Leverett School Grade 1 Joyful Learning For Young Children 

Our last couple days of 1st Grade in 2014 were busy, full ones.  Look at all the food 1st Grade brought in for the Amherst Survival Center!  As children brought food in from home, they sorted it and added it to our graph.  We talked about what it means to be generous and how this is a perfect time of year to practice it!  

We continued to work on our Teaching Books, practicing all the ways we can add details to our books that teach our readers about a topic.

We finished our unit on American Symbols.  1st graders took notes on a circle map about their favorite symbol, wrote 3 teaching sentences about their symbol, drew a picture and made a collage picture to go with it.  They put it all together on a poster that is now hanging outside our classroom.

Today was Pajama Day!  Oh, what fun!  Stuffed animals and all.  To start the day our 4th grade buddies came in and we made mitten ornaments to share with each other.

Then we turned into little elves and made holiday cards for our families and for the other teachers in the school.  The kids had a lot of fun delivering their cards to their special someone.  And boy did they look cute walking down the halls in their pj’s with their handmade cards full of well wishes!

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy holiday break!!

 

On Friday the 1st Graders went up on stage during our All School Assembly to sing two songs.  The first song, “As Far As Eyes Can Sea”, was a song we sing often in our classroom during clean up time to help us remember the names of the continents and oceans.  The second song, “This Little Light Of Mine”, was in honor of all the holidays we have been reading about that use light in their celebrations during this dark time of year.  I hope you enjoy seeing them sing.  They sure were cute up there and had a lot of fun being performers on stage for all!

 

Grade 1 December Assembly from Karin Gravina on Vimeo.

Our classroom worked together

to fill our jar!

So the 1^st Graders have voted to have pajama day as our special reward.

 Tuesday, December 23

 1^st Graders are invited to wear pajamas, slippers and bring a special stuffed animal to school.

 Way to go, 1^st Grade!

Look at these cool, new noise canceling headphones that Uli’s family sent in for us.  The kids love to wear them, especially at writing time, to help them concentrate and worker better.  And they work!  

During math we’ve moved on to measuring with standard units of measurement like inches and feet.  Here are the kids measuring things in the room.

Here is our newest math game matching times to the hour and half hour.

 

This is the coolest design of the week that was made with pattern blocks during our morning work time.

 

Come to the assembly this Friday, December 19th at 2:15 and we will sing a song for you about maps!

Today we made lights out of clay using silver branches and tea lights.  We’ve been reading books about several of the holidays celebrated during this dark time of year.  Many of the holidays use light in some way in their celebrations.  We’ve read about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and Winter Solstice.  These beautiful lights will be coming home with the children soon!  First we need to use them for a special surprise song at the assembly.  We hope this light brightens up your home during these dark days.  Happy Holidays, everyone!!

Look at these beginning programmers!  In computer lab this week, Mrs. Gravina had us begin an “Hour of Code” which is a national program taking place across the country introducing thousands of children to coding.  

In social studies, we made our own American flags and learned about our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”.

 

In math we began measuring using non-standard units of measurement like our hands, feet, arm span and paces.

In writing we met with our writing partners to get feedback on our new non fiction writing books the kids just started writing.  What are you an expert at?  This is the question I asked them and what great responses I heard!  Frozen, fairy house, birds, skateboarding, goats, the White House, swimming and so many more topics!  We are learning a lot having so many experts in the room!

 

In Fundations we are learning about bonus letters:  s, l, and f.  Ask your child when you need to use a bonus letter at the end of a word.