Proudly announcing two weeks of Royal Readers. First, for the week of April 15th-22nd....
Between the three students they read more that 6 hours on Raz Kids! Wow! We usually have just one queen, but these two lovely ladies were only a few minutes apart so I had to give it to both. Congratulations! We only have one short and busy month left of school. It is extremely important to keep reading. At home reading makes a HUGE difference in school success. Please continue to read at home as.....
Here are four more reading royals for the week of April 22-29th. A job very well done! Keep up the hard work, first graders!
For the last month, we have been reading about amazing people in our reading groups. We had the inquiry question, "What can we learn from amazing people?" Through our biography reading, we have learned about amazing people like Rachael Carson, Ellen Ochoa, Ben Franklin, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and more. The students loved to share their biographies with other classmates and their reading made them even more curious about amazing people in history. Luckily, the children's curiosity, our study of biographies, and Eagle Cliff's third grade hero fair all came together.
The 3rd grade hero fair actually began our biography study. The students went to the hero fair armed with clipboards, pencils, and the 5 Ws and a WOW. They asked the third graders: Who are you? What did you do? Where did you live? When did you live? Why were you important? and What is one WOW fact about your life? The third graders did a great job answering our questions and the students learned a ton! You should have heard the discussion when the first graders returned.
We used the same 5W's and a WOW when we read our biographies in reading group. If the children didn't find all the information they needed, they used our online subscription to world book to find more information. The articles in World Book kids and World Book student include kid friendly text, videos, diagrams, and photographs. See the post below to access this resource at home!
When we finished researching, some students picked one amazing person to write a poem about. The poem was a triangle poem. The first line answered "Who?" with one word. The second line was two words for "When?" and then three words for "Where?" Last, four words to describe "What they did?" and five words for "Why?" The students really had to synthesize the most important information to write the poems. To publish the poems, we used an app called Legend to make a short video. We are still working on publishing all the terrific writing. Students posted the poems to their SeeSaw digital portfolio so the other students could compliment their hard work!
Look at this researcher! She wanted to learn more about Thomas Edison. She has her reading group book, her note taking page, and a biography on EPIC. Then, check out her computer. She was also logged on to World Book Online to learn even more! World Book is an online safe researching tool for kids. Eagle Cliffs has a subscription. The children are loving exploring and searching for information on this tool.
You can access this wonderful online encyclopedia at home as well! It
is a safe search engine for all those interesting first grade questions.
From a computer, students can click on the text and the computer will
read it to them. Here is the link and login information. You can also
access the link from the top button bar on the blog. Please check it
out!
Thursday before the three day weekend, we celebrated Earth Day in the classroom! We read some great fiction and nonfiction books about why it is important to care for our Earth and how we can "Go Green!"
With one of our new favorite apps, EPIC, we had a bingo board of Earth Day themed books. Students had to read three of the books and initial their three choices on the front board. Look at all the great reading! Thank you, Kami Butterfield from Teaching with APPitude!
We put our technology to work today. When we were working on Earth Day themed story problems and even when we were practicing editing for punctuation, we went paperless. Using a teaching app called Classkick, we did most of our school work digitally, reducing the amount of paper used.
We discussed ways to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost. Using cut outs of our hands, we made a poster of the Earth. Then we brainstormed all the ways we can help the Earth and put the ideas on our poster. Also, the students wrote their own piece on how to protect the Earth.
We didn't completely finish our writing before the day was done. When students came back to school Monday, these directions awaited the children.
1. Finish your writing.
2. Take a photo for your digital portfolio in SeeSaw.
3. Upload the photo and record your voice reading the writing.
4. Send the photo and recording to me for approval.
Aren't these first graders talented techies! I just love how independent and capable they are becoming. Each student was able to send me their work. Here are just a couple examples.
In math we are exploring concepts of measurement. We are concentrating on length. In first grade, our objective is to develop accurate measurement techniques. For example, we must line up our starting points and we must be careful not to leave gaps or have overlaps between units. We will also used a variety of nonstandard measurements to discover that different units of measure will result in different measurements.
We started exploring measurement by just comparing length. We lined up objects in our desk and recorded the longer and shorter. Then, we used the foot cut outs from last week's homework assignment to compare feet measurements. We ordered our family's feet on our desk then we used cubes to find out which feet were the same length. Also, we measured different lines around the classroom with our hands and feet. Our class measurement discussions were fantastic. The students made great connections. They all got really good at accurate and precise measuring.
Here are some great online games to use at home for practice measuring:
For about a month, or should I say one lunar cycle, we have been researching and learning about the moon. We have learned so much! We began our unit of study with a RAN (researching and analyzing nonfiction) chart. On the chart, we wrote what we already thought we knew and what we were wondering about. As we studied, we moved the post-it note facts around if we found text evidence confirming what we knew. We also had a column for "we don't think this anymore" and "new information." We added a ton of notes to the "new information" column. One thing that the students really wondered about was the craters. We downloaded an app called Moon Globe. Moon Globe allowed the students to get an up close and realistic look at the moon's surface. Students learned that the craters had names. They also discovered that the moon had white streaks called ejecta rays around some craters. This made the students even more curious.
How were the craters made? To answer this question we created a simulation experiment. We covered the bottom of a plastic tub with flour then added a thin layer of coco to the top to represent the lunar soil that has been exposed to the sun. We dropped different sized and shaped rocks into the tub and watched the impact. Similarly in space, on a much larger scale, asteroids have battered the moon and created the craters on the moon's surface. After the experiment, students did some excellent writing about what they noticed and learned from the experience.
We did another simulation of the sun reflecting it's light of the moon which results in the phases of the moon that we see. We recorded our learning in our Launch Logs. We also represented the phases using Oreo cookies and learned a fun song. Yum!
Our experiments, the RAN chart, and our reading concluded with a ton of information. The students did some writing and an art project the show what they found most interesting about our studies. The projects show so much learning. Check them out in the hallway!
