Top of the morning to you!

Leprechaun windsocks!

We were having some fun with gold, leprechauns, rainbows, and green on Friday for St. Pat's Day! We looked up Ireland on the map, read Leprechaun on the Loose, and had fun making our windsocks.

This week we read about 3 famous Americans - Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea. We followed their adventure as they were sent out west by Thomas Jefferson to explore waterways to the Pacific Ocean, trade with native Americans, and discover new plants & animals. Their successful journey of 2 years blazed a trail for the pioneers that would one day follow their trails. Learning about the bravery of Sacajawea as she joined them along the way and her contributions to the trip was also exciting. I hope you have fun reading their 'journal' page from a day on the journey with Lewis & Clark! So many adventures, hardships, and discoveries to choose from. 

Our western library display

Covered wagons, teepees...

 We even painted a gold rock in shiny gold paint (it is drying in school), and that activity also worked into our focus on the west. Everyone was thrilled to hear that gold was discovered in what is now California back in 1848/49! The story behind the Gold Rush prompted us to write our own 'newspapers' about James Marshall finding gold in the American River. We will complete that next week. In any case gold led to a huge influx of people racing to and settling in CA, resulting in it becoming a state in 1850. The kids love reading all the new books with western themes - take a look:

So many to choose from!

Lots of series too!

Having fun with the gold miner figures!

Checking out the wooden fort and tiny people!

Working on our newspaper report

 Our new poems are also tied into the west. Here are some friends holding up Home, Home, on the Range.

Poetry center

In phonics we have learned some rules to help us remember when to use /ou/ vs. /ow. We continue to work with vowel teams as well.

'O' says it's name, 'a' is silent!

'e' says it's name, 'a' is silent!

 We congratulated Maggie this week when her name was announced as the first grade winner in the book mark coloring contest! We also welcomed Wesley's sister and friend from 5th grade when they came down to read to us.

We are finishing up our math topic on subtracting tens and ones. The kids have had fun regrouping with tens and ones rods and cubes. We move into Measurement next.

Report cards went home yesterday - terrific job everyone! They are truly like little sponges in first grade!

Have a wonderful and warmer weekend,
Mrs. Dagley

Off to the White house!

We can draw the White House!

We wrapped up our activities relating to the White House this week by watching a virtual tour of the White House rooms, seeing Lincoln's bedroom, the Oval office, and the surprising rooms holding a bowling alley and movie theater! We also used a step by step drawing page to draw the White House ourselves, and the results were impressive!

Posters of the White House

Drawing the White House was fun!

A great mentor text for writing

We worked on several How-To writing activities. We made a lego creation and wrote the steps to replicate it. We read the book, Our Library which was full of instructional mini books that the characters read to solve the problem of their library closing down. This was followed by writing a mini book of our own telling how to do something. Finally we began a cookbook recipe How-To. We shared some Friday and will complete next week. 

In science we chose a plant to study in order to learn about its habitat, what it needs to survive, and its plant parts. The kids worked in partners or small groups to read about their plant and report on it.

The Lobster Claw plant

The Venus Fly Trap plant

A cozy study spot

 Topic 10 in math has been completed and topic 11 introduces
 subtraction with 2 digit numbers. Using the 100 chart, 
ten-rods and cubes, tens and ones mats for 
vertical subtraction, and our own strategies 'in our head' 
are some of the ways we are solving them.

We leave the Arctic and Antarctic behind and are now setting up 
our class library with a western theme. Loads of new books and series will be introduced as well as books on famous Americans
(Sacajawea, Lewis & Clark). 

This has been 2 busy weeks of fitting in assessments around our day to day teaching, but it is exciting to see the progress everyone has made! Report cards will go home on Friday.

We wished a Happy Birthday to Darby - it's great to be 7!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs. Dagley

Who doesn't love a science experiment?

Baking soda and vinegar blow up a balloon!

There is always a little trepidation while awaiting the result of mixing two ingredients known to interact in interesting ways (even for me who kind of eyeballs how much of each to use!).  This week we continued writing informational 'How-To' papers, sequencing the steps for an activity. We tried this experiment and wrote the instructions one step at a time. It was really awesome seeing the baking soda and vinegar react, fizz in the bottle and result in blowing up the balloon! On this 'How-To' we would add a few cautions- wear goggles, don't overfill, and be close to a sink just in case! here we are writing down the steps as we began the experiment:

First steps in the experiment

We continued to made 'How-To' writing interactive this week by writing how to make a clay creature, after actually making one! 

Let's choose our clay colors!

Our mentor text and clay creatures!

A lot of muscle needed in softening the clay!

We did a little research writing this week as well, as everyone chose a penguin they were interested in, worked with others who chose the same penguin, researched info to write, and finally presented and read them aloud.

Using penguin booklets to research

A sunny spot for our researchers

Lots of mini posters to reference too!

Presenting Little Blue penguin

Presenting the King penguin

Emperor Penguin reports

Macaroni penguin reports

Listen to our Rockhopper Penguin report

I was interested in the Chinstrap Penguin!

Our weekly spelling words were a little tricky as we differentiated between words spelled with /ai/  or /ay. Remembering that /ai/ is usually found in the middle of words,  and /ay/ is at the end, helped. Role playing "Two Vowels Go Walking" and watching fun mini videos about the same, were great ways to practice.

Role playing phonics!

We are spelling 'rain'!

We are spelling 'pain'!

You may have heard rumors of a 50 word spelling test coming up...and it is true! This test covers 50 sight words (most frequently used words and not necessarily phonetic). We have been practicing, learning tips to remember tricky spelling, and singing songs with the words. This list goes through the end of the year, so for this report card, we are hoping to spell at least 35 correctly. As far as the length of the test, rest assured we will break it up with some movement activities in between!

In Social Studies, we learned about George Washington, our first President, his childhood, career as a General, and his life as President. We also learned about the White House with its bowling alley, movie theater, 132 rooms, rooms named after colors or shapes (The Red, Blue, Green room and the Oval office). More to come next week. In the meantime, the school store gave a chance for kids to show Abe Lincoln on their pennies and five dollar bills, and George Washington on their quarters and one dollar bills!

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd) we had loads of reading fun with his delightful books!

Dressing up in story characters

Our Read- Aloud!

After reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we made our own oobleck! What a crazy substance to seem wet, yet be able to break apart as if dry. Lots of fun, a massive mess, but always volunteers to help clean up!

Oobleck fun

It started out as big globs...

      We also read There's A Wocket in my Pocket and made our own creative wockets to show:

Like our wockets?!

Our wockets in pockets

Having fun with Dr. Seuss!

What is really  exciting at this point in the year, is that everyone can read the Dr. Seuss collection! We have a nice big selection to choose from and the kids have been busy reading independently and then reading aloud a favorite page to the class.  At our STRIPES assembly, we nominated one child in class to represent us for perseverance in focused reading and skill, so congratulations to Aidan! 
Here we are reading:

So many Dr. Seuss books to read!

Reading a favorite page

Listen to this one!

I like this book!

Thank you Dr. Seuss for fun and creative books!

Looks like snow is coming again....I'm sure spring is somewhere to be found - just not yet!
Happy snow blowing,

Mrs. Dagley
                                                 

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