Week of Feb. 2

Events:

-Feb. 11 1 hr. early out

-Feb. 13 Valentine’s Day Party

-Feb. 13 Book Orders due

-Feb. 18 1 hr. early out

Notes:

-This week we had Tashina’s mom come and talk to us about life in the Philippians.  She brought homemade egg rolls with her for us to try.  We also had Nick’s grandma come and talk to us about Norway.  She showed us some clothes that they were in Norway.  She also brought with her a few samples of Norwegian food. 

-We have started decorating our bags for Valentine’s Day. Students can bring in their valentines before Friday, February 13 if they are ready.

Week in Review:

-This week we celebrated our 100^th day of school.  Each first grade classroom had an activity for each class to participate.  Rotations included making a structure with 100 cups, writing what you would do if you had $100, and 100 exercises.  We had time to share our 100^th day collections.  Students had very creative collections.  Thanks for helping them at home.

-This week we read A Pocket for Corduroy.  We discussed the differences between town and country as well as the different cultures represented in the book.

-In math we wrapped up our unit of study on graphs with learning about 3D shapes. 

-In social studies we have started a new unit that focuses on comparing the past to the present.

Week of Jan. 12

Events:

-Jan. 19 No School

-Jan. 21 (1 hour early out)

-Jan 28 (1 hour early out)

Notes:

-Our two snow days from last week will be made up May 26 and 27.

-I have posted several pictures from our first half of first grade on my blog.  Check them out!

-This week students were able to pick a game to take home on Thursday.  This is optional.  Students may play this game and read their Hawk book or if you believe they could use a break they can just play the game.  Please make sure games are returned each Friday.

-We have started a first grade snowball fight to see which class reads the most. 

Week in Review:

-We have started a new math unit that focuses on graphing.   We have started new build.  Some of the activities include adding, telling time, subtracting, and greater than and less than.

-This week we read several Snowmen books.  We then shared similarities and differences between the books.

-We have started our new social studies unit in which we compare Iowa to our specific country.  Students are really enjoying learning about some of their heritage.

-New work journey words came home on Monday.  Students have been practicing sorting and writing these words with a partner.  We have also spent some time reviewing old words. 

Pictures from first grade in 2014

Here are a few snapshots of our first half of first grade.

The last day before break was pajama day.  I gave my students scarves made by my mom.

 Visitors came to our classroom and talked to us about agriculture in the classroom.  This year we learned how to a sheep's wool get turned into yarn.  Above she is showing us how they dye the wool.

 Crazy sock day to add to our reading stamina minutes.  Our whole team (Mrs. Bieber, our class, Mrs. Rodemeyer, and Ms. Heddinger) all wore crazy socks so we got extra time added to our scores.  Way to go team!!

 A guest reader came to our classroom and read Gingerbread Baby to us and then gave us gingerbread cookies.  

 Caroling at the nursing homes before our Christmas concert.  Students sang beautifully!

 Mrs. Saxton was a guest reader in our class and read some Christmas stories to us.

 Mrs. Patton came and extended our learning about habitats in Iowa.  Students placed animals in appropriate places around the mural.  

 Mrs. Beving was a guest reader in our class and read a Thanksgiving book to us.

 Mrs. Patton came and extended our learning about the animal groups.  She brought with her a snake and salamander for students to touch.

 She also brought in wing of a bird for us to learn about how birds move.

 Mr. Carter was a guest reader in our class in a national challenge: Hunting for a Good Book, sponsored by Book It.

 Mrs. Shimon was a guest reader in our class for one of our DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) days.

 Students enjoyed listening to a Pete the Cat book from a guest reader in our class. 

 Mrs. B, our student teacher, had a fantastic last day.  Lucky for us her next placement was in an older grade in the building so we still got to see her.

 A class picture with our super star, Nick, who was part of the homecoming court.

 Student's enjoyed having high school students from the fall sports come around and sign their pennants.  

Week of Dec. 8

Events:

-Dec. 17 1 hr. early out

-Dec. 19 1 hr. early out

-Jan. 6 (1^st day back after winter break)

Notes:

-Thank you to all the students who attended our Christmas concert.  They all sang beautifully.

-I have been busy assessing for the end of the quarter and am pleased with how much we have grown.  Thanks for all your support at home with homework and reading.

-There are lots of lost and found items.  If you think you are missing an item please have your child check the lost and found at school.

Week in Review:

-We have been working hard in math to learn how to add on from two digit numbers.  We have reviewed trading in money to use fewer coins.  Example: Instead of eight pennies you could have one nickel and three pennies.

