It's alive!

Writing about a living thing

The kids are terrific at identifying the needs that all living things have. From flowers and exotic plants such as the Venus Fly Trap, to birds, bugs, reptiles, fish, and animals, the kids have learned how these needs are met. Next week we move specifically into plants, their structures and functions (parts and uses) and will be researching and comparing several plants and flowers. The sunflower seeds that we planted last week surprised us yesterday by beginning to sprout!

Look!

Meanwhile back in the arctic we created chalk pictures of the Northern Lights - using chalk is a new experience! We also made the igloos by gluing squares of fun foam all around a container. It really needed the finishing touch of sparkling snow so...the glitter made an appearance. Beautiful! But traces will remain in the classroom for a long time to come!

Our own igloos!

Nice construction!

Little polar animals too!

Chalk is a fun tool!

The Northern Lights

We read three tests this week that supported our Persuasive writing activities. We learned that powerful reasons may result in getting what we want (I Wanna Iguana,) or in compromising (I Wanna New Room). Other times, we change our minds on what we think we want as the character did in I Wanna Go Home. 

I got it!

I compromised!

I changed my mind!

   












The kids are putting together a small collection of persuasive letters which you will be bombarded with when we complete this unit! Their desires have ranged from asking to go to museums, amusement parks, or outdoor spaces for camping, to more ambitious destinations such as Disney, California, or Seattle. They have requested play dates, pets, family game nights, restaurants, guitar lessons, toys, and more! Here are a few examples (click to enlarge):

Will you say yes?

Are there strong reasons?

Pretty Please?!

It was a very exciting week for our class as we were invited to be the audience for the play Vacation on Mars. Three of our classmates were on stage acting and singing with Actory Factory. It was a great show and especially fun to clap for our classmates!

Next week, Kindness Week theme begins. There will be a note about dressing up in daily themes and the kids will build awareness in school all week of ways to show kindness. On Wednesday during recess our class will go down to the office hall to make crafts or cards for Kindness Week. They are looking for parent volunteers to help at each station for any day or all days of the week.. If interested, give the office a call.

We are also welcoming some basketball players from the middle school basketball team. They are coming to read to the first grade classes and stay for a follow up activity.

We completed Topic 8, did well on the test, and are preparing for the second Benchmark Test next week.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs. Dagley









                                                                      

Here is a letter from me to you...

Learning about Puffins!

We wrapped up our letter unit this week but continued to delight in making deliveries to other classes with our letters and in receiving letters from friends surprising us at the door! The letter writing unit has taught the format and organization of a letter which will be used as we head into Persuasive/Opinion writing next week. Be prepared to receive requests in letter form which may include persuasive reasons for granting them (or not!).

During our arctic unit, we loved reading Night of the Pufflings. Puffins are sea birds that nest in lands up north such as Iceland. Iceland has a wonderful tradition of children searching for and rescuing young pufflings for the two weeks that they fly off the cliff for the first time into the sea. Some of these young birds confuse the lights of the town with moonlight shining on the sea, and end up crash landing in the town, where they are unable to fly off from. That's where the kids come in - searching, rescuing, and releasing them the next day down at the beach. We also saw a video clip of this event.

Our seal shaped booklets and arctic library area

Riveting true story!

While learning about the arctic, we found out that one of our own states has land within the arctic circle - Alaska! We have been working on Alaskan booklets, some of which went home Friday. We also read about the brave and famous  dog named Balto who in 1925 saved the town's people of Nome Alaska by carrying life saving medicine by dog sled from Anchorage to Nome through blizzards and hardships. A statue of Balto is in New York City in Central Park.

        

Here were two other books that were popular this week. One followed a Native girl from the arctic fishing up tiny treasures sent from a boy in the rainforest which brighten up her world and which prompts her to drop her own treasure of a polar bear necklace into the ocean that he later discovers. The other was full of drama as a boy trudged through blizzards and freezing temperatures to reach the pole...which the reader assumes is the north pole, only to be surprised at the end to find it is the bus stop pole! 

Our poster for living things/non living

Sorting living from non living

Our sorting group!

Learning all the features of living things and sorting pictures of living and non living things were a focus in science this week. 

Topic 8 in math includes writing a two digit number in expanded notation (45 is 40 + 5) and working with rods and cubes to make and count two digit numbers. We are counting by tens from any number on the 100 chart, finding ten more and ten less from a number, and identifying which digit is in the tens place and which is in the ones place.

Here we are at a couple of centers - computer reading and making words ending in silent e (King Ed).

