Hello and happy last full week of April. We celebrated earth day on Wednesday with 4 stations and 4 really great lessons about birds. We learned about different species of birds, bird beaks, migration, nests and more. It was a beautiful day for an outside adventure. We were even able to put one of our lessons to use already this week! We had a bird repeatedly running into our window so we put up a big black paper bird. It worked! It scared the bird away and it stopped running into our window. So glad we were able to learn about that just one day before!
Thematic Centers:
This week for our author's unit we studied Helen Lester. She wrote many famous books that I bet are in many of our homes. Her books are full of many great morals. Tacky is a class favorite, so of course we read that this week! Do not forget that in honor of Tacky and Helen Lester, tomorrow is TACKY DAY! We rotated through 4 centers:
1. Trace and cut out a penguin. Cover with tissue paper!
2. Pick 1 tutorial of how to draw a penguin step by step and draw one. Write 3 penguin facts.
3. Go on a "sound walk" and listen for different things like a dog, plane, car etc. This is because we read the book Listen Buddy which was about being a good listener.
4. Play a board game called "Good Manners" that allows you to move forward when you 'use a good manner' and it makes you move backward when you 'do something mean.' This game goes with Hooway for Wodney Wat which is a book that talks about treating your friends nicely and using good manners!
Reader's Workshop:
We are still working on individual reading goals and passion projects. We even had a few guest readers from the middle school come over and read individually with us. What a treat! We have kids starting to "finish" many of their writing pieces for their bare book which is exciting. Right now, most of us are in the editing process. It has been neat to hear everyone talk about publishing their pieces. They are so excited to show their friends and family members!
We are also almost done with out 1st grade handwirintg books. Yahoo!
Math Workshop:
This week we learned a new game that works on addition and subtraction. You pull out a "target number" and place it at the top of your game board. These target numbers are 30's-90's. After that you pull out 6 random numbers in the single digits and place them on the game board below the target number. Then you play around with the 6 numbers using addition and subtraction to come up with the target number. The kids loved this! It was a real brain teaser.
**It may appear that we have not done as much as we usually do because we are really practicing for this play! We try to run through everyone's lines at least once (but usually twice) each day. We also practice all 4 play songs twice a day too. We really want to be ready for the show next week!
**Do not forget to practice play lines! Our play is on April 30th in the gym at 11:00. Afterwards we will come back to the classroom for refreshments and the gallery crawl.
**I have decided to open scholastic for the rest of the year to anytime you want to place an order. Just email me after you put a book order in and I will go in and submit it!
I will not be at school tomorrow as I have come down with stomach bug symptoms. Watch for that yucky bug going around! I thought all this stuff was supposed to leave when we said goodbye to winter. :) Don't worry though. We have been cloroxing like crazy with the hopes it will not spread!
Poem in Your Pocket Day: April 30th We will be celebrating this at school! Please allow your child to carry a poem in their pocket on this day. It can be handwritten, copied, typed etc. It can be a new one, a memorized one or an old favorite. Short or long...it does not matter! We just want to celebrate the beauty of poetry!
Have a happy weekend!
Mrs. Schultz
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