Week in Review

Here are a few highlights from the week...

Having fun on the playground!

We continued our number bond work with a game.  The children put 8 beans in a cup, shook them up and spilled them on the table.  They then counted how many red and how many white to find the parts that make 8 and wrote the equation above.  The equation that reaches the top of the paper first wins!

Another math "workplace", building with polydrons. 

In Reader's Workshop we learned two new strategies: reading words in phrases rather than word by word, and going back to a book you've already read and rereading to learn more.

We learned another strategy to try when we read with our partners.  Good readers talk about the books we are reading so that we can build comprehension.

We have been talking a lot about expected and unexpected behaviors at school, and read about a boy named David who has a hard time following school rules.  We use this visual to help us remember what it looks like to have "whole body listening" when we are learning.

The highlight of the week for many first graders was making ant traps.  Our insect focus this week was ants (beetles were postponed until next week), and we learned about how ants survive and the characteristics that make them insects.  We conducted an experiment to see if we could lure some ants to our "trap", and made a prediction about how many ants might find our trap.  After leaving the traps outside (with a little honey and chocolate syrup), we returned to find that some had indeed attracted ants!  We counted them, recorded what we found, and returned the ants to the playground. Everyone had so much fun building, that the children continued to adapt their traps into choice time today!

Ask your child to tell you more!