I hope you had a great snow day! I love days like that when I can snuggle up with the kids and get school work done. (I probably will regret saying that in June when we are in our hot classroom for an additional day!!! :) Here's what's been going on in Room 24...
In reading group, the children performed their first Reader's Theater. Each group was given a play and the children each played a role in the play. We practiced this play all week long so we could read our lines fluentlys. We also created props to go with the play. The children loved it! Here are some photos I took of the groups practicing before they performed.
In writer's workshop, we continue to work on teaching books which is part of our non-fiction unit. Next week, we will start chapter teaching books which will include a table of contents and other features of a longer teaching book.
In math, we are at the end of our place value unit. The children have worked so hard to learn about the difference between the ones, tens and hundreds. We have used many different manipulatives, such as place value blocks, dice games and more to explore this concept. I think the children's favorite activity was building the first letter of their name out of ones and tens (I will add a picture of this once I get them up on the bulletin board:) Next week we will start to learn about 2 digit numbers. We will learn how to add 1 more, 1 less, 10 more and 10 less as well as how to compare numbers using the greater than, less than and equal to terms.
In science, we have been learning about solids. We were lucky enough to have a science afternoon where we combinied classes with Mrs. Elrick and Mrs. Pollock's class. The children had a blast exploring the different properties of a solid. They were able to do 4 experiments with solids with float and sink, magnets, hardness, and roll and stack. Thank you to Mr. Attia, Mrs. Dodge, Mr. Foscaldo, and Mr. Robertson for running each of our groups. Great job! Next week, we will begin learning about liquids.
In Fundations, we are finishing up our unit of welded or glued sounds. Next week, we will start learning about blends (fl, st), digraphs (th, sh), and digraph blends (such as n and ch in the word lunch). We will also talk about -r controlled vowels (ar, or, ir, ur, er).
Another exciting thing happening in first grade are the maker space boxes. Mrs. Elrick and Mrs. Scier wrote a grant to make boxes of supplies that will be rotated in all the first grade classroom. Each month a classroom will get 4 boxes of supplies. Some of the supplies are disposable and some are not. This month, we were lucky enough to have a bucket of straws, pony beads, white boards and letter dice, and connecting rods. The children had a blast last week making all sorts of creations. They were so creative with the pony beads ad straws making so many interesting pictures! They especially loved the connecting rods. Here are many of their creations (they all wanted pictures taken:)
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me at hherring@email.medfield.net
Have a great day!
Heather Herring
