Geometry

First grade students are currently learning about plane shapes. These are the 2-D shapes like circles, squares, rectangles, pentagons, etc. Today we did an activity called Hold and Fold that challenged the students to make as many shapes as they could out of a square piece of paper. We talked about congruency and symmetry, as well as the root words in the shapes like penta, hexa, etc.

Weekly Update

Monday’s Musings

I am so glad to welcome everyone back from their vacation. I hope each of you enjoyed spending time with your children and families over the break. We have two months left of school, and so much to accomplish. April is sure to be one of my favorite months this year for teaching. Three of my favorite units will appear in April: geometry, poetry, and fairy tales. This week we will focus on:

1. Reading Workshop: The Three Little Pigs, summarizing stories in paragraph form.

2. Writing Workshop: begin poetry and looking at things through a poet’s eyes- not through a scientist’s eyes.

3. Spelling: more homonyms and self-selected words.

4. Math Workshop- first grade: plane shapes in geometry, second grade: solid shapes and vocabulary.

5. Project: phase two experiments, expert speaker on Wednesday.

q Scholastic book orders are due on Friday, April 8^th.

q Library books are due tomorrow (Tuesday)

q Toys…many of the students have been bringing in toys to play with, especially during indoor recess. Now that the weather is getting nicer, we will be going outside most days unless it is raining. Please have your child keep all toys and stuffed animals at home from now on unless it is a special celebration day.

q Shoes- Page 12 of the Student Handbook…For safety reasons students should wear shoes that will stay on their feet. Flip flops, things, backless shoes and platform shoes are unsafe and should not be worn at school.

Have a great week!

Weekly Update

As we enter our last week before spring break, here are some reminders on what we will be working on this week.

Reading Workshop- mini-author study on Patricia Polacco
Writing Workshop- beginning mini-lessons on paragraph writing to include main idea and at least three supporting details.
Spelling- focus on homonyms and self- selected word study
Math Workshop-
~1st grade finishing up regrouping with subtraction
~2nd grade wrapping up geometry
Project- continue with phase two, experiments and surveys

Project Germs

We are entering phase two of our project about "Germs". Today the students learned about the importance of handwashing and how easily germs are spread. I had received a germ glow light kit from Mrs. Bastin that has a bottle of fake germ powder that glows under a black light. We used this kit for our exeriments today.

First I passed around "Chester the Raccoon". I had liberally sprinkled the germ powder all over him. The students noticed he was dusty, but didn't think anything about it. After they had all touched him, I shared that Chester was sick and infected. That meant he had a lot of germs on him. We used the black light to see the germs on their hands. Even one student who had barely touched Chester still had enough germs on her hands to glow.

I had the students wash their hands, but told them not to use soap or warm water. They rinsed their hands quickly and dried them with paper towels as usual. They were surprised to see that there were still germs on their hands. We discussed how to properly wash our hands and how important it is to use soap, hot water, and scrub them for an appropriate time, etc.

When we looked at their hands this time, most of them had washed off all of the germs. However we were still able to see students who had not washed their wrists or under their fingernails. The interesting part for them was realizing that even though they washed their hands free of germs, there were germs now showing up in their hair, on their clothes, and especially on their faces. This let them see how much the germs had spread over their bodies in the short time since they had been infected.

Now that the student understand how to use this kit, we will be able to have them design their own experiment to test hypotheses.

April Willy: Illustrator Visit

The students at our school were fortunate to have a visit from illustrator April Willy on Monday. Ms. Willy has illustrated such books as Three Cups, Full Moon Maxi, and others. She showed our young authors some drawing techniques, as well as read from some of her books. Students had the opportunity to recreate one of her drawings from the book Full Moon Maxi. She emphasized the importance of planning ahead and taking your time to do your best.

Please visit her website at http://www.aprilwilly.com/