Exploring 'How-To' Books

We are starting our new unit on 'how-to' books! We are so excited to jump into this type of writing. We started this unit by looking at various how-to books that Mrs. Meihaus, our librarian, pulled for us. We learned that cookbooks, science experiments, and drawing books are all how-to books! We have started our own books on what we know how to do in order to teach others. So far, we are all learning 'how to' do so many things! 

Taking Turns

During our last Second Steps lesson (on character education) blue group engaged in a reader's theater about taking turns. Each student 'took turns' reading a page from a book about what it looks like to take turns. This is a skill that we use everyday in kindergarten. Blue group did a great job reading and informing us about this important 'play skill.' 

Earth Day: Doing Our Part

To celebrate Earth Day this week your students picked up trash along the trails in order to help keep plants and animals who live in there safe. We also brainstormed a list of other ways that we can help take care of our Earth and put our ideas up in the hallways to get others involved in Earth Day celebrations as well. 

iPad learning

Your students have been using iPads all year during our Daily 4 reading groups. However, recently, we have been implementing them into our math workshop time. Here are a couple friends who are practicing their addition math facts with the app Math Bingo! 

Place Value

Our big focus this quarter in math has been place value. We have surrounded our activities around the idea of breaking apart numbers into tens and ones. The pictures below show one activity we engaged in that helps us organize our thinking about place value. Students grabbed a ziplock bag that has a number on it, counted the materials inside the bag, wrote the total number down, then broke it apart into groups of 10's and 1's and recorded down their answer. Phew.... What rigor! 

Outdoor Learning Day!

During our half day, we dedicated our morning to learning about our outdoor learning classroom! We engaged in nature rubbings, compost and recycling, trail collections, and even some outdoor dancing! We loved being outside in the sunshine and seeing what wonderful things the outdoors has to offer. We even got to eat our lunch outside.... What a treat! 

Service dog lesson at Aberdeen Heights

Ms. Heifner and Mrs. Jackson's first grade class were invited to Aberdeen Heights to learn about service dog training to celebrate their new dog park! We learned a lot about how dogs are able to care for people with special needs. We are looking forward to our visit back to Aberdeen to see the finished dog park! 

Finding seeds in our lunches

After reading a book about seeds, we discovered that many of the things around us come from seeds! Our clothes, food, and various drinks are just a few! Here are some students noticing various things in their lunch that have come from a seed! 

Reading our On-topic books to the class!

When we find books in our classroom library that are related to topics in class, we get the opportunity to read them to the class for a mini lesson!  When we find these books, we practice reading them during 'read to self' until we become fluent. Once we feel ready to read proficiently, we sign up for a mini lesson read aloud. We have learned so much from our friends' read alouds! 

Planting Seeds!!

Today we took part in a gardening experiment to (hopefully) observe plants growing first-hand! We have read, watched, and talked about the parts of a plant, where plants grow, and what they need. Therefore, we know to give our little terrariums plenty of sunlight, water, and air. Every few days we will jot down our observations to (once again, hopefully) observe our plants grow and change. 

Leaf Scavenger Hunt

To launch our new unit on plants, we went on a nature walk. With the objective of finding a leaf to 'study,' we actually found and observed many other wonderful things that nature has to offer. Although right now it doesn't feel very much like we are heading into spring, we saw tiny signs along the way that it is peaking through (i.e. Sprouts from plants, moss on rocks, birds and insects emerging). 

Author Study: Eric Carle

In writing, we have started researching through mentor texts from a well-known author, Eric Carle! We started this study with a merry-go-round picture read.  After looking at roughly 8 books in 16 minutes, we gathered on the carpet to jot down our 'noticings.' Since Mr. Carle is an author and an illustrator we have been noticing many things throughout his multitude of books. 

Taking Inventory

Counting, counting, and more counting! Not only are we grouping and counting the materials in our classroom, but we have made signs for each material so that we know how many of each are there. Furthermore, we recorded our inventory on a chart and noticed a pattern when we looked at the total number, how many bundles of 10 there were, and the number of leftover ones as well. Can you notice the pattern??

Collecting and Organizing

This week we kicked off our new math unit on place value. After reading a story about a boy who organizes his messy and crowded house by bundling things into groups of 10's, we jumped in to taking inventory and organizing what we have in our classroom! Your kids were paired up and given a group of things in our classroom to count (so Miss Heifner can be prepared for next year). We noticed that when we group things into bundles of 10's and leftover, loose ones, we are able to keep track of our counting and become more efficient counters! 

Addition and Subtraction Jeopardy!

To review and refresh our addition and subtraction skills after a long spring break, we engaged in addition and subtraction Jeopardy! The categories were: addition equations, subtraction equations, addition word problems, subtraction word problems, and above 10 equations (+,-). The class was broken up into 2 teams where everyone collaborated with each other to find the answer and write it down on their white board. It was a close game... We have some smart mathematicians in this class! 

Word Families Galore

This semester we have really been working on learning, recognizing, and using various word families (ex: fan, can, tan, ran, etc.) In this particular activity, we looked for a word family of our choice from our word work activity, created a word with that word family that made sense, drew a picture of that word, and then shared our words with our friends in class.