Week 24

Bluegrass assembly

Valentine bags students made

Our new Samurai reader

Students playing Valentine's bingo

Students making a valentine card/craft

Students working on valentine's cards

Student playing Cupid's Revenge

Student with Valentine's mustache

Student with Valentine's mustache

Student with Valentine's mustache

Student with Valentine's mustache

Student with Valentine's mustache

We had a fun week, as always!

Special Activities: This week was Valentine’s Day.  The students had a blast with it.  (It was difficult to focus them on learning throughout the day, but they really had a good time when the party came!)  The parent volunteers did an excellent job with planning the party.  We played a game with magnetic hearts and a magnetized arrow called Cupid’s Revenge.  We also played Valentine bingo and made a Valentine’s craft. . .and most importantly we had yummy treats!

Another fun activity this week was a bluegrass assembly where a Bluegrass band came to play for us.  It was an excellent cultural opportunity for the kids, and they loved it.  I was even asked to participate with three other teachers by reading a rap for part of it.

Funny Stuff From Kids: I overheard a girl playing house with friends at recess saying, “I used to be her husband.”

In first grade, we mostly only talk about using commas in writing in regards to writing the date (like Feb 15, 2012).  We might need to discuss it a little bit more, though, because many students are starting to call them “comets.”

We were talking about the words behind and around, and one student asked why “beround” isn’t a word.

When teachers next door are working one-on-one with students in the hall, I shut my door to cut down on their disruptions.  One student had his foot jammed in the door when it was supposed to be shut.  I asked him to stop playing and move his foot, but he replied that he was doing a good deed by holding it for someone who was about to come in and would have a hard time pulling the heavy door open.  Kids always have an interesting (and usually more thoughtful and loving) perspective.   

In the Bluegrass assembly mentioned above, the whole school (students, that is) broke out in a clapping rhythm several times.  I was impressed with their knowledge of how to clap with the beat, but it was pretty funny because they did it with almost every single song.   

Homework: Please help students keep up on their homework!

Social Studies: We spent quite a bit of time re-visitng the topic of how to treat others. 

Math: We reviewed tally marks and odds/evens this week to filli n gaps in student understanding.

Project Read/Spelling: This week we focused on ending blends again.  Students grasped, and on the spelling test they did extremely well!   

Speedy Words and Rocket Math: Students are working hard to earn their ice cream party.

AR: Students keep progressing, and we got a new Samurai this week.

Writing: This week our writing mostly focused on Valentine’s Day, including making Valentine’s cards.

Science: For science this week we talked about how our potato experiment that we’ve been waiting on didn’t work, but good scientists tweak things and try again.  So we’re going to retry it. 

We also did an experiment where I pulled a tablecloth out from under some plastic dinnerware.  The experiment works because of Newton’s Laws, which I explained very simply.