Blog Archives

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH SPRING BREAK?

3/25/2016

You're probably wondering what you should do with your spring break. Actually, probably not, but I'm going to tell you anyway!

First, you should take a nap. Probably a long nap!

Next, you should jump for joy! And take a walk down memory lane.

Then, make a mess. Why not!?

Bask in the free time!

Don't forget these very important words!

Go outside!

Go outside some more!

Grocery shop and buy some things with Box Tops :)

Spend more time outside.

And then some more!

Curl up with a good book.

Get comfortable!

Then, you should hang out with some friends! Enjoy the view.

Play!

That's all!

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THROW YOUR TOOTH ON THE ROOF

3/24/2016

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We read the book
Throw Your Tooth on the Roof
by Selby B. Beeler. We all have our own tooth traditions with the tooth fairy. But it turns out children in other countries have very different and interesting traditions as well!

In Lebanon, kids throw their teeth into the sea or a field and say: "Oh sun, oh sun, take the mouse's tooth and give me a gold tooth."

In Indonesia, kids throw their teeth backwards over the roof, but are careful to throw their teeth straight so the new ones grow in straight.

In Venezuela, kids put their teeth under their pillows in hopes that a mouse will take the tooth and bring coins.

In the Yellowknife Dene culture, kids put their teeth in a tree and then dance around the tree so the new one grows in as straight as a tree.

In Sweden, kids put their teeth in a glass of water over night only to find a gold coin in it's place in the morning.

In the Phillipenes, kids hide their teeth in a secret place and make a wish. If they can find their tooth a year later they get another wish.

Look how many teeth we've lost already. We added the numbers up in groups of ten and found we've lost EXACTLY 80 TEETH! However, we have three teeth hanging by a string...soon to be 83.

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ST. JUDE MATH-A-THON

3/23/2016

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Today we heard from a wonderful second grade teacher, Miss Kari. Aspen Elementary School will be participating in the St. Jude Math-A-Thon again this year. Today we learned a little bit about the fundraising process and got excited to do some extra math work at home! You will see more information coming home in your Friday Folder.

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WALKING WATER

3/23/2016

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Walking water!? Have you ever heard of such a crazy thing? Today we experimented with primary colors, water, paper towels, and some regular old Ball jars. Here was the question: what will happen if you connect cups of different color water with paper towels? We had a pretty good idea that the colors would mix to form new colors, but we had no idea we were going to get such a rainbow!

First, we were very diligent scientists and made some great observations.

Then, we were very diligent scientists and made some reasonable hypotheses.

1. The colors will not mix because they are not in water and the paper towels are not attached. (5)
2. The water will stay, but the food coloring with "walk" over to the empty cups. The first empty cup will turn orange. The second empty cup will turn green. The colored cups will turn clear. (1)
3. The colors will trade places with each other. (4)
4. Some of the water will evaporate. (2)
5. Half of the water from each cup with "walk" into the empty cups. The first empty cup will turn orange. The second empty cup will turn green. (3)

Last, we found out that #5 was correct. The paper towels absorb the water. Gravity helps start to equalize the amount of water in each jar. The red and yellow mix to make orange. The blue and yellow mix to make green!

This is a great experiment to try at home! Check out this video for step-by-step direction. Experiment with some new colors!

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TENS AND ONES/DIMES AND PENNIES

3/22/2016

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Today we did some more addition and subtraction with groups of ten. We turned to dimes and pennies to help us. It's so much easier to add and subtract big numbers with a visual. You can do this at home with the coins you have. We added and subtracted groups of 10, 20, 50, 70, and 90 and we're feeling like experts. Ask us how to make a "quick ten" drawing.

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I'M FEELING...ISH!

3/21/2016

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One of our favorite authors, Peter H. Reynolds, wrote a pretty funny, but also inspiring book called Ish. Sometimes your artwork just doesn't come out as planned. Sometimes your feeling are to hard to describe to just give them one name. Sometimes you're just feeling or doing something ishly. Today we wrote about some of those -ish feelings and took the time to describe and paint what those feelings look like on the inside. For example, excited-ish feels like butterflies in your chest!

Will says ENERGIZED-ish feels like tired legs running fast.

Tessa says HYPER-ish feels like your heart blowing up like a balloon.

David says EXCITED-ish feels like your heart and shirt beating and bumping.

Charlie says HAPPY-ish feels like you are flying high up in the sky.

