Off and running!

Well two weeks have flown by and they have been packed with activities both in school and at home. We have jumped into reading, writing, math, social studies, science, and phonics all while learning to navigate laptops, google classroom, google Meets, dual screens in school, and technical issues that were bound to arise with so many students online simultaneously.  A huge thank you to families for helping your kids succeed with this. They are fast learners!

I just love seeing how focused they are when they are writing, drawing, or otherwise engaged in activities- the seriousness and conscientiousness that they show as they do their best work is so endearing and appreciated!

Writing lessons have focused on letter formation, using lower case instead of capitals, and practicing a feature often seen in non-fiction books- writing labels. The kids are so artistic! They have created their own drawings  to label and have labeled pictures that coincide with other topics we have explored. Yesterday after our lessons on Johnny Appleseed and apple trees, they drew a labeled life cycle of the apple tree- so detailed and accurate! They labeled a poison dart frog after we learned a bit about animals of the Rain Forest, and they drew and labeled an American flag after we read and learned about our flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. Next week, we begin 'Writers Write Lists'.

Our read-alouds this week have provided a chance to practice comprehension strategies. We have identified characters and main characters in books as we read Little Bunny's Sleepless Night, compared and contrasted characters as we read Fred and Ted, and observed how characters can change when we read the funny book Ten Apples Up On Top. Reading The Red Eyed Tree Frog was a good introduction to non fiction books as was reading books on Johnny Appleseed. How do readers sound when they read? We practiced expression while group reading several books on epic and while reading the The Spooky Old Tree and There's A Monster Under My Bed. The kids did the follow-up response pages to many of these books- thanks for helping them find them in their many papers sent home!

Have we been moving and dancing these last weeks? YES! Sitting at desks or home with a laptop for lengths of time mean we really do need movement breaks. We have daily sight word review dance and movement opportunities along with numerous chances to be active with other online videos, brain breaks, and content related songs.  Let's keep in shape!

    

 Vibrations, sound waves, volume, pitch- we have certainly had fun in science learning about SOUND! We've tried experiments, watched fun and informative videos, and practiced making sound, feeling and seeing the vibrations, and recording or drawing the results. Next week we begin LIGHT energy!

I have seen that this is a group of very responsible kids! In social studies, we began with 'citizenship'- being responsible, understanding and following rules, and practicing the Golden Rule of treating others the way we would like to be treated. We had some companion stories and songs that reinforced these character traits, and we certainly have some wonderfully caring children here in our class!

Ten frames, number bonds, cube trains, math notebooks- these have been daily tools as we have learned how to use them, how to record number sentences, and how to make combinations of a number. We have explored the commutative property of addition- adding in any order as we made cube trains in 2 colors and then flipped the train to record the new order of numbers. Nice work everyone!

In reading and phonics we have reviewed letter sounds, sung sight word songs, introduced all short vowels, and have worked with rhymes and syllables. Rhyming is such a great foundation for isolating sounds within words and for reading and spelling words with similar ending patterns (win, fin, thin, chin...). It was loads of fun 'feeding' our Feed Me Monster with silly rhyming food and seeing what rhyming object My Aunt Came Back With on her travels!

There have been many firsts in these last 2 weeks of first grade. Everyone is doing so well! We are even managing a little google classroom work and learning how to turn in or mark as done. I will send more info about that. Enjoy the weekend and thank you everyone once again for your incredible commitment to your kids education!

See you Monday,

Mrs. Dagley

Welcome new first graders!

 

Look for our classroom door!


Our first day of school is coming up, and you might like to know what the classroom door looks like when you walk down the hall. Our room is way down almost to the end of the hall. It has my name on the wooden apple beside the door, and the door has animals all around the tree. I will be looking for you as you arrive! Other teachers will be along the hall to help you find your room- no worries! You will also notice some fun stickers on the floor of the halls. There are arrows showing which side of the hallway to walk down or back on. Maybe you have seen arrows in a supermarket- this is the same idea so I know you will be experts!



Here is a peek at our classroom! Don't you love how sunny it is? You get to have your very own desk in first grade!! There is a drawer in your desk where we can store your laptop while we are doing other things. On top of your desk you have a name tag, a cute pencil cup with pencils, a glue stick, a whiteboard marker, an eraser, and scissors. There is a little crayon box too, a math 'toolbox', a book bag, and a lanyard to put your mask onto during snack, lunch, or recess. 

These are all for you!

