Weekly Update, April 2 - 6

Hello Super First Graders and Stupendous First Grade Families!

The kids are getting so excited for our trip to the Desert Museum, next Friday, April 13! Be sure to wear your blue Mrs. Johnston’s busy bees shirt for the field trip. Children will need a completely disposable lunch for the trip.

This week in science, guided reading and writing, we are learning about desert animals to get ready for our field trip. Today we learned about the characteristics of coyotes. On Tuesday we will learn about the characteristics of bobcats and how they got their name. On Wednesday we will learn about gila monsters and why they are unique. On Thursday we will learn about javelinas and how to differentiate between a javelina and a pig. On Friday we will review the animals and see a short National Geographic video about the desert.

In writing we are working on a variety of different things, including poetry, stories and brainstorming. Each day the kids will do their writing and then color a picture of the animal we learned about. They will have their own book of desert animals at the end of the week! Today the kids wrote "How To Be A Coyote" poems. They have made so much progress with their poetry and these were so fun to read! Tomorrow the kids will write a story about running into a bobcat. On Wednesday the kids will learn how to do a brainstorm burst and they will do one about a gila monster. On Thursday the kids will write a "What Am I?" poem about either a coyote, bobcat, gila monster or javelina. On Friday the kids will use a picture of the desert to guide them in writing a story about the desert at night.

The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. This week in making words we are learning about words with the sk/sm chunks. We will also look at tricky/silent letters, such as the "j" in javelina. We will continue to review "not" contractions.

The kids enjoyed our desert centers. The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to "The Tortoise and the Hare." They made a paper plate desert tortoise.
2. Science - The kids made a day and night wheel. The wheel shows what desert animals are nocturnal and what desert animals are diurnal.
3. Writing - The kids pretended to be reporters writing for "The Desert Reporter."
4. Math - The kids made their own gila monster! They traced and cut their lizard on card stock and then they made a pattern with beans.
5. Reading - The kids played sight word bingo.

In math we are working on identifying and extending challenging patterns. After we finish advanced patterning we will begin a chapter on fractions. We will learn halves, thirds and quarters. We will use a lot of manipulatives and real life examples to make this challenging concept come alive.

We have a fun activity planned for computers this week. If you’d like to see what the kids will do, please check the blog on Friday for the blog posting called, “Computers, 4/6.”

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston