First Grade News and Pics 1/31/25

Happy Last Day of January! We learned about Pluto, stars (especially our sun), constellations and the moon. We will continue learning about the moon and the life of an astronaut next week. 

We had a GREAT time seeing YAMATO at the Collins Center. I'm sure you heard all about it. We were amazed at how much energy and muscle they put into their drumming. Kudos to the staff of the Collins Center for being so organized at getting so many schools safely in and out of there!

We are working on Narrative Writing. We have been through the brainstorming stage and developed a plan. Monday we will start our introductions. We have some very creative and excited first graders that can't wait to get writing!

In Math, Miss Ortiz is working on finding the difference or subtraction. They are learning to either count backwards or count up to find the answer. Any work on this at home would be great. We started writing numbers on scrolls. We're excited to see how long they will get!

We worked on shoe tying with our peer helpers! This is a great skill to practice at home, too.

We had so many people volunteer to help with donations for our Valentine's Day Party! Thank you!! I sent home the item I have you down for today.

UFLI sound for next week is CH. 

Please remember to have your child bring sneakers or shoes to wear in school if they do not leave any here. Boots are way too heavy and hot to wear all day.

UPCOMING EVENTS

* Friday, February 7th - 100th Day (if there isn't a snow day) - Dress like you think the style will be in 100 years OR dress like you are 100. We will be doing lots of fun activities that have to do with 100. 

* Friday, February 7th - Book Orders Due.

* Friday, February 14th - Valentine's Day Party and Flex Friday and Last School Day before vacation!

* Friday, February 28th - First Grade Field Trip to Planetarium.  Bus will leave at 9:00 and return at 11:00. The show is 9:30 - 10:30. Anyone who wants to come and chaperone is welcome because it is only our class going. We have plenty of room. You can also meet us up there. 

* Monday, March 3rd - Rainforest and Environmental Unit begins.

Happy Weekend!

First Grade Newsletter and Pics 1/24/25

 Hi! We made it through all of the gas giants in our solar system! We made a picture of ourselves on the moon looking out into space. We painted with watercolors for the objects we saw. We used regular paint for the moon. We took a bouncy ball to use as an asteroid hitting our moon to make craters! We then wrote astronaut shaped stories to go with them. This gave us the perfect opportunity to learn to use commas correctly when writing if  sentences. (If I were an astronaut, I would...) 

We worked on place value in math. We even threw in some regrouping in addition. We learned two ways to solve the problems. The first is the traditional way you probably learned in school where you carry the one. I remind them that they can't have two digits in one column so the one will have to go in the tens. I then show them how it still looks like the two digit number but diagonally. The second way is to count the tens, count the ones and then add. For example, 15 + 17 is the same as 20 + 12. This way they can say 12 and count up two tens. This is a second grade skill so don't worry if it is hard. We also started writing number scrolls. Ask your child how far s/he got on theirs!

Reminder, your child can leave sneakers here in their locker if they don't want to carry them back and forth to school. Wearing boots all day can be very uncomfortable if they forget them. You can also leave snow pants and extra mittens. Don't forget to label everything. 

UPCOMING DATES

* Friday, January 24th - Mid Trimester Reports come home.

* Thursday, January 29th - Whole School to UMaine Collins Center to see Yamato Drummers.  

* Friday, February 7th - 100th Day (if there isn't a snow day) - Dress like you think the style will be in 100 years OR dress like you are 100. You're choice. I'm looking for some donations of Hershey kisses and Red Solo cups for special activities this day. Email me if you are willing to donate. I need 100 of each on or before Wednesday, Feb. 6th.

* Friday, February 14th - Valentine's Day - I will send out a class list next week along with what we need for our party. This day also starts our February break.

Happy Weekend!