Mornings in First Grade

One of the goals for first graders is to become more independent.  As the year progresses they are taking on more responsibility.  Their growth is especially evident with our morning routine. 

By now all the students are experienced with every day tasks like putting away their belongings and greeting the teachers & friends.  As they arrive, students check to see what the morning work is and readily join in.  

We start the day with a variety of activities, generally connected to math on Mondays & Fridays  and reading & writing on Tuesdays & Thursdays.  (Wednesdays are less structured as we head to Meeting for Worship by 8:20.)

Here’s a peek into a first grade morning. 

We offered a variety of activities & games that use skills we want to practice.  Students also are exercising social skills as they work cooperatively. 

One group plays word bingo with Susan.

Another group plays Vowel Bingo with Caroline.

Others practice grammar skills with the Silly Sentences game.

definitely some silly sentences here!

Another small group uses the letter connecting cubes to spell out words and phrases.

Students help each other sort and find the letters they need.

Oliver was quite proud of his work.

 

Sometimes students use the time to catch up on unfinished work.

With 4 teachers available, mornings are also an opportunity for individual attention.

Ensemble 7/4 Concert

This news comes in a little late but it seems worth trying. An group called Ensemble 7/4 will debut in Philadelphia with a medley of traditional music from the Americas: tango, bossa nova, chachachá, among others. For more information click here.

Seed Starting for the Garden

1st grade students love gardening!  Today's planting project was also a science experiment.  Will seeds germination faster in peat pellets or in regular soil?  Students planted vegetable seeds both ways, and next week we'll take a look at which seeds have started to germinate.  Most students felt that the peat pellets might grow better, since "the seed has everything it needs in one small package".  Hopefully we'll be planting our germinated plants in the garden in the next few weeks.

Pocoyó and Music

Queridos padres,

Since the beginning of 2014, Second Graders have been occasionally watching a cartoon called Pocoyó (the Spanish version). I have also been watching some of the episodes over the weekends. The show is great and wanted to recommend it to families.

Pocoyó involves a lot of body movement, music, colors and little dialogue. The dialogue targets specific language. There is only a narrator that provides context to the stories, which would be for more advance language learners like in Middle School.

However, Second Graders have been able to pick up key words when directed during class. It would be great idea to continue watching the show at home. They may resist a bit a the beginning under the excuse that they do not understand (they did the first time we watched it in class). But the show is too much fun to resist! They will certainly not understand the entire story, only a few words. But as they grow, it will become easier to understand whole sentences and learn new words. In the future, this will help them with speaking skills and phonetics.

You can watch the show on Univision. The channel number depends on your channel lineup and provider, but it is normally shown on Saturday mornings. You can also find some of the episodes on YouTube.

I also wanted to pass along information about an interactive concert tailored for children. The Chamber Orchestra from ArCoNet will be performing next week in Philadelphia. The title of concert is "Dances From Around the World", which will include music from Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

Animal Research- The Animals Featured in Fairy Tales

What do the bear, wolf and pig have in common? They are three of the animals that are frequently featured in fairy tales.  The first graders are reading various versions of Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. It is exciting to note the commonalities and differences in the various versions of the fairy tales.

As the first graders have now read and become experts in the various versions ofGoldilocks and The Three Bears, they have embarked on researching the grizzly bear.  We are reading from books, using internet research sites such as National Geographic and PebbleGo and learning how to read articles and highlight important information.  After reading, watching videos of the animal and engaging in discussion, the students choose the facts to write that they find compelling.
Enjoy this link of a grizzly bear mother teaching her cubs how to fish.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/bear_grizzly_teachingcubs

Garden Cleanup!

Yesterday 1st and 4th grades spent some time cleaning up the courtyard garden and the Science Room garden.  They moved rocks, dug up weeds, trimmed bushes and raked leaves.  They worked so hard to make the gardens ready for planting very soon.  1st grade will be doing some seed germination in science to get ready for planting outdoors in May.  Here are a few photos of the fun!

Science Night!

Science Night is tomorrow night!  Come to see student work and participate in lots of science activities. This event is for the entire Abington Friends Community so there will be opportunities to see great Middle and Upper School projects and experiments as well.                 

Spanish Updates

Salsa...

Watch Miranda and Sameerah dancing to their own choreography.

Click here for class video.

El Día de San Valentín...

(Valentine's Day)

More will be posted later for our cuentos (stories) about Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera, poemas (poetry), descriptions and sentimientos (feelings).

First Grades Hero Study

This is the imovie that was presented at the first grade Hero assembly.

Our first graders presented what they have learned about “Heroes” at assembly just before we headed off for Spring break.  They had been working for several weeks, researching and speaking about the qualities that make a hero.  Included in the movie is an image of their hero which they used to create their own Hero stamp. The stamps were then sold at our first grade post office. 

The money raised, at 10 cents a stamp, added up to $97.80! WOW! That's a lot of stamps! We appreciate all who participated in the Post Office by purchasing stamps and sending mail. 

The first graders decided to donate the money to the Monarch Watch organization that is dedicated to the preservation of the Monarch Butterflies. As you may know, the first graders are deeply connected to and concerned about the decline of the Monarch butterfly and their primary food source, Milkweed.  We are also getting involved with Rosanne, our awesome science teacher, in planting our very own Milkweed garden. More details about this project will be coming soon! Also, please see the link below to find out more and about how you can help.

www.monarchwatch.org

Rain Gauges

1st Grade continued their study of weather and made rain gauges this week.  Using the metric system, the students carefully marked centimeters on the side of our "gauges" and decorated them.  Next we placed them in the science room gardens.  Our experiment is to see if the rainfall is different in the sun garden or the shade garden.  The hypotheses were varied: "I think there will be more rain in the sun garden gauges because the trees will stop the rain in the shade garden" and "I think there will be more rain in the shade garden because the gauges in the sun garden will dry up pretty quickly".  We'll check on the gauges tomorrow in science class!