Our classroom celebration on Friday was simply amazing. Thank you to everyone who attended, contributed and helped. This has been a wonderful start to the year, I feel lucky to spend time with your children at school.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Love,
Miss Terrien
Monday, December 24, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Special Visitor
Summer started our day by leading Morning Meeting to celebrate her awesome behavior!
We had an exploration station day in math today! It was so much fun. These days give us an opportunity to use math materials that we will soon be using in upcoming lessons, and use them in a less structured way, so we can become acquainted with them. Look at us, hard at work!
In reading today we took some time to reflect about all of the things we have in our lives to be grateful and thankful for. After that, we made a special gift for our families.
We also had a very special guest today! My sister, Katie, is home for a few days and wanted to visit our room. She did word work with some of the girls and listened to other first graders read stories. She was so impressed with what excellent readers we have in our classroom! She read us our next chapter in Mr. Popper's Penguins, too. (She loved it that Mr. Popper took Captain Cook for a walk on a leash!) Katie is a pediatric nurse at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center so she enjoyed being able to spend time with kids in a classroom setting.
We are well on our way to 26 acts of kindness... the maturity of this first grade class always impresses me.
We started to think about surface area by covering one of our tables with various objects. Ryan P. counted by 15's to 105 to figure out an answer for his group- wow!
We tried to come up with an organized way to count many, many pennies! (This was really tough, but two groups were able to finish in the short amount of time we had!)
We compared the weights and masses of different objects.
We played Greater Than/Less Than Top It
In reading today we took some time to reflect about all of the things we have in our lives to be grateful and thankful for. After that, we made a special gift for our families.
We also had a very special guest today! My sister, Katie, is home for a few days and wanted to visit our room. She did word work with some of the girls and listened to other first graders read stories. She was so impressed with what excellent readers we have in our classroom! She read us our next chapter in Mr. Popper's Penguins, too. (She loved it that Mr. Popper took Captain Cook for a walk on a leash!) Katie is a pediatric nurse at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center so she enjoyed being able to spend time with kids in a classroom setting.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Greater Than, Less Than, Equal to, Same As...
In SWR today we had a sentence that was worth 36 dots- our greatest amount of dots to date! It was a 7 word sentence with a name, one plural and it was a QUESTION! Can you believe all of those things we had to remember to do?!?!?! (Neither could the first graders... :) )
In math we learned how to compare numbers using the symbols < > and =. We learned four different strategies to remember what the symbols mean. Ask your child to tell you their favorite! I was so impressed with how well the students did with this activity. They loved playing Greater Than, Less Than Top It with our Math Deck.
During reading today we responded to a writing prompt, "I would make an excellent reindeer because..." and we completed an art project to go along with that. The results are pretty funny. Look for them on the wall when you come to school this week.
We read more of Mr. Popper's Penguins. It is so hard to stop reading because we are so curious about what is going to happen next! I was out to dinner with a friend recently and mentioned that we were reading this book in our class. Her brother-in-law is an oceanographer who is, at this very minute, in Antartica studying the ocean! She sent him our email address at school and he sent along real photos from his travels in Antartica! We have seen amazing pictures of penguins, skua, ice glaciars and science stations. It is amazing what you can learn by simply sharing information with those around you.
A few conversations have come up at school regarding the tragic events in Newtown, CT. We have discussed what happened as a class and reveiwed the safety procedures we have in place that are designed to keep us safe at school. I have asked the students to refrain from discussing this when there is not an adult invovled in the conversation. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please don't hesistate to contact me. As a way to honor those lives that were lost last week, we have a goal to commit 26 acts of kindness. We started today and are so excited to continue this good work. If you would like to commit acts of kindness with your student, please do! Send in a note and your child can add the act to our list in our room.
In math we learned how to compare numbers using the symbols < > and =. We learned four different strategies to remember what the symbols mean. Ask your child to tell you their favorite! I was so impressed with how well the students did with this activity. They loved playing Greater Than, Less Than Top It with our Math Deck.
During reading today we responded to a writing prompt, "I would make an excellent reindeer because..." and we completed an art project to go along with that. The results are pretty funny. Look for them on the wall when you come to school this week.