-We read books by Jan Brett this week.  We the story Annie and the Wild Animals we worked on visualizing the book and predicting what the pictures would before seeing them.  We also read The Mitten and practiced sequencing the animals that went into the mitten.

-In science we finished learning about magnets and simple machines.  We have started to learn about energy and electricity.

Week of Dec. 1

Events:

-Dec 10 1 hr. early out

-Dec. 11 7pm K-1 Holiday Concert

-Dec. 17 1 hr. early out

-Dec. 19 1 hr. early out

 BUILD

(B) Buddy Games- Students are working with greater than, less than, and equal to.

(U) Using Manipulatives- Students are rolling two dice, adding them together, and covering the answer on a tree.

(I) Independently Working- Students are completing a graph and answering questions in response to the graph.

(L) Learning About Numbers- Students are working in a small group with the teacher completing story problems.

(D) Doing Math- Students work with math on funbrain.com.

Week in Review:

-We have continued our learning of place value with adding tens and ones.  Example: 20+30=50. 

-Our mini lessons at the beginning of the week focused on checking for understanding.  We read a couple pages from a nonfiction book and then students shared what was the main idea.  Later in the week we read the book Little Polar Bear and Brave Little Hare.  This was a longer book so our story map was a bit more challenging for us.  With this book we learned the vocabulary words: embarrassed, warn, concerned, thumped, steep, and frigid.

-We have started a new science unit on motion and energy.  We have learned about how to describe an items position, pull, push, and friction.

Notes:

- May 22 will be our snow-make up day from Nov. 26.

-A reminder we go outside if the temperature and wind chill is above 0.  Please send your child with all their winter gear so they are warm enough at recess.

-Students may start arriving at 6:30 for the Christmas concert on the 11^th.  Students need to report to the band room at the high school.  Please pick them up from the band room when the concert is over.

Week of Nov. 24

Events:

-Nov. 26 1 hr. early out

-Nov. 27 and 28 No School

-Dec. 3 1 hr. early out

-Dec. 11 7pm K-1 Holiday Concert

Notes:

- We have been doing a great job on our word journey words.  Students have been learning the spelling pattern and applying them in their writing. 

-We have finished November bellwork.  In November we worked on adding more than two numbers.  Students are getting much better at quickly completing their bellwork in the morning.

Week in Review:

-This week we finished up our science unit on animal groups.  Students have really learned a lot about characteristics of animal groups.

-We practiced some Thanksgiving poems this week.  We read the poems together and then practiced them in a silly way.  An example is sitting like a boss with our feet on our desks.

-In math we continued learning about the tens and ones place.  We learned that in the number 34 there are three groups of tens and four left over.

-We played a game called ‘Oh Turkey’ to practice our sight words.  If you drew an Oh Turkey card you had to put all your other cards back in the bag.

Week of Nov. 17

Events:

-Nov. 26 1 hr. early out

-Nov. 27 and 28 No School

-Dec. 3 1 hr. early out

-Dec. 11 7pm K-1 Holiday Concert

BUILD Groups: (continued)

(B) Buddy Games- Matching analog clocks to digital clocks.

(U) Using Manipulatives-Students can choose from a variety of games that focus on counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, as well as adding and subtracting.

(I) Independently Working- Students work independently at solving addition flashcards.

(L) Learning about Numbers- Students work in a small group working on problem solving strategies.

(D) Doing Math- Funbrain.com

Week in Review:

-We practiced retelling Make Way For Ducklings with puppets. 

-We finished unit 3 in math and have started unit 4 which focuses on place value.  We will be learning about the tens and ones place.

-We started sharing our google presentations on our animal groups.  Students did a great job presenting!

-We have been working on writing a paragraph from our animal book from the library.  We are learning that you need a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence.  We learned that our conclusion can be as easy as adding one word like clearly and restate our introduction.

Notes:

- This week a math packet came home that looked like a test with crayon marks that either corrected the question or had a smiley face.  That packet is our math warm-up.  It is our practice for Iowa Assessments.  We are learning: what to do when we get to a question we don’t know, how to fill in the bubbles, and how to make an educated guess by eliminating the answers we know are not correct.  Some of the questions on our math warm-up have not been taught yet and are difficult.  This is good practice because there will be questions on Iowa Assessments that are difficult for us.

-We have been working in class with several comprehension skills that your child could use with their Hawk book at home: retelling, summarizing, and using a story map.