Please Be Mine Valentine...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is in the air and Valentines have made their appearance! The kids loved making the big lace Valentines for someone special, with the mini little one inside. They loved delivering valentines to classmate's valentine bags, and they were full of exclamations when they were opening all the mini cards and treats. We combined our Valentine's activities with the full pompom jar reward of a movie about Balto the Alaskan Husky while eating the special cupcake snack. Fun day!

Oh look at this one!

Thanks guys!

Our full pompom jar!

Cupcakes and giant gum drop treats!

 Everyone was busy creating this week as we wrapped up our parts of a plant focus in science by making and labeling a model of a plant. We will learn about habitats for plants when we return and how their needs are met in varying environments.

Terrific plant models!

We also continued learning a bit more about penguins and have a very impressive 'research fold-out presentation' complete with lift-the-flap questions and their own answers. Take a minute to look it over with them and let them teach you all they know about penguins!

Ready to present and teach!

Just for fun we made mini paper penguins too:

Penguin friends

Hello penguins!

In preparation for President's Day, we read several texts about Abraham Lincoln, learning about his childhood, hard work, vision to make a difference and help people, and his leadership as a President. After vacation we will read about George Washington and then learn about the White House as one of our symbols of the USA.

In writing this week we have begun Informational Writing in the form of a 'How-To' do an activity or skill. The kids are using transitional words indicating sequence such as First, Next, Then, Last. 

Contests are always motivating and on Friday afternoon we held our own. We had watched Mystery Doug and heard him answer the question of why airplanes can't fly in space. After the video, he showed a printable template for making a V Wing paper airplane. Of course we had to try it, and at the end of the day everyone lined up and let them fly! Some went all the way across the room - might be fun to try and see how far they'd go outdoors this week!

Let them fly!

Wishing everyone a relaxing, fun vacation. See you in a week!

Mrs. Dagley

Off to Antarctica!

Where in the world do penguins live?!

Life sized Emperor Penguin!

Antarctica was our new destination this week - as far away from the arctic as we could get. We will be learning about penguins that live in Antarctica and other nearby places in the southern hemisphere. We began by creating a lift-the-flap globe with a penguin habitat drawn underneath. We've begun reading non fiction texts about types of penguins, their diet, and their features. Lots more to come!

Look inside our globes!

Our last arctic creation was the 
snowy owl cut out with facts on the back. It is especially 
engaging to see live footage of 
these beautiful birds!

Glittery snowy owls!

We have completed Topic 9 in math and worked on ordering three numbers using the < > = signs between them. We have located numbers on the 100 chart with clues involving skip counting by 2 and 5, and have added 1 more or less and 10 more or less to any number on the chart. A clear understanding of which digit is in the tens place and which is in the ones place, is crucial!

Our persuasive/opinion writing unit has also wrapped up with book reviews telling why someone should read our book, advice given to follow and why, and opinions explained for the fate of an ant. Reading, Hey There Ant introduced us to two compelling points of view (the kid and the ant) and the dilemma of sparing the ant or not... We even acted out the two parts.

Taking the part of the kid or the ant

Fun rhyming text!

Love our reading response books!

In reading groups we have introduced little composition books to reflect on reading, write about a favorite part, and draw a picture. Everyone will have their books by this coming week.

Reading and writing about Walpole the Walrus

One of our reading groups read a book aloud to the class which went along with our Living/Non Living focus in science.

Reading I Am Alive!

How many words will we find?!

In phonics, we have been learning about the spelling pattern of /ee/ so have started a contest to see how many words we can come up with (without using dictionaries or online sources!). We are contrasting them with words with the /ea/ spelling pattern and the 2 lists are very close.

Show & Tell looked pretty professional this week. Take a look:

A hand made gift from his gramma!

Let's not forget the Patriots Super Bowl excitement!

We are the champions!

