Tuesday, November 25th

WHAT'S COOKING????

A VEGETABLE SOUP FEAST!!!!

Well, here's what WAS cooking (AND LATER EATEN:) today in Mrs. Blue's 1st Grade classroom!  And,  pictures  (as well as hearty appetites!) speak a thousand words!!!

 

 

 

  

 

  

AND, MR. MEYER WAS THE FIRST OF MANY INVITED  GUESTS!!!!!

Many thanks to our "sous chefs", Noah's mom, Wade's mom, and Mr. Blue!  And, to Corbin's mom for supplying a crockpot!  More cooking experiences yet to come!!!!! 

HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING WITH YOUR "FIRSTIES",  FAMILIES, AND FRIENDS!

Friday, November 21st

Role Models at Work

If you thought you had to be an adult sports hero or entertainment idol to be a role model…think again!  Tyler, an exceptional fourth grader at Elm Creek, visited our first grade class this morning to talk about the benefits of being active. And, we were all thinking that we wanted to be just like him when we were in 4^th grade!

Tyler did an amazing job explaining to our first graders how they could/should become more physically active and how to record their achievements.  Students will receive a FuelUp Play 60 Calendar that provides a place to record their physical activity. 

                         
          

Look for more details next week! And, join us in our commitment to be physically active and fit! 

As we continue our conversations about Family, Foods, and Traditions, we will move into the Thanksgiving week celebrating those things that families do together and for each other. We will share some Native American stories while exploring the wonder of the First Thanksgiving.  Thank you for the conversations you are having with your “firsties” about traditions and things that are important to you and your family. We will continue to document and record these wonderful experiences through the eyes of first graders during the next few weeks.

Because of the short week, we will not have any Home Learning Experiences. We will continue our work with this week’s Word Work List. And, we will talk, read, and write about what “thankful” means and how to express it to others.

And…we will cook Vegetable Soup together on Tuesday! 

Monday, November 17th

COOK-A-DOODLE-DOO

Be sure to ask your "firstie" about the Little Red Hen's Magnificent Strawberry Shortcake recipe!  Today, we enjoyed a delicious snack!

And, as we continue our conversations about Thanksgiving, we played a Native American Trading Game!

Here's how it works:

Player rolls a dice and collects beans, corn kernels, stones, and beads and "trades up" until a winner is declared!  

3 beans = 1 corn kernel

3 corn kernels = 1 stone

3 stones = 1 bead

3 beads = WINNER!

 

This is a new concept for these young mathematicians, so we will be practicing a lot this week!

Friday, November 14th

Mathematicians At Work

We began our week celebrating the first snow of the school year, and we had a wonderful day!  You can’t really celebrate snow without a snowman!  And, while we didn’t build one outside, we did create models and estimate how many “snowballs” it would take to build a snowman. We learned some strategies for estimating-making educated guesses with numbers.

 

And, this week we continued our conversations about food! We read and talked about corn!  Today, we practiced estimating by looking at a model of an ear of corn and determining how many kernels would cover the corncob.

 

          

So, what to do about those snow clothes????

I think I have found some of the pieces that were “missing”! If your first grader does not come home with what you sent, please let me know, so I can “investigate”.

Here is our procedure for the winter that seems to already be here:

Students arrive at school and come to their locker.

1. They hang their snowpants on the locker door.

2. I will let them know if they need to keep snow boots on or put on other shoes if they have them.

3. Bring  coats, hats, gloves, and mittens into the classroom for our morning walk or jog, which is determined by weather conditions.

4. Bring Take Home Folders into room and put into the Take Home Cubicle.

After our morning jog/walk, students will put snow boots in the designated area in the hall and put coats, hats, scarves, and mittens in their lockers. They will not access them again until Recess (unless we take an outdoor break in the morning).

When students come in from recess, they follow the same procedure that they follow when they come in the morning: Boots in designated area, snowpants hanging on lockers, coats, hats, and mittens, in the locker.

At the end of the day, we start this process 10 minutes earlier to help these firsties get home with the clothes they came with! :)

To celebrate our conversations about Family, Food, and Traditions, we will be “cooking” on Tuesday, November 25^th, using Lois Ehlert’s book,

Growing Vegetable Soup, as our guide.   I am in need of four crockpots and “approved volunteers” for the morning of the 25^th from 9:30 – 10:30.  Let me know if you can help with either or both of those requests.

If you haven’t sent the favorite family recipe/meal, please do so this week as we are putting together a Family, Food, Tradition Class Book.

I would like to thank you again for the time you will spend with your first grader having rich conversations about family traditions and celebrations.