you may go to one of the links on my website.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
Let's start by voting on this week's poll. After you vote, please come to the floor in front of the Smart Board and we'll talk about today's activity.
It was so much fun learning about bats! What is your favorite bat? What is your favorite thing you learned? What would you want to tell someone about bats?
Today we are going to practice writing...on the computer! Watch and I'll show you how to write in a word document. You will work with your bat partner to complete your task. Here are your jobs once you open a word document.
* Write your names (then skip a line).
* Write your favorite bat (then skip a line).
* Write your favorite thing you learned.
Print your paper and turn it in to me! Watch and I'll show you how to print.
When you're done, you may go to one of the links on my website.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
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