We played hooky all day! This morning we skipped specials and visited Miss Rae, the middle school art teacher. She helped us make Paste Paper (or Eric Carle paper). She showed us how to mix water, flour, soap, glycerin, and some paint together to make paste. Then we used our hands to spread the paint all over different colored paper. Finally, we made designs in the paste so that the paper was textured and two-toned. We will use this paper all year long in many different art project. Thanks Rae! Then we proved how strong we are with a massive hike up Tiehack. We hiked 4 MILES and 900 VERTICAL FEET. The weather was absolutely perfect--cool temperatures, nice shade, rain showers to cool us off, and a little mud to keep it interesting! We have the best class.
About once a week we realize that many of our pencils have gone missing. They find themselves in art bins, book bins, browsing boxes, cubbies, and just all over the place. We take a few minutes to round up the missing pencils and graph how many we found. Last week we found 30 missing pencils. This week we only found 13!! Today we practiced working with partners in math and reading. When we talk with reading partners we are respectful listeners, face them with our bodies, listen with our eyes and ears, and listen so well we can repeat back what they said. When we play math games with partners we check each others math. When a friend gets it right we congratulate them as say: "Nice job!" When a friend gets it wrong we encourage them as say: "Try again friend!" Many of our math lessons begin with "sprints," which are quick fluency checks. They are really fun and get us thinking fast. Today we made combinations to 8. On your marks, get set, THINK!
Did you know that words hurt just as much as sticks and stones? Hurtful words wrinkle our hearts and it's hard to get those wrinkles back out once they are there. We read the fabulous book Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon and every time Ronald Durkin wrinkled Molly's heart we wrinkled ours. Then we fixed it back up again with a little bit of tape and a lot of kind words. Some favorites were: "You can come and play with us!" "I love you!" "Can I help you with that?"
We finally took some class pictures on this beautiful September day! Did you know 18 first graders fit on the monkey bars?! In more academic news, today we found out we have 5th GRADE READING BUDDIES. We were so excited to meet them and get to read to them and with them. We will see them one to two Fridays a month this year. We can't wait to show them how much we grow as readers!
Sneak peek from above. (Miss Kylie cheated and took a peek before the pictures were done.)
Today was our very first library day. And it was the BEST. We love listening to Miss Lisa May read stories. We heard The Dot by Peter Reynolds. You should check it out. We learned to browse the library and pick out books as first graders! Remember books are due back every Day 4.
Today we took some time to get to know our classmates and friends better with a game of Bingo. We talked with friends and found out which statements best described which friends. Who likes the color blue? Who likes math best? Who is an only child? Who has gone fishing? Then we broke out the oil pastels and made our very own concentration boxes. We will use these when we're working really hard throughout the year and need a little extra focus or space. They're looking great and they're all so different and beautiful!
In other news we practiced our handwriting and our names at the same time. Knowing your last name is so important and knowing how to spell it is ever better. We're becoming experts by practicing using upper case letters to start our names and lower case letters in between.
We love our new math program--so we did a double dose today. We heard whispers from around the room..."I love math" and "this is the best." We're practicing combinations to ten, and there are A LOT of combinations. We're making ten with our math tools, our fingers, in our heads, and with number bonds (ask us what a number bond is). Unfortunately, rain and soggy fields means indoor recess. But we didn't mind. We kept busy building spaceships, making lightsabers, sorting sea shells, and creating artwork.
Today we started our new math curriculum. BUT it was so much fun, that Miss Kylie for got to take pictures. So you'll have to wait until tomorrow. In other news, we practiced our literacy stations and became experts today. We work together and work the WHOLE time. We're enjoying the fall weather. What other school has a view like this? And we got our energy out at the end of the day with some word jam.
Can you guess which is which? dismiss, calm, flee, crooked, celebration |
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May 2023
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