Last Week - This Week

Groundhog Day

Students turned in their family predictions regarding Punxsutawney

Phil and his shadow. We made a giant graph to see if more family members predicted that Phil would see his shadow or that he would not see his shadow. The results overwhelmingly predicted "Phil" would not see his shadow and there will be an early spring. We also watched the video footage from Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Our predictions were correct because "Phil" did not see his shadow. We'll see if we do indeed have an early spring.

Book Clubs

Students synergized in their book clubs by reading a story about groundhogs. Students worked together to answer questions by first finding the evidence in the text. They then worked to make sure that they restated the question in each of their answers. Students are working hard at guiding members in their group when they need help.

Math

Students did a groundhog math activity. They had to create words using the letters in Punxsutawney Phil. Each letter had a value. Students had to create words that had the largest value they could think of. Then they partnered up to compare words and determine if their word was greater than, less than or equal to their partner's word.

Students also enjoyed practicing fact fluency by playing two new games, "Make 7" and "Count Down."

Star Leader of the Week

Our Star Leader did a great job presenting her Mystery Bag. Students had fun guessing her clues. She also did a great job reading "If you Give a Pig a Party." For her talent, she showed us some of her yoga moves she learned in order to sharpen her saw.

Spirit Day

Friday was all school spirit day. Students and teachers wore a sports jersey of their choice. It was fun seeing what jerseys everyone chose to wear. The first grade teachers had fun participating right along with the students.

Author Visit - Tom Watson

Tom Watson, author of the series "Stick Dog," came to talk to the students about his books. He shared how he became inspired to start writing "Stick Dog." He also showed the students how easy it is to draw his characters. All the students got to draw write along with Mr. Watson. They had so much fun!

Strong Leaders

We started a new theme on strong leaders. Over the course of the next eight weeks we will be reading all different stories of amazing strong leaders in both fiction and nonfiction texts. This week we watched the original book version of the Lorax. Students identified characteristics that made the Lorax a strong leader.

This Upcoming Week 

2-8-16 to 2-12-16

A reminder that we will be celebrating Valentine's Day this Friday. Students will have an opportunity to pass out their Valentine's. Remember, students can make a Valentine box at home to collect all their Valentines in at school. Make sure your child brings in their completed box by Friday.

ELA

Grammar

• Continue reviewing different long vowels
• Using pronouns in sentences with subject verb agreement

Reading

This week we will focus on the stories "Officer Buckle and Gloria" and "Miss Nelson is Missing." In each story we will look at the main characters and identify ways in which these characters are strong leaders.

We will also. . .

• Describe characters, setting and main events in the stories
• Use illustrations in the story to describe, characters, setting and events.
• Compare and contrast the leaders in the different stories read 

Math

• Continue working on finding the unknown whole number in addition and subtraction equations that make the equations true
• Work on fact fluency in both addition and subtraction
• Organize, represent and interpret data with up to 3 categories.

Science

We will wrap up our unit on plants and animals this week. We will focus on our last lesson - How do plants and animals stay safe?

We will then move right into our next unit - Light and Sound

We will begin with a lesson on how light helps us to see.

Leader in Me

This week we will focus on reviewing what I think is our most difficult habit to understand, follow and use - Habit 5 - Seek to understand, then be understood. We will listen to the story "Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink" by Diane deGroat and identify how this story was an example of Habit 5.

Weekly Specials

Monday - Day 1 - Pe and Spanish

Tuesday - Day 2 - Music and Art

Wednesday - Day 3 - Pe and Spanish

Thursday - Day 4 - LMC (remember your library books) 

Friday - Day 5 - Art and Music

Just a reminder, there is no school 
Monday, February 15th

Have a Great Week!