December 13

After learning about the pattern of the sun, we tried to make shadows move across our paper. 

Word detectives worked on their first official case!  

Figuring out patterns in math.

Challenge work.

December 6th

Mr. Chaltray taught us how to code. 

We leaned that the number model or equation has meaning.

We became word collectors. 

We are finding words from our books to write in our little notebooks.

Reflections from First Graders!

We finished our personal narrative stories and stopped to reflect on one of them.

We thought we knew 50 words in a snap but soon discovered that most of our words have super powers and we actually  know millions of words. 

We finished our reading missions and became official word detectives! If you need help with a word, call room C104. We can solve tricky words. 

We learned to solve number stories when we know the starting and ending number but we don't know what changed. 

We used diagrams to help us figure out what we know in the number story and what we need to find out. 

In Science, we made a graph of how many daylight hours there are in each season. One student made the realization that since there's less daylight hours in the winter the weather is colder. Another student reflected he could not answer the question how the length of day is related to the season because Mrs. Ferry did not tell him the answer. We had a great discussion about the need for them to do the thinking and to learn from their observations. I'm certain they know the answer now and will hold onto their learning far longer than if I had simply told them the answer.

Nov 8th

A mysterious package arrived in our classroom with this letter inside it. 

In the package, there are 5 missions for us to do so that we could earn a word detective badge and join the Secret Detective Agency. We are super excited! 

In writing, we studied George McClements' craft moves. We liked his pop out words, ellipses, and juicy words. We will try them out in our own writing. 

Commutative Property of Addition oh my!  We also call it the turn around fact. 

We started a new science unit about our planet, Earth.

Nov 1st

We are trying out our inventions in Science.

We invented apple trappers. 

In phonics, we are finding patterns in our snap words. In reading, we continue to use strategies (instead of our bad habits) on challenging words. 

In writing, we are adding more details like who, what, where and when.

In math, we are learning the addition facts that make the number 10. 

Our stories are teaching us life lessons.

Engineers hard at work!

We asked how we could slowly drop a bobby pin on our paper.

We looked at things in nature that drop slowly.
Then we imagined and planned how it could be
done with paper. 

After we created our invention, we tried them out.

We learned to keep improving and trying our invention out. 

We are excited to create more inventions. 

Reading more and more!

We are rereading our books and giving ourselves a tally for each time we do. 

In science we are learning about animal parts. 

We are also learning how animals use their body parts to help them survive.

Today we compared numbers by making a number line and playing a game called Top-It. 

The things we learn in Fall.

The author's message tells us that some transitions are hard!  Ask your child which tree they liked best. 

Learning to count with accuracy. First we estimate and then we use several strategies to see how close we come to our estimate. 

We started writing personal narratives. One time I.....

Learning to read with a partner.

In the beginning....

We use number lines to count and solve mystery numbers. 

We tell personal narratives for writing. 

We build good reading habits.

We assess what students know about animal parts.

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