Leprechaun Traps and So Much More

Important Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday, March 27- Mad Scientist comes to Grade 1 

(A kickoff to our light and sound science unit for the month of April)

Tuesday, April 3- Grade One Field Trip to Portsmouth Music Hall

Wednesday, April 4 and 11th- Early Releases for Parent Teacher Conferences

Starfish of the Week:

Week of March 19: Brady
Week of March 26: Lauren
Week of April 2: Teagan

Hello Families,

I hope you all enjoyed your snow day on Tuesday.  I am crossing my fingers we are closely approaching Spring temperatures in the next few weeks :)

Even with all the distractions and disruptions of days off and vacations, the kids have truly done a nice job of keeping our routines consistent.  Boy, are you noticing how much your child has grown since the holidays? On Monday mornings, I just look at the kids and say, "Did you grow over the weekend?"  They are not only physically growing, but their maturity, stamina, and independence continues to surprise me.  As we are getting closer towards the end of the year, I am releasing more expectations for independence in the classroom. The kids are surely rising to my challenges daily.  At least once a week, I list a bunch of jobs and tasks for each child to complete with limited teacher support. Some of the jobs may include finishing  an art project from the day before, planning and playing a math game with a partner, or cleaning out their book boxes and shopping for new texts.  The kids are learning how to manage their time, learning how to self monitor their distractions around them, and prioritize their tasks ahead of them.

Writing Opinions

The kids are really enjoying sharing their opinions writing pieces with others.  This week we have learned even more ways to be convincing to our readers.  I modeled how to add personal small moment stories into the writing reviews to make them even more believable.  We also introduced editing pens and markers.  The kids are learning to go back and add punctuation, uppercase letters at the beginning of their sentences, and fixing up basic sight word spelling from our word wall.

On Thursday, we went onto YELP and Amazon to check out some of the reviews from local restaurants and checked out some of their favorite toys and books on Amazon.  I think they found it more exciting to read the negative reviews rather than the positive! We of course agreed with the 344 reviews on Amazon of Mo Willem's Piggie and Elephant books with 98% giving these books 5 stars!

This might be fun idea to write a review together at home on YELP or Amazon with your first grader!  When your child's writing pieces do come home in a few weeks, it would be an exciting experience for your child to publish their review online with a real life audience.  It's powerful for kids to understand that writing is a tool to share opinions and deliver a message to others.


Measurement


This week the Starfish explored many different activities during math workshop around the concept of measurement. We measured length using nonstandard units such as unit cubes and paper clips.

The kids are learning that measurement units must be the same size, the units must be arranged without gaps or overlaps.

We have also focused on addition and subtraction fact fluency and have played some of our old favorite games from the beginning months of the school year.

A simple game that the kids enjoy is called  Penny Plate. The kids decide how many pennies to begin the game with.  At the beginning of the year we played this game with 5 or 10 pennies.  Now the kids are playing with 10, 15, or 20.

Here's how to play:

One partner hides some of the pennies under the plate and places the remaining pennies on the top of the plate.  The other partner closes their eyes while this is happening.  Once it is time to open your eyes, the partner must decide how many pennies are hiding under the plate.

This is a great game to practice missing addend addition.  This is a simple game to play at home with your child! 


Math Do-Anytime Activities...
1. measure flat objects in your home using paper clips. For example, you might measure the length of your cell phone, the width of a small table, or the length of a spoon. Work with your child to place the paper-clips end-to-end, without gaps or overlaps.

2. Use your fingers to help your child practice combinations to 10.  For example, show both hands with 2 fingers up and rest closed.  Your child should tell you that you have 2 fingers up and 8 fingers down.  Continue with different finger combinations.

3. Draw a bar graph with three categories such as three activities your child likes to do after school.  (ride bike, play with friends, read)  Have your child keep track of the number of times he or she does each activity in a given week. Create a bar graph of the data collected and discuss which activity your child did most often and least often.



Leprechaun Innovation Day
The kids really enjoyed creating, collaborating, and using their imaginations.  Only time will tell if the Starfish will be cleaver enough to trap the Leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day.

Make sure to check out your child's See Saw Account for a picture and voice recording of their opinion writing of their trap!

Way to go 1st Graders!

Questions to Promote School-Talk

1. What special activity did you do with your 3rd grade buddy on Friday?

2.  How do you play Plus What? (math game with the wheels) Can you explain how to play?

3.  What opinion reviews did you write this week?  

4. Tell me how you made your leprechaun trap?  Did you work with a partner?  What materials did you use?

5. Can you tell me about the visitors that came to our classroom during reader's workshop on Thursday?

6. Why did Mrs. Murphy bring in a microphone this week?

7.  Who was the Starfish of the week?  What did you learn about her?

8.  What can you tell me about Rock Brain?  Can you tell me what this means?  When have you had a "Rock Brain Moment"

Here's a picture of the kids learning about Rock Brain during Social Detectives

(Rock Brain is when you are not flexible in your thinking and get "stuck". We are teaching the kids to understand when the are being rock brain and providing strategies to be more flexible in their thinking)

We are excited to begin our new character unit next Monday.  The kids are going to dive into a variety of new series books! 


Have a wonderful weekend! 
Happy St. Patrick's Day!