Going Buggy in First Grade!

As we continue with our insect unit, we have been using nonfiction books to deepen our understanding about all sorts of insects. Here, we are working on the rug with thinking boards to record our schema about butterflies prior to reading some nonfiction texts.

We recorded some of this schema onto sticky notes to build our class chart:

After reading many books, we recorded our new learning and wrote nonfiction pieces all about butterflies. Today we created paper butterflies with symmetrical wings to attach to our writing.

We have also been adding to our insect study board out in the hallway. Here's how it's coming along!

We also learned about fireflies and created these little guys to "light up" our classroom:

Please keep an eye out for two important notes coming home this week. One is regarding our Writing Celebration which will be taking place June 13th at 9:45 a.m. Parents and family members will be invited! The other is a permission slip for our field trip on June 7th. Thanks!

Kathy Collins!

What a special day it was!

Kathy Collins, author of these two books, came to visit Nathaniel Morton today! She is an incredible author for teacher books centered around Reader's Workshop and promoting authentic reading experiences in classrooms. So much of what I do in the classroom is based on her work. The kids were so excited when I returned to the classroom to tell them all about what it was like to meet one of my favorite authors and have her sign my books! I hope that one day each of my readers has the special opportunity to meet one of their favorite authors too!

Kathy Collins (middle)

Insects

We have been busy bees these past few weeks learning about insects! We are creating books about insects and learning about all different kinds of insects. Here is the schema chart we created at the beginning of our unit:

We learned about ladybugs and created these adorable compound word ladybugs. A lot of the compound words we wrote on the spots were words we have come across and noticed in our own reading!

We have also teamed up with another first grade class across the hall to create a giant insect display. The students are finding insects to study and learn more about. We are creating realistic drawings of these insects and attaching them to our scene with a label. Here, one student is adding his aphids to the scene, right next to that hungry ladybug of course!

Today we studied dragonflies and tomorrow- fireflies! Stay tuned for more to come later in the week!

Planetarium

We had a great time yesterday visiting the Planetarium! We learned about the sun, moon and stars. We got to see some neat constellations and observe how the starry sky changes over seasons. I only snapped a few pictures because we were so busy stargazing, but we sure had a blast!