We read more of Mr. Popper's Penguins. It is so hard to stop reading because we are so curious about what is going to happen next! I was out to dinner with a friend recently and mentioned that we were reading this book in our class. Her brother-in-law is an oceanographer who is, at this very minute, in Antartica studying the ocean! She sent him our email address at school and he sent along real photos from his travels in Antartica! We have seen amazing pictures of penguins, skua, ice glaciars and science stations. It is amazing what you can learn by simply sharing information with those around you.
A few conversations have come up at school regarding the tragic events in Newtown, CT. We have discussed what happened as a class and reveiwed the safety procedures we have in place that are designed to keep us safe at school. I have asked the students to refrain from discussing this when there is not an adult invovled in the conversation. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please don't hesistate to contact me. As a way to honor those lives that were lost last week, we have a goal to commit 26 acts of kindness. We started today and are so excited to continue this good work. If you would like to commit acts of kindness with your student, please do! Send in a note and your child can add the act to our list in our room.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Caluclator Skip Counting
This morning in SWR we practiced more with question sentences and words in the __od and __og families. We had to write an uppercase J for the first time- that was pretty tricky!
We used calculators in math to skip count! We loved how "easy" it was to do this and cannot believe that we can't use calculators all of the time in math! We could pick any starting number we wanted to and count up by any number we wanted, the possibilities were endless! Our favorite numbers to count by were 10's and 1,000's.
We read two chapters of Mr. Popper's Pengiuns today during reading. We love hearing about Captain Cook and all of the trouble he is causing. We have excellent listeners in room three- we are always hearing words that mean the same thing as our WOW words. Today, the students said, "Mr. Popper's wife is livid about this penguin in the house." They are amazing!
We created new writing folders today so we have a place to keep all of our published pieces. Some of us have many pieces we have published. It was really fun to go through and read them again, especially stories from the beginning of the year. Our writing has come so far!
This afternoon was very special because we made gingerbread houses with the entire first grade! Thank you to those of you who were able to come in and spend time with us.
Our Holiday Party will be Friday, December 21 at 1pm. We will have a celebration in the classroom followed by a school-wide sing-a-long at 1:45pm. We would love it if you could join us!
We used calculators in math to skip count! We loved how "easy" it was to do this and cannot believe that we can't use calculators all of the time in math! We could pick any starting number we wanted to and count up by any number we wanted, the possibilities were endless! Our favorite numbers to count by were 10's and 1,000's.
We read two chapters of Mr. Popper's Pengiuns today during reading. We love hearing about Captain Cook and all of the trouble he is causing. We have excellent listeners in room three- we are always hearing words that mean the same thing as our WOW words. Today, the students said, "Mr. Popper's wife is livid about this penguin in the house." They are amazing!
This afternoon was very special because we made gingerbread houses with the entire first grade! Thank you to those of you who were able to come in and spend time with us.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Wild Week
We have a very fun week planned with many different activities.
We had two students leave school early today because they weren't feeling well and we've noticed much more sneezing/coughing than usual. We are being vigilant about washing our hands and practicing safe coughing/sneezing- please encourage your first grader to do this at home as well! Washing our hands often is one of the best preventions to keep us healthy this winter!
Our new red word of the week is has. We noticed that the "s" in has sounds like a "z". Our two word families this week are in the short "o" family- __og and __od. We came up with so many words that would fit into these families! Our favorites were hog and body. We also learned that another ending mark besides a period is a question mark. We use question marks when we are asking a question. Periods are used for telling sentences. We will be re-reading stories that we have written so far this year and adding question marks if we notice we need them.
In math we started Unit 5. Unit 5 focuses on place value, number stories and basic facts. We used base-10 blocks today to show different two digit numbers in tens and ones. We also learned how to exchange ten ones for a ten to make counting easier. Look at the first graders working hard to show how numbers are broken up into 10's and 1's.
During reading today our Student of the Week, Joud, read to us one of her favorite stories, Wacky Wednesday. The first graders loved this story and loved how expressive Joud was while reading it. She did a fabulous job!
As a class, we came up with examples of telling sentences and asking sentences and wrote them on a chart to help us remember when to use periods and when to use question marks. During literacy stations we worked to write asking sentences and words in our word families. The first graders did a wonderful job!
We had two students leave school early today because they weren't feeling well and we've noticed much more sneezing/coughing than usual. We are being vigilant about washing our hands and practicing safe coughing/sneezing- please encourage your first grader to do this at home as well! Washing our hands often is one of the best preventions to keep us healthy this winter!