Are you wondering what you will do when you first walk in the door? You will take your backpack right to your seat and hang it on the chair. Then you will find a little container of playdoh sitting on your desk ready to play with as your friends arrive. You can call out, "Hi _____" as your friends come in. You can also say hello to Mrs. Swerk who will be in our class too. She remembers all of you! When everyone has arrived, we will check in with our classmates at home. They will be all logged in and ready to say "Hi" too! 

Fancy teacher station
How will I see my school friends at home? Right here on this brand new, big monitor! It might take a little getting used to and we may have to practice using laptops and sites, but we can do it! If you are having trouble in school logging on, I will help you. What does Pete the Cat say when he is frustrated? "It's all good!" Let's take his advice!

Our hands-free hand sanitizer station

Anytime you need to use hand sanitizer, you can use this new one that the sign is on. It's ok if you bring your own too- the small ones that clip to a backpack would make the process even easier and faster. 

Did you have a fun summer? I did! This is one of the places I went to- I think I will miss it! Do you have any pets? I have 2 cats, Shadow and Ginger. Here is a picture of Shadow:

Sorry I don't have a picture of Ginger today!

It will be so much fun to get to know you this year. I am excited to see you in class and online!
Bye for now!
Mrs. Dagley

Long Ago and Today

What fun to talk to parents and grandparents this week to learn how life was different when they were young. Many grandparents shared how they walked to school and came home each day for lunch. Almost everyone interviewed noted the absence of computers, cell phones, and tablets and the use of chalkboards in classrooms. Sometimes clothing was different, popular toys differed, and in fact less toys or home made toys or playthings were noted. Certainly we could not carry on the remote learning without the current technology! We read books and watched videos about life long ago and compared and contrasted with today. Next week we move on to Goods and Services.

In science we dove into learning about the moon and then the sun, our closest star. Watching footage of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut on the moon, was engaging, and seeing a launch simulation depicting how the different parts of the rocket fall away as it is boosted into space was helpful in understanding the mission. "The Eagle has landed" and "One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind" were two famous quotes we heard in the videos. 

The kids learned why the moon shines (reflected light from the sun), what the moon phases are, and what the moon is made up of. We learned that the sun is a flaming sphere of gases, that it is so big that 1 million earths could fit inside it, that all the planets orbit it, and that it provides light, heat, and energy for living things to grow and survive. Next week we will move on to study stars!

Writing 'All About' papers showed off our little experts this week. The kids always love sharing their writing and hearing it read aloud. Some of the topics kids chose to write all about were famous people (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr.), interesting animals (dogs, bears, bunnies), symbols such as the USA flag, magical creatures such as unicorns, and many more topics of interest. Next week we will write one more All About along with another form of poetry.

Math work is centering all around place value. The kids have been counting tens and ones, identifying which numbers are in the hundreds, tens, or ones place, and becoming familiar with numbers to 120. Next week we will solve addition problems by adding tens followed by adding tens and ones.

In phonics we focused on R-Controlled vowels and the unique sounds those patterns make. We also worked with syllabication, learning how to decode longer words by dividing them into syllables based on the number of vowels in the word. Lots of song based videos to practice with makes phonics fun!

The classroom is all packed up, the children's bags have been picked up or will be by today. If you were unable to pick up your child's belongings, contact the school because they will have another date coming up.

Today is virtual field day! Check out the games and activities and links on our google classroom under the Friday assignment. You can even post a photo in the provided link there. 

Last Friday we wished Gwen a Happy Birthday and all sang to her on our Google Meet! 

Have a wonderful weekend and play those games!

Mrs. Dagley

Off to Space!

Learning about earth's rotation 

Science held a lot of interest this week as we began our Earth and Space unit. Distinguishing between the words rotate and revolve helped us understand how and why we have day and night and four seasons. As the earth rotates, or spins, different parts of it face the sun- that gives us day and night in 24 hours. As the earth revolves around the sun, or orbits on its axis, we get four seasons within that year. We enjoyed lots of links to books, songs, and videos that helped us learn all about this.

Next week we will explore the moon. Get ready to look up in the sky each evening to observe the changes  the moon!

Imagine a world without cell phones, tablets, or laptops! Our remote learning would be impossible without those inventions, but in social studies we began a unit on Past and Present or Then and Now. Reading books about transportation, lighting, school, and homes long ago certainly make us appreciate all the improvements we have today!

What a change!

In math we began exploring place value by working with 100 charts. How many numbers are in each row, how do we read a 100 chart, what does the digit in the tens place mean...? These were all ideas we worked with. Next week we will continue with place value by using rods and cubes.

