Monday, June 20, 2011

Summer Fun!

Welcome to my First Grade blog! Some of you are visiting for the first time as part of your Summer Packet while some of you are former students still looking for some fun things to do. Hopefully I have found some games that everyone will enjoy! Play as many as you like. Let me know what games you like by either commenting in the journal you will bring to school in August or by commenting on the blog. If you choose to leave a comment here, you do not need to have an account. All you need to do is choose to comment as "anonymous". Be sure to sign your name in the comment box, though. Your comment will not appear right away. I check the comments before they get posted.

Do you like connect the dots? SUPER Connect the Dots will let you practice counting. It starts with having you count to ten and then increases each time you complete a puzzle.

Here's one that is wonderful for everyone! Have fun playing Tangram! Use the tangram shapes to solve the puzzles. Can you name all 7 shapes that are used in tangrams?

Another fun game for everyone is Moon Rock Patterns. This game is out of this world! REALLY! Complete the patterns and earn points. Can you name each pattern that you create? Remember, we name patterns with letters and only name the pattern unit (the part that repeats).

Want to read or listen to a story online? Check out Lilly the Wild Cat. If you have already finished first grade, try reading it yourself before listening. If are getting ready to start first grade, try finding trick words that you learned in kindergarten. Can you find any periods (.)? Why do we use a period? Can you find quotation marks (" ")? Do you know why we use those? I bet you can find a comma (,). Why does an author use a comma? When you are done reading, think about the answers to these questions:

1. Who is the main character in the story?
2. Is this story fiction (make believe) or non-fiction (real)? How do you know?
3. How does Lilly feel about being a wild cat at the beginning of the story? Does she feel the same way at the end?
4. What does this story make you think of in your life?

Last, check out Spelling Practice. This will help you practice spelling your trick words. Start with 'pre-primer' level and move through the others. See how far you can go. This one is even good for my older, former students!

HAVE FUN! KEEP READING AND WORKING ON YOUR SUMMER PACKETS!!!

Thursday, June 09, 2011

First Grade Memories

We made it through our year in first grade! We have learned a lot and are ready for second grade! Before we leave, we want to share our memories of first grade. These are the things we will always remember about our year together!

* Jose: I will never forget the ice cream on Friday.
* Bella: I will always remember that we planted some plants.
* Austin: I will never forget the math videos because they teach us math like addition number sentences and subtraction sentences.

* Olivia: I will miss learning how to count to 100 and I will miss doing "a safe a", "e Pete e", "i pine i", "o home o", and "u mule u". Also, I will miss doing syllables and I will miss ice cream on Friday.

* Daymon: I will always remember dance parties. I will remember dance parties because everyone had fun.
* Yoselyn: I will always remember first grade because of the dance parties. Do you know why? Because we got to dance a lot. We got to play Duck Duck Goose. It was a lot of fun. Finally, we got a sip of water.
* Jobell: I will never forget learning about math. I will remember about Fast Facts.
* Osmar: I will remember we played basketball.
* Berlynn: I will always remember when we got to do the ABC cards. It was fun. Some had base ten blocks and some had ones, too. Some had money.
* Clara: I will remember doing a dance party because it gets all our energy out. Of course it was fun.
* Tristan: I will always remember the ice cream.
* Sydney: I remember learning in first grade. What I remember learning about in first grade is when Ms. Kristin told us about two syllables.
* Kevin: My favorite part of first grade is water day. We had fun with water balloons.
* Gavin: I will remember reading trick words.
* Jennifer: I will never forget doing the dance party. I enjoy it because I like dancing.
* Carter: I will never forget ice cream because it tastes good.
* Kirra: I will remember doing all the writing we did all year. Yes, maybe other people won't. It's sad.

* Mia: The thing I will always remember is the dance party because it was fun. My favorite thing about the dance party was when we get to dance.
* Tommy: My favorite thing was the plants. I liked seeing them change every day.
* Ayden: I will not forget about when we grew plants.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Plants

We are presently exploring the world of plants. Yesterday we watched a short video about the plant life cycle. In class we have grown grass, planted marigolds for Mother's Day, and are now watching what happens when we rest a potato in a cup with water. We are practicing our scientific writing skills by preparing observation pieces. We tried to watch lima beans sprout with Miss Jenny, but unfortunately they grew mold and had to be thrown out. That's the fun of science! We never know when an experiment is going to work or not work. We just observe what happens and look for solutions!

To learn more about plants with your child, check out the Plants web quest. This site proposes a challenge while teaching about the basics of plant structure. Complete the task and bring in the field journal for a special prize. This will not only serve as a fantastic scientific family project, it will also help develop reading skills; encourage your child to read as much of the text as possible while supporting him/her to prevent frustration. Although the instructions tell the students they will be creating the original plant on a program called Pixie (which we do not have), my students may create the original plant using any method they would like and bring in the completed project. I know time is limited before we release for the summer; you may want to save this activity for a rainy summer day. If you complete this challenge during the summer vacation, you may bring the completed project to me within the first week of school for your prize. :-)

Have fun learning about plants!