First Grade Fun

Author Celebration

2009-06-11T13:05:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, June 9th, we had an Author Celebration. We got to read one piece of writing that we were very proud of. We were all really nervous, but we did it! Then, we got to have really yummy snacks! It was really fun, because we had BOTH of our teachers there, Mrs. Warner and Mrs. Kershasky! Aren't we lucky!

Last Day of School

2009-06-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

The last day of school is this Friday, June 12th. It is activity day! Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately with tennis shoes and comfy clothes. You might also want to apply sunscreen or bug spray at home as well. It is going to be an excellent day of fun!

Author Celebration Reminder

2009-06-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

Don't forget about our Author Celebration tomorrow (June 9th) at 9:15 AM in the LGI. We will be sharing one piece of writing, and having refreshments. We can't wait to see you there!

Investigating Soil Samples

2009-06-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

On May 28th, we went outside to find soil samples. On May 29th, we began investigating our samples. We found sand, pebbles, humus, and gravel just like our homemade soil we made. We also found tiny worms (which we thought were pretty cool) and once we separated the soil we found silt too. This was so fun!

Humus and Homemade Soil

2009-06-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

May 22, 2009
We started looking at humus (hew-mus) which we found out was decayed plants and animals. We made homemade soil. In the basin, we put 2 cups each of sand, pebbles, and gravel. Then we added our humus. This is what actual soil is made up of.

Equal Shares

2009-06-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

May 20, 2009
We started out with 20 pieces of candy and they needed to be shared equally among five friends. We drew a picture to figure out that each person got four pieces of candy.

Matrix

2009-06-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

We used matrix (cornstarch and water) to hold sand together in order to make sculptures.

Mrs. Warner and Jack visit

2009-06-08T06:14:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Warner and baby Jack came to surprise us on Friday, May 15th. It was really fun to see Mrs. Warner and neat to see how big Jack is getting!

Save The Date !!!

2009-05-27T05:38:00.001-07:00

We are having an author celebration in the LGI on Tuesday, June 9th at 9:15. We will be sharing a piece of our writing with you. This will last about an hour and will include some snacks as well. We hope you can make it.

Fun Times With Our Third Grade Buddies

2009-05-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

On April 30th, we got together with our third grade buddies to work on a special project for Mother's Day. We made flowers out of magazines cut into stripes, buttons, and chenille rods. Then we got together again on May 7th, to make the bottles. We used tissue paper with watered down glue to make the stain glass effect on the vases. We got to see our buddies one more time on May 8th, to put everything together. It was fun to be with our buddies to do this project. We were very proud at how we recycled for most of the project by using water bottles, magazines, and buttons. Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms! Thanks for being so special and loving us so much!

The finished product!

How To....

2009-05-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

We began writing How To papers this week. First we have to plan what we are going to write about. We had to think of all of the supplies we would need, along with the steps in order to complete the task. Mrs. Kershasky did some really funny examples. We wrote a class paper on How To Tie A Shoe. She followed our directions, but she didn't tie the shoe! We found out that we need to be really detailed when we write down our directions. After we write down our directions, we share with a buddy to see if they can follow the directions. If they can't, we know we need to add some more details. This has been really fun because we also get to illustrate each step.

These are examples of our planning sheets for the How To papers.

Symmetry and Fractions

2009-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

On May 1st, we had an explorations day in math. We used the geoboards to make shapes with rubber bands. Then, our partner had to divide the shapes equally into two, three, or four parts. Some of us were very tricky!

We also used pattern blocks to cover a bigger shape. For example, after figuring out how many little triangles it took to cover the big triangle, we had to say how much that little triangle was worth. One little green triangle covered up 1/9 of the shape. First graders doing fractions? Yes we can!

Sand, Gravel, and Pebbles

2009-05-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

On May 1st, we got to take a closer look at sand, gravel, and pebbles. Mrs. Kershasky had us try to separate the mixture with our hands first, then we were able to use the screens. Using the three different sized screens was so much easier! We were able to make separate the mixture into five different piles: sand, small gravel, large gravel, small pebbles, and large pebbles.

Sharing Our Writing

2009-05-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

On April 30th and May 1st we shared our writing for two different purposes. Some of us wanted to share our neat sheet stories, and some of us needed some help from one another for story ideas. We found that it was helpful to bounce ideas off of each other. After we shared, our friends gave us two compliments about our writing. It was really neat to hear how different everyone's ideas are.

