Image Map

February 28, 2015

Newsletter for March 2nd

Space Race

The Space Race has begun!!  We've begun learning about planets.  To complete the Space Race students started at Pluto (which is dwarf planet) and got a ticket.

In order to move to the next planet, students need to read 3 books. They will write the names of the 3 books on the back of their ticket. When it's returned to school, we stamp the ticket, and they get a small treat.

Once everyone reaches the sun, we'll have a "sun"dae party.

Here they are launching their rockets!



100 Years Young

We celebrated the 100th day of school on Tuesday.  Students rotated to each first grade classroom to complete activities.

Every year I use the app Oldster.  I take their pictures and they get to see what they'll look like at 100!  Yes, this app scares me a bit because I'm PRAYING I don't look like that at 100 but the kids were cracking up once they saw their pictures.

Look on if you dare!!





February Recap

Here's a quick look back at February.  Students learned a lot about bears!  We learned more about Koalas because most students thought they were also a type of bear.  They quickly learned that they are not!!  Instead, they're called marsupials.


Basant (Olivia's mom) has opened up a catering business, which has worked out well for us because she bakes delicious treats for us to decorate.  On Valentine's Day she came in to help us decorate heart cookies.  Thank you so much!!





February 11, 2015

Penguin Work

We've learned a lot about penguins!  To show what they learned, students each created their own penguin and wrote 3 new facts on snowballs.

They're hanging out in the lobby for others to see.  I had a student ask if she could add a sign.  I think the "Welcome to Antarctica" sign is a nice touch!


In other news, Wikki Stix, are quite popular right now!  I had some hanging around in my room that I hadn't used yet so I put them out during free time.  They've had a blast creating different things.


February 8, 2015

Owl Investigations and Mini Books on TpT

I just uploaded some Owl Investigations and Mini Books to my TpT Store!  Check them out here if interested (Owl Investigations and Mini Books).


February 2, 2015

More Winter Freebies

Spring's almost here right?!  I created a few more freebies (since we had another snow day) for you to use at your writing center.  Check them out here if interested (Winter FREEBIES)!

Another SNOW Day

Really?!  I'm hoping our winter is almost over with all the snow and snow days we've had in the last two weeks.  We're looking at 10-14 inches!!  Ouch.  I'm ready for a trip to somewhere warm and have found myself looking at our Hawaii pictures, wishing my feet were in the sand.

We've continued to learn about snow and winter!

Last week, we took time to browse through "How To" books.  We made observations and made a list of what we noticed.  Most of our books had temporal words, diagrams, pictures, photographs, taught how to build, take care of, or make something.


After reading, The Biggest, Best Snowman, we wrote sequenced steps on "How to Build a Snowman."


After their writing, I handed out directions I had written for "How to Build a Snowman."  They read through each step and highlighted the temporal words.  Working in teams they followed my steps to make a snowman out of powered soap.

Of course I have no pictures because it was quite involved and messy. The snowmen are now drying and finishing touches will be added this week.  You can check out an old post here (How to Build a Snowman).

I couldn't find Ivory Snow this year so I went with Tide (no dyes or perfumes added) and it worked just fine.

If you look closely, it was even snowing on Friday.

We also did some winter art.  Students painted a white moon and slowly blended blue in a circular motion.  They added the snow and their snowmen.  Using colored pencils they added the details.  They're quite adorable outside of our room!

Click to enlarge.

February 1, 2015