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.