Starfall reading

Making words

Our snow globe writing went up in the hall and is a nice winter display:

Snow Globe inspired writing

We spent time on Friday learning about a courageous and famous American, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We listened to a clip by Kid President about the  life and accomplishments of Dr. King and heard how we might be part of his dream to treat all people fairly and equally. We had several texts telling about his life growing up and others telling about some of the first brave people to challenge unfair laws or to be the first to follow the new laws despite opposition. The little first grader, Ruby Bridges, was one example that we read about.


Well the stomach bug visited our room this week in a rapid manner - Thursday was our peak day of children out sick. Hopefully everyone who was going to get it already has had it and it is behind us now. The room has been cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned some more!

Brace yourself for the snow - the kids will be happy and Go Pats!
Mrs. Dagley

An Arctic blast!

Arctic animal booklets

The cold snap we are having fits right in with learning about the arctic!  We have been reading fiction and non fiction texts about polar bears, walruses, seals, arctic foxes, and snowy owls. We are reading about their adaptations that help them survive this extreme climate - thicker fur, fur that changes to white in the snowy winter, a thick layer of blubber, and short ears to keep warmer are just a few. We have enjoyed several funny fictional accounts of some of these animals as well.

Love these polar animals

 Another book we read that everyone enjoyed was based on a true story of a little dog adrift in the Baltic Sea. He was rescued by the crew of a fishing ship, and his story of surviving several days adrift on an ice floe was stirring.

Water painting an arctic scene which included ocean animals as well as land animals was a relaxing way to end the early release day. The kids cleaned up so quickly at bus time - they know just what to do with all their painting supplies!

We needs lots of blue paint

               

I'm painting the orca whale

A little dab of paint will do it

Phonics instruction was extremely exciting this week as we formally introduced King Ed, otherwise known as Magic E or Silent E. We all wore glittery capes while working on king Ed words and centers and even took a race down the hall to a second grade class with capes flying, to share our words transformed by Silent E. 

Nice job!

Spelling words ending with King Ed

We are full of magic today!

Making King Ed booklets in our capes

Love these capes!

 Writing caused quite a stir as well, especially since it involved making deliveries. We began Letter Writing this week, learning the format for a Friendly Letter, singing a song including 'heading, greeting, body, closing, signature' to the motions of 'head and shoulders, knees and toes'. Some letters were written for family and those went home in envelopes. Others were delivered to other first graders. Here are a few examples:

Very friendly, indeed!

We completed Topic 7 in math but will continue to build on concepts of place value, tens and ones, skip counting, and working with numbers on the 100 chart.

A notice went home about the 2 school store dates for a PTO fundraiser. I will send a reminder closer to the dates. Thank you for the 4th grade fundraising donations on Pajama Day too.

Bundle up and stay warm!
Mrs. Dagley

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Our Snow Globe Adventures!

It's winter, so where is the snow?! We would like a little to have some fun in, especially since this short week we have been learning about snowflakes, how they are formed, their 6 sides, and their interesting  patterns which make each one unique. We wrote about how snow helps protect plants and animals from wind, acting like a blanket as it covers them, and how melting snow helps fill rivers and streams. Of course everyone shared the fun they've had in the snow - skiing, sledding, snow boarding, making snow forts or snowmen, and having snowball fights. So let it snow!

Writing about how snow helps us

We read lots of texts about snow!

A fun read-aloud!

After reading The Snow Globe Family, we were inspired to write a short description of a snowman inside our paper snow globes. There is something about snow globes with their tiny scenes inside, that sparks imagination!

We also cut out snow flakes and used them as the body of our snowmen decorations for the classroom. I had to put on my Cinderella hat after the project to sweep up millions of tiny paper scraps before the custodians noticed the mess we made. Hearing everyone's exclamations as they unfolded their snowflakes to see the surprise design they had cut, made it worth it though!

Our snowflake creations!

Look at my snowflake!

Our class library area is set up for our next reading theme- the Arctic, and then Antarctica. We have loads of new fiction and non fiction books to explore and exciting habitats and animals to learn about! At some point we will be making model igloos, so any containers the size of cream cheese ones will be helpful to save for this. 

Our Polar display

Topic 7 in math finds us grouping items in tens as we prepare to work with place value. We are using 100 charts to work with numbers 1-100, ten frames to use as a visual for ten plus 1-9, connecting cubes, and rods and cubes to make two digit numbers. Differentiating between groups of ten and the total value is important (5 tens vs. 50 for example).

In phonics we worked with compound words and the kids have become detectives, finding examples everywhere, even on words on their clothes! The rule is that a compound word consists of two words put together as a new one: butter+ fly= butterfly... We will be moving on to silent e words soon.

Have a wonderful weekend, and think snow!
Mrs. Dagley