Thursday 2/28

Thanks to everyone who came to our first Math-In. It was a pretty big crowd and we had a lot of fun!

First Graders are beginning the process of creating How-To books.

Today we came up with a list of Writing Time Expectations. We ended writing time with some sharing; the listeners were highly engaged.

Wednesday 2/27

We all went on RAZ-Kids this morning after our pride assembly.

First graders spent the afternoon working on science activities.
Kindergartners were busy doing activities related to their Magic Tree House book about the rainforest.

Our first math-in!

We hope you can join us on Thursday morning from 8:10-8:45 to play math games!

Tuesday 2/26

Happy 100th day! We had a lot of fun celebrating:
writing and drawing our favorite memory, watching Annie and Moby,
noticing patterns on the 100s chart,
making and eating a snack with ten groups of 10 (thanks to Rebee for sending in many of the snacks and Deanna for leading the station)
100 chart puzzles,
Creating a picture out of a 1, 0, and 0,
putting the words and pictures into a hundred day book
Thumbs up when you think 100 seconds has passed
What would you want 100 of? What would you not want 100 of?
End of the day read aloud
Happy 100th day stinky feet! :)
Boy am I exhausted!

Monday 2/25

We hope everyone had a great week!  The kids had SO much to write about this morning.

This morning the first graders taught the kindergarteners how to use RAZ-Kids on the iPads- we will go on RAZ-Kids again on Wednesday!

During math, we split up into 2 groups.  Each group learned a new math activity with number combinations. Tomorrow the kids will partner up with someone from the other group to teach them their math activity.  Everyone will then know 2 new math activites!

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school! We will start the morning with a special writing assignment - help your child think of their favorite memory.

We ended our day with a read-aloud-



Video: Week of Feb. 11

You can tell we had a busy week by the length of this video!!

http://youtu.be/Me7xux8jWcA

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Friday 2/15

We had fun outside for a long morning recess together! An iMovie to come with more about our week in the next few days... Happy break!

Photo of the day

Thursday 2/14

Happy Valentine's Day!
We had two fun sets of Valentine crafts.
Both the K and 1 group had iPad time! K worked on tapping out words and writing them with the stylus. 1 learned how to take pictures and add them into Educreations.

Wednesday 2/13

Photograph of the day
Sharing our number poems!
Ask your child which number they picked and who they worked with. We all had to cooperate-work together to get something done.

Sharing Ripped Art Projects

Here's a video of sharing our ripped art projects from a few weeks ago.  I'm sad the sound didn't record for the first group!

http://youtu.be/LY4PNwcJmYA

Monday

Welcome back after a very long weekend!!

I was out for the day at an Open Circle workshop. When I got back to school this afternoon, I looked at some of the kids stories from this morning. Looks like a lot of kids had fun playing in the snow this weekend!

Tomorrow we will start to get ready for Valentines Day. If your child is bringing in Valentines, please send one in for all of the kids on Thursday.

We will now celebrate the 100th day on Tuesday after break.
I look forward to seeing the kids tomorrow :)

Video: Week of 2/4-2/8

Check out what we did this week!

http://youtu.be/8z3ORC6ZSGw


Hope everyone had fun in the snow...Daisy did! :)

Jan Brett contest!

Stratton School shot up to number 27 this week (out of over 100 schools) in the Jan Brett author visit contest! But we still need many more votes. Tell all your friends to vote for Stratton:
First "Like" Jan Brett's Facebook page and then complete the Contest form. Votes will only be counted if the contest form is completed. Thank you!

First grade: Money games

A few online math games I found that help reinforce counting coins:

http://www.hbschool.com/activity/counting_money/

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=217

There are many free apps you can buy for iPads/iPhones.  Counting Coins looks pretty good!

You can play "store" at home.  Your child can count out the correct amount of money to give you so they can "buy" things.

Educreation Retells 2/6

The first graders worked on their first independent Educreation on Wednesday!! They are still working on some of the logistics but I think they came out great!!

Click on the links to view their retells:

Jasmyn: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jasmyn-the-duckling-gets-a-cookie/4608337/?s=QDsWk3&ref=link

Charlie: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/charlie-penguins/4610200/?s=xW3QFh&ref=link

Dylan:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/dylan-curious-george/4608247/?s=1vn4GT&ref=link

Anna-Sophia: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/anna-sophia-pirates-past-noon/4608123/?s=gQtvm1&ref=link

Jeremiah: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jeremiah-penguins-swim/4608100/?s=3S2nQf&ref=link

Noah:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/noah-cat-and-the-hat/4607865/?s=lQSfM9&ref=link

Zachary: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/zachary-there-was-an-old-lady-who-swallowed-a-shel/4607778/?s=N3J3b6&ref=link

Erica:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/erica-the-silly-snowy-day/4607651/?s=3fM52c&ref=link

Zoe: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/zoe-tacky/4607628/?s=DbiKl8&ref=link

Jane: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jane-harry-potter/4607548/?s=mWvQv0&ref=link

Ivan:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/ivan-tacky/4607397/?s=rLbwHH&ref=link

Monday 2/4 & Tuesday 2/5

In Open Circle we have introduced the problem-solving steps. We will be learning how to use the traffic light. Ask your child what the red light reminds us to do. The children will be bringing home their own problem-solving traffic signal. Please see the latest parent newsletter below.

The kindergartners have begun their study of the rainforest in anticipation of reading the next Magic Tree House book, Afternoon on the Amazon.

We have brought the iPad cart into the classroom twice this week and through guidance the first graders have been exploring a few apps.

Today we broke into grade level groups for math, with the kindergartners playing a bingo game and making scrolls that will help them with skip-counting, and the first graders working on money and number sense.

Dear Family:

In Open Circle this week, we began a multi-lesson unit on problem solving. In the coming weeks, we will be learning to use a three-step process for solving people problems. We began by talking about what a problem is. A problem is something that goes wrong, makes us feel worried or upset, or is a situation in which we need to decide what to do. We all have problems at school — in the classroom and on the playground. We even have problems as a whole class.

To help us learn and remember the problem-solving steps, we use the colors of a traffic signal: Red = Stop. Yellow = Think. Green = Go. In problem solving, we do the same three things that a traffic signal tells us:

RED LIGHT:

• First, we have to STOP.
In problem solving, that means we have to calm down. Then we tell ourselves the problem and how we feel.

YELLOW LIGHT;

• Second, we have to THINK.
In problem solving, that means we have to be careful and think of many different ways to solve the problem and what would happen if we tried them.

GREEN LIGHT:

• Third, we can GO.
In problem solving, that means we make a plan and try it.

The problem-solving traffic signal will be sent home this week in your child's home school folder. Please post it on your refrigerator or someplace in your home where you can see it often as a reminder to both you and your child to use the problem-solving process to solve problems that come up outside of school. Problem solving is an important skill that your child can use throughout life, not only in school but later on in the workplace and the community.

Friday 2/1

We were SO busy during finish-up this morning!!

We spent much of our day learning about Groundhog Day!
A video about the history, Time for Kids, graph, puppet craft and a story.