Tuesday was election day! We started talking on Monday about what it would be like if we were president.
After reading this story, we wrote about what we would do if we were president! Many of us thought it would be pretty fun to play video games all day :)
On Tuesday we held our own election. After reading all three books, we all campaigned for our candidate.
After campaigning it was time to vote! Each child completed their voter registration card before being allowed to enter the voting booth!
After voting we each got an "I Voted" sticker :)
After lunch we tallied up the results. Well unfortunately I did not win the 'presidency' of 1st grade...bummer! Looks like duck took this victory!
We analyzed the results by completing a graph.
Overall it was a GREAT day!!
Reader's Workshop
We wrapped up our focus on retelling this week. We will continue to model and practice this strategy throughout the year. Retelling is a great skill to practice with your child at home!
We sequenced the story "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves" before retelling it.
Next we read a story by Audy Wood called Rude Giants. We practiced with a partner to retell this story by traveling down the yellow brick road. This was a bit challenging, but we did a great job working with our partners to retell this story!
Word Work
This week we continued our focus on the long and short u.
We also do a lot of word work during our morning message. Each day the kids have to help complete the message. I write the message each week that follows the same pattern each day of the week. On Fridays, the message is blank! We have to work to fill in the missing words to complete the message.
I didn't quite get the message blank, but you can see all the missing words!
Here is our completed message. Using this message gives me the opportunity to talk about many mechanics of writing, spelling patters, and punctuation. The kids really look forward to showing what they know each Friday!
Math Workshop
We continued using number lines to help us with addition and subtraction strategies. This is a very good visual to help children gain a foundation of adding and subtracting.
During the independent practice part of math workshop the children had the opportunity to practice math concepts. Here is a look at what we did!
Playing coin top-it. This is played the same as number top-it, but with coin cards rather than number cards.
Odd/Even Dominos
We sorted dominoes into three categories:
1. Both halves even numbers
2. Both halves odd numbers
3. One half even and the other odd
Pattern Block Patterns
The children continued to create patterns and explain their patterns. This was a fan favorite this week!
Other activities included Everyday Math games in the computer center and seat work which includes differentiated skill practice.
*I am still looking for volunteers Mondays and Thursdays from 2:50-3:30! Please let me know if you would like to come help out during math!*
Writer's Workshop
We focused on writing 'seed' stories this week. We talked about the difference between a watermelon topic (There was snow on the ground) and a seed story (going sledding). We looked at and discussed numerous writing topics throughout the week and sorted them into watermelon topics and seed topics.
Science
We will begin talking about the water cycle next week. In order to kick off this concept, we are conducting two experiments. The first is observing 'puddles'. Each group made a puddle by pouring water in a pie pan. (We added food coloring so we can see the water better.) We will be watching these puddles over the next week and recording our observations.
We also began talking about rainfall. Each group put out a 'rain gauge' outside to collect rain. We will be observing and recording our results next week!
This was definitely a busy, busy week! I hope everyone had a fun, restful weekend!
Love,
Ms. Havig
Love,
Ms. Havig
