Animal Life Cycles

Last week we continued our study of life cycles by comparing the life cycles of bunnies, butterflies, earthworms, silkworms, and chicks. After learning about them, the students were divided into groups and assigned one of the animal life cycles. The students then became "experts" on their animal and created a diagram of the life cycle. They then presented their diagram and any information they learned about their animal to their classmates.

 

Earth Day Book Swap This Thursday

Don't forget! The Earth Day Book Swap is this Thursday from 8:00AM-12:00PM in the first grade common area. Students may bring in as many gently used books as they want. They will be given a book swap ticket for each book brought in which they can then use to redeem for another gently used book brought in by another student. This is a great way to teach the students to reuse what they already have.

KidBlog Update!

The students have been blogging away! They have written over 250 posts so far. Their latest blog entries are about additive patterns. When they wrote about additive patterns, they first created patterns in Kidspiration which then then exported to our class' shared folder. They then had to import the photo into their blog. Although the steps to export and import seemed tricky at first, the students were up the challenge and were very successful. They have also been using our writing strategies from Write From the Beginning to write personal narratives. They have also been practicing writing sentences using word wall and phonics words as well as using adverbs from our grammar lessons. When you get a few minutes, read their great posts at their KidBlog.

Earth Day Lesson: Earthworm Towers

Today we had an early Earth Day lesson with our literacy strategist, Mrs. Reed. Mrs. Reed teaches our first graders all about gardening throughout the year. Today's lesson was focused on the world's best recyclers - earthworms. We first learned about vermiposting from Vermi the Worm through videos and interactive games on the Promethean Board in the science lab. Your students can visit Vermi the Worm at his website to learn more about composting. The students then observed a compost bin filled with soil, shredded newspaper, and potato peels. Mrs. Reed then helped the students build a worm tower. The students added soil, shredded newspaper, water, and lettuce leaves to the top half of a 2-liter coke bottle. They then added earthworms to the mixture. The top half was then placed with the spout down onto the bottom half of the 2-liter coke bottle. Then they filled the bottom of another bottle with soil and planted lettuce seeds in it to grow on top of the worm tower. The students will continue to take care of the earthworm tower by feeding the earthworms and making sure they have plenty of moisture which they need to breathe. They will also observe to see if the lettuce grows and what drainage comes from the compost. Eventually the worms will be added to our grade-level garden. Our potatoes and onions that we planted a while back are almost ready!

Area of a Foot

Today the students traced their shoe on one inch graphing paper. They then counted how much area in squares their shoes covered. Because their shoes did not always cover complete squares at the edges we had a mini-lesson on fractions by talking about putting two or three parts of a smaller square together to make a whole. After counting, the students wrote the area of their shoe on a t-chart on the whiteboard. As a group the students then ordered the areas from greatest to least on the board. To check their work, the students then ordered the shoe tracings on the floor in the order that they had written them on the board to see if it was truly from greatest to least. (Sorry there are not more pictures - we needed all hands today to count the squares!)

Additive Pattern Art

Last week as we learned about additive patterns, we talked about how there are patterns everywhere in life. We talked about how patterns can add beauty to objects and can look like art. So, the students used three and four step cards to build various additive patterns. They first built the patterns with color tiles and then recreated the pattern, step-by-step, using paper color tiles which they glued on to black construction paper. They then shared at least one thing they learned about additive patterns.

Earthworms!

Last week and this week we have been learning about the garden habitat and life cycles. As a part of our study, we have had an earthworm habitat in our classroom. We have been having fun observing them and learning interesting facts about them. To reflect on the learning, the students each created their own earthworm which we then added to our garden bulletin board. They then shared one thing that they learned about earthworms and shared it with their friends.

Plant Brace Maps

Using the Brace Map we created in class, the students created their own Brace Maps about the parts of a plant and their functions on the computer using the program Kidspiration. We then worked on learning to export the pictures and then insert them into Microsoft Word. We also are working on cropping and resizing pictures. The kids think it is "magic!"

Habitats: Where Animals Live

Last week we read "Habitats: Where Animals Live" to talk about the different needs of living creatures. After reading, the students worked in teams to list the animals from each habitat region on a Tree Map. After listing the animals, each student illustrated one animal for each habitat region on a six-part chart.

Fraction Caterpillars

To review parts of a set, the students made fraction caterpillars. Thank you to Mrs. Carroll from The First Grade Parade  for inspriing this wonderful idea! The students used three different colors of dot paint to create a caterpillar. They then told what part of the set each color was on their caterpillar. The students then added them to their hallway garden display.

Money

This week we have been reviewing money. One of the ways we have been reviewing money is by making small brace maps for the value of each coin on a large poster. The students sorted and added coin cards to make the larger coin's amount. For example, they said that 25 pennies is the same as 1 quarter. You can help your child with this at home by having them show you the different ways to make $0.05, $0.10, $0.25, and $0.50 with real coins.

A Cub Grows Up

Last week the students did a shared reading of the short story "A Cub Grows Up." The story is from our state textbook series. After reading, they discussed with a partner the different stages of a bear's life and what they can do in each stage. They then wrote Flow Maps individually to retell the story in their own words. After they were finished, they created their own bear cub.

Parts of a Plant

This week we have been learning about the parts of a plant and their functions. We used this great website to aid us in our learning. To assess what the students learned, they placed defintions of each plant part on a brace map. They then used the brace map definitions to create their own diagrams. The diagrams were placed on our class garden display. We will be adding more to our class garden display as we study life cycles of earthworms and frogs.

Line Measurement

Last week in computer lab we reviewed measurement using Kidspiration software. The students drew three lines of varying length and then measured them using color tiles. They then labeled the measurements and discussed with partners which was the longest and shortest. After measuring, the students blogged about their what they learned from this lesson. They also began learning how to insert pictures into their blog entries by saving and then inserting their Kidspiration measurement picture. You can read their thoughts about measurement and see their Kidspiration measurement pictures at their KidBlog.

The National Zoo

This week we have been reading and writing about various animals. Yesterday we read "Zoo Baby Boom" about ways The National Zoo helps protect animals from endangerment. After reading, the students wrote and illustrated ways zookeepers and conservationalists help the animals. As a way to elevate the interest in the lesson, the students viewed the live webcams from The National Zoo. This is a great opportunity for students to see all types of species, including those that are endangered.

Parts of a Set

To practice parts of a set, each student filled a cup with a random number of two-color counters. They then shook the cup and let the counters land on a random color. This is similar to the game "Shake Those Beans." After spilling the counters, the students counted how many total counters they had. They then counted what part was red and what part was yellow. They then created a four-part foldable to illustrate their findings. After illustrating, they labeled the pictures with statements such as "4 out of 7 are red." and "3 out of 7 are yellow." We talked about the total number staying the same and the first two numbers, the parts, adding up to equal the total amount.