Leverett School Grade 1 Joyful Learning For Young Children 

This is one of my favorite days of the year.  I think the kids would definitely agree.  Kids came to school in pajamas with stuffed animals, favorite books and cozy blankets, ready to settle in for a long day of reading.  We started the day at our morning meeting practicing how to introduce someone by introducing our beloved stuffed animals to the class.

 

We learned how to read a recipe and we all helped out by adding something to our crock pot of hot chocolate that simmered in the room for most of the day.  

We had lots of independent reading time.

We also had two surprise guest readers come to our class.

We got to drink some of that warm hot chocolate right after a cold recess outside and raised our glasses in a toast to friendship.

We made Thanksgiving cards for our families and talked about all the things our hearts are grateful for.

We finally met our 4th grade reading reading buddies.  Each first grader was partnered up with a fourth grade friend to read to.  They started out interviewing each other and then chose books to read together.

As you can see, lots of fun reading today!!  Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Have you heard about our dance parties?  Sometimes I forget to highlight the fun parts of first grade.  Several times a days a dance song goes on and the kids know it’s time to clean the room and dance to the rug before the song is over.  It’s a lot of fun.  We’ve collected some pretty fun dance songs over the year.  Ask your child about a favorite one.  Here are some pics of the kids dancing along to a yoga song about greeting the sun with a sun salutation.

The votes have been counted.  We are now proudly being called “The First Grade Lightning Bolts”.

We also learned about partner reading today.  “Elbow to elbow, knee to knee, I read to you, you read to me….”  Pairs joined up to choose books to read to each other.

We have started our next unit on mapping.  This week we read an excellent book called “Me On The Map”. We worked together to make a map of our school and put it up on our bulletin board in the hallway.  Then children made a book about where in the world they lived.  We looked at and studied maps of our town, state, country, continent and world.  Those beautiful books went home yesterday.  Make sure to have your child read it to you.  Next week, your child will bring home family homework to talk about places in the world that are important to you.

Coming up next Tuesday:  Pajama Day!  This is a favorite day for all of us.  Cozy pajamas, favorite stuffed animals and blankets, slippers and books are all encouraged to come to school with your child on Tuesday.  It is our all school read-a-thon day.

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Here are some pictures of the beautiful animal/fairy houses the children made out of pumpkins with Miss Sherri while I was gone.

Look at us all dressed up for Character Day!  We were dressed up as favorite characters from books we love in honor of Halloween.

 

The election may have been quite controversial in our country, but it was a happy day in first grade.  Children filled out voter registration cards to make sure they were eligible to vote.  (You had to be at least 6 years old and a member of LES First Grade.)

We created a ballot box and a ballot question.  What should be our class name?  The First Grade Lightning Bolts or the First Grade Cheetahs?  Each child was able to cast a vote.

At the end of the day we counted out ballots and it was a tie!  We are waiting for a couple classmates to return to school and then we will add their absentee ballots to the pile to see if we can come up with a winner.  We’ll let you know the results soon!