Hello Super First Grade Families and Spectacular First Graders!
Wow! It's hard to believe it will be November this week! It feels like October went by in the blink of an eye! I move the desks around on the first of the month and the kids look forward to working with new friends. Kids - be sure to tell your parents who is in your new table group!
Our Halloween party is Wednesday, October 31 and the kids are SO excited! Children are welcome to wear their costumes all day or they may change into them after lunch for the parade (there will be parents to help the kids get into costume). Our party is from 9:00 – 11:15. We will decorate cookies after lunch and then the parade begins at 12:45.
This week we are doing a science, guided reading and writing unit on bats. Each day we will learn about a different type of bat, do a bat experiment or activity and write facts on the wing of a construction paper bat. Today we learned about the bumblebee bat; the kids loved this! The kids learned that the bumblebee bat weighs less than a penny. The kids felt a penny in their hands and then they chose objects from around the room to compare them with the weight of a bumblebee bat. Tomorrow we will have a visit from Mrs. Tyburec, and aunt of one of my students from a few years ago. She is a bat biologist and Director of Education at Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas. This should be a great day for the kids! Later in the week we will learn about the fruit bat! I have a very fun activity planned to help the kids learn what it would be like to be a fruit bat. Be sure to ask your child about it! We will also learn about the little brown bat and vampire bat.
In reading we are working on making, reading and writing words with long and short “o.” The kids really enjoy our making words activities and these help them tremendously in their reading. We continue to focus on reading with expression and making predictions.
The kids had a fun time with our "batty" centers! The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to Bats Around the Clock and then they completed a cloze passage with bat vocabulary.
2. Science - The kids did experiments to simulate bat echolocation and vibrations. They used rubber bands to see and hear vibrations and they also made different call sounds and tapped their throats. This was a lot of fun!
3. Writing - The kids made a book of nocturnal creatures. Some of the nocturnal creatures were review and others were new to the kids.
4. Math - The kids identified bats by their wingspans. The kids were given clues about bats and then they looked at construction paper bats and they identified them based on the clues. After that, they estimated the wingspan of each bat and then they measured the wingspan of each bat. There were some surprises! The kids were surprised to learn that some fruit bats can have a 6 foot wingspan!
We have new spelling words this week. This week in addition to our spelling words, the kids have bat theme words. They loved this! The kids brought home Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. I gave the class a special challenge for this week's test. We have used the word nocturnal a lot and it is a tough one to spell! Since it is a spelling word this week, the kids and I made a deal! If everyone spells the word nocturnal right on the test, the class will get a special prize!
We are working on ways to make ten and addition strategies in math this week. We are continuing our daily timed tests, or the Mad Minute, as we call them in class. The kids are doing a wonderful job and they are enjoying setting goals and meeting them. We will aim to begin to learn subtraction strategies by the end of the week.
We have a neat bat activity planned for computers on Friday to practice writing in a word document. If you'd like to see what the kids will do, stop back on Friday and look for the blog posting called “Computers, 11/2.”
Have an A + week!
Mrs. Johnston
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