Today we had a hands-on Math & Science lesson. Learners worked together to count all of the seeds inside of a pumpkin! We found that making groups of 5 and groups of 10 made it easier for us to count our seeds. We couldn't believe that small pumpkins could have over 100 seeds inside! We also used the inquiry skills we learned with Ms. Turner to find out if our pumpkins would sink or float - be sure to ask your learner if his/her hypothesis was correct!
These authors are hard at work writing their small moment narrative stories! This week we used one of our favorite new stories, The Night of the Veggie Monster, and the song "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" as examples to remind us that good authors tell stories in itsy bitsy steps to add suspense and detail to their writing.
Thank you, Mrs. Liuzzi, for helping us make these spooky owls in Art class this week!
We had a hoot making them! Fr. Brendan was our Mystery Reader today!
We had a hunch it was going to be him, based off of his clues... Thank you for sharing your love of reading with us, Fr. Brendan! We practiced our earthquake preparedness today as part of the Great California Shakeout. Our firsties did a great job during the drill!
Thank you to the Ocean Institute for visiting us today and sharing some neat facts about ocean animals and their habitats with us!
Happy October!
We have been completing many Halloween-themed activities and crafts this month. This week, our focus was on Spiders. We learned that spiders are arachnids, that they have eight legs and two body parts, and that they spin silky webs from their spinnerets. We are currently writing small moment narrative stories about spiders - we can't wait to edit and publish them next week! We made spider decorations for our classrooms, and practiced our word families and consonant blends during centers this week, making word family spiders. Thank you to all our centers volunteers! Thanks to you, we are able to practice our reading skills through various educational activities, as well as our ability to work cooperatively with our classmates.
We couldn't do it without you! We love ELA centers! Our first graders received a real first-hand learning experience in Social Studies this week. We had a visit from two Deputy Sheriffs, who talked to us about their role in helping citizens follow rules and laws!
We are very thankful that these first grade parents were so willing to support our curriculum by coming to speak to our learners. First grade learners look forward to our Friday Mystery Reader. It is always fun to hear their guesses throughout the week. We love to promote and foster a love for reading.
In STEM class, our first graders actively engaged in the Spaghetti / Marshmallow challenge this past week. They used their inquiry skills to construct a free-standing sculpture using spaghetti sticks, tape, string and a marshmallow. They were given 18 minutes to complete the challenge. This fun activity allowed the children to collaborate and problem solve with their peers. It was great to see team work in action!
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