A quick update

We had another busy week learning about insects enjoying this wonderful fall weather.
We also had a fantastic time with our third grade buddy classroom who taught us how to fold "fortune tellers".  They were so patient and kind - it was a magical moment.
Enjoy some pictures - the kids were having a great time with the fall leaves, proving that some of the best things in life are free....

More insect ideas!

The week of October 16 -20 was very busy full of more learning about insects - we were able to read, write, speak, read and calculate using ideas about insects! Wow! Your children are amazing!

 The week began with pumpkin art ...pumpkin patch at night!

 We solved bug story problems...

Then we made our own story problems!

We observed and wrote about our mealworms...

 We researched different questions about mealworms and wrote about them...

 How lucky we all are to see fall in all of its glory!

See you next time!

Math ideas...and learning more about insects!

Hi everyone!
This week we continued to learn more ideas about math.  We worked together to make a chart of counting by 10's and 5's.  Many of the young mathematicians are familiar with counting by 5's and 10's, but we still cover the concept as a class at least once to make sure everyone has a chance to be reminded of strategies, learn the idea for a the first time, or share their good math ideas with others. Ask  your child to count by 5's and 10's for you!

On the calendar grid, we are learning more about position ideas - where things are in relation to each other: front, back, next to, etc..

Number corner also gives us time to learn more about how numbers relate to each other.  One way we learn more about equations is by discovering addition equations that are "doubles" - such as 2 + 2 and "neighbors" such as 1+2.  This strategy will help as we move into adding larger numbers past ten.

Finally, we began our study of insects this week.  We will be learning about how scientists research, draw, write, observe, speak,listen,  and calculate.  Here are some pictures of the students sharing ideas from books with each other.  We will continue our study of insect for the next 4-6 weeks!

Thanks everyone - have a great weekend!

Wrapping up Special person

This has been a lovely 24 days getting to know each other through reading and writing stories for each other.  Today we enjoyed our open house where the students did the showing.  Wonderful seeing all of you today - thanks for coming and have a fantastic weekend!

Last week of September

Hi everyone!
We continue to keep busy in first grade. Every Monday we engaging in learning more ideas about art.  This week we thought about how artists sort colors - into cool and warm colors.  We used water color to create cool/warm art.

We also a rolling along with special person - here are some new ideas.  The stories your children are telling are becoming more detailed and their writing is getting better every day.

Every day we also engage in math ideas.  The Bridges curriculum is ramps ups slowly, but we are beginning to explore odd/even and addition strategies.  The Number Corner gives us more time to explore how numbers work together- and try out subtraction and multiplication!

Here is an example of a typical day - we had the schedule drawn for the first 3 weeks, now we are using photos of our class in action for the daily schedule.

What a great group of learners!

Tuesday September 19

HI everyone!
We continue to learn and create - we have a new Special Person each day....here are a few of their stories:

Last week we began our exploration of art with straight lines:

This week we continued with stained glass-like straight lines:

This week we are moving into mathematical thinking about addition and subtractions.  We will use buttons to help us with these symbolic concepts.  Today we sorted the buttons by color and determined most quantities

It turns out that kids really like sorting buttons - at least Hazel thinks so!

Thanks everyone - ask your child what they did at school today!