FIRST GRADE NEWS 4-30-21

 Hi! The kids must have definitely gotten plenty of rest over vacation because they all came back ready to work hard. They seemed to have all grown, too! We were able to pick right up where we left on and get lots done. Our student teacher did some lessons relating to Earth Day. They discussed the importance of the three Rs. We also did some Go2Science lessons on the relative abundance between carnivores and herbivores in Namibia. We will finish up these topics next week.

We have been reading and writing poems. We used similes in our writing to write about our Selfies. We used our place value knowledge to solve number grid puzzles in math. We will begin our last unit in our math books next week which is a review of the year.

We are earning gems! We earn them by working hard, being kind and acting responsibly. Ten gems can earn: lunch or snack with a friend on the picnic table outside, prize box, hat pass, stuffed animal pass or show and tell. The kids can also choose to keep the ten gems instead of cashing them in. 

We talked about tick safety this week. Please encourage/help your child do tick checks at home. Information was sent home in an email.

Tuesday is May the 4th...May the Fourth Be With You :)! We will celebrate by doing lots of fun activities that are Star Wars and/or Space themed. If your child has a shirt, mask or toy relating to our theme, please have them wear/bring it on Tuesday. Do not go out and buy something. We have plenty of fun stuff going on that day. :)

Wednesday, May 12th is an early release day.

Reminder that primary students should be at school each day between 7:50 - 8:00 and picked up at 2:20. This will help with the traffic flow now that we are all back in school.

Happy Weekend!

FIRST GRADE NEWS and PICS 4-16-21

 Hi! Can you believe we are at April Vacation already? Where has this week gone?!!! It's exciting that we will have our entire school back in session full time when we return. We will also be getting all of our specials back! Things are slowly showing signs of normalcy! 

We have been very busy learning about the rainforest. We made rainforest song books that tell about each layer. We've also been learning about Nabimia with Go2Science. We made life size baby animals. They are so cute but way bigger than we thought they would be! Many chose to take one home to make during vacation, too! 

Miss Russell read us a book called Bandaids. We then wrote list poems about times we've needed bandaids. The best part was that they were on bandaids that we designed ourselves.

We learned how to draw 3D shapes in math. We continued talking about vertices, flat faces and curved surfaces. We also practiced naming shapes: pentagon, hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, cylinder, sphere, rectangular prism, cube and polygon. When we return from break, we will be on our last chapter in math which is a review of the year.

The weather has been so wonderful! We sent home all extra clothes and blankets to be washed and exchanged out. This time of year we find either the clothes have gotten too small or they're too warm. Please make sure your child returns to school with their blanket or towel (if they brought one home), an extra change of clothes in a labeled bag and a sweatshirt or sweater. Our rooms tend to run cold.

We have noticed our markers are running out. If you would like to buy a new pack for your child's pencil box, I'm sure s/he would love it!!

Happy Birthday, Miss Russell!

Happy Vacation!!

FIRST GRADE NEWSLETTER 4-9-21

 Hello! What an absolutely beautiful day! The weekend looks great, too! Hope you can get outside and enjoy it! We took a little "trip" to the continent of Africa to visit Namibia. We're helping Dr. Muntifering gather information on his hypothesis. Each Tuesday and Thursday we talk to Beth and Curtis live through Go2Science. We are looking at the relative abundance between carnivores and herbivores. We have learned lots of new vocabulary this week! We are also still working with rainforest and Miss Russell, our student teacher, started some lessons on Earth Day. There is so much going on!

READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS

We are doing a poetry unit. We have been reading from our Poetry Books and even writing our own poems. This week we wrote acrostic poems and limericks. We love reading poems that rhyme! We also have been having fun reading Iza Trapani books. She is a Russian author that takes well known children songs and changes the words to write stories. We will be trying our own hand on that this spring!

Reading gets more exciting each day. We love watching the kids become fluent. Many are able to read chapter books now and are working on the comprehension piece. We are working on keeping movies in our heads so we can visualize what we read. The more reading that happens at home, the more of a bookworm your child will be :).

MATH

We worked with three dimensional shapes and venn diagrams. We used venn diagrams to look at the differences between shapes. We were specifically looking at flat faces and curved surfaces. 

ITEMS OF INTEREST

* Many students planted acorn seeds with Mrs. Richard this week during recess. More will plant next week. We will also be starting in the green house after vacation!

* We could hear the frogs croaking at recess! How exciting! If you are looking for an awesome place to walk, the Mount Hope Cemetary has a pond that you can always see turtles and frogs in.

* A huge thank you to Josie, Liam, Eli and Teo for brining in prizes for our prize box. Also, we thank Vincent and his grandmother for donating more masks!

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PLEASE send in a bag (a re-usable grocery bag would be perfect) for your child to take everything home with them on Friday. We are doing a major clean out. They can bring back towels/blankets and extra clothes/shoes after vacation. THANK YOU!!

HAPPY WEEKEND!

PICS FROM WEEK ENDING 4-2-21

 April Fools' Day and Easter all in one week!

Lots of fun with Jelly Bean Math, Silly Pranks, Math Puzzles and a special birthday!

HOPPY WEEKEND!!