1/24-1/28

We finally had a full week of school--almost. There was the uneventful two and a half hour delay. At least we got a little extra sleep.

This week we celebrated the 100th Day of School!!! Can you believe your children have been 1st graders for 100 days? It seems as though the school year is just slipping by.

We began the 100th day with a special breakfast of 100 pieces of cereal. Then we took a class picture with our really amazing hats that had 100 items on them. We completed a graph telling what we wish we had 100 of, and we sang a song about the 100th Day of School. Later in the day we made little words from 'one hundred days.' We also counted how many times we could write our name in 100 seconds, and we exhausted ourselves by doing jumping jacks for 100 seconds!

I'm looking forward to our remaining 80 days!

1/18-1/21

After being out of school for ten unexpected days, our class returned to school VERY excited! I think we all had cabin fever by this time. I hope everyone had fun in the snow, but by day four I was definitely ready to see it melt!

Our story for the week was Jan's New Home. We made many connections to this story, as so many of us have moved to new homes ourselves. We discussed how some changes are fun and easy, while other changes are scary and sad. Then we made a graph telling what changes and what doesn't change when we move.

Student work: Ruby and Jan's house

In phonics we learned about the /or/ sound, as in corn and fork. We also learned that when a word ends in s, x, ch, or sh, we add -es to make it plural (if the base word is a noun) or present tense (if the base word is a verb). I know that sounds confusing, but the class really understood it!

Our Helper Chart

In math we counted money. We even counted quarters (but only with pennies).

We also made snowflakes to decorate our window. We made really big snowflakes so we could easily cut the lines we drew.

In science we are learning about the states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. We played "Mystery Bags." There were five bags, each containing a different item. Students reached into each bag and guessed what was in the bag and wrote their guess on their whiteboard. A few students got all of their guesses correct. We will continue to learn about the states of matter next week.

1/10-1/14

SNOW WEEK!!!!!!!

1/4-1/7

What a joy to enter our brand new classroom! We are truly blessed to have such a nice school to call our second home!

Much of the first week at GSES was spent learning our way around the school. On the first day back we took a tour of the school, even walking upstairs. The students 'oohed' and 'ahhed' the whole time, and they have continuously told me how nice our classroom is! They are learning their way around the school now. Lunch is so much quieter, and after we clean up, two students have the privilege of cleaning our tables! There are only two classes in the gym together for PE, so the students are getting more physical activity!

After acclimating ourselves to our new surroundings, it was time to learn! We learned about verbs and chose the correct verb to fit in a sentence.

This week we read Ruby in Her Own Time, about a little duck who leanred to do things in her own time. The class talked about how we all learn to do things in our own time, and we even made a chart!

In math we practiced telling time, and the class is really getting good at it!

We learned about penguins. Ask your child what (s)he remembers. We made cute penguins that are hanging in the hallway, but I forgot to take a picture of them.

On our first day back to school, we went outside to the front of the school and made a sketch of our new school building. Then we went inside to color the pictures. I put all of the sketches in a class book hanging outside of our classroom.

12/13-12/17

This week we reviewed the content we learned from our unit 2 Reading Street book. We took our unit 2 test on the computer, and every single student earned an A!!!!! I am so very proud of this class! They are very hard workers!

We also read numerous Jan Brett books and completed activities related to her books.

In math we compared numbers using less than, greater than, and equals symbols. These first graders even solved equations (and then asked for more difficult equations)!!!

We had our class holiday party on Friday, and the students had a wonderful time! I appreciate everyone's help with the party!!!

We are entering our last three days at Hampton Cove. Our new classroom is almost ready, and there is no way that I could have gotten it ready this quickly without the help of so many of you! You have carried countless boxes and furniture items for me, hot glued, laminated, and organized!!! It is a treat to have such amazing parents this year! This move is very bittersweet. While we are certainly ready to be in our new beautiful school, we are going to miss our friends dearly! If you have the opportunity, please make sure to hug a Hampton Cove parent or faculty member and share a special memory with them about their wonderful school! I know I loved my time at Hampton Cove!!!

12/6-12/10

The theme for the week was changes. We discussed and read about all sorts of changes. We learned that almost everything changes, and that some changes are easy, while others are difficult. I'm sure you have noticed a lot of changes in your child since the beginning of first grade!

We also learned about action words (verbs) and played a fun little game where I gave the class a sentence with a missing verb. Each student then wrote a verb to complete my sentence. We did a lot of these, and we were quite entertained the whole time!

In phonics we discussed the vowel sounds of y. At the end of a one syllable word, y makes the long i sound (cry). At the end of a multi-syllabic word, y makes the long e sound (happy). Students drew and labeled a t-chart on their whiteboards. They then read a poem and sorted words ending in y by the vowel sound of y.

In math we compared numbers, counted money, and continued to hone our addition and subtraction skills!

We completed our study of land, water, and air by sharing our terrific rock collections!

11/29-12/3

We did a lot of comparing and contrasting this week! The Venn diagram is becoming our best friend, and the students are getting better at comparing and contrasting each time we complete a Venn diagram! On Monday we read about ants. We compared ants to humans and then told the differences between them. We read our story "Honey Bees" and discussed the different jobs of the bees in the hive. There are worker bees, just like many of us work. There are soldier bees, just like there are soldiers in the military who protect our freedom, and there is a queen bee who leads her hive.

Bees make honey, so our class tasted honey on Friday, and it was yummy!!!

In math we learned about ordinal position (1st, 2nd, etc.), and played Ordinal I Spy. The class just loved that game! We are also continuing to count money.

Our unit of study this week and next focuses on air, land, and water. We have discussed oceans and continents, land formations, natural resources, and map skills. We are working in science and social studies books simultaneously! First graders get so excited about the text books. Too bad that excitement fades in a few years. ha!

So many of you have helped with moving items to the new classroom, have unpacked boxes, and have donated money or services to our new classroom, and I am very appreciative of your help! This has been a special year with very special children, and I know we are all excited to get moved into our beautiful new school to make more special memories!!! Thanks for all that you do!