Siena says ENERGIZED-ish feels like your body is good and bad and beautiful.

Remi says HAPPY-ish feels like a ton of birds are flying inside her heart.

Lily says DARK-ish feels mostly black when you know you did something bad.

Rocco says ENERGETIC-ish feels like a volcano erupting in your heart.

Rachel says DARK-ish feels as angry and gloomy as a haunted house.

Lilah says SLEPPY-ish feels like your mouth opening like a whale.

Lee says ENERGIZED-ish feels like you have been playing hockey for SO long.

Kieron says EXCITED-ish feels like swinging with an Orangutan.

Taj says SAD/HAPPY-ish feels like a basset hound and loris animal mix.

Mary says EXCITED-ish feels like tingling and tickling going on at the same time.

Gavin says HAPPY-ish feels like your heart riding bikes with your friends.

Malcolm says ENERGIZED-ish feels like a stampede of buffaloes in your legs.

Otis says HAUNTED-ish feels like your heart is exploding and your feet are crazy.

Hayleigh says SILLY-ish feels like there is a dance party inside of her.

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REPORTERS, SCIENTISTS, BOX TOPS, AND SECRET READERS... IS IT TIME FOR BED YET? FIRST GRADE IS BUSY

3/18/2016

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Today we heard from Otis the Reporter. He read an article about a fly fishing film tour coming to Aspen March 24th. You can go see it at the Wheeler Opera house. Summer is coming up and skiing season is coming to an end. Time to dust off your fly rods, start tying flies, head down to the river, and start catching some fish!

Then we heard from Siena the Scientist. We had learned about baking soda and vinegar before, but we got to see it in it's true form...in a VOLCANO. This kickstarted our spring study of rocks perfectly! Did you know that dried lava forms Igneous rock. This kind of rock is light and airy. It's rough on bare feet, which is why we make pumice stone out of it.

And for a Box Tops update...we pulled out our counting tricks by twos, fives, tens, twenties, fifties, and hundreds and found out we have...DRUM ROLL PLEASE...

650 BOX TOPS
The contest ends April 8th, so a few more weeks to keep on collecting!
P.S. I think we're in first place for the first grade :)

And last but not least, we had a secret reader! It's been a while, but we were pleasantly surprised when Lilah's grandmother, Kathy, knocked on the door. We listened to the book Town Mouse and Country Mouse and discussed how Aspen sometimes feels like the town and other times feels like the country. We're lucky to live in both kinds of places at once.

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DID YOU KNOW LEPRECHAUNS CROSS COUNTRY SKI?

3/17/2016

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Last night we had a visit from a Leprechaun. We thought we were pretty clever. We set up traps and were sure we would catch one or at least have some gold in the morning. Unfortunately, St. Patrick's Day had other plans for us. We had a particularly clever Leprechaun visit and instead of being trapped, he shrunk all of our traps into tiny Leprechaun hats!? We were surprised to say the least.

We made up for a lack of gold though with a perfect afternoon of cross country skiing!

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THE GREAT GUMDROP GAME

3/16/2016

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Wednesdays are wacky so why not do some wacky math! Today we took a detour into shapes, but not just any shapes...3D shapes! We looked at the qualities of cubes, rectangular prisms, pyramids, and pentagonal prisms to see which looked the strongest and which would support the weight of a dictionary. Then we accepted a challenge and made these shapes out of 20 toothpicks and 10 gumdrops. We were divided on which shapes we thought were strongest (except for the pyramid), so we tested them all out. With toothpicks and gumdrops we could really see the structure of the shapes and watch what happened under weight.

In the end we all agreed the pentagonal prism held the most weight, but we remained divided on whether or not we like the taste of spice gumdrops.

We also got ready for St. Patrick's Day...we're tricking those Leprechaun's with some gumdrop traps. We're definitely catching some tomorrow! Stay tuned.

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AND THE WINNER IS...

3/15/2016

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Today we officially started opinion writing. We shared our collections of some of our most prized possessions. We had Minion bath toys, Star Wars action figures, rocks, crystals, Legos, and hard earned medals. We lined everything up and discussed their special qualities at length. Which one is your favorite? Why do you like it? Does it make you think of a special memory? Do you like the color the best?

Then we wrote about our favorites and WHY. Emphasis on the why. We're learning to be convincing authors of opinion pieces of writing. Don't be surprised if we come home with compelling reasons why tonight is a good night to go out for ice cream! And tomorrow night too!