Kidblog, Food Drive, and Other Updates

We have a new section on our class blog!  Along the right hand side of the page you will see each child's name, in link form.  Each student in our class now has his or her own Kidblog!  Students will be posting throughout the year.  The first post assignment: take a photo of your favorite spot in the classroom.  Students learned to use the ipad cameras for this assignment.  Soon to come: a video of students reading their published small moments stories!

We've finished unit 3 in Everyday Math!  Our next unit focuses on measurement.  Children will explore using body parts, rulers, and tape measures to find length, height, and circumference!

In reading, we've started focusing on character.  Students  use what they know about the characters in the book to guess what will happen next. We've also started using post its to mark our favorite parts of the story and the funny parts of the story.

In science, students have been examining and sorting river rocks into categories.  Here are just a few of the ways these geologists have sorted rocks this week:
-by color
-by size
-by shape
-by amount of sparkle
-by texture

Just a reminder,  Rowe School is hosting a food drive just in time for the holidays.  We will be collecting food through Tuesday, November 26.  You can keep track of our progress by checking out the graph in the atrium!  Thank you to those who have sent in non-perishables with your children.  If you haven't gotten around to scouring your cupboards yet, there's still time!  Thanks for helping to teach the importance of being a kind and helpful citizen!

50 days and counting!

Can you believe we've passed the 50 day mark?!! Friday marked day 52 of first grade!

The Falcons have been working hard on their realistic fiction stories! This week we focused on adding details to the description of our setting.  Here is a student author reading his newest piece!

In math we've added dimes to our coin pouches!  It's always handy to have a collection of pennies, nickels, and dimes at home for students to use when doing homework or just to practice.  Encourage your child to count the coins worth more first, and count pennies last.

We learned  more about the rocks we've been studying!  here is an explanation from one of the geologists in our classroom:

Happy Veteran's Day!

Here are some highlights from our week!

We've started our study of pebbles, sand, and silt in science.  Students explored 3 different types of rocks and observed what happened when they rubbed the rocks together.  They went on to  make scientific drawings and write their observations in their science journals.

Our book shelf is filled with published small moments stories!

We've started writing realistic fiction stories!  Students are loving the opportunity to be creative and think up interesting characters and adventures!

Next week students will meet their kindergarten writing buddies.  To prepare for the big job of helping kindergarteners master the writing process, students made teaching charts to aid their K buddies  during writers' workshop!

 Have a great long weekend, everyone!

Happy Howloween!

This last week of October was a special one.  Not only was it Halloween, but it was also the culmination of our science unit on owls.

We celebrated the holiday this week by having a festive community meeting, learning a pumpkin craft from Olivia's family, and making owl masks!

After learning more about what and how owls eat, we dissected owl pellets and used our knowledge and some bone charts to figure out what animal the leftovers came from!  We found mouse bones, vole bones, shrew bones, and rat bones!



On Friday, the amazing educators from Chewonki came with their owl friends to help us get up close and personal with these animals we've been studying.  We were lucky enough to meet Huntington the Eastern Screech Owl, Byron the Barred Owl, and Sparky the Great Horned Owl.


In writers' workshop, we are wrapping up the publishing of our small moments books.  Next week we will share our books with Mrs. Lincoln's class and move on to a new genre!

Homework books from your child's independent reading level have started going home in red folders.  When your child finishes reading his or her book, send it back in to swap it out for a new one!

Have a great weekend, and don't forget to set your clocks back!