April 27-May 1

Hello Families!
It's hard to believe that this post brings us to May! Our time together in first grade is quickly coming to an end, however, there is still so much to learn and experience together. We're so grateful for all of your continuing support reading with them and listening to them read, your time spent assisting with math homework, and the list goes on! Your assistance really shone through over the past couple weeks as I was assessing each child individually on their reading skills. This is why I love first grade SO much - the growth during this year is absolutely incredible! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Here's a sneak peek at our week:
Writer's Workshop this week is something I need to keep under wraps until after next Sunday (hint, hint...). Let's just say I think you're going to be very pleased to see how your first grade writer applied what s/he knows about teaching books to a special writing piece for someone extra special!

In reader's workshop this week, we have been busy compiling all of the information we collected across genres about our self-selected topics. We're all in different places in creating our poster projects to showcase our learning over the past few weeks. It has been so exciting to see how passionate the kiddos have been about their topics. If you were to walk in here first thing in the morning you would see first graders huddled around computers and iPads, showing each other all that they have been learning about their topics on World Book Kids. You can access this from home when you visit Stormonth's website. Your first grader will be able to find it from there. 

 Here they are planning their posters with a partner. First they filled out a planning sheet, indicating all that they planned to include on their poster. Then they shared their plan with a partner, showing their partner very specifically where everything would go on their poster. Their partner then provided them with written feedback and initialed the plan. 

In math this week, we began to look at geometric properties of shapes. So far our focus has been on squares, rectangles, circles and triangles. We're learning that sides and corners (angles) are properties of rectangles (which includes squares!), however, orientation, size and color are not defining properties. 

In science this week we explored three parts of soil: humus, clay and sand. We observed and recorded the properties of each using four of our five senses. Next, we made predictions about what would happen if we planted cucumber seeds in each of these materials. Table groups then planted their seeds and recorded this in their observation journals. We'll observe and record our results over the next several weeks. We also had a chance to see if there were any changes in our compost bags. Our worms are settling in nicely, however, nobody noticed any obvious changes just yet...

Two of our friends putting some water in their compost bag. 

We are in need of one more volunteer for our Pedestrian Safety presentation on Wednesday, May 20th from 2-2:30pm. Please let me know if you're able to join us. Thank you!

Thank you for stopping by the blog!

See you all here again next weekend,

Michelle Mullen

Mark Your Calendars: 

May 12 & May 15: MAP testing. Please let me know if your child will be out on either of these days.

May 13: Early Release

May 20: Pedestrian Safety 2-2:30 - One more volunteer needed!

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

music room 12:30 pm!

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: Tentative date for first grade's "Show & Share" family picnic

June 12: Last day of first grade