Friday Letter June 12, 2015 - Last one

Dear Parents:

Happy last Friday of the school year! Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time & money to help make this a successful school year! We do still need help packing up classrooms, so if you are available to help, please let me know.  Progress reports will be sent home electronically on June 18. If you'd like to purchase a yearbook, please fill out the slip that went home today &return it on Monday.

Here is a re-cap of our last full week:

Reading: Students have been adding examples of nonfiction text conventions to their nonfiction books.  After, students read their “just right” books. Next week, we will be cleaning out our reading bins.

Math: Students have been working on their doubles facts and playing fun games.

Writing:  I read the story, Good News Bad News.  Students had to create their own good news/bad news story using only pictures.  We will hopefully finish them on Monday.

Phonics: We have been playing -y (long I) Bingo this week.  Students were also introduced to how a -y can make a word have a long E sound.

Science:  We read a book about ants and made our own mini nonfiction book.

Next week, we will be finishing up projects, cleaning the classroom, and having fun with our friends.  I know there are some students who have accumulated a ton of clothes and objects in their lockers this year.  On Monday, please bring a large tote or bag so your child can clean out his/her locker.

Have a wonderful weekend and summer!

Andrea

Friday Letter June 5, 2015

Happy Friday! This is the second to last Friday of the year!  The students did an amazing job last night at the Spring Concert! I am so proud of them.  Just a reminder, Field Day is next Thursday, June 11, in the morning.  Please have your child wear sunscreen, sneakers, and comfortable clothes. 

Here is a re-cap of this week’s activities:

Reading:  Students worked in their regular reading centers.  For guided reading, we continued to work on reading non-fiction books.  At word work, students worked with words ending in -y, that had the long I sound.  I read the story, That is Not a Good Idea, by Mo Willems.  During their book work center, students wrote a new ending to the story.

Writing:  We finished our writing assessments this week.  Students have been working on squiggle stories.  They are quite imaginative!

Math: On Thurs., students finished their 3D geometry books.  Today, we'll be working on the doubles facts.

Social Studies:  Students finished their mini kimonos.  They were created on cardstock, using black sharpies and watercolors.

Science:  Last week, students investigated the function of birds’ beaks, by doing a fun experiment.  You can see pictures on the classroom blog.  We are still learning about animal body parts and their functions.  Students have been able to make the connection to how humans can mimic certain animal parts to make our lives better (e.g. a helmet mimics a turtle’s shell).

Have a wonderful weekend!

Festival of Colors Class Photos

Just a few photos from the Festival of Colors...It was a great outing on a hot day.  The kids did wonderful!!  (and Kallie's younger sister, Reilly, is an honorary member of the class in the group photos, in case you don't recognize the new student with Isabella)

Photos by Kallie's mom (hence she is in all of them)

Shape People and Robots

We have been studying 2D and 3D shapes in math class.  Today, students created a person or robot using 2D shapes.  After they finished their picture, they had to count up how many of each shape they used.  Students will be using their picture to create a fictional story about their person/robot.  Here are some of the students' creations.

Function of Bird Beaks

Today in science class, we analyzed the differences between birds' beaks.  We took notice to the shape and size of the beaks to determine why we thought the beaks were shaped a certain way.  For our science experiment, students pretended they were birds.  They were given different instruments (beaks) to try to pick up different kinds of food.  The different beaks we used were tweezers, clothespins, eye droppers, and spoons. They had to use the different tools to pick up a variety of bird food: fake worms, spaghetti, plastic bugs, water, goldfish in water, and shells.  Students kept track of which tool was the easiest to use for picking up the different kinds of food.  To relate our experiment to our science unit, we will be discussing how humans have invented tools to mimic the function of a specific bird's beak.  For example, a human invention of a humming bird's beak, would be a straw.  The students have been making wonderful connections!

Fun With Jen's Art Class

Our class teamed up with Jen's middle school art class to do a fun project together.  Jen's middle school students assisted the first graders in painting with marbles and toy cars.  The paintings had interesting lines, patterns, and textures.  Jen taught the first graders about cool and warm colors on the color wheel.    Here are some pictures from our fun afternoon with Jen's class!

Japanese Fans

Here are some gorgeous Japanese fans the first graders created! They made multiple sketches before deciding on the winning picture they would use for their project.  The fans were made using black sharpies and watercolors.