Character Book Clubs

Students shared their character traits with people who studied a different character in their book club.  Students LOVED sharing their illustrations and the evidence for their thinking! The depth of these conversations were amazing.  Students talked about why they thought the character behaved a certain way, traits vs emotions, and how it is okay to revise their thinking about a character after having a conversation with a peer.   

Fraction fun

Wednesday we learned about fractions.  We worked with the vocabulary words: whole, part, equal, half and quarter (fourths).  Students finished their activity and demonstrated their knowledge with a mini Hershey candy bar.  They showed their rug partner, one whole, two halves and four quarters.  Fractions fun!

Learning about gas

Air takes up space, it is everywhere, it is not visible and changes shape based on its container.  These were discoveries the students made in science class.  

Comparing Math Strategies

Students can use whatever strategy they choose to solve the math equations on the rug.  They need to be able to show and explain their thinking.  Some students are using pictures by drawing base 10 blocks, others are using numbers and number bonds to separate out the 10s and 1s.  It is awesome to see students confident enough to share their strategy and ask for help in their problem solving as needed.  There is not just one way to solve a problem, mathematicians use strategies that make sense to them, are efficient and effective and that is what we are working on each day, figuring out what works for us as individuals.  

Wax Museum

Students today had an amazing opportunity to see the 5th graders and their Wax Museum projects.  The 5th graders picked a person, researched the person, and created a Prezi to share with their audience.  Our class learned about athletes, explorers, historians, musicians, actors and other famous people.  

Phonics fun

Today we explored the variety of sounds the letter "o" can make. We looked at "o" like No, "oa" like boat, "ow" like flow, "oe" like poem, "o" like not and "o" in a CVCe pattern (consonant, vowel, consonant and magic e).  We generated a list of the many "o" words we know and practiced reading a variety of them by rolling the dice and saying the word we landed on.   Student loved learning about how some words sound the same and are spelled differently and mean different things, homophones.  

Sinking and Floating

Scientists at work!

Predict and Explore!

Analyze and Revise

Oooooh and aaaaaaaaaah about things that surprise us!

Double check the results!  Science is fun!

Book club fun

Students share their character traits and have great conversation about traits they agree on and why as well as traits they disagree on and why. This activity requires the students to provide evidence of their thinking and decipher between character emotions and character traits.   

Eating green and healthy

Eating of the green is a fun tradition here in 1st grade!  We loved trying new and exciting foods that are healthy and surprisingly good!  We tried seaweed, kiwi, green beans, cucumbers, pickles, grapes, broccoli and we even threw a little jello in too!

Character book clubs

Students formed character book clubs this week to learn more about the traits of a character they are interested in.  We have been studying character traits in Pigeon books and Penguin books and now it is time for the students to experience a book club of their own.  They can read independently, with a buddy or whole group.  They then record their thoughts about the character traits in the book with their evidence for their thinking on a 3X5 card and place it in a paper bag.  We will be collecting our thoughts this way for the next few days and after we have read a few books and have a good idea of who our characters are, we will create a representation of that character based on our opinions an evidence that supports the opinions.

Guest Author and Illustrator : Brianne Farley

Brianne Farley visited our school today to talk about her book Ike's Incredible Ink.  She talked about her love for reading and writing, her first book, how she makes her illustrations, and what is needed to make a book.  Students loved having this Traverse City native visit and share her craft.    If you are curious about her book check it out on Amazon, lots of the students were curious where they could purchase it.  

Special Guest Reader Associate Superintendent Scott

Associate Superintendent Scott visited our classroom today and did some fun shared reading with Fox in Socks as part of March is Reading Month.  Students identified rhyming parts of words, explored tongue twisters and learned about reading rhythm.  Thank you Mr. Scott for joining us and having fun with books in our classroom! 

Fox in Socks Tongue Twisting with Mr Scott

Writers find their voice

Writers sometimes need a platform to help them feel confident enough to project their voice to their peers and share their opinions.  

Writing partner challenge

Students use their writing partners to help them be more clear on their opinion topics.  Partners are asked to give a specific compliment and also a nudge to their partner on an area they could improve.  Students return to independent work and revise their work based on their partner's suggestions.