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

May 4-8

Hello Families!
Happy Mother's Day! I hope this finds all of our moms enjoying a relaxing day with your families. We sure do appreciate you!

We've had some lovely summer-like days, and I can tell that the kiddos are getting ready for those long, lazy days of summer. We're doing our best to keep focused on both the Stormonth Way and our work habits, so a little extra encouragement and reminders would be very much appreciated.Summer also brings to mind BOOKS! It will be extremely important that your child continues to read daily over the summer. Without this reading practice, children tend to drop back two to three levels in their reading. I'll be sending home Scholastic book orders this Friday. Remember that these aren't the only catalogs you can order from. When you access our online account, you can order from any catalog that Scholastic has out. Stock up now!

Here's a sneak-peek at our week:
During Writer's Workshop this week, we worked on our All About First Grade books. Each student selected one of his/her chapters to include in our class book that we will share with our kindergarten friends when they come to visit on June 8th. We also spent a good amount of time looking at our first and second grade checklists, decided what we were doing well with informational writing, then decided what we needed to work on next. We've been goal setting together so we know where to focus during the last bend of this current unit.

In Reader's Workshop we were very busy with our poster projects. We talked about how illustrations have teaching power and how we can use comparisons to help our readers picture the details about our topics. Finally on Friday we shared our poster projects with our peers. After each presentation, classmates told something they learned about the topic and told the presenter something they liked about their poster.

We also selected our topics for our final bit of research in this unit. Your researcher brought home a note on Friday asking for help with finding 2-3 photos of their topic online. Please be sure to send these in tomorrow (May 11th) so that they can use them for their new chapter books that they'll be writing this week. Thank you!

In math we continue our geometry study. This week we learned about equal shares, and composing 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes. After composing these shapes, we used the composite shapes to compose new shapes. 

During science this week, we explored what happens when soils get wet. We moistened samples of sand, clay and humus and tried to roll each sample into a ball. We discovered that every soil component has a unique feel whether wet or dry and that the way it reacts when moist can help them identify it. On Monday our investigation will continue when we see what has happened to the balls of wet clay, humus or sand that we left out to dry. These simple tests are laying the groundwork for students' comparisons of sand, clay and humus throughout the unit. We also performed what scientists call the "streak" test. If moist soil leaves a smear on paper, it contains clay or humus. We found that sand didn't leave a smear, only the wet particles which fell off when it dried. We also found that a sticky orangish or brownish smear indicates the presence of clay, while a blackish, more watery smear is associated with humus. 

Our grade level was lucky enough to receive 25 Chromebooks! Next week we'll learn how to handle them properly and discover what we can do on them! Please be sure your first grader has headphones at school. We have had quite a few of them break over the past couple weeks. This will be VERY important beginning TUESDAY as we start MAP testing that day. MAP testing continues on Friday. 

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Mark your calendars:

May 12 & May 15: MAP testing. Please let me know if your child will be out on either of these days. Please check with your first grader that s/he has headphones that are working!

May 13: Early Release

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

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