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We had a short but busy week!

Science

This week, the scientists wrapped up their Penguin Unit. They concluded the unit by writing a report on the penguin they researched last week. The scientists had a great time compiling all the facts they had learned into their penguin report. On Tuesday, the scientists created a replica of their penguin using construction paper. They wrote their final copy of their report on their penguin's belly. I hope you enjoyed reading them during conferences!

Math

This week, we finished Unit 7. The children discussed the different characteristics of: Cones, Pyramids, and Cubes. They also experimented with Symmetry. The children came up with a list of items that are symmetrical. They completed a Mimio lesson and symmetry sheet, where they showed the correct lines of symmetry for letters, shapes, and objects. On Tuesday, the children enjoyed using Mimio Vote to review all the concepts they learned during Unit 7. The children had a great time as our room once again turned into the set of Math Review Mimio Vote! On Wednesday, the children took their Unit 7 Assessment. I will send them home after spring break. I am proud of how well the children did!

Penguin Day:
To celebrate the end of our Penguin Unit, the children dressed up like penguins on Wednesday. They looked great in their penguin outfits! We started the morning by reading the story, Tacky the Penguin. While listening to the story, the children created a bubble map of adjectives that described Tacky. We talked about how the adjectives helped the children to understand who Tacky is and how he is different from the other penguins in the story. After, the children used their Tacky adjective map to help them write a retelling of the story. The children had to write a page for the beginning, middle, and end of the book in their own words. When the were finished with their retelling, they illustrated each page.

To celebrate filling the "Warm Fuzzy" jar the children watched, The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin, to end our Penguin Day. They were very excited to learn that Scamper is an Adelie penguin. When the movie was over, the children talked about the true facts included in the movie and what parts of the movie were fantasy.

Happy Birthday
Natalia's birthday is during spring break. We celebrated her birthday on Wednesday. We hope that Natalia has a happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Natalia!

 Notes:
-It was so nice to see all of you at conferences. Thank you for coming in to meet with me!
-Have a wonderful Spring Break! I look forward to hearing all about the children's adventures when they return.
-Be sure to check back in the weekend after we return from spring break for the next blog post!

Penguin ABC Book

The children worked together during LMC to create a Penguin ABC book. They each wrote one page of the book using a word associated with penguins. Then, they drew an illustration and recorded themselves reading their page. It turned out very cute. Enjoy!

                                        

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with long o (oa, ow). The children read different fantasy stories. They worked with identifying fantasy (what is not real) and reality (what could happen in real life) elements. 

I feel lucky when...

On Wednesday, we read the book, The Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day. Then we talked about luck and feeling lucky. Afterwards, the children wrote about what makes them feel lucky using the prompt, “I feel lucky when…”. They wrote some wonderful responses. To complete the project, they created a little leprechaun. They turned out super cute! 

On Thursday, the children reread our fantasy story from Tuesday, Olivia. They analyzed Olivia’s character and completed a tree map. On the map, they wrote down what Olivia: is, enjoys, and can do. The children worked with the strategy of rereading to complete the tree map.

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children learned about adjectives. They learned that an adjective is a word that tells about a noun. Some adjectives tell what kind. Some adjectives tell how many. 

Math 

In Math, the children had Explorations on Monday. They worked with Exploring Attributes, played Make My Design, and practiced their math facts using a Fact Platter Fact Generator.

On Tuesday, the children identified pattern block shapes. They identified the sides of a triangle and learned that a corner is a point where two sides meet. The children discussed defining attributes and non-defining attributes of triangles. They were also introduced to the term polygon (a shape with all straight side that touch only at their endpoints).

On Wednesday, the children enjoyed using straws and twist ties to create different polygon shapes. They identified their polygons sides and corners. 

On Thursday, the children were introduced to 3 geometric shapes: Spheres, Cylinders, and Rectangular Prisms. They identified and described the solid figures. The children worked with counting the number of flat faces and corners of each of the shapes. The children created cylinders using paper and rectangular prisms using straws and twist ties. We also started a Shapes Museum in our classroom, the children may continue to being in geometric shapes to add to our Shapes Museum. 

Science

This week, the scientists enjoyed investigating our last 6 penguins: Rockhopper, Macaroni, Little, Adelie, Gentoo, and African. We researched using a variety of books, photos, and fact sheets. The scientists have become experts and can describe the different penguins using their key features. 

Today, the scientists chose their favorite penguin to research. Using a graphic organizer, they used two web sites to research their penguin. Next week, they will write a report on their penguin and craft a replica of their penguin using construction paper. Look for your child’s penguin report in the hall during conferences. 

The children have enjoyed watching the penguins at the California Academy of Sciences via their live penguin cams. If you would like to view the penguins, go to: http://www.calacademy.org/webcams/penguins/

Star Student

Diana was our star student this week. Thanks Diana for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

A special thank you to Diana’s dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to the two stories that Mr. Brambarov read, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! and Fancy Nancy and the Delectable Cupcakes.

Notes:

-The children have worked very hard this trimester! I look forward to meeting with you next week at conferences to discuss your child’s progress. 

-We will not have a spelling list next week, due to the short week. We will take this opportunity to review our word wall words.

Have a great weekend! 

