Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on February 3, 2014
Field Trip News! Coming home Monday is a permission slip for our field trip to Boston’s Children Museum on March 7. Please read and return the bottom this week! * NOTE: because of the early schedule required by the museum, first-grade students will need to be dropped off to school that day, no later than 8:15. The buses will leave promptly at 8:30. Parents interested in chaperoning should make sure they’ve got a current CORI check clearance. Scholarships are available if the cost of the trip presents a hardship. If this is the case, just let me know and return the form, and I’ll take care of the rest.
The 100th Day of School is coming! This Friday marks the occasion (my apologies–last week’s blog said it was on 2/14). Please see last week’s blog for ideas on how your child can contribute to the fun and learning!
Pedometers are here again! This is the third of 4 data collection weeks (the last will be the first week of April). We almost earned the prize last time for returning all recording sheets and pedometers on time. Please help us reach that goal this week!
Let the games begin! This week marks the start of the XXII Winter Olympiad. We will incorporate map skills and history, and explore character traits of Olympic athletes, as we learn about this year’s event. You can keep the learning going at home and support the athletes from Team USA by learning more about the extraordinary men and women representing us, including more than a few who call New England home: http://www.teamusa.org/Athletes. The official Olympics website is chock full of all things Olympics as well: http://www.sochi2014.com/en Try keeping a tally of medals and countries over the next few weeks. Your first-grader should be able to read and interpret that data skillfully, including an analysis of most, least, more/less than, etc., since it is a skill we practice every morning!
Our writing focus this week brings us back to personal narratives. We will learn ways to start our stories with Entertaining Beginnings. Consider this opening: I went on a roller coaster. It’s straightforward but doesn’t grab the reader’s attention. A question, sound, action, or dialogue would do that better: BANG went the safety bar as it crashed over our heads. We will explore what value each of these kinds of beginnings offer, and try writing one of each.
Science lessons this week involve explorations of motion using wheels and axles. We will learn what it means to roll (a state of motion in which the balance point is continually shifting above the base yet often remains stable). We will also design “rollers” that wobble, slide, and change direction based on the size of wheels and the arrangement of wheels and axles.
