Length, Perimeter, and Area oh my!

Our first grader's have been acting like mathematicians this week by studying units of measurement. They have been working with their partners to find the length, perimeter, and area of their feet!!!

The students paired up to trace their partner's shoe in their math journal. Then each student used square tiles to measure the length, or how long, the perimeter, or how many around, and the area, how many in the middle. You will see a problem like this on this week's math homework. Instead of tiles, students will use pennies to measure their shoe. What else could you measure at home?

Comparing Numbers!!!

Our first graders can't get enough of the math game Compare! It's a fun game we play with number cards. The game allows the students to practice identifying which number is greater. The students play in pairs flipping over one card at a time; It's just like the classic game "War". You win the game by collecting all of the cards from your partner. You can play this game at home simply by using regular playing cards (just take out the royals). The kids love it and it's great practice!

We will soon learn "Double Compare" where students will have to combine, or add, two cards together before playing their turn.

We Love Ms. Bebe!

I'd like to take this time to thank Ms. Bebe for giving up her valuable time to help out in our classroom. Ms. Bebe is Kendall's grandmother and an amazing asset to our class and school. Thank you ms. Bebe for all your hard work. We appreciate you!!!

Our Comprehension Skill of the Week...

We are working on comparing and contrasting! The boys and girls have been busy finding things that are the same and things that are different in stories we have read together. We started the week by comparing and contrasting the main character in Miss Nelson is Missing by James Marshall. The students practiced the skill by comparing themselves to a buddy at their table. Today we discovered many ways bats and birds can be compared while reading the sweet story of Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. Tomorrow we will work on our new skill independently in centers where the students will choose two books from their reading bags to compare and contrast. Happy Reading!

We Will Never Forget...

This weekend we will remember a very imporatant day in our country's history. The 10 year anniversary of September 11th is this Sunday. Since there will be countless news reports and TV specials covering the subject matter I thought it was important to discuss the event with our students. Since none of the students were even alive in 2001, and being they are 6 and 7, it was important to handle the matter in "child-like" terms and language.

I shared a very special book with the class titled September 12th: We Knew Everything Would be Alright written by the first grade students at H. Byron Masterson Elementary School in Kennett, Missouri. This book was written, illustrated, and told through the eyes of a first grader. It is an excellent, light hearted book for dealing with very heavy material.

We also discussed the meaning and colors of the flag, the symbol of freedom for our contry.  We remembered the people who fought for our freedom on that day in September by wearing a yellow string tied around our finger today.

I shared another story, not about the events of September 11th, but about the great Twin Towers that no longer stand tall. The story was called The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. It was a true story about a street performer names Philippe Petit who walked across the twin towers on a very thin cable in 1974. It was an intriguing story that kept the children on the edge of their seats and gave them a little insight about the towers that once were.

Science Matters!!!

This week in science we have began discussing the phases of matter. We learned new vocabulary words such as matter, mass, solid, liquid, and gas. We will continue observing, describing, and exploring the phases of matter for the next few weeks.

Here's something you can try at home: Take some ice cubes and let your child observe them. Encourage them to use their five senses to explore the cubes (seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, and hearing). Put the cubes somewhere safe and let them melt. Have discussion with your child about what is happening to the cubes. You have now taken the cubes from a solid to a liquid. Adults, put the melted cubes (water) in a pot and bring to a boil on the stove and let your child observe the steam coming from the pot. Now your cubes have been through all 3 phases of matter!!!

Check out what Bill Nye the Science Guy has to say about matter...

Reading in First Grade!

We have been learning about two helpful comprehension strategies this week. We have been practicing making predictions before reading a story by looking at the cover of a book, the title, and using the knowledge we already know about the subject matter. The story I chose to model this strategy was How I Became a Pirate by David Shannon. The students made predictions before reading the story. Once I began reading we stopped at a crucial point when Jeremy Jacob came face to face with a group of strange pirates. At this time the students used their crystal balls to predict the outcome and events in the rest of the story.

We were also working on putting the events of the story in sequential order starting with the beginning and working our way to the end. Today we found out just what happened to our main character, Jeremy Jacob. After finishing the story, the students illustrated and wrote about events from the story that happened first, next, then and last. Check out our work on this month's bulletin board outside our classroom!