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with long e (y). The children read different folktales. They worked with analyzing plot and summarizing. The children worked together to summarize the story as we read each part; beginning, middle, and end. During listening station, the children listened to the tale, When Turtle Grew Feathers. They summarized the story, writing one sentence for the beginning, middle, and end. 

Fancy Nancy:

On Thursday, the children were excited to work with Fancy Y. 

They learned that Y is fancy when it sounds like an E at the end of a two syllable word. 

As we read the story, Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, the children created a chart of all the Fancy Y words they found in the story. After reading the book, the children added more Fancy Y words that were not in the book. 

During Daily 5 time, the children created their own list of Fancy Y words complete with illustrations. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children reviewed contractions. A contraction is a short way of saying and writing two words. They learned that many contractions are formed with not. An apostrophe (‘) takes the place of the letters that are left out. 

Math 

In Math, the children enjoyed another round of Math Review Mimio Vote. They reviewed all of the concepts they learned during Unit 6. Our room once again turned into the set of a game show as each child answered questions using their very own clicker. On Wednesday, the children took their Unit 6 test. I am proud of how well the children did on their tests! 

On Thursday, the children took their 2nd Trimester Assessment.   I am proud of how hard the children worked and to see the growth they have made during this trimester in math. I will share these assessments with you at conferences.

Today, we started Unit 7. In this unit the children will work with Geometry and Attributes. In today’s lesson, the children worked with attribute blocks. They worked to sort attribute blocks according to different attribute rules (color, shape, and size). 

This week, the children also enjoyed playing, Coin Exchange. The children worked with making coin exchanges and counting money while playing the game. 

Science

This week, the scientists enjoyed discovering facts about four different penguins: Emperor, King, Chinstrap, and Crested. The scientists researched the penguins by listening to books, watching video clips, and highlighting important facts on a fact sheet. The scientists compared and contrasted the different penguins. They noted important features of each of the penguins. Their favorite penguin today was the Chinstrap penguin, they liked how these particular penguins look like they are wearing a helmet.

Next week, we will continue our penguin research. We will investigate 6 additional penguins. The scientists are very excited to choose their favorite penguin to research further. They will gather information and write a report on their penguin at the end of our penguin unit.

Star Student

Danny was our star student this week. Thanks Danny for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

A special thank you to Danny’s dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to the two stories that Mr. Centracchio read, Memoirs of a Goldfish and Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches.

Have a great weekend! 

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with long e (ee, ea). The children read stories about scientists. They worked with making inferences. Using text clues and their schema (what they know), the children made inferences about the character in the story. The children enjoyed using, pebblego.com during listening center to research scientist, Albert Einstein. They completed a Nonfiction News organizer by recording two interesting facts they learned about him.

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children learned that the verbs see and say have special forms to tell about the past. For present tense we use sees, see and says, say. For past tense we use saw and said. 

Math 

In Math, we completed the lesson on quarters. The children worked with counting combinations of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. Please continue to practice this skill at home!

On Tuesday, the children worked with telling time using both a digital and analog clock. They had to record time on a digital clock given the time on an analog clock and record the time on an analog clock using the time on a digital clock. Here are 3 links for a game called, Stop The Clock, the children can practice matching digital time to the correct analog clock. Click on any of the links to practice (the levels get harder as you go): Stop The Clock 1
Stop The Clock 2 Stop The Clock 3

On Wednesday, the children were introduced to, My Reference Book. The children learned that this book may be used as a reference during math time in first and second grade. The children explored the table of contents and used it to find the page numbers that the different math topics were located on. After exploring the book, the children worked with a partner to complete, My Reference Book Scavenger Hunt. Using clues and the book, they recorded their findings in their math journal. 

On Thursday, the children used their calculators to see how high they could count in 15 seconds. They reported their largest count to be recorded on our class tally chart. The children found the range by finding the difference between the largest and smallest numbers in our data. Then, the children worked to find the middle value (median) of our class data. Using the class tally chart, they created a bar graph to organize our class data. The children asked and answered questions using the bar graph.  

Science

This week, we continued our Penguin Unit, the children learned all about penguins. We read books and watched video clips to learn the answers to our questions: Where do penguins live? How do they move? What do they eat? Who are their enemies? How do penguins protect themselves?, etc. The children recorded their learning on a graphic organizer. They also recorded the answer to their I wonder question from last week on a post it note. We hung the post it notes up on our penguin bulletin board to show our learning. 

On Friday, the children enjoyed doing an experiment to see how penguins feathers keep them warm. The experiment titled, Cozy in the Cold, allowed the children to explore what kept their hands warmer when holding a bag of ice water. Was it an empty bag or a bag filled with air? They enjoyed sharing their findings with the class. Ask your child what they discovered and what they suggested would do a better job of keeping their hands warm. 

Next week, the children will use their completed penguin graphic organizer to write a penguin report. We will also begin researching different types of penguins. The children are looking forward to choosing one penguin to research further and write a report on at the end of our penguin unit. 

First Grade Musical

The children did a great job on their first grade musical. I am so proud of how hard they worked! They were so excited to share it with all of you on Wednesday night. Thank you for attending the performance and watching your stars shine! Enjoy the photos below. 

Star Student

Natalia was our star student this week. Thanks Natalia for sharing all about you!

Notes:

-Please remember to send your child to school with their winter wear. The playground and black top are wet from the snow. Please send coats, snow pants, boots, hats, and gloves. Thank you!

Have a great rest of the weekend!