An our expedition work continues....

We have been continuing our work on story elements.  This week we worked in small groups in different texts. 

 It was amazing to see the kids take control of their own learning by working together, solving problems and helping each other finish.  Each group had to present their story and its elements to the class.

Tattling vs. Reporting

This week in CREW, we read "Tattlin' Madeline".  We had a great discussion and compared tattling to reporting.  Here are the points we touched on:

Please ask your child to describe the conversation and ask questions:
~What is tattling?  How does it make you feel?  How does it make your crew mates feel?
~What is reporting?  How does it make you feel?  How does it make your crew mates feel?
In your child's Thursday folder is a sheet of paper for you and your child to review and discuss together.  Thank you for your support!

High Quality Work in First Grade

Our first case study of our Learning Expedition: Everybody Has a Story is finished!  Our self portraits are the completed product and every child has taken the time to share about himself/herself orally and in a 3 sentence writing.  When you stop by Fox Creek, please check out the hard work and perseverance your child showed.  They are so pleased with this work, as they should be.

This Week

Our expert for our expedition, "Everybody Has a Story", this week was a Spellbinder Story Teller from the Douglas County Library.  The kids really enjoyed listening to this tale about the stars.

This week, we have worked really hard on the story elements.  We read the Little Red Hen to practice story elements as a class.  Next week, students will be working in small groups to find the story elements in a small group text.  Please ask your child about characters, setting, beginning, middle and end.  We are working hard on our song for our Celebration of Learning December 4th from 6-8 pm.  

Thank you for the help with spelling this week!  The students scores really improved.  I hope you have enjoyed playing the math games with your student.  We are working hard to combine numbers to find the sum.  We are using equal, greater than and less than when we are comparing numbers.  Questions to ask your student:
"What does sum mean?   What does equal, greater than, and less than mean?"

In Crew, we are working on what a good friend does, says and the way he/she acts.  We also talked about heart prints.  Ask your child what a heart print is and what is a heart print they have received before?

Yoga

Every Tuesday, we incorporate our health standards into our CREW and throughout our day.  We have been working on smart food choices (red light, yellow light and green light foods) as well as making sure we get plenty of exercise each day. 

Today, Coach Wendy (Run Club Coordinator) came in to lead us in yoga.  The kids were really engaged and enjoyed learning new things.  Check out this article on the benefits of yoga in the classroom.  Today's focus was all about stress relief, relaxation and helping us calm down. 

Please ask your student about his/her favorite yoga pose!

Birthdays

We love to celebrate birthdays in first grade!  We know it is a special day.  If you choose to send in a snack, please follow these guidelines:

~single serving, tree nut and peanut free treat (cupcakes, donuts, cookies are fine) or make it healthy and send in a small toy or prize (pencil, stickers, bouncy ball)
~all snacks should be the same (please do not send in variety packs or chocolate & plain as this leads to sad feelings)
 ~no cake that I would need to cut
~please provide napkins
~invitations can only come to school if all children in the class are invited
~these snacks will be served during our normal snack time (1 or 1:20 pm)

Our Kick-off of Everybody Has a Story

Grab your gear, we are going on an expedition!
And the story begins....
Today we kicked off our learning expedition titled "Everybody Has a Story"!  Jonny, Kamryn's dad, came and told us a great story of Peter Pan.  The kids were mesmerized...

 

In our second case study, we will become familiar with the story elements through cheers, song, acting out and through independent, partner and small group practice. 

 In reading, we are working hard on reading strategies to help us figure out tricky words.  
*Look at the pictures
*Sound out words
We will continue to add to our list to include more strategies.  Students will be practicing these strategies in small group with me, independently during READ to SELF and at home with you through take home books.  We also worked hard on spelling this week.  Please make sure that you are practicing these spelling words (found at the homework tab) each night.