Time to count 10s and ones

Poetry was really fun this week as the kids chose a color and used their five senses to write words and phrases that inspired great imagery. It was especially fun to read everybody's poem to the class on our virtual meetings. The format was: Blue looks like, smells like, feels like, tastes like, sounds like... I was as always, very impressed with their writing. So creative and imaginative!

Fairy Tales

The kids are terrific detectives when it comes to identifying features of a fairy tale! Magic, royalty, special numbers, magical characters, a wicked character, and a beginning of Once Upon A Time are examples of what they identified in each one.

We continue to do word work, phonics activities and punctuation activities as well. New sight words and spelling patterns are listed in the tabs above and on google classroom.

It is a busy time on our virtual meets and the kids (and you!) have been so busy diligently completing assignments on google classroom. I am so pleased to see all the books and videos accessed on Epic- many are specifically assigned for your child.

Finally it feels like spring- enjoy the weekend and know that I remain grateful for the dedication and commitment you and your children demonstrate as you navigate this new learning style together!

Have fun,

Mrs. Dagley

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day cards

How do you make a Mother's Day craft remotely?! Today in the Google Meet we drew vases for Mother's Day cards and watched a demonstration of how to glue real flowers onto the card. Your child might be out collecting flowers for the card this weekend!

We are enjoying our Fairy Tale unit and read Beauty and the Beast. We also read two stories about a knight: Sir Small and the Dragonfly and Good Night, Good Knight. Both of these are a series so it will be fun to read more adventures starring these knights. 

Fun read-alouds

Poetry is our new writing genre- this differs tremendously from the informational non-fiction writing we had been doing. Using our five senses to describe, trying rhyme, and learning about two types of poems in particular, shape poems and acrostic poems, were the focus this week.

Star shaped poem

A thunder storm cloud poem

Mother's Day poem

Trying out some rhyming

Bird drawing

Science included classifying animals into reptiles, mammals, birds, fish, insects, and amphibians. The kids made a spiral snake craft and drew birds of their own imagination. Our Google Meets had lots of additional resource links and online books that helped us explore this even more thoroughly. On to Earth and Space next week!

Spiral snake

Got any change? We have been counting coins all week as well as learning about how they are made and ways to spend, save, and give. Our online links included interactive activities of counting coins and matching them to items to buy. The main focus is mastering identifying coins, knowing the value of each, and being able to count like coins and some mixed coins. Some of the counting was a bit advanced and is considered more exposure than mastery as they will continue this in 2nd grade. 

We wrapped up symbols of the USA, again with many assigned readings in the Epic site. One activity the kids enjoyed was making up clues for a symbol for friends to guess. We will share more of those next week. Learning to draw the Statue of Liberty was a challenge, but after watching the How-To on Epic we had some awesome results!

Wow! Nice drawing!

Guess the USA symbol

Did you guess Mt. Rushmore?

I am always amazed at how many activities families come up with during this stay-at-home scenario! Their Monday journal entries tell about picnics, backyard games, bike riding, walks, cooking, crafts, field day, water balloons, and projects. Evan made a wind detector outside and wrote about it, Matthew's family invented  field day fun, Nathaniel's family went on a picnic, and loads of families played and exercised together!

The wind detector project

Field Day

A family picnic

Some of the kids type or dictate, some print out and write their journals, and some use their own paper- all are wonderful choices, and we love reading them aloud during our Meets. Sharing the work validates each child's efforts and gives each other ideas as well!
Just a reminder on turning in -I can find your work online if you don't turn it in, but here is a quick how-to! After completing the assignment, click out of it. Then you will see VIEW assignment at the bottom. Click that and you will see the option to TURN IN. After clicking, the TURN IN word pops up again- click and you are good to go!

The logistics of the technology has been challenging- thank you for persevering! As always I am so grateful for the time, energy, patience, and assistance that you provide as they work on their google assignments- I know there are many competing things on your plate! Due to their age it is hard for them to be completely independent, however I have noticed many are feeling more confident with the steps once started! Their generation will surge ahead in tech!

Have a wonderful weekend and Mom's, enjoy your day! Kids, be loving and helpful to your moms that love you so much!

