Belated Earth Day... and a Little News :)

Since we couldn't squeeze everything in before vacation on top of all we needed to get done in our usual day, we have spent the beginning of this week doing some belated Earth Day learning. We have integrated this social studies unit into our reading and writing. We have been researching ways to take care of earth to keep it clean and healthy. We have also been learning about the 3Rs- reduce, reuse and recycle! Here is a picture of a class chart we created and have been adding to as we read and learn more. Did you know that old plastic bottles can be reused to make t-shirts?

Today we read an article and completed a graphic organizer. We used this information to make reduce, reuse, recycle mobiles to showcase what we have learned!

Also, as I'm sure your little one has already shared with you- the exciting news is true! Over vacation I became happily engaged. :) Thank you to everyone for your sweet emails and congratulations! 

Calling all volunteers!

In May, we do a big science writing and research unit all about insects, followed by a study about animals in the rainforest. As part of our study, the students create different animals and insects out of paper and write facts about them. These get displayed in the hallway on a giant paper grass, tree and sky scene. Click the insect tab on the right to see the one from last year! If anyone would be interested in coming in to help hang some of the paper, I would love the help! Please send me a quick email over the next few days. Timing can be flexible. :)

Chicks, Eggs, and Oviparous Animals

Learning about oviparous animals is always a favorite unit! The kids really enjoy discovering all the different animals that are oviparous. An oviparous animal is one that lays eggs. To start, I had everyone make predictions about various animals and whether or not they lay eggs. 

We read some nonfiction books to learn more about what kinds of animals are oviparous. This helped us determine if our predictions we're correct!

Ask your first grader to tell you what are the only two mammals that lay eggs. :)

As we were reading and talking about what we read, everyone worked to generate their own lists of oviparous animals. The students used the lists they created to make oviparous animals books. We wrote about and illustrated pictures of different animals that lay eggs.

As a fun activity to end our week, we each dyed an egg. We completed an interactive writing piece about how to dye an egg and the students used their class work to each write their own how-to book. It was an eggcellent week! :)

Weather

Right before vacation, we finished up our unit on weather. We began by writing about our schema, or what we already knew about weather. We copied one thing on a post-it to add to the class schema chart.

 We spent several days learned about wind, rain, tornadoes, clouds, the water cycle, and so much more! The students collected information in their weather books. We read several fiction books about weather and practiced various comprehension strategies. We also worked on weather vocabulary books and learned about how to read a thermometer. 

Book Fair Tuesday

I hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful weekend weather. Spring is finally here!

I just wanted to send a quick reminder that our class will be visiting the book fair Tuesday afternoon. If you would like to send your child in with money to purchase books, please put the money or check in a sealed envelope with your child's name printed on the front.

Reminder: The book fair can be overwhelming for us because there is so much to look at and we only have a certain amount of time allotted. Like last time, I would encourage you to look through the flyer with your child and discuss which books they would like to purchase. Jotting down the titles on the envelope or even cutting out the pictures of the books/pasting them to the envelope would be very helpful! This way, I can help them get the books they want quickly. It also ensures your child is choosing books that you have approved and don't already have. Thanks so much!

Genre Books Clubs and Poetry

In reader's workshop, we have continued working with book clubs. The past two weeks, we have been working in genre book clubs, which are slightly different than nonfiction book clubs in that each basket now is filled with fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc. Many of my lessons have been centered around the following teaching points: 

The students have done a great job working with each other to find factual information, discuss their new learning, and have meaningful conversations about their books. Groups are also working on word banks to collect new, interesting, or important words and vocabulary that have to do with their topic. I will post pictures of these soon!

In writer's workshop, we have started our unit centered on writing poetry. This is one of my favorite units! I just love the imagination and creativity that comes out. Here are some of the strategies we have learned so far that poets use: 

 

Poems in progress: 

Stay tuned for more! 

Firefighter Dan

Today Firefighter Dan came in to visit us! He is a lieutenant at the North Quincy Fire Department. He brought a lot of his gear and told us many different things about his job. He talked to us about fire safety and discussed with us ways to stay safe if there is ever a fire. He answered some of our questions and even let a few of us try on some different items. We were very lucky to have him as a visitor and learned a lot from him today!

We made some thank you cards to give to his Fire Department. We are thankful for all that our firefighters do everyday! 

Thursday

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I will be out of school on Thursday. I am presenting at the MRA Literacy Conference in Quincy. I'm really excited but nervous too! Lucy Calkins, who writes all the reader's and writer's workshop books I use to teach, is going to be there too. I can't wait to meet her!

If you need me at all, I will be able to check my email late Thursday night. Thanks! 

The Zones

This year, Mrs. Murphy, our school psychologist, has been coming into all the first grade classrooms once a week to teach some of our social curriculum lessons. In the past few weeks she has been teaching students about the "zones", which are colors that describe feelings. For example, if someone is in the "blue zone" they might feel upset while someone in the "green zone" would feel happy. We recently completed this activity with hula hoops! Students were given scenarios and had to think about what "zone" they would be in:

If you would like to learn more, Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. David will be speaking at the PTA meeting tonight! 

Thank you Plymouth Police!

This week, we will be learning about police officers and firefighters and the important role they play in our community. Today we made cards for our Plymouth Police Officers to thank them for all that they do. These cards will be delivered to the police station sometime this week.

Classroom Supplies

Hi everyone! A few of you have been asking if we are in need of any supplies for the classroom. We are running low on tissues, wipes, and glue sticks. If you would like to donate any of these items to our classroom, that would be great! Thank you! :)