A little bit of everything...

 We studied goods and services this week in Social Studies. It is important for us to know that a good (apple) is something we can hold or touch and a service is something someone does for someone else (teacher). Goods and services help our economy to function. 

 We also practiced recognizing tens and ones in two-digit numbers. If we are really good at seeing the tens and ones, it will be so much easier for us to add tens and ones. 

We used our "secret code cards" to help us practice seeing the tens and ones in a number. 


Next week, we will be adding tens and ones to two-digit numbers! Can you believe what a first grader can do ? Amazing!

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King Jr.

Today we talked about how Martin Luther King Jr. impacted our lives. We read a weekly reader that gave 

us a lot of information about him. Here is what a few first graders learned about this important American hero!

Click here to see what Breanna has to say!

Click here to see what Owen and Matthew have to say!

Click here to see what Grant and Michael say!

Click here to see what Ella has to say!

Here are some of the things we learned about Martin Luther King Jr.:

-He loved to play and read.

-He changed the law so that dark skin and light skin people could be treated equally. 

-He was married to Corretta Scott and had 4 children. Two boys and two girls. 

-There is a statue of him in Washington D.C.

-He gave lots of speeches. 

-He was kind to others. 

-He was born on January 15, 1929.

Math Action!

Are you a parent that is learning math along with your first grader? Math concepts have changed so much in the last five years that it's hard to keep up with the new strategies of 2012.

This week we have been learning how to make a ten. It's so much easier to see that 10 + 3 =13 than trying to figure out that 8 + 5 =13. Let us show you the thinking going on in our heads in order to solve this problem.

Click here to be amazed!

I am so impressed by how quickly first graders can pick up these strategies. It is so important to build on students' base foundation of math concepts so that they can make a smooth transition into future grades.

Fractionpillar

Have you ever heard of a fractionpillar? Well, here is one we made today to help us learn more about fractions.

In first grade, we need to be able to know the difference between 1 whole and 1/2. 

Today, we cut various shapes into halves. We know that a fraction is when we have equal parts. We also know that a fraction has a top number called the numerator and a bottom number called a denominator. 

We even added antenna's!

We had so much fun making the faces for our fractionpillars. A lot of us thought it would be funny to add a mustache:)

Next week, we will do a fractionpillar for fourths!

Writing Partners are Important

Alyssa and Zach are reading partners. We use our reading partners during writing to help us make sure our writing is easy-to-read. Our goal for this unit is to be able to write so that anyone can read our writing beside ourself. 

Click here to see the video!

It can be a little scary having someone else read our writing because we have worked so hard on it.

We learned how to take care of our partner's feelings by first giving them a compliment and then giving a suggestion on how to make their story better. 

Making Gingerbread Houses=FUN!

We made Gingerbread Houses at our Christmas party Friday! They were so much fun to make!

We started by collecting left over milk containers from lunch. This was used as the base of our house.

 Cole had to make sure his graham crackers stuck to the sides of his milk container so that his house wouldn't fall apart!

One of the best parts...we got to use a TON of frosting!

Then it was time to decorate! Oh my! We had so many treats to spice up our gingerbread houses!

 It was so much fun to decorate with our parents there to help.

 These will be perfect for any gingerbread boy, man, girl or baby! Just like in each book we read.

 Almost there....

Done! Thank you parents and our amazing room mom for helping and organizing this awesome party for us! We appreciate you so much!

Let's Celebrate!

We started with our book exchange! Each student brought in a book to be given to a boy or a girl. 

We sat in a circle and passed the books when the Christmas music started to play. 

When the music stopped, it was finally time to open!!

We are all so excited to receive a new book!

We said, "Thank you" to the person who brought that book.

I was so impressed by the way your children were so gracious and respectful during our gift-giving time. Not one person complained about the book they were given and everyone said, "Thank you!" What a wonderful bunch of first graders!

 Next, we opened our present from Miss Cain. 

Awesome! Another book to read!

We were so excited to read our new books, that we started right away!

We love to share books and read with each other! 

Lily Z. and Lexi love their books!

Kaidence and Owen were so excited to read over Christmas break!

What a great group of boys!

Character Winners for November

Here are our character winners for November... Lily Z. and Grant L.

                                         Congratulations!

Writing Celebration!

 Our second writing celebration was wonderful! This writing unit focused on writing small moments. When we write a small moment, we want to focus on one event that has happened to us in our lives. For example, we wouldn't want to write about our entire birthday party, we would want to write about just opening presents or just eating cake. If we can zoom in on one moment, it forces us to stretch out the story with details, which is what good writers do.

We have a juice toast before we start reading our stories.

It is such a great feeling to accomplish our goals!

After we toast, we each take turns reading our stories to the class. Our book is displayed on the document camera for everyone to see!

New Spot for Newsletters

The newsletters will now be published under the "Newsletters" heading at the top of the home page:) Thanks!

Miss Cain