LEARNING ABOUT Riverview MRS. MULLEN & MS. DIANA FIRST GRADE CLASS NATURE S PATTERNS HAS BEEN A BLAST! January/ February- 2017 NATURE S PATTERNS 5...4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF! We have taken off on an incredible ride to discover all of Nature s Patterns! We focused on the difference between day and night. We conducted an experiment using a a flashlight and a globe to demonstrate how the Sun remains still, while the Earth rotates and orbits the Sun. The kids learned that when the Earth rotates towards the Sun, we have daytime. When the Earth rotates away from the Sun, we have nighttime. We also discussed that when our side of the Earth has day, the other side of the Earth is experiencing night. In addition to the differences between day and night, the students also shared the attributes of the day and night sky. Ask your child to tell you some of the things you might find when you look up in the sky Jason shares what he sees in the day and night sky.
Lily asks, Why does the Moon have craters? Wade and some school friends share their moon phase cycles We boarded the Apollo 11 and traveled to the moon! Did you know that the moon is our closest neighbor in space and orbits the Earth? We read several informative books about our moon. After studying the phases of the moon, the students created their own moon cycles. Please swing by to check these out...they are out of this world! We also learned all about the moon s features. The students participated in a really cool hands on experiment to see how craters and seas are formed on the moon. After filling pie pans with sand, flour, and cocoa powder, our explorers released marbles and playdough balls into the pans. As students removed the fallen objects, they were amazed to see the seas and craters that were left behind. We learned all about constellations, and even created our own constellations! We have returned from our trip around our solar system and beyond! Please come check out one of our final projects for our Nature s Patterns unit- postcards from space. Students recount their trip to a particular place in our solar neighborhood with a postcard written to someone back on Earth! Coming in March...our fourth integrated unit- Conservation: The 3 R s. We will be taking a short integrated unit hiatus to focus on our Fairy Tale Unit. phases of the moon Collins,David,and Lauryn created beautiful constellations!! Neeley Is sharing what she knows about the Moon on our K-W-L Chart.
The most fun was had during our hands on crater experiments!! Do you recognize any of these astronauts that are traveling to Outer Space??
We have learned so much about rocks!! Did you know that some rocks are softer than others? While we were learning all about the Earth s surface, Parker,Ally, Demari, and Coliins had fun rubbing different rocks together to explore and observe their different properties. The students had a BLAST mining for gems and rocks on our Diamond Del Field trip!! This was such a meaningful experience They even got to take a bag
STUDENTS WORKED TOGETHER TO ILLUSTRATE THE PLANETS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. THEY THEN PARTICIPATED IN A FUN HANDS- ON ACTIVITY IN WHICH THEY PUT THE PLANETS IN THE CORRECT ORDER FROM THE SUN. THEY USED TOILET PAPER TO SHOW THE SCALED-DISTANCE FROM ONE PLANET TO ANOTHER. IT WAS COOL TO SEE HOW THE INNER PLANETS
Language Arts Language Arts: We introduced the Knuffle Bunny Series by Mo Willems to help our students develop a BOLD beginning, MIGHTY middle, and EXCITING ending to enhance their writing and retell a story. The beloved Knuffle Bunny books helped us to write our own stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Next, we inserted details after the beginning and middle to create a sequenced story using transitions words like first, next, then, last, and finally. We focused on the use of speech bubbles, thought bubbles, and quotation marks in our writing. The children have fallen in love with the author, Mo Willems and enjoyed his Pigeon Book series written completely in speech and thought bubbles. During Daily 5, the students were able to create their own "Pigeon" book during their Work on Writing rotation. We were so impressed with their creative ways that they used speech and thought bubbles and the interesting situations that their pigeons were finding themselves in! We LOVED the Pigeon books!!! Students loved sharing their Pigeon books with one another. Parker and Wade are thrilled to share their very own Pigeons they constructed!
Language Arts Contraction Surgery Our Language Arts block has been fun-filled for sure! We became surgeons for a day when we performed surgery on two words. But don t worry, we put them back together as a contraction with their own apostrophe bandaid! This was such a fun learning engagement for the students and it really made their understanding of contractions more concrete!
STUDENTS USED RESOURCES IN THE CLASSROOM TO RESEARCH FACTS AND VOCABULARY TO CREATE THEIR PERSUASIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT. STUDENTS WERE ASKED TO WRITE A POST CARD TO THEIR FAMILY AND PERSUADE THEM TO COME VISIT THEM ON ANOTHER PLANET OR ONE OF THE PLANET S MOONS. We learned that an adjective is a word that describes something. We enjoyed making Silly Sentences using adjectives as part of our word work station and playing the Mystery Bag Adjective game. The students LOVED constructing their own self portraits and USING different ADJECTIVES to describe themselves! Come check out the final project in our classroom!!
Math Can you believe that we are balancing equations in FIRST GRADE? Collins and Knowlton work together to add cubes to balance visually so that they can make both sides of the equation equal! Conner solves his PART,PART, WHOLE box. Sometimes a part might be missing. In our Addition Strategies Unit, we Look at us making numbers with our hands and unifix cubes to unit! have focused on various skills including: making numbers 1-20, using pictures and manipulatives to add, using the hundreds chart, using the tens frame, applying the counting on strategy, adding on the number line, doubles and doubles + 1, adding three numbers, balancing equations, missing addends, and solving word problems. We will conclude this unit with adding two digit numbers and regrouping.
Hannah and Ally are playing TOP IT. What a way to have and learn! Directions 1. Shuffle the cards. Place the deck number-side down on the table. 2. Each player turns over 2 cards and calls out The the sum of the numbers. 3. The player with the largest sum wins the round children Loved and takes all the cards. participating in our Human Number Line 4. In case of a tie for the largest sum, each tied to find the sum of two numbers. They also player turns over 2 more cards and calls out the got to be creative and make their own number lines with Bunny sum of the numbers. The player with the largest sum then takes all the cards from both plays. 5. The game ends when not enough cards are left for each player to have another turn. 6. The player with the Core Value Corner Lauryn Jason Lauryn received a Core Value for Stewardship in Jason received a Core Value for our class. She is always making sure our Cooperation in our class. He is always classroom community is nice and clean! so willing to help out in the class and he gets along with everyone!