The wind's blowing; I hear thunder and see lightning in the distance...the Storm's coming!! Tomorrow, we will test our dwellings for Mr. Cottonball! Can your team keep him warm and dry during our storm? Good luck tomorrow with the bad weather!
Each child received a pair of viewing glasses for Monday's eclipse! Look in your child's folder for glasses, information, and a fun Park Ranger packet they can complete. This is entirely optional but could be fun for the family to learn about the eclipse together if you do not have enough glasses for your family, try making this viewing box: https://www.facebook.com/theboyscoutsofamerica/videos/1454062454675653/ Remember, NO school Monday! This week, we interviewed a friend and gathered information about some of their favorites. Can your child remember their friend's favorite food, color, movie, or activity? Using this information, your child designed a bracelet for their friend. They chose beads based on the information they collected. An orange bead might represent basketball. A yellow bead might represent cheese pizza. They had to chose 5-10 beads and defend their choices! They presented their beads, shared facts about their friend, and defended their design choices. What a fun way to learn about each other, conduct research, and practice speaking and listening skills. Check out your child's Seesaw account for more details and ask to see the bracelet made for them. Does their gift represent your child?
Not only do my kids shower me with kind words and sweet hugs, but my parents have been so generous with emails, smiles, and blog comments! Thank you for sharing your child with me this year. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Thank you for volunteers, beautiful flowers, and positive feedback. I'm grateful for this year together! This week, we took the STAR reading and math tests. These tests can be overwhelming and exhausting for beginning 1st graders. I am so proud of our class for doing their best (even some with repeated attempts). We will take these tests throughout the year to measure growth and grade equivalency. These tests also compare students' percentiles to national norms. It is NOT our only form of assessment, and it is NOT my only criteria for designing appropriate instruction, but it is a resource we can use to gather information about your child's ability and weaknesses. Check out these delicious treats we had to celebrate our STAR tests! A VERY special thank you to our baker!
These definitely made us smile and feel celebrated. Lunch in the ROOM! Every day we try to "Live above the Line". Our behavior stars move up and down based on our choices and class participation. Someone raised their star for explaining the meaning of prediction. Someone may lower their star for needing multiple reminders to follow directions. We talk about choosing to be our best! We all make mistakes, but we can choose to change our behaviors too. If you end your day on 3, 4, or 5 every day, we will eat lunch in our classroom together on Friday. And watching a movie on the big screen is a fun way to celebrate!
Today's STEM challenge involved designing foil boats to hold pennies. They had to make a prediction before floating their boats and counting pennies. Most students predicted 5-10 pennies. We had two boats hold over 100 pennies!! This lesson was to show them that this year, they will be surprised by what they learn! Life is full of surprises and the growth of a 1st grader is one of them. Watch out world, we are learning and growing every day!
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Dee Dulin1st grade teacher infusing STEM, PBL, and 1:1 mini-ipads CategoriesArchives
December 2017
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