Bread Making and Ipad Fun

What a beautiful snowy day today!  On Friday we had the ipads and we went on two different apps in our room.  The first app is a favorite of the kids and Nolan.  It is called Noodle Words and costs $2.99 in the itunes store.  It gives different sight words and puts a fun action to them.  It's very cute.  

The other app that we used was called iwritewords.  This is also $2.99.  It helps with handwriting skills so it is a good one if your child has trouble with fine motor skills.  

The beginning of first grade reviews a lot of kindergarten skills and concepts.  Our words are typically three letters (CVC) and students can sound them out.  We are at a turning point in the year and students are starting to work on fluency (reading longer passages with expression, speed, and accuracy).  Please practice reading with your child each night and make sure to check in with your child to see if they know their spelling words.  We talked on Friday about how it is important to know these word patterns for life and not just a test so if they got some wrong they should still practice and learn those patterns to be a successful reader and writer in their lives.  

Last week we read The Little Red Hen and then we had Emme and Jack's mom help us make bread.  I followed a very simple recipe that I found on Pinterest.  If you would like to do it with your child at home, here it is: Bread Recipe.

In math this week we will be learning about ordinal numbers.  This next week we will be doing Christmas Around the World and finishing up our maps and globes unit.  Thank you for sending in your information so we could travel to so many different places.  The kids absolutely loved it!  For Christmas Around the World they will be going to different classes each day.  I am doing England and the other teachers in first grade all have picked a different country.  Ask your child each day where they traveled to and what tradition they learned about.   We will start on the 12th.  Have a great week!  

Otter Tags/Thanksgiving Feast

The week before break we had a lot going at school!  We had a our otter tag ceremony on Friday.  Below are some pictures of some of the children that received one.  I have also included pictures from our feast that we had in the hallway to celebrate Thanksgiving.  We learned about the Mayflower and how Pilgrims lived long ago.

Jack got a tag for music!

Jada got the tag for gym!

Ellie and Austin got the Awesome Artist Tag!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast in the hallway!

At conferences a few questions came up about homework.  I just wanted to let you know that all we have for first grade homework is the making words sheet each week and about once a week a math sheet.  These should come back to school.  We will work on putting the sheets in the "bring right back to school" side of the folder this week.  As for the activity bags, do what your family has time for.  They are for fun and the kids are excited about them.  If you need to keep it a couple of extra days, that is fine too.  Thank you for all of your support at home.  As you can see, it is making a big difference.

I need your help this week.  We are learning about maps and globes.  I thought it would be really cool if you could comment below and attach a link (if you are able) or just give us the name of someplace that your family is connected to.  We will take a virtual field trip each day to these places.  Here's my example:  My husband grew up near a town in England called Berwick upon Tweed.  We will use google earth to fly there so even if you give me a name of a city, we can use that application to see it.  I am attaching a website that we will look at with pictures of his city.  Berwick upon Tweed.  Please indicate the connection between your family and this place in your comment.  The kids will love it!

This week when we went to the computer lab we went on PBS Reading Between the Lions.  Mrs. Lewin came and taught us another app on the ipad as well.  We used the app: Puppet Show.   We will use it this week to recreate the "Little Red Hen" with our 4th grade buddies!  I will try to post a couple of the videos.  Have a great week!

It's November!!!!

Happy Friday!  Today we had Mrs. Lewin come in and read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and then the class got to make cookies on our ipads!  The app is called cookie maker and it is FREE!  It was really fun for the kids.  Here is the link: Cookie Maker App

  This week has been a busy one!  We had a police officer come to our school on Monday and teach us about safety for Halloween.  Mason got to try out the handcuffs!  

 We had our Fall Holiday Party.  It was really fun to see everyone in their costumes.

 
           
We finished our rock unit yesterday.  Thank you for sending so many beautiful rocks.  Lilly and her family made rock candy after watching it in a rock movie at school.  Lilly brought hers in to share and her mom, Megan, gave us the link:  Rock Candy Video.   If you have time, give it a try!

Ava has been busy practicing her words with her window crayons.  If you are looking for a fun gift for your child that will help them practice their words, this is a great idea.  They are with the regular crayons at Target/Wal-Mart.  They wipe right off!  Here is a picture that Ava's family sent me:







We only have 2 weeks until Thanksgiving break and conferences.  Please have your child come with to conferences if you are able.  It is really fun to share the great things we have done and it helps them to hear what they need to work on.  In math we will continue to work on subtraction.  Make up word problems as a family and challenge each other!


Abigail is starring in a play "The Little Mermaid".  If you and your family would like to watch Abigail perform, here is the link:  The Little Mermaid Play

Field Trip

Our field trip was a hit!  We learned a lot at the Oliver Kelly Farm about the jobs that people used to have on a farm.  The kids had some hands on experience helping with these chores.  The Berry Hill Farm was really fun.  It was cold so it was great that everyone was so well dressed!   Here are some pictures from our trip. 

This week we had the laptop cart on Friday.  Our school has purchased some really great apps for the ipads to use.  I am so excited to use these with the kids.  The first app that we did was the Super Why App.  This is a really good app for reading skills: Super Why App in itunes

 The other app that we used was a drawing app called Doodle Bug.  You can use any drawing app to do what we did.  I had the class use the drawing tools to practice writing their spelling and sight words. There are a lot of free drawing programs out there.

