Happy, Happy, Happy

Happy solstice, happy holidays, and happy new year from the Ice Owls!

Week 15

We've been learning all about what makes the seasons on Earth, the winter solstice, and all of the celebrations of light that happen during this dark time of year.  On Thursday a traveling planetarium visited Rowe School to teach us more about our solar system!

Students have been editing and publishing final drafts of their realistic fiction stories!

We've been learning all about place value in math!  Students have been building numbers with base 10 blocks, comparing numbers by looking at the tens place, and counting dimes and pennies.

On Friday Mrs. Wolinsky taught us how to use the Addimals app on our ipads.  This is a terrific way for students to become more fluent with addition math facts through the sum of 20.

Week 14

We've been learning about the solar system, planet Earth, and what makes day and night. Check out Seesaw to see and hear students sharing their knowledge on this topic!

In readers workshop we've been spying on our characters and using post-it notes to mark spots that show character feelings.

In word study we've been learning about when to use bonus letters (f, l, s) at the end of words.

On Friday Mrs. Wolinsky lead us in the Hour of Code.  Students learned how to use the app Kodable to create code!

Week 13

In science we've started studying the sun.  As students learned more about the sun each day, they wrote their new sun knowledge on orange rays and added them to our sun.  Next week we will start learning more about what makes day and night.

In writers workshop students started using checklists to help them revise their realistic fiction stories.

On Friday Mrs. Wolinsky taught us how to use the Chatterpix app.  Students used it to make their realistic fiction characters talk! Check it out on Seesaw!


In math we've started practicing strategies to get fact power.  Students brainstormed strategies to use in order to get the answers to addition facts quickly and played games to practice those strategies.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our class surpassed our goal of 99 food items to donate to the Rowe School food drive!  We collected 112 items, adding to Rowe's grand total of 745 items!

On Tuesday, students decorated our hallway with their completed symmetrical turkey projects!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

Week 11!

We've been studying Pilgrim families living at Plimoth Plantation this week!  Students have been comparing and contrasting our families with the Pilgrim families from the 1600's.

Check out your child's Seesaw blog for more!

In math we've been measuring everything in sight!

We started a Thanksgiving symmetry project in math on Friday.  Students created symmetrical designs with pattern blocks.  Next week they will turn their designs into symmetrical turkeys!

In writers workshop students have been fancying up their story endings by adding details to make the story come to life.

Thank you for all of the donations to the Rowe School Food Drive!  We are only 11 items away from meeting our class collection goal of 99 items!

10 Weeks in First Grade!

We kicked off our Families: Comparison Through Cultural Traditions unit by learning more about each others' family structures.  Take a peek at your child's Seesaw account to view the family structures we created in class this week.

We completed unit 3 of Everyday Math this week! Unit 4 will focus on:

-measurement

-doubles math facts

-adding three numbers

-place value 

The annual Rowe School food drive begins next week!  The Ice Owls are trying to reach their goal of collecting     non perishable food and personal care items.  Please help out our local families in need by donating if you are able!

Week 9

We finished publishing our small moment stories and celebrated with a publishing party with Mrs. Lincoln's class!

Our next writing unit is realistic fiction!

In readers workshop we've been working on strategies to tackle tricky words in our reading.

We were lucky enough to have Chewonki visit our school to teach us more about owls.  They even brought a live screech owl, barred owl, and great horned owl with them!

Ozzy the Screech Owl

Byron the Barred Owl

Olivia the Great Horned Owl

Week 8!

In math we've been practicing adding and subtracting on a number line, solving number stories, and estimating and counting large quantities of objects.

On Wednesday we had our second  whole school community meeting!

In science we've started studying owls!  On Thursday we dissected barn owl pellets (sterilized) and determined what the owl ate for dinner!

Students have finished publishing their small moment stories!  Next week we will share them with the students in Mrs. Lincoln's class.

Students are now bringing home books to read from their independent reading levels.  Please remind your child to put completed books back in his/her purple folder to return to school. 

Some things to consider:

-The texts should be easy for your child to read.  If a book is too difficult, send it back in for a better fitting book.

-When your child comes to a difficult word (we call them trick words) encourage the use of one of these strategies:

Tap it out (sound it out)

Chunk it up into smaller parts

Skip the word and read the rest of the sentence

Reread the sentence

Ask “What word would make sense?”

-Ask your child to retell the story (fiction) or share three facts (nonfiction) after reading to strengthen comprehension.