Our new red word of the week is has. We noticed that the "s" in has sounds like a "z". Our two word families this week are in the short "o" family- __og and __od. We came up with so many words that would fit into these families! Our favorites were hog and body. We also learned that another ending mark besides a period is a question mark. We use question marks when we are asking a question. Periods are used for telling sentences. We will be re-reading stories that we have written so far this year and adding question marks if we notice we need them.
In math we started Unit 5. Unit 5 focuses on place value, number stories and basic facts. We used base-10 blocks today to show different two digit numbers in tens and ones. We also learned how to exchange ten ones for a ten to make counting easier. Look at the first graders working hard to show how numbers are broken up into 10's and 1's.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Holiday Concert
We were so lucky today- this morning, the freshman choir from Colchester High School came to Porters Point to perform a concert for us! We loved listening to a variety of songs in many languages, from different countries. Our class was a superb audience as well! We were so impressed!
When we came back, we immediately started working at our math stations. Today, one of the math stations was our Unit 4 math test. The first graders did a wonderful job showing all of their new learning on this test! Look how much they're concentrating while they work:
Because we had a test today, there is no math homework tonight. Unit 5 will begin on Monday. You can look for your child's math test in their homework folder tomorrow.
During our reading time we worked on our stories, read to partners and did word work.
This afternoon, we tried to sign into our Google accounts for the very first time! The first graders were so excited about this! We didn't get quite as far as we had planned so we're going to try again tomorrow!
When we came back, we immediately started working at our math stations. Today, one of the math stations was our Unit 4 math test. The first graders did a wonderful job showing all of their new learning on this test! Look how much they're concentrating while they work:
Because we had a test today, there is no math homework tonight. Unit 5 will begin on Monday. You can look for your child's math test in their homework folder tomorrow.
During our reading time we worked on our stories, read to partners and did word work.
This afternoon, we tried to sign into our Google accounts for the very first time! The first graders were so excited about this! We didn't get quite as far as we had planned so we're going to try again tomorrow!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Support for Sandy
Although Hurricane Sandy has long since returned to sea, many of the communities she touched are still recovering. Classrooms here at PPS have partnered with a classroom at Harry Truman elementary in New Jersey and are sending the students there cards and a book to let them know that we are thinking of them. We spent time today thinking of kind phrases to send in our cards and making cards for those students.
In SWR we worked more with our short "o" families and practiced our red words. We are getting so good at our red words!
In math, we reviewed for our test and rotated through stations that practiced the skills we will be tested on tomorrow. The students did a fabulous job reviewing today and will do a wonderful job tomorrow.
We read two more gingerbread man stories today that were very similiar to the others we have read. One of the stories did have a different repeating phrase that we didn't like as much as the original one. We noticed that there are *so* many transition words in the ginger bread books! Today we heard,
During reading groups we practiced our sight words, learned a new vowel combination (ee and ea as "long e" as in beetle and beach), and learned about "ar" words such as yard, garden and garbage."
I checked in with Avery during literacy, and she was in the midst of completing a venn diagram to compare two characters in a book she is reading- what a great way to learn! Way to go Avery!
We read two cloud books in science and recorded new information we learned in our notebooks.
In math, we reviewed for our test and rotated through stations that practiced the skills we will be tested on tomorrow. The students did a fabulous job reviewing today and will do a wonderful job tomorrow.
We rolled and added
Counted coins
Completed part/whole addition
and practiced Frames and Arrows
We read two more gingerbread man stories today that were very similiar to the others we have read. One of the stories did have a different repeating phrase that we didn't like as much as the original one. We noticed that there are *so* many transition words in the ginger bread books! Today we heard,
- first
- next
- then
- finally
- as soon as
- Suddenly
- Without realizing
During reading groups we practiced our sight words, learned a new vowel combination (ee and ea as "long e" as in beetle and beach), and learned about "ar" words such as yard, garden and garbage."
I checked in with Avery during literacy, and she was in the midst of completing a venn diagram to compare two characters in a book she is reading- what a great way to learn! Way to go Avery!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Shot, Pop, Plop
Avery started our morning by leading Morning Meeting to celebrate her awesome behavior!
