May 18-22

So sorry for the delay on last week's blog posting! I decided to dedicate the long weekend to some family fun - a trip to Growing Power with a surprise visit from Will Allen who took over a portion of our tour, a lot of walks around the neighborhood, and catching a Brewers game on Memorial Day!
This post is going to be jam-packed with loads of pictures from our busy, busy week!

Writer's Workshop 

Our week began with our new Poetry unit. I LOVE ending the school year with this unit! It reinvigorates all of us and allows the kiddos such a great opportunity to speak from their hearts. I can barely read one of their poems without either getting chills or getting choked up! Wait until you read them! On our first day we observed a shell and simply wrote down all of our observations. I then took these observations and created a poem with them. 

Here's our poem: 

Shell

A Group Poem by Mrs. Mullen’s Class

My shell

is smooth and bumpy.

It is pink with white dots.

Pointy and small.

It is glossy with light parts

and dark.

It brings to life old memories…

The music that makes me fall asleep.

The ocean water.

My dad putting up Christmas lights.

The sand that tickled my feet.

Five little shells scattered on a beach.

It awakens my soul with music.

Good and sweet music.

I can hear the ocean, the sea.

In my imagination

it becomes

a tank from Star Wars,

stained glass,

a knight

a car,

a snake

with scales and stripes,

a seahorse

so beautiful in the water,

So nice,

So beautiful.

When I put my ear close to it

and somebody is talking,

I can hear them

in my shell.

It is like a tower, a swirly staircase.

The Statue of Liberty’s crown.

My shell has steps that go up to the world.

What could be any better

than this little shell?

Reader's Workshop

We began our final reading unit this week: Dramatizing characters and Deepening Our Comprehension in Book Clubs. We're having a great time learning how we can be both actors AND directors while we're reading! Everyone has really enjoyed this particularly during our partner reading time when we can put our new knowledge into practice.

We've learned how readers can be movie stars by using their voices, bodies and faces to show characters' feeling. We've been practicing this by using both facial expressions and gestures. We've learned also to monitor our voice volume and tone and paying attention to when characters' feelings change by making our voices change. Sometimes we have to reread if we realize that we didn't act it out the way the author intended. This is just one of the reasons why it's so beneficial to have your child read the same book over and over again! Finally, we learned that we need to pay attention to the dialog tags (yelled, whispered, shouted, called, murmured, etc.) and punctuation to guide our reading.

One of our friends was so inspired by our nonfiction teaching posters, that she decided to create one at home and share it with us! We learned so much about the rainforest! I know it happens, but it is so wonderful to see their curiosity extend beyond school. Thank you for sharing your learning with us, Evi!

Math

We also began a new unit in math this week: Double Digit Addition! The strategies we learned are:

Count on by 10s

New Group Above

New Group Below

Count All Totals

We also learned about using proof drawings to check our answers. 

This is a very short unit, so our unit assessment is right around the bend! 

Science

During Science this week we experimented with how quickly soils settle in water.

Next week we'll have a look at our test tubes after they have had a week to settle. 

We also had another look at our cucumber plants and noted our observations in our plant journals.

We said farewell to our little composters as well.

Those worms sure did a lot of work in our compost bags! Thanks again for sending in all that organic matter for them! Unfortunately, I have quite a strong sense of smell, so the odor emanating from our "Worms at Work" cupboard was finally over the top. I had hoped to hold onto them until our K5 friends come to visit on June 8th. Alas... Well, we found a great home for our worms - in one of the large rectangular planters in the courtyard! Our third and fourth grade Earth Ambassadors recently cleaned them all out in preparation for their garden, so we thought it would be the perfect home for our worms! 

Tuesday was our good friend Ellie's last day at Stormonth. We've LOVED getting to know her over the years and wish her all the best at her new school! If you don't know Ellie, this little letter she wrote to our custodian Mr. Dan will give you a glimpse into the wonderful and creative soul she is:

Dear Mr. Dan, I like that you clean up after us. I know it is your job, but it is still very nice. Mom usually makes me clean up my toys. We should try to be more responsible. We are sorry. And remember when the toilets wouldn't flush? Talk about YUCK. 

We love you, Ellie! 

The Fox Point Police Department joined us at Stormonth on Wednesday for our Pedestrian Safety class. I was so proud of our kiddos - they were a terrific audience. A BIG thank you to the FPPD for spending their time teaching our Stormonth family. Thank you also to our volunteers Katerina Brickman and Jaime Wooten. We appreciate you! 

On Thursday the kiddos performed in a Music Mini-Concert, and it was simply magnificent! Such talents they are! I got a bit choked up watching them smiling, singing, and dancing. I sure will miss my little crew. 

So there you have it! Only three weeks to go in first grade with still much more to come!

Until next time,

Michelle Mullen

Mark Your Calendars

June 4: Lion King musical production 2:00 pm for students, 6:30 pm for families

June 5: Travel to BMS in the morning to see their musical production. Special Interest Day in the afternoon.

June 8: Kindergarten students will visit our first grade classrooms!

June 9: Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast at 8:00 am and All-School Assembly at 9:00 am

June 10: First grade's "Show & Share" family picnic 11-12:10pm

June 12: Last day of first grade

May 11-15

Hello Families!
Another week has flown right by! My, my, my... I cannot even believe we are half-way through May. Here is what we were up to this past week...

In both Reader's and Writer's Workshop we were very busy collecting information and writing our teaching books about our new topics. We did a lot of research, recorded our new learning, and then created our table of contents and began writing each of our chapters. Nonfiction text features were added and included our photos we brought from home - thanks so much for helping your researcher with this! We still have some finishing up to do next week. The kiddos have worked so hard to make their All About books powerful for their readers!

Here is one of our friends during a "Make Sense Minute." This was when we stopped writing for one minute to reread our work and make sure that it made sense. Some of the things we checked for were punctuation and missing words. 

On Tuesday we were introduced to our new Chromebooks! HOW EXCITING! The kiddos did a great job logging in and navigating their way around once they got on. 

During Math this week we focused on measuring with length units. Here we are measuring our rug with our feet. Our measurements were different. Ask your first grader why. Also ask your first grader HOW we get an accurate measurement. We also took our unit 7 assessment which was sent home on Friday. Please be sure to go over this assessment with your child, sign it, and return it to school next week. Thank you!

Another month brings us another cup of chicken soup with rice! We enjoyed our soup on Thursday afternoon!

During our science lesson, we discussed roots. We then put humus, sand and clay in three different tubes, added water, and planted a cucumber seed in each. We're anxious to see our roots begin to grow in our tubes! We made predictions about what would happen in each of our tubes by thinking about our observations of what's been happening with the cucumber seeds we planted in each of these. We also recorded our observations in our planting journals and had a look at what's been happening in our compost bags. This week we noted A LOT of change in them! Boy, our worms sure have been busy! Ask your first grader what s/he observed.

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Michelle Mullen 

Mark your calendars:

May 20: Pedestrian Safety 2-2:30 - 

Thank you to Katerina Brickman and Jaime Wooten for volunteering!

May 21: You're Invited to a Mini Music Concert in the 

music room 12:30 pm!

May 22: BOOK ORDERS DUE

May 25: Memorial Day holiday

May 27: Early Release

May 28: Schlitz Audubon field trip

June 4: Lion King musical production 

June 5: Travel to BMS in the morning to see their musical production. Special Interest Day in the afternoon.

June 8: Kindergarten students will visit our first grade classrooms!

June 10: First grade's "Show & Share" family picnic 11-12:10pm

June 12: Last day of first grade