"Peek at the Week" January 2-3 & 8-10

Happy New Year!  It seems like so long since I have updated you on our classroom happenings!  Take a look at our last '2 weeks' together!

We celebrated the new year on the 2 days following winter break.  We talked about resolutions, or promises, we make to do something better in the upcoming year.  We read the story Squirrel's New Year's Resolution.  Then we thought of our own resolutions.  Check them out!

 

 "My goal in 2014 is to clean my room"

"My goal in 2014 is to help people in my family and at school."

 "My goal in 2014 is to clean up my room more often"

"My goal in 2014 is to go to sleep earlier"

Blowing our horns to celebrate our great resolutions!

Next, we reflected on 2013.  It was such a big year for many of us!  We learned how to read, ride our bikes, tie our shoes, and made many new friends!

Finally, we were challenged to see how many words we could make from the letters HAPPY NEW YEAR.  We do many 'making words' activities, however, these usually have fewer letters.  I was blown away with how many words we came up with!

Writer's Workshop

We started a new unit in Writer's Workshop this week - realistic fiction!!  The excitement in their air was contagious as children began using their imaginations to create characters to 'star' in their writing!  First, we thought of a character and gave that character a name.

 

After we created our character, we learned that realistic fiction writers think about one problem their characters might have. Then, they think how to solve their character's problems.  The it is time to plan and write!

Reader's Workshop

We will also be focusing on realistic fiction during reader's workshop.  This week we focused on 'meeting' the characters in our books.  We learned that readers think about who the story is about and what they are doing.  We also thought about what we learned about our characters.

Math

We started unit 4 this week on double digit numbers & place value.  Please look for a family letter in your child's folder on Monday!  We are learning that 2 digit numbers have groups of tens and ones. This wee we focused on decades of 10.  We learned that 60 has 6 tens, 30 has 3 tens, etc.  This is very visually laid out for children on our 120 chart.

 

This 120 chart is different from what children have used in the past.  The chart 'flows' vertically, rather than horizontally.  This allows children to easily and quickly see how many groups of ten are in each decade!

Science

We began our new unit called "Changes".  We will be focusing on the 3 states of matter and their properties:  solids, liquids, and gases.  Last week we explored a solid and a liquid.

Students were given a solid and a liquid to explore.  Then, we decided to see if the solid would change when we put it in water.  Check it out!

Our water became bubbly and even turned green!  Some children realized that the bubbles were gas being released by the solid! 

(The solid was an effervescent tablet and the liquid was water!)

This week we looked at water in it's solid form- ice!  We participated in the Melting Race!  Children 'raced' to see who could melt their ice cube the quickest!

After we melted the ice cube, we talked about the properties of a solid and liquid.  We added these properties to our chart!

Then Mrs. Hogue put water from 2 melted ice cubes in petri dishes.  One had a lid, and one did not.  We made a prediction about what would happen to the water!

Buddies

We got together with our 3rd grade buddies to work on a special project.  We began talking about Martin Luther King Jr.   Martin Luther King wanted to fight with peace- not violence.  We talked about ways we could show peace and made a dove by tracing our feet and hands!

Other News..

I sent home a Scholastic Book Order home with your child on Wednesday.  Attached was a coupon for a free book if you spend $10.  Remember, if you order online you have access to many other Scholastic  catalogs!  Orders are due on Friday, January 17!

1st grade Bedtime Story Hour will be on Wednesday, January 29 from 6:30-7:30.   This is a night that first graders are invited back to school- in their PJs-  to listen to stories read by teachers and staff.  At the end we enjoy muffins and milk together!  More information will be sent home soon!