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

It is spring, isn't it?!

My favorite flowering tree

I love the signs of spring all around with tulips, daffodils, blooming magnolia trees, and wildlife back out -and- about BUT! Is this spring? Twice this week my magnolia blossoms have been dusted in snow! This is definitely an unusual spring both in nature and in society as we continue to social distance and engage in remote learning.

That being said, I do love seeing so many of the kids each day when we 'come to school' remotely! It's been a nice way to have some continuity in seeing their friends each day and in sharing and listening to one another. We have had read-alouds, phonics lessons, math lessons, science video and book links, and a chance to share student work that they have completed through our google classroom.

Some of our read-alouds

It's been fun discussing the story pattern in the Laura Numeroff books (If You Give A Pig A Pancake), comparing birthday stories and character traits in Little Bear and Henry's Happy Birthday, and giving our opinion on the wolf's version in The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs. We even read a chapter in a chapter book called The Seven Treasure Hunts. There were great comprehension answers to the questions we asked afterwards, and it was an inspiration for a fun activity of making treasure maps to hide our own treasures for a family member to find!

Continent practice

Luckily I found this map puzzle down in the basement, because now we can locate places that our stories bring us and we can practice our map skills and continent song too!

We practiced some spelling this week with words that have the /th/ sound, saw a related video on digraphs, and played 'Don't Erase The Bee' on the whiteboard easel (found in the attic!). We also worked on words ending in ___ck, and words with suffixes (s, or es).

Don't Erase The Bee

When coming to our virtual classroom it is best if the kids only unmute themselves when it is their turn to speak- Google Meet picks up an incredible amount of background noise! They should also be on 'Spotlight view' so that whoever is speaking or whatever is presented, is full screen. That layout is found as an option in the 3 vertical dots at the right hand bottom of the screen. I tried whole class answering and it is a sound fiasco- in future they can use the chat to all answer a question at once!

Thank you for all your help with the kids on google classroom assignments. I save everything that has been sent in an email in my remote learning folder and I comment on anything that is turned in on google classroom. 
Next week we have found a way to simplify writing on links with papers and an easier way to turn in assignments at the end of each day (all would turn in with one button). I will be sending an email about this with an enclosed video that Mrs. Correia made for the first grade team explaining the steps. I think this will streamline the whole google classroom process. 

We can still meet as a class on Google Meet!

Reminder! Monday is Patriot's Day- no school! Going forward, Tuesday- Friday we will continue to meet online at 10:30. Mondays will be a chance to meet with specialists at 9:00, and therefore will be extra help, small group, and question time for our own meets on Mondays if desired. I have worked with kids individually on fact families, phonics and reading, so if you wish to receive that support please pop in on the Mondays or email me.

Sunny daffodils!

Congratulations on all those who check into Epic and Freckle! I assign many books and videos in Epic so be sure to check assignments. Some of the assignments are links to books and sites we used in the Meetings. Epic says we have finished 800 books and 400 videos- wow!! 

Let's hope the sun and warm weather return this weekend, and meanwhile enjoy the long weekend everyone!
Mrs. Dagley

We are Big Kids now!

Once Upon A Time...

School has been given a whole new identity with our current online learning model. This little toy classroom is not what we are experiencing now! Instead this is the new student of 2020:

Remote learning

On my own!

Thank you everyone!

This past week has introduced new learning platforms such as Google Classroom,  Google Meet, and links to everything under the sun. The tangled web of logging on, getting connected, and navigating the sites has presented a fair amount of challenges for everyone, myself included! I personally want to thank every one of the kids and every one of the parents for all the hard work and engagement with the learning content. It must be a logistical nightmare if you are trying to work at home and also juggle your children's online Meetings and classwork. I do appreciate your efforts! 

Chalk message!

Fun family time

Science lesson; A camouflaged octopus

Everyone who has had a chance to meet online as a class has really loved seeing their classmates and listening to them as we practice words, sing, listen to read-alouds, and share our writing. It has been a nice way to connect with friends and keep our first grade classroom unity!

Our class online meetings are Mon.-Fri. at 10:30 AM. The link to join is posted on our google classroom each morning. 
We did just find out that the specialists have their meeting for 1st graders every Monday from 9-10, so the 1st grade teachers will make our own Monday meet an informal chance to pop in if you have a question, need help, or want to chat with us. This might allow the chance to attend the specialist meet without spending 2 hours on meets! Tues. -Fri. will follow our typical class meet routines.

Although most google classroom work has been submitted through google classroom, some assignments involved drawing. One was related to learning about animal parents and their young, and changes that occur as a baby animals grows. The kids drew themselves as a baby, child, and what they thought they'd look like as an adult. Take a look:

Look how I've grown

Ivy claims she will still have blue eyes but will cut her long hair when she is an adult. Gwen thinks her blonde hair will become light brown!

Lots of changes

                                                    James predicts he will be 6 ft tall and that he will like looking at things high up!

Look at those muscles!

Nice work everyone on Google classroom for the math pages of telling time and identifying attributes of 3-D shapes. Our online sites of Freckle and Epic have been getting a lot of use- somehow our class has read or listened to 616 books so far- wow! Book and video topics have had links to our social studies focus on land forms, continents, and maps, and science books and videos have focused on animal camouflage and habitats. Freckle math practice and ELA activities are zooming along as well. I love reading your writing turned in on google classroom. We now have a tab where some of the samples are there for you to enjoy. It's been fun to comment on your work and to receive your comments too! Please email if there are any questions or drop in on the Monday informal Q&A Meeting. Any feedback or suggestions are always welcome! Enjoy your weekend! Mrs. Dagley