2/21-2/25

This week we began unit 4 of Reading Street. We read Mama’s Birthday Present, about a little boy trying to plan the perfect surprise party for his Mama. The characters in the story are Hispanic, so we were able to broaden our horizons while learning about another culture. We read about buenuellos, cascarones, and piñatas. On Friday afternoon we enjoyed American buenuellos (doughnut holes) and a fruit drink. We even had two moms who hollowed out eggs for us to make cascarones, but we had such a talkative week, that I am saving the cascarones as a treat for next week (hopefully, if we’re a bit less talkative). J

In grammar we studies adjectives, words that describe nouns. To find the adjective in the sentence, I taught the class to ask ‘what kind?’ We then practiced writing adjectives. I drew a blank on my whiteboard and then a noun after it. Each student had to write an adjective on his/her board to describe my noun. I then gave each student a paper folded into thirds. In each section, the students wrote an adjective and a noun. Then they illustrated each section of the paper.

In math we learned about solid figures: cones, spheres, pyramids, cylinders, rectangular prisms, and cubes. We used pattern blocks to make neat creations! On Thursday, each student brought a mystery solid from home to share with the class. While we shared our mystery solids, we enjoyed a sphere of ice cream on top of a cone! What a yummy treat!

On Friday we enjoyed another guest reader as part of our OWLsome Readers program! A pizza dough tosser visited from Tortora’s. Each student was treated to dough to play with. After we heard a story about the world champion pizza dough tossers, some students even got to toss pizza dough in front of all of the first graders!

On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed math stations. At my table students had a t-chart with the headings time and money. I laid a clock card and a money card above each side of the t-chart. Students wrote the time and counted and wrote the amount of money on the money card. I am not sure how many students commented that it was the most fun game ever! Ha! They are easily entertained.

2/14-2/18

Our Valentine’s Day party was full of fun: crafts, BINGO, ice cream, and lots of treats from our classmates (not to mention all of the yummy treats for Mrs. Clark).

We spent the week reviewing our unit 3 Reading Street concepts and took our big unit test. Parents, you may go online to pearsonsuccess.net to view your child’s test results.

In math we began studying plane shapes. We learned about polygons, which are closed plane shapes with straight sides. We also made polygons on our geoboards. We learned about symmetry and folded paper to make a symmetrical figure. We then practiced sliding, turning, and flipping the figure.

For unit time we read books by Ezra Jack Keats and completed many follow up writings and illustrations. These will be on display at next week’s PTA Open House Meeting, but I will be keeping them for your child’s portfolio.

On Friday, we enjoyed the best guest reader ever: Mr. Curt Cleary. What made him so great you may ask???? Well, he brought a REAL LIVE OWL, named Rachel. We loved seeing Rachel’s big eyes and serious look. But, most of all, we enjoyed when Rachel tried to fly away from Mr. Cleary and to us!!!

2/7-2/11

The week was full of surprises!

On Monday, Clifford the Big Red Dog visited our classroom! We just had to hug him and have our picture made with him! What fun we had at the book fair!

Then we showcased our dance moves in the classroom.

We read Where are My Animal Friends? all week. We took turns playing the characters of the story and enjoyed listening to some of the funny voices our friends used when acting out the characters.

We worked together at centers.

Thursday brought another surprise--no school!!! This sent Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Jones into a tail spin to prepare for the next morning, but we pulled together and made things work out!

Friday morning was our biggest surprise of the week! We were treated to our first annual OWLsome Readers Kick-Off Rally and Parade! Our sweet 1st graders were dressed as darling owls as they performed "Reading is a Hoot!" Then they were surprised by some very special guests who came to GSES to cheer their reading efforts. We paraded through the school and then enjoyed a wonderful story read by our guest reader Mr. Topper Birney!

We capped off Friday afternoon by making our cute Valentine bags.

It was truly a week of wonderful surprises!