This Monday, December 21st, we will evoke the mood of Chris Van Alsburg's Polar Express by reading the story to the first grade as they sip on hot chocolate in their pajamas. Please have your child bring their pajamas into school to change into (they will need their street clothes for outside recess). We will serve the children hot chocolate and cookies made in the cafeteria. (If your child has food issues and cannot have the chocolate chip cookies or hot chocolate made by our cafeteria staff, please feel free to send a special treat in for them to have at this time).
Mr. Scherston came into our class on Friday to teach the class how to "code." We downloaded the Lightbot app onto our iPads and Mr. Scherston explained to the class how to move the robot around with their pre-programmed commands. By programming their robot to move or hop forward, left or right, the children learned how to think ahead and then reprogram their robot based on their "mistakes." They had a great time and will continue to work on coding using the Lightbot app throughout the year.
Below are photos of the children participating in the annual Hour of Code. Ask your child about it and download the app at home to continue the educational fun:
Below you will be able to listen to your child's farm story which was created after a unit of study on farm animals and a trip to Davis Farmland. Instead of writing about the entire field trip experience, the students were instructed to think of a special moment from the trip. They then took that isolated event and went on to describe what they saw, heard, felt and smelled.
1. First the class was taught the features of a great personal narrative.
2. Next the children wrote the first draft of their story on paper, focusing on details in the beginning, middle and end.
3. After editing and revising with teacher assistance, the children began to publish their book by typing the words of their story into the BookCreator app on their iPad. They also illustrated their words using the Drawing Pad app and then uploaded their drawings into their book. Afterward, they recorded themselves reading their story.
4. The Children's stories were then converted into a video and they had a celebration! They listened to each other's stories and offered positive feedback in writing to each other.
5. Below you will be able to watch and listen to your child's story (which has been converted into a Youtube video) with your child. So grab a cup of tea or your favorite beverage and enjoy listening to as many stories with your child as you like!
Happy thanksgiving to each and every one of you! I am so grateful to be able to be a part of your children's lives. Thank you for sharing your children with me and thank you for all of your support. Here are a few photos from our School-wide Thanksgiving Day assembly:
Emma was the classroom representative for "Pin the Tail on the Turkey." The tail was decorated by all of the children in the class and Emma was chosen randomly to be the blindfolded participant.
Math Fun! Here are some photos of the children playing subtraction games. These partner games help to teach more than just math. They teach the children how to work cooperatively and take turns:
Here the children are demonstrating Fact Families in Math by changing the order of the equal sign:
Farm Fun!
Here the class is writing their Research Reports on animals before our field trip:
Field Trip Photos:
Down on the Farm
Here are some photos from our trip to Davis Farmland! The children are using these photos to write about their favorite moment of the trip in their first non-fiction narrative writing to be published. Keep on the lookout on this blog for future farm stories written by the children themselves!
A big thanks to all of the parents who volunteered to chaperone this trip! I hope that you had as much fun as the children did! We couldn't have done it without you! :) Thanks also to those who volunteered to chaperone but were not chosen for this trip. Not to worry as we will have future field trips which will need chaperones too!
