March Updates

Happy Monday! The month of March sure has come and gone in a hurry! After spring break, we started an author study on Kevin Henkes. He is such a wonderful children's author and the first graders have enjoyed reading several of his stories. We are focusing on the Common Core standards of story elements and character traits while engaging in these stories. Next week I will post an update with our completed bulletin boards to show our students' hard work!

These students did a great job writing the sequence of events!

Students will be filling the board with character traits describing the different characters.

Additionally, we have been working on opinion writing during Language Arts time. Students wrote papers on their favorite season, favorite Dr. Seuss book, and why Grant Wood is the best school. I am SO impressed by the growth every child has made in their ability to compose a complete essay. This time of year is always such a good reflection on how far we have come as readers and writers! The two papers below are very impressive writing samples!

Finally, we just wrapped up our social studies unit on maps. Students learned about cardinal directions, map keys, created a classroom map, and finished by learning about the map of our world. Ask your child to tell you their continent, country, state, city, and school! :)

A reminder that the month of April will be filled with different types of end-of-year assessments. Continue to practice sight words, reading fluency, and math facts with your child!

Brylee and Tiffany ROCKED twin day on Friday! 

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Last week we celebrated Read Across America Week in honor of Dr. Seuss. Each day had a fun theme that went along with one of Dr. Seuss' books. On Wednesday, each class paired with another grade to do a teacher-switch or a buddy activity. Our class was paired with Ms. Kerr's 3rd graders! We read the book There's a Wocket in my Pocket and then the third graders helped the first graders create their very own silly creatures. The third graders were great leaders and the first graders LOVED working with them!

The students were SO engaged by the activities and books last week, that we decided to continue Dr. Seuss books and writing this week as well. Monday we read the book Oh, the Places You'll Go! and then students wrote about what they want to be when they grow up. We talked about how the "central message" of that story is that even though sometimes life can be hard and we might make mistakes, we have to keep trying and should never give up on our dreams!

"When I grow up I want to be a teacher and help children."

"When I grow up I want to be a doctor like my mom and take care of people."

"When I grow up I want to be a vet and help animals."

Oh...the places our first graders will GO!

We will end this Seusstastic unit on Friday with the creation of oobleck after reading the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Students will experiment with this interesting substance and make predictions if objects will sink or float in it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and a safe and fun Spring Break! :)