Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our first grade family to yours!

I am so blessed to have the opportunity to work with these smiling faces each day!

Questioning

Allow us to introduce you to Quincy the Questioner - a game show host that is constantly asking questions with his microphone!

First grade added a new comprehension strategy, QUESTIONING, to their repertoires before Thanksgiving break.  We now know that readers ask questions, before, during, and after reading.  We ask questions before reading to preview and predict by accessing our schema.  In first grade we know the expensive word schema as the little file in our brain where all of our prior experiences and knowledge is stored.  [Go ahead and try asking your first grader what the word schema is - I bet they surprise you!]  We continue to ask questions during our reading, to not just read, but dig deeper into our understanding.  And finally, we ask even more questions after we finish the text because we may (and almost always) still have some unanswered thoughts or wonderings. 

Take a look at our little questioners using their microphones to ask questions while reading a biography about Dr. Suess:

Ask your child who Quincy the Questioner is, and encourage them to ask questions while reading at home!  You can model this strategy by using who, what, where, when, why, and I wonder statements.

1st Grade Meteorologists

Our weather unit is up and running in first grade! Throughout this unit we will discuss the tools meteorologists use to measure, forecast, and report the weather. We will also conduct a variety of experiments for a hands-on approach. 

Wind speed was our focal point last week. We discussed that wind itself is invisible, so we must use our environment to determine the severity of the wind. Therefore, to informally measure the wind speed we utilized a numerical scale: 0-no wind, 1-some wind, and 2-strong wind. Our first graders created flags as tools to measure the wind speed, and we ventured outside to see the effects the wind had on our flags. 

On this particular day we came to a consensus that that the wind was at a level 1-some wind, with some level 2 gusts on occasion. We confirmed our observations by looking on weather.com to see the specific wind speed for Quakertown. 

Talk with your first grader about the varying experiments we will conduct over the next month and a half. Consider having your child look on weather.com, a comparable weather app, or the local news forecast each day to gain an understanding of how the temperature changes daily and the implications these temperatures have on our clothing choices. 

After Thanksgiving break we will create rain gauges and determine the best fabric to wear on a rainy day. 

Reading Resource

Raz-Kids is a wonderful reading resource to utilize at home with your 1st grader.  The children may listen to books, read books on their own, and then reflect on their understanding of the texts.  The texts presented are on your child's current personalized reading level.  Be sure to check out this resource by using the following link:

http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login

o   Login

o   Teacher Username: kburrowsg

o   Have your child find his or her name

Don't forget - These books may also be used to log your child's reading each night! 

In addition, our class will be attending the book fair this coming Monday.  If you would like your child to purchase any books please send in their money in a labeled envelope.

Have a great weekend!

Descriptive Writing

We have been using our senses to make our writing more descriptive.  We built on our knowledge of senses from Kindergarten to revise our writing and add details about what we can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear.  Here is a glimpse of our descriptive partner writing about the weather:

"A Sunny Day"

 

We hear some birds.  Chirp!  Chirp!  We see the blue sky.  We smell the flowers.  We Feel the Trees.

 

"A Sunny Day"

 

The wind is cold.  We can see the sun.  We can hear the birds.  We can smell the fresh morning air. 

  

Over the past few weeks we have been learning about and using adjectives. Our first graders know that adjectives are describing words.  This week we brainstormed as many adjectives as we could think of to describe the inside and outside of the pumpkin. 

  

We especially loved feeling the inside of the pumpkin which allowed for some very creative adjectives!

 

 

Have a safe and fun Halloween!





We're on TV!

From time to time the high school broadcasting students visit our classroom and videotape what we are learning.  During our community helpers unit the high school students visited us twice, to document the firefighter and police officer visit.  These videos have been edited and are broadcast on the Quakertown cable channel.  They can also be viewed using the following links:

Firefighter Visit:

 

http://qcsd.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=4ba0a49306341be60f1573530d338e5c

 

Police Officer Visit:

 

http://qcsd.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=474766e7a763b17e5bd1cafb77746add

 

 

Enjoy!

Community Helpers

Community helpers was the topic of our Social Studies learning over the past week and a half. We discussed community helpers such as doctors, nurses, teachers, construction workers, firefighters, mail carriers, and police officers. We  discussed what these professions look like and the tools these community helpers utilize to perform their jobs. 

We were lucky enough to have an officer from the Quakertown Police Department visit our first grade to share about his daily duties and provide us with some important safety tips!  Some of our friends even earned official police badges by answering the officer's questions correctly. 

As we conclude our first Social Studies unit on communities, talk with your first grader about what he or she would like to be when they grow up. As our final project we will be finishing the sentence, "When I grow up I want to be ______ because . . . "

Look for the finished projects in the hallway by our classroom at the end of the week!

Fabulous Friday

Lunch Bunch

Every other Friday we celebrate good behavior by having Lunch Bunch.  Friends are invited to Lunch Bunch, where we eat in the classroom, when they illustrate good choices by staying on green or a rainbow color for two straight weeks.  This past Friday was a special one, because ALL of our friends were invited to Lunch Bunch for the first time!  It was a wonderful treat to have our whole class enjoy lunch together in the classroom.  Keep up the great work 1st grade!

Rainy Day Reading

There's no better way to spice up a rainy Friday then with some Rainy Day Reading!  After rereading last week's story, Lucia's Neighborhood, we listened to the text on CD to practice our reading fluency.  Students got into groups of three, one child was the page turner, one the flashlight holder, and one the word pointer.  Then we turned off the lights and it was time to read!  Now we have something to smile about inside even when the weather may be dreary outside.  