Help please...

2009-04-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

We are beginning a special project on Wednesday, April 29th. We will need some buttons, magazines, and a container (about the size of a soup can or up to a 20 ounce water/soda bottle size). If you could help us out with some of these, we would really appreciate it.

Thank you for your support!

Author Visit

2009-04-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

April 23, 2009
Marsha Diane Arnold came to visit us today. She even read two of her picture books to us! She read Prancing, Dancing Lily and Roar of a Snore. It was amazing to hear read her own stories! She shared with us her idea file. It was filled with pictures, notes on napkins, and magazines that gave her ideas for books. What an amazing experience it was.

Sorting Rocks

2009-04-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

April 23, 2009
We were able to sort our river rocks today. They are called river rocks because that is where these types of rocks are found. Mrs. Kershasky said that we could sort them many different ways. She said to sort them. Then, after we sorted them, she said to come up with another way to sort them. We noticed that we could sort them by color, shape, texture, if they had crystals, or if they had stripes. It was fun to see all of the different ways we could sort them.

ROCKS!

2009-04-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

April 22, 2009
We started our Pebbles, Sand, and Silt science unit. We are having so much fun. We have learned that rocks are solid earth materials. We discovered that rocks look a lot different when we used hand lenses to take a closer look. We even got to wash them. We discovered that the scoria rock bubbled when it was in water. That was really neat! So far, we have learned about scoria, basalt, and tuff which are three types of volcanic rock.

Money Exchange

2009-04-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

April 21, 2009
We played a Money Exchange game in math today. We put 20 pennies, 20 dimes, and $1.00 into our bank that we shared with a partner. Then we rolled two die. We took the amount of money that the die showed and put it into our bank. Once we had 10 pennies, we knew we could trade in for 1 dime. Then, once we had 10 dimes, we could trade in for a dollar. The first person to get the dollar was the winner. It was so fun!

Happy Easter

2009-04-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2009
Happy Easter! We did a rotation between the three first grade classrooms this morning. Mr. Hoffe helped us make a basket. We counted jelly beans and made a graph with Mrs. Rasmussen. Then we read a story and made an egg with a chick inside of it. What a great way to spend the morning with our friends from the other classes. It's always so fun to mix everything up!

Writers' Workshop

2009-04-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

April 3, 2009
We are learning there are many important steps in the writing process. First, we take our idea and plan our writing. We have learned three different ways to plan our writing. Secondly, we write a sloppy copy on a yellow sheet of paper. We know that the important part about this step, is to just get our thoughts on paper, and we can go back and fix it later. Next, we take a red pen and edit our sloppy copy. We are getting really good at finding spelling mistakes, making sure we have punctuation at the ends of the sentences, and capital letters at the beginning. And finally, we transfer everything to a neat sheet on fresh white paper. What a process!

Time Match Memory

2009-03-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

We have been working on telling time in math. We know o'clock (_:00), quarter past(_:15), half-past(_:30), and quarter to(_:45). We have learned that the hour hand continues to move past the hour after the o'clock so that the only time the hour hand is directly (or smack-dab) on the number is at the o'clock time. We are getting really good at this too. We had to match the clock face that showed the analog time with the digital time. Then, we got to play memory!

Parner Reading

2009-03-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

We get to read with a partner everyday after independent reading. This is so fun because we can read from our poetry and song binder, our writing binder, our yellow folders, or any other books in the classroom. Mrs. Kershasky lets us sit anywhere, even on the floor, so we can be comfy as we read to our partner. We have been doing a lot of practice learning that when we partner read, we sit elbow to elbow and use a quiet voice. It has been really fun reading with a buddy everyday!

Make My Design

2009-03-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

We are learning about geometry in math. We now know the names for more shapes; such as hexagon, trapezoid, and rhombus. We made a design using 6 different shapes. Then we had to tell our partner to make the same design, only they couldn't see what we made. We had a folder in between us. Afterwards, we got to compare our designs. It was really funny!

Bus Safety

2009-03-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, March 25th, two high school students came to talk to us about bus safety. We learned that when we are ready to cross a street with an adult, we should listen and look both ways. We also found out that if we cross in front of the bus, we have to be five feet in front of it.