The BFG

In Read Aloud we have been reading The BFG by Roald Dahl. It is the story of the Big Friendly Giant. At first we didn't know what BFG stood for and we had fun brainstorming ideas. Dahl is known for his fun-filled language such as "human beans" instead of "human beings". Other books by this author include Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. This usually is one of the students' favorite stories during the year.

One Child

Today we read the book One Child and started artwork that mimics the pictures in Christopher Cheng's book. His story is about a girl who does everything she can to change the world and proves that one person can make a difference.

The students made a stained glass pattern on their paper and decorated it with good and bad things for the earth. We used a crayon relief technique and painted over the drawings. All of the good things are colorful, and all of the bad things are painted dark colors.

We hope you will come see our work next week at Art and Ed Night.

The Ducks are Here!

Mama Duck returned a couple of weeks ago, and her eggs have finally hatched. It looks like she has 13 new ducklings. We will continue to watch and learn for the rest of the year until they are released into the wild. This week we will be reading some books about ducks and doing other related activities.

Friday Clubs

Every Friday we have clubs at MEC. My club is outdoor games and is very popular with the kids. This week we played on the scooters and with the giant soccer ball!

Next week will be our final week.

Busy Month of May

The MEC Walk-a-Thon will take place on May 7th with a rain date of May 9th. Our class will be eating lunch outside (bring a sack lunch or school lunch will be in a bag) from 10:50-11:20. We will be walking in the Walk-a-Thon starting at 11:40. We walk in the neighborhood next door on the sidewalks. You and your family are welcome to join us. I typically have many parents and younger siblings who come along. You may also join us for lunch. All students will be receiving a free t-shirt to wear that morning.

Art and Education Night is May 8th from 6-8 pm. First grade will perform in the music program at 6pm. All students will have artwork on display through out the building.
I hope that your family will be able to join us.

Field Day will be May 14th. Mr. Beaty always needs volunteers to help with the activities. Please let him know if you are interested in running a game that day either in the morning or afternoon. I do not know when our class will be participating. We are usally split up though into smaller groups.

As I have more information, I will keep you informed. May is always a very busy month!

Thinking Games

Thank you to Mrs. Gerber who purchased some new thinking games for our classroom. I picked out several a while back, and now we have new ones to add to our growing collection. The children have enjoyed playing the games and "growing their brains."

Welcome Back & Topic Overview

Welcome back from spring break. I heard lots of interesting stories today. This week we are continuing to learn about geometry in math workshop. We have been working with pentominoes lately. In writing workshop we will be starting a new unit on How-To Books. Reading groups are going well, and we will be focusing on biographies this month, with more heterogenous grouping. For spelling this week, we are continuing homonyms. Today we played bingo to practice the meanings of the words. In science we will be learning about pebbles, sand, and silt as we explore a FOSS kit with hands-on learning. Clubs start this Friday and I know the students will enjoy mingling with other classes and grade levels as they participate in this annual activity.