Class Pet

Congratulations to our first graders!  They have earned a class pet by spelling out their reward C-L-A-S-S  P-E-T letter by letter.  The children earn letters when the whole class is exceeding expectations.  On Friday afternoon we brainstormed pets we could have in the classroom that could be kept in a cage and/or tank and did not have any hair or fur due to allergies.  We came up with a lot of great ideas.  Snakes, turtles, fish, and even tarantulas - Yikes!  We took a class vote, and the winner is...FISH!  Ask your first grader to share about our new pet's arrival tomorrow afternoon.

Firefighter Visit!

October is National Fire Prevention Month.  The firefighters from Quakertown Fire Department visited QE today to share important safety tips and give our 1st grade friends a look inside their fire trucks.  We started off our day with an assembly where we discussed the concept of stop, drop, and roll, smoke detectors, and how important it is to have a family meeting place in case of an emergency.  We got to see all of the equipment a firefighter wears to combat a fire along with hearing the firefighter speak with his mask on so that we are familar with the sounds and are not afraid in case of an emergency.  

After the assembly we went back to the classroom to discuss and write the facts and safety tips we learned from the firefighters.  Then it was time for the highly anticipated look inside the fire trucks!  We were walked around the outside of the fire truck first to learn about all of the different tools and ask any questions.  Finally, our friends got a chance to climb inside the rescue truck and also sit in the driver's seat!  

The firefighters could not have come at a better time, as we begin talking about community helpers in Social Studies next week!  Be sure to have your 1st grader share their fact writing from today and read you their mini-book!

And a HUGE thank you to the Quakertown Fire Department for creating such a great day for our primary students!

Apples, Apples, Apples!

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Did you know Johnny Appleseed was a real person named John Chapman?  We celebrated Johnny's birthday by doing a variety of activities with apples.  Each first grade friend brought in an apple on September 27th.  We began by sorting our apples by size, shape, and color.  We collected data on the colors of our apples by creating a tally chart.  From there we took the data from our tally chart and created a bar graph that allowed us to analyze the data by asking questions such as - Which color apple did our class have the most/least of?  How many green apples and yellow apples did we have in all?  How many more red apples did we have than yellow apples?

We also read two biographies about Johnny Appleseed and, together, took notes about what we learned.  After this we read and colored our own mini-book and puppet to share everything we learned we our family and friends.  

Finally, we just HAD TO taste our delicious apples!  As we ate our apples we brainstormed adjectives using our sense of sight, taste, touch, and smell to create list poems.  These lovely apple poems are currently hanging on our classroom windows.  

YUM!

Labels and Captions

Our writing over the past two weeks has focused on labels and captions.  Last week we discussed how we can label our pictures to give our readers more information.  We practiced this skill by traveling around the room in groups and labeling different parts of pictures.  

This week we have taken our writing a step further by creating captions.  We learned that in addition to labeling our pictures, we can also write a caption to provide more details that answer the questions: Who? and What?  Yesterday we went on an adventure around the building and took pictures with our iPads and then provided a caption for each picture.  Then we created our own pictures on our whiteboards and wrote captions.  Some of us even included labels as well!

"I am spray painting my pumpkin"

"My baby brother"

"Riding a roller coaster"

Encourage your child to write at home!  Give your 1st grader a notepad to help you write a list for the grocery store.  Have him or her write a note to a relative and send it in the mail.  (And encourage your relatives to send a letter in return!)  Create a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt by enlisting the help of your 1st grader to write clues to post around the house for a sibling or family member to solve.  Keep a journal or diary where you and your child draw pictures and write about your favorite memories.  

Most importantly, PRAISE your child for any and all writing.  This is the best time to boost our children's writing confidence and stamina as we move toward more conventional writing throughout the year.  

Number Detectives and Math Games

Number Detectives 

To kick off our first unit in math our 1st graders were challenged with becoming  NUMBER DETECTIVES!  We used magnifying glasses and hunted around the room to discover all of the places we noticed numbers.  We found numbers on the calendar, number line, dice, rulers, stickers, etc.  Ultimately we were able to discover that numbers are everywhere within our classroom, school, and community.

Encourage your 1st grader to notice numbers all around them in their everyday lives!  Look for numbers on road signs, sports jerseys, advertisements, etc.  Choose a number and ask your child to tell the number that is one more and one less, or choose two numbers and ask your child to compare which number is more and which is less and explain how they know.  

Math Games

Reinforcing skills and concepts through games is a large part of the 1st grade math curriculum.  Our children thrive on learning through play.  Last week we learned our first math game of the year - Penny Dice.  This game reinforces counting skills and one-to-one correspondence to 20, as well as number comparisons. 

To play Penny Dice partners use a bank of twenty pennies.  Each partner rolls the dice, and in turn, takes the number of pennies from the bank that is indicated by the dice.  The game is over when there are no more pennies left in the bank.  At this time both players count their pennies and determine who has more.  The player with the most pennies at the conclusion of the game wins.  

Play this game at home by gathering 20 pennies (or 20 of any object if coins are at a minimum - legos, pebbles, macaroni - anything will do!) and dice.  Don't have dice but have an iPhone or iPad?  Download the virtual Dice app for free!  (This app will come in handy for games throughout the year.)  If your 1st grader needs a challenge, use more than 20 objects in the bank, and when determining a winner, have them count their pennies in groups of five while using their math vocabulary to explain more and less.  

Happy Gaming!

Welcome!

Welcome to the 2013-2014 School Year!  

First grade is such an exhilarating year of growth and exploration both academically and socially, and I could not be more excited to be sharing it with you and your little one.    This blog will serve as a photographic timeline that will give friends and families a glimpse into the excitement that takes place in our classroom each day.  So bookmark this site or subscribe to the posts and get ready to join us on our journey through first grade!