Coming up next week - Valentine's Day! We decorated bags to hold cards that classmates bring in and they are taped to the backs of chairs just waiting to be filled. (I have extra cards if anyone needs them.) I sent home a class list you can use on valentine cards, and the kids can bring them in whenever they are ready and deliver them in the bags. We will open them on Valentine's Day.

Pick stickers!

Looking good!

Lots of decorations!

Can't wait for the cards!

Our pompom jar is filled and we are ready to celebrate all the compliments we have received in hallways, the lunchroom, and  out and about in the school. On Valentine's Day (Thursday) we would like to show an animated movie about Balto the famous Huskie dog and have a special snack of cupcakes. I will send home a permission slip with the cupcake ingredient list attached to be signed.
Good job everyone!

Very windy out there - hold onto your hats!
Mrs. Dagley

Happy Groundhog Day!

Spring coming, or winter staying?

It's always fun to make predictions and our class was almost evenly split on predicting what Phil the Groundhog would see today. Despite only being correct 40% of the time, it is still good news to hear that he did not see a shadow and spring will therefore come early! (But that was in PA and the sun is shining here in MA so I don't know if our groundhogs would agree...)

Great reading, guys!

Will it still feel cold?

Blubber is great protection!

In any case we are still in winter themed books and activities in room 115. This week boys from the Middle School Basketball team came over to read to the first graders (this week also had a National Read Aloud Day). Two of the boys were in our class and read a fiction and non fiction book about polar bears. We followed up by making a polar bear paper bag puppet with facts written on the back. Then we had a first hand chance to see how blubber really does protect against the cold arctic air and icy seas- we put on a blubber 'mitten' (crisco in a bag within a bag) and submerged our hand in snowy water. Didn't feel a thing! Putting our other unprotected hand in the icy water was a shock though! 

Wow! Warm as toast!

                                                        

Do I dare?!

Icy water!

The boys also helped the kids spell and sound out words for the bear facts they wrote on the back of the puppets. 

Can't wait to try it!

Polar Bear puppets!

Grrr!

Our Blubber Mitten and polar puppets!

Having the basketball boys over was so much fun for the kids, and they were  terrific role models too! On the way out they gave out basketball pencils and stickers- thanks!



We had a lot going on this week with it also being Kindness Week. We did get to the kindness craft stations during recess on Friday after missing the Wednesday slot. We had kids decked out in various kindness themed clothing each day, and we had to get the Patriots fans in too!

Add caption

GO PATS!

crazy sock day

In the midst of all this activity, we took the 2nd math benchmark test, and the writing prompt for persuasive writing was also given. Phew- what a week! 

One of the books we read this week was Library Mouse. We followed up with another adventure of Library Mouse when we read Library Mouse, A Friend's Tale. Then we used our persuasive powers to write to the librarian in school and ask if she could read a 3rd book in the series that she has. She was persuaded by our reasons and wrote her own letter back to say that she will be reading it to us very soon!

Inspiring mouse!

Our own mini stories like Library Mouse

In science we are identifying and comparing parts of plants - such a variety of leaves, flowers or blooms, roots, and seeds. We are carefully tending our own growing collection of plants too. One plant everyone has been captivated by is the Venus Fly Trap - pretty cool videos of that plant 'catching' its prey.

Fundations Phonics finds us working with 'glued sounds' pronounced as one 'chunk' such as ing, ang, ung, ong, ink, ank, unk, onk. We have generated word lists under each and decoded words containing these spelling patterns. Since 'saw' was on the spelling test we also had fun with a furry bear claw to pull out words from and put on the board to read.

Our plant collection

Can you read the /aw/ words?!

I am sure next week will be just as busy. I will send home a class Valentine's list in advance in case anyone gets an early start on Valentine's Day cards. We will be decorating bags I have in class as holders for the cards next Friday so they will be ready for the following week. Box Tops are being collected this week as well - send them in!

Supposedly we are getting warmer temps this weekend and next week- enjoy!

Mrs. Dagley