People Who Work For Justice

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on March 24, 2017

We just began a new social studies unit called, “People Who Work For Justice”.  We are learning about famous Americans who worked for justice in our country.  We add these people to a timeline after we read, discuss and write about their lives.  So far this is who we have studied:

To better understand what a timeline is, the children made timelines of their own lives (thanks for your help!) and shared stories from important events in their lives with their classmates.

You may see small biographies like these come home in the reading bags for homework or hear your child tell you about a favorite person we’ve read about.  We are introducing some complex, but very important, vocabulary during this unit like:  admired, valued, fair, justice, slave, rights, courage, denied, vote ….plus many more words.  Ask your child which person has been most interesting to learn about so far.

Have a great weekend!

Bear Museum!

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on March 15, 2017

Thanks to everyone who made it in today to see our Bear Museum.  The kids were so excited!  It felt a little rushed with the short school day, but we made the best of it and it felt like a success.  I hope you enjoyed seeing your child’s work.  If you took your child’s research book home, please be sure to return it to school tomorrow so it can become a proud part of our classroom library.  It will return home again at the end of the school year.  Did you learn something interesting about Bears today?!?  Thanks for coming.

We also said goodbye to our dear friend Asees this week.  She and her family are moving to a new town and will be greatly missed by all of us here at LES.  Good luck in your new school, Asees!

 

 

Almost ready….!

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on March 10, 2017

This week we had a few new stuffed animal friends join us in first grade as we prepared for our Bear Museum, which is happening next week.  We hope you can join us next Wednesday, March 15, from 9-9:30!  You will certainly be amazed by all the writing the kids have done and impressed with the displays they’ve created to teach you about the four bears we studied.  Here is a sneak peak of what we’ve been working on…..

It’s Read A Thon Day!

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on March 3, 2017

We started off our morning meeting today in our cozy pajamas with our stuffed animals at our sides.  We had a new friend, Oliver, come visit who will be joining our class in a couple weeks when he and his family return to Leverett.  For our greeting today, we introduced ourself to Oliver, introduced our stuffed animal friend, and told one really cool thing about first grade.  It was a fun way to start the day.

Then we settled in for a long, uninterrupted time to get cozy and read books.  Surprisingly, there never seems to be enough time to do this is a regular school day.  Nothing makes a first grade teacher happier than to see so many young readers genuinely engaged in the joy of reading.  Success!  They have it down.  Many readers found a friend and got right to work.

 

 

Then our fourth grade buddies came in and it was time for us to be brave and read to them, or a chance for us to sit back and be read to.  Either way, the kids love this time with the older kids.

This week we have been busy at work making our own books, too.  Our bear research is complete, and now the children are using what they learned to create their own chapter books!  A huge task for these first graders, but they are doing it!  This week we worked on creating a diagram of the bear each child studied and a map showing where in the world the bear lives.

In math, we have started our study of place value.  Kids are playing a game called Base 10 Exchange, which helps them see the difference between ones, tens and hundreds.

For homework, your child is bringing home a mini book we made today that uses all decodable words we are learning in Fundations.  Ask your child to show you the digraphs, bonus letters, and base words with a suffix.  These are all word parts we are studying in Fundations.  Have your child read the story to you for homework, scooping the words as they read aloud with expression.  It’s great reading practice!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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