PJ and Stuffy Day!!

First graders did it!  We completed 60 hours of reading homework and earned a reward!  Great work, students!!!

Mystery Rules

Guess My Secret Rule is a favorite sorting game during our geometry unit.  Partners take turns coming up with a secret rule for sorting by various attributes of shapes.  Some examples are: all the quadrilaterals, all the rectangles, all the shapes with curved sides, etc.  Students can come up with some very tricky rules!!

"How To" Books

After finishing our first writing unit on Small Moment narratives, first graders jumped right into learning about writing "How To" books.  They are learning that this is a whole different genre of writing, with a completely different purpose.  The class wrote a shared book together about How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  Each step in the process was written out in order, and today the book was put to the test!  Ms Purvee followed the steps to see if, in fact, they would lead to the making of a pb&j sandwich.  It was a success!  We ended up with an edible pb&j sandwich, although we noted some missing details that will need to be added in before publication!

Exploring Quadrilaterals

Today our math time included the discovery of a new term: quadrilateral!  What a mouthful!  We were excited to learn that it really just means a shape with four straight sides, four vertices (another new term!) and is closed.  We sorted through our power polygon sets for quadrilaterals and found out that there are many different examples of them. 

Investigating Triangles

First graders explored a variety of geometric shapes with a new tool, Power Polygons!  On this day, they sorted through their shapes for all of the triangles. Not everyone was convinced that all of the 3-sided shapes were really triangles, as they didn't look like the "regular triangles."  We will continue to investigate this!  Students also explored making triangles on Geoboards and dot paper.  

Pattern Block Fun

First graders have been doing a lot of visual/spatial activities using pattern blocks as part of our geometry unit.  Activities have included filling in various shapes, creating their own designs using a given number of blocks, figuring out how to use different, smaller pattern blocks to create a larger pattern block shape, and filling in the same shape different ways.  

Publishing Our Small Moments

We have come to the end of our first writing unit!  Writers have chosen a favorite piece, worked hard over the past week to make it the best that they can through revising and editing, and are now finishing up their illustrations.  Writers are very excited to share their stories with the kindergarten classes at the end of the week!