Spring is Here!

Spring is definitely here in our classroom! We started off our spring activities with learning about the life cycle of a frog. This was also our science night project. We have been observing our frog and our tadpole and watching for changes. The kids are writing down their observations in journals and are really looking forward to seeing the tadpole change into a frog!  They have named our friends Anna and Olaf and love helping with the feeding and cleaning. 

We have also finished our life cycle projects.  They have been learning to label different stages of the frog life cycle, and then made a frog craft to display their life cycles.

 

With spring arriving, so does our Spring Book Fair.  Yesterday, our class got a visit from a very special book character....

 

...CLIFFORD!!  They all got to give high fives and hugs and got very excited about making a trip to the book fair.  Be sure to ask them about their special visitor!

We are now starting our unit on the rainforest and will soon be learning about the butterfly life cycle with real butterflies in our room! Keep checking back for more first grade updates!

 

Nevada Reading Week and St. Patricks Day

The first week of March was Nevada Reading Week. Our class got really excited about reading and the activities that were planned. Monday was door decorating day, and first grade had the theme of fairy tales. Our class chose the first American fairy tale, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Each student got to write on a poppy flower if they were off to see the wizard, what would they ask for? We were able to buddy read with two 6th grade classes and read lyrics to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for poem in my pocket day. We had Mr. Kressin and Mr. Sensibaugh as guest readers, who read books that had to do with their jobs. Friday was crazy hat day, and we all made hats that showed what our favorite book is. We really had a great week and got pumped up about reading!

After Reading Week we started our St. Patricks Day writing project.  We talked about things that are important to us, and things that are worth more to us that gold or money.  We read "That's What Leprechauns Do" and decided that to a leprechaun gold is worth a lot! When the students started brainstorming about what was important, we got many different ideas! Students wrote about everything from Martin Luther King, to books, to family.  I love the creativity that I saw!

Stay tuned for our next project...tadpoles, frogs and Science Night!

1st Grade Olympics!

In February we started an Olympic unit where the students were divided into four countries and competed as a team to earn "medals" in teamwork and participation. Our classes countries were Ukraine, Australia, South Korea, and Canada. The kids made their country's flag and kept track of the actual Olympic medal count for their country.  On a few special days we got together with the other first grade classes and their countries to do games and relays. At the end of our unit each country earned a teamwork medal and had lots of fun doing it!