Leverett School Grade 1 Joyful Learning For Young Children 

This week we said goodbye to our insect friends.  We set our milkweed bugs free in the courtyard last Friday.  Then we showed up on Monday to find 10 brand new butterflies had emerged from their chrysalis over the weekend.  We wished them well and set them free today.

We made beautiful insect trioramas to show what we have learned about an insect’s habitat.

Our new math game of the week is called Rolling For 50.  Ask your child about it.

Have you heard about our meditating table?  I used to call it the calming table, but the kids wanted to rename it.  So we did.  This is what they came up with.  It’s a place to go when you are feeling strong emotions and you need a little quiet time.

Look at this beautiful design created during Math Workshop.

Thanks for coming together and sharing all the great ideas for Harvest Festival.  Looking forward to seeing everyone next week for Open House, Wednesday, October 5th at 5:30.

This week we started having a VIP (very important person!) who gets to present something special to the class from home.  The VIP takes questions and comments from the class and we get to know him/her a little better!  A note will come home when your child is the VIP for the week.

In math this week we made our own set of number cards and practiced ordering the numbers into a number line, comparing numbers that are greater and less to each other.  

Then partners got together to play a game called Top It using their new number cards.  Ask your child to teach you the game.  It is easy to play at home with a deck of cards.  

Today we celebrated a Day of Peace at Leverett Elementary School, following up on all the activities we did on Monday.  All classrooms met outside of school to plant pinwheels on the front lawn.  The children made them in art class.  It was a beautiful day to do this.  

Back in the classroom, it was a day of butterfly activities.  We made beautiful butterflies with tissue paper, observed our chrysalis up close, and made stick puppets to show what metamorphosis means, which was our science word of the day.  Lots of busy scientists learning these words:  larva, pupa, migrate, metamorphosis.  

So much is happening in first grade!  This week it really felt as if our routines have been established and we are well on our way to being a working community of young learners.  In math we got into teams with a partner to count blocks.  Then we practiced how to share our observations about each others work. We talked about what it means to be a mathematician.   

 

We also talked about our hopes for first grade this year.  What do you hope we learn about?  What do you hope you can do this year in first grade?  We painted and colored bright pictures, which are now hanging in the hall for you to see.

   Writer’s Workshop is also up and running!  We are learning how to be writers and how to share our ideas on paper with words and drawings.  We have tools that were introduced to help us focus and work quietly so all the writers in the room can think and concentrate.  We have headphones, offices, and quiet tables where writers can work alone.  

 

When we need to move a little we strike a yoga pose.  It’s a fun way to learn our letters.  🙂  Here are some J’s and H’s.

In the morning, we often begin our morning meeting with a sharing.  We pass around a magic wand and a microphone for the speaker to hold.  This week one question was:  What does peace mean to you?  Monday, September 19, will be a Day of Peace at LES.  We will have assemblies in the morning and in the afternoon.  See the Friday Post for details.  Parents are welcome to join us.

We are learning a lot about how to work independently with a partner  on an activity, like these ABC cards.  It’s such a great accomplishment when we work together to finish a task.  I love the smiles afterwards.

 

Tub and Rug!  Grab a rug, a stuffy, a pillow and a tub of your favorite books.  Then curl up for some quiet reading time.  Sometimes I am so tempted to join them.

 

The kids are loving our study of insects.  This week we learned about the difference between larva and nymphs.  We have examples of both growing and living in our classroom.  Ask your child about them.

Builders of the week:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

 

It’s been such a nice week getting to know the children in our class.  What a sweet, hard working group they are!  This week has been mostly about getting used to classroom routines and becoming comfortable in our new classroom.  Children are learning how to work independently in the room and how to use the many materials we have for learning.

 

As children arrive, we have materials out for them to build with and create.  You’d be amazed by the creations they come up with and the teamwork they use as they work together!

We begin our day with a morning meeting.  Each day we learn a new way to greet each other with kindness by saying hello, looking at the person and using a confident voice to say, “Hello!  Welcome to school today!”  Our greetings are a fun way to start our day and make each child feel welcomed.

Our new math game of the week is called Hop To The Pond, which is another game of counting and adding dice.

Reading workshop has started.  We are learning about the ABC games we have in the room and how to do “Tub and Rug”, where each child gets to read quietly with a favorite stuffed animal and a tub of books.

In science, our bugs have arrived!  We have milkweed bugs and caterpillars in our room that we will watch grow.  We also learned about the parts of an insect and acted them out by creating a huge class insect!

At the end of the day, the children have choice time.  Here is the first building to come out of our block building time.

Next week we will begin to do individual assessments to learn more about your child as a learner.  It’s been a wonderful start so far to a new school year.  I hope your child feels the same!  Have a great weekend.

Alissa

 

What an exciting first week in first grade!  We spent lots of time this week playing games, getting to know each other, and learning about the rules and routines that will make our classroom a fun place to learn.  Here are a few of those activities:

 

We learned about our book tubs and the many different kinds of books that are in our classroom library.  We will all become great readers this year.

We explored our math materials and used them to sort and create patterns.  We also learned a new game called Racing Dice.

We got to know the teachers who would be helping out in our classroom, Deb and Mrs. K.

We took a fun Friday walk in the woods to find a beautiful stream.  Then we went back to the classroom to write about our favorite places.

We also explored the things on our science center, including the many bugs kids have collected.  This will be our first science unit.

We sat down each day to have snack and share stories with our friends.

Next week we will continue getting to know each other and becoming more comfortable with our classroom.  Have a great weekend everyone!