October 16, 2014

 Classroom News:

• Delayed start on Wednesday, October 22
• Library is on Monday - don't forget your library books

Our school wide celebration spirit day on Thursday was so much fun! First grade was one of the winning grades that showed the most spirit! We made blue posters and blue paper chains to decorate the hall and add to the fun. Good job first grade!

And even though the teachers didn't win, there were a ton of stripes at school on Thursday!

Literacy: Our read aloud and mini-lesson focus this week was thinking about our characters.  We practiced using the questions that readers use while they read.
What is the character doing?
Why is the character acting this way?
Why is the character making this decision?
 
Books we read this week:
Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, by Patty Lovell
Mr. Putter and Tabby Walk the Dog, by Cynthia Rylant
A Bad Case of the Stripes, by David Shannon
 
 PBL
This stands for Project Based Learning. In groups and individually, the students will be investigating a driving question for an extended period of time. First grade has launched their project! First grade's driving question is What kind of classroom do we need to help us learn? We will be using the STARS acronym, talking to experts, and figuring out how to use those concepts in our classroom to create a vibrant learning environment. The students are so excited!

At this point, we are taking time to write and share about striving, thoughtful, accepting, responsible,  and safe. Once we finish that step, we will work on our Need To Know  list and start researching experts.  


 
Math
We finished up our first math unit and took our test. The students worked very  hard on this. We talked about how the test is really a celebration of all the learning and hard work they have put in. We celebrated the next day by playing some math games. 

Our new unit is an extension of the first unit, but with higher numbers, more organization, and higher expectations. We started off by working with multiple ways to represent a number using different addition equations. One way we worked on this was with the activity Counters in a Cup. Students were given 10 counters. One partner had to hide some under the cup and they other partner had to figure out what was hiding.