We worked again this morning to generate words that would fit into our ___op and ___ot families. During SWR, I continue to make some of our words plural. We still need practice remembering to spell the ENTIRE word before adding that s on the end!
In math we used tens-frames to help us add easier. We realized that if we broke a number up to make it 10 and a different number, it is much easier to add!
For example, 8+4 could easily be broken up to 8+2+2. We know that 8 +2 is 10, then, we simply need to add 2 more! We did this for a variety of addition number models and had lots of fun working with our tens-frames. We love tens-frames because when they're full... we know there's always 10 there and can count on or combine.
Tomorrow we will review for our Unit 4 math test which is on Thursday. Students will be asked to:
In reading, we read two more stories about gingerbread men/families. We realized that many of the stories have the same components or have a lot of the same characters and story lines. It has been really fun to look for how the stories are similar and different.
We also read fiction and non-fiction books about clouds and are starting to keep track of what we have learned about them on a chart in our classroom.
In math we used tens-frames to help us add easier. We realized that if we broke a number up to make it 10 and a different number, it is much easier to add!
For example, 8+4 could easily be broken up to 8+2+2. We know that 8 +2 is 10, then, we simply need to add 2 more! We did this for a variety of addition number models and had lots of fun working with our tens-frames. We love tens-frames because when they're full... we know there's always 10 there and can count on or combine.
Tomorrow we will review for our Unit 4 math test which is on Thursday. Students will be asked to:
- fill in the missing numbers of a domino (part, part, whole);
- fill in the missing numbers on a number grid;
- draw a missing shape from a pattern;
- count how much money someone has and show that amount using fewer coins;
- Fill in a Frames and Arrow grid; and
- Write an addition fact to go along with a pair of dice
In reading, we read two more stories about gingerbread men/families. We realized that many of the stories have the same components or have a lot of the same characters and story lines. It has been really fun to look for how the stories are similar and different.
We also read fiction and non-fiction books about clouds and are starting to keep track of what we have learned about them on a chart in our classroom.
Check out these awesome short "o" words!
This first grader is using a non-fiction book to fact-check from a fiction book about the weather! I am *consistently* impressed by the thinking and connecting that happens in first grade!
Our holiday celebration will be Friday, December 21st at 1:30 followed by a school-wide singalong! We hope to see you then!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Turn Around
In SWR today we learned about a brand-new short vowel- o! The two short "o" families we will be learning about this week are the "___op" and "___ot" families. We brainstormed so many words that would fit in those families! Our red word of the week is for. We realized that this word is NOT a number word because that four has a "u" in it! We are very observant in first grade!
Our WOW word of the week is sweltering. Sweltering means extremely hot. We had fabulous examples of times we had all been sweltering.
In math today we learned about fact power (knowing your addition facts by heart) and turn around facts. We noticed that when adding, you can switch the numbers that are being added around and they still equal the same thing!
For example:
3+5=8 can be expressed 5+3=8 as well.
We played a fun partner-game with dice and tried to roll as many fact combinations as we could, and find their reversals, before our partner did.
We started our week-long study about gingerbread men by reading The Ginger Bread Man. We really liked this book and couldn't believe how sneaky or sly the fox was to trick the Gingerbread Man! We are excited to read different versions of this story as the week progresses so we can compare and contrast them.
We continue to learn all about the weather in science. Our focus this week will be about different types of clouds and the kinds of weather they bring. To finish our week about the Water Cycle up, we learned a new song to the tune of She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain. Here are the words if you'd like to sing with your first grader at home:
Our WOW word of the week is sweltering. Sweltering means extremely hot. We had fabulous examples of times we had all been sweltering.
In math today we learned about fact power (knowing your addition facts by heart) and turn around facts. We noticed that when adding, you can switch the numbers that are being added around and they still equal the same thing!
For example:
3+5=8 can be expressed 5+3=8 as well.
We played a fun partner-game with dice and tried to roll as many fact combinations as we could, and find their reversals, before our partner did.
Many of us continued our number-grid work from last week as well!
Check out that uppercasing and sentence ending!
The Water Cycle
Water travels in a cycle, yes it does. Yes it does!
Water travels in a cycle, yes it does. Yes it does!
It goes up as evaporation,
Forms clouds as condensation,
Comes down as precipitation, yes it does. Yes it does!
And then there's collection...
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