Happy Mother's Day,
Mrs. Dagley

Life cycle of a frog

 We have had lots of fun in Life Science learning about animal structures, survival needs, baby animals and parents, and life cycles. The kids did a great job drawing their own life cycles and writing an animal research report. We all love hearing each other's writing being read aloud on the daily Meets! Next week we conclude our Life Science standards by classifying animals as either mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, birds or fish. Next we will delve into Earth and Space standards as we learn about the sun, moon, and stars.

Animal Habitats and survival needs

In phonics we have focused on the spelling patterns of /ew/ as in new, chew, stew, few, and /ight/ as in light, sight, fight, and bright. We make and read words with the patterns, use them in a Guess the Word game, and set /ight/ words to motion to get a little exercise (my husband thought I was bringing the house down with that one!) 

New spelling patterns

 Sorting words by long or short vowels was also a focus in Google classroom and Meets this week. One clue is that if there is only one vowel (bus), the vowel is usually short (we, me, be, he, are still long vowels though due to their being no consonant following the vowel). Most words with 2 vowels (seed, make, goat) can be sorted as long vowels- the first vowel says its own letter name sound and the 2nd is silent). When encountering an unknown word, these clues can help!

Short vs. long vowels

We began a new standard in Social Studies this week- learning about the symbols of the USA. During our Meets we read about the Statue of Liberty, The Liberty Bell, and the Flag. Next week we will continue to learn about other symbols.

Be sure to check our Epic site because

50 stars for 50 states

I assign many of the books we read in 
Google Meets so that anyone who misses a Meet can still read or listen to the books. There are other books and videos also assigned covering 
fiction stories at their level and math concepts.

Speaking of math, we have spent a lot of time working with
coin identification, coin value, and coin counting. Next week we will count mixed coins. Again there are several books and videos on our Epic site to review coins and to practice counting by 5s so we can count nickels.

Finally we have begun a new reading genre in literature- fairy tales! We read The Frog Prince in a meet and Jack and the Beanstalk today. Features and elements of a fairy tale include usually beginning with 'Once Upon A Time' or 'Long Ago' and ending with 'Happily Ever After'. Other included features are magic, special numbers, royalty, a wicked character, and magical creatures such as dragons, unicorns, giants, and trolls. 

Let's compare fairy tales!

Last weekend Ivy had a birthday- we sang to her the day before and wished her a very happy special day! Despite the rainy days this week, the weekend looks like it will turn around and warm up. That will be a great chance to get outside!

Once again I want to express my appreciation for all the help the families are providing for their kids. Being so young, there is no way they could do this without you! You make all the difference in the world- thank you!

Mrs. Dagley

The Longest Spring

A very nice read-aloud!

My bunny visual for the story

This was the week we learned that we will not be going back 
into school. I feel so sad about that and can't believe we will 
not be getting together in person to finish out the year. 

I want to express my appreciation for the efforts all the families
are making to keep their children involved through google
classroom, our ongoing sites of Epic and Freckle, and our virtual
meetings on google meet. At least we see each other on the meets,
even if it is not quite the same experience...

During our virtual meets, we always have a read-aloud or are on a site where a book is read. This week we read The Velveteen Rabbit, over two days. Such a heartwarming story from another place and time, and the kids were really captivated by it. Listening to The Day the Crayons Quit was also a fun activity.

Coin poems

We have been learning about coins and counting money in our google assignments, Epic assignments, and in the Meets. Saying the poems, skip counting nickels, and adding in some movement while counting have all been part of the fun.

Next week we will continue with this as we move on to quarters and then counting mixed coins.

Phonics spelling patterns

I continue to post new weekly sight words on google classroom and on this blog, and this is another subject we have practiced in Meets. Learning the spelling patterns, reviewing digraphs and endings, and learning when and why we use /ing/ and /ed/ has been the focus. 

In science we have delved deeply into animal structures, habitats, survival features, and animal heredity with animal parents and their young. Next week we will categorize animals into mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, birds, or amphibians and look at the life cycle of a frog.

Lots of birds spotted lately!

Social studies will move forward into American symbols, such as the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, White House, and Bald Eagle. 

Hopefully we are all settling into a learning routine- I know it is challenging with parents working from home and with the stressors this new situation can bring. I do love seeing your children each day and seeing the work they are turning in and working so hard on! 

On Monday, the specialists hold their virtual meet at 9:00. Our class 10:30 Meet will be available for anyone needing help or extra support on assignments or on navigating google classroom. Tues. - through Fri. we will continue our whole class meets to see everyone!

I wish everyone a nice weekend and anticipate the kids having lots of opportunities to use their imagination, play outside, and fill their time with new activities.

Mrs. Dagley