Fact Families

We have been learning so much about China already and we've only read a few books.  They have been a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.  Today, we read a story about a Chinese folktale called The Hunter.  We enjoyed this story very much and were quite insightful about the main character in the story.  We also read D is for Dragon: a Chinese Alphabet.  We were so surprised at the amount of information on each page!

In SWR today we worked more with our three (!) word families and our WOW word of the week- dingy.  Dingy means dirty, soiled or shabby and is a describing word. Our favorite sentence(s) so far this week for dingy came from Wallah and she said, "Our kitchen floor was so dingy that my mom asked for help cleaning it.  I quickly vanished to my room so I didn't have to help her.  Then, I felt forlorn so I went back to help her."  Three WOW words in one (almost) sentence!  Very impressive! 

We started talking about fact families in math today.  Check out this awesome first grade work with fact families!

After we read The Hunter we moved through our literacy stations.  The first graders are doing a fabulous job at our new listening center. 

It was another indoor recess day... 

This afternoon we read more about China and researched what Chinese zodiac year we were born.  I was born in the year of the rat and the first graders were born in the year of the hen/chicken or dog.  They *loved* hearing the characteristics of people born in those years.  We learned that about half of them are "extremely stubborn when you think you're right."  I couldn't believe that was supposed to describe students in our class!  (The first graders thought it was hilarious and weren't very surprised.) :) 

We also learned all about the silk worm and the Silk Road- did you know that silk comes from worms?  Also, the Chinese people kept how to make silk a secret for 2,500 years.  

Remember to practice poems tonight!  Also- remember you can purchase raffle tickets for PIO gift baskets up until 6:30 tomorrow night!