In math last week we began subtraction.  We are working on counting forward and backwards to subtract.  A number line is a very useful tool for this.  This week we will be working on subtraction number stories.  When you are in the car, have your child come up with a number story for you to solve or you model one for them.
Have a great week!

Visitors and Ipads!

We have had a very busy last two weeks.  Yuko Larson, our cultural liason came and did a monarch butterfly project with us.  We study insects in the spring so she thought it would be neat to write a letter to a school in Mexico where the butterflies migrate to.  Then in the spring when they migrate back we will get a letter from the school back.

We also had the chance to have Andrea Beer come to our classroom and share her rock collection.  She is an amazing lady with so many neat stories.  She has traveled around the world and has rocks from many parts of the world.  These past couple of weeks we have learned about rocks.  We are learning what is made out of rocks, where rocks come from, why rocks are important and looking at different types of rocks.  Keep a little box for special rocks that you find in your family.

Tuesday we will be going to the computer lab again.  We went last Tuesday and we went on raz-kids.com .  Our password is sfratera in case you forgot.  This is a great program that can be used at home.  Today we checked out the ipads in our classroom.  These are the apps that we used:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-spelling-magic-short-vowel/id429301553?mt=8

We also used this app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phonics-vowels-short-vowels/id453633094?mt=8

They are both free!

If you have an ipad/iphone/tablet at home, what games are favorites of your family?

Favorites of Fall!

Austin displaying his rainbow.

We have been working on addition strategies in math this week.  We have learned to count on with 1, 2, and 3 starting from the bigger number.  We also will be working with combinations of numbers that make 10.  You will have seen the lovely 10's rainbow that they painted earlier in the week.  This will help them learn their ten's facts.  Hang it somewhere that you can reference it.  10 is such an important number in math!  If they can remember the numbers that make 10, it will make adding a lot easier for them.

Every morning we have a morning meeting.  Today Makayla and Ellie wrote the morning message.  On Fridays and Mondays we share something new or exciting in our lives.  Mason is sharing what his family plans are for the weekend.  

Today we are going to start homework bags.  These bags will come home once and a while.  Keep them for a week.  Do what fits your family's needs and then send it back.  If you could replace any damaged or lost items I would greatly appreciate it.  I put a LOT of time and money into these and want to continue to use them.  Research shows that family involvement makes a significant difference in a child's education!  This is a fun way for you to get involved at home.  Remember, you do not need to do every activity.  Some bags have a lot of activities and some have less.  Have fun with them!

Next week we will be starting to get the laptop carts if things are up and running (they had to update all of the computers).   During small group time the students will be using RAZ-Kids.  Here is the website: raz-kids.com

We would like to share our favorite things about fall (we are working on complete sentences)

Vincent: I like jumping into the leaves!

Leah: I like to rake and jump into the leaves.  

Jason:  I like to help my grandma make a campfire.

Daniel:  I like jumping into the leaves.

Emme: I like to jump in the leaves at my grandma's house.  My grandpa makes it into a slip and slide!

Audrey:  I like trick or treating.

Jada: We get to go trick or treating tonight!

Will:  I am going to get my costume TODAY!!!

Makayla: I like climbing the trees!

Summer: I like to jump in the leaves and climb the trees.

Ellie:  I like to run and jump in the leaves!

Ava:  I like to make leaf piles so I can jump in them. 

Jack:  I like football!

Mason:  I like to drive my four wheeler.

Major:  I like going trick or treating.

Kal:  I like the leaves falling down and making big piles.

Lilly:  I like the colorful leaves.

Joey:  I like to pick out our Halloween costumes.

Deborah:  I like making leaf piles and picking out my costume.

Austin:  I like my new costume and trick or treating.

Anika: I like trick or treating!

Abigal: I love climbing the trees!

My husband, Will, figured out how to add a comment to the blog.  (Remember this is a new adventure for me too).  If you would like to comment on your favorite family activity for the fall, we would love to hear them.  Encourage grandparents, aunts, uncles, and family friends.  It would make the kids so proud to share that with the class.   You have to use a gmail account to do so.  It walks you through the process when you click on comment.  Enjoy the warm weekend!  Sara

September 21

Daniel working with number bonds with M&M's. 

 We had the fire department come to our classroom this week and talk about fire safety.  We got to see the fire engine.  Fireman Jeff talked about making a book with your hands when you stop, drop and roll to protect your face and he reminded families to have an emergency exit plan in your house in case of a fire. 

Our math has quickly picked up the pace!  We are learning number bonds and the kids have been doing great with this.  Today a sheet will come home with a large blank number bond on it.  Feel free to use crackers, marshmallows, or cotton balls.  Take a deck of cards and have your child draw 2.  Place the counters (we used M&M's) in the circles.   Joey drew 5 and 9.  He put 9 in one circle, 5 in the other.  Then he counts them to see how many there are all together. 






This year we have decided to have a bug theme in our first grade hallway.  Our class is the ladybugs.  We created some artwork this week to hang in the hallway.  They worked VERY hard on this. 

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I am sending home our first book order today.  I will send home one every other month.  Please send it back by next Friday and make the checks payable to Scholastic Book Clubs.  Here is the link to the site:https://orders.scholastic.com/H9BYT   If you order online both the class and yourself can get a free book.  Here's the class code: H9BYT. 

Have a great weekend!