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.