Thankful for Firsties!

We have been working so hard on many different things. As of late, we read the story, Little Red Riding Hood. It's always fun to read a classic fairy tale and variations of the story. We talked a lot about character descriptions and and added to our interactive journal all about Little Red Riding Hood. There were some great vocabulary words in this story, too. I am always impressed with how well our students pay attention to vocab and ask about unknown words. This story used words like: winding, crept, thoughtful, visit, and sly.

Here's a fun video if you want to watch! I just love Miss Booksy!

The ph and wh words for spelling and phonics were T-O-U-G-H, tough! We took extra time this week since it was a short week to extend our practice with those words - both in isolation, and in context. There is no spelling test this week. Next week we work on words with a -ck ending. The skills continue to increase in difficulty, so please remember to please help your child practice their spelling words at home. We do practice at school in whole group together every day, and students practice at the Daily 5 word work station on their own with a variety of choices. Extra reinforcement and checking with your child at home is important, too!

We have started our unit on How-To (procedural) writings! We had many students find great examples at home of what authors write when they want to teach others how to do something. Kenyon found direction for a board game, Keadric found instructions for Legos, Hunter and several other students found recipes to bring in! We looked at many samples at school as well. We even read the book, How to Babysit A Grandpa. Soon, our first graders will learn how to write their own procedural writings. They will decide what they are an expert at, and write the steps to accomplish that task. If it is something that your child can demonstrate for us in class, we will do that in a couple of weeks after we do the writing! Look for more info. to come home.

We also got to have our soccer ball party last week!! The weather has been beautiful and we enjoy a break to get out and celebrate their hard work!

In science, we have been learning about sound and light waves. We went on a sound walk, explored tuning forks, and did an experiment with pitch. Our young scientists have great, curious, minds!

It was fun to hear the different sounds when the tuning fork touched different objects around the room!

Last week, I got to have lunch with a couple of cuties that earned TEACHER LUNCH! It's 75 points and so fun!

Last but not least, we had an amazing feast today!! We have spent time learning about the first Thanksgiving, and the relationship between the pilgrims, and Native Americans. We learned about the Mayflower, and differences between then and now. We had a lot of fun learning about chores of pilgrim children vs. children today. Ask your child about this!

THANK YOU to all the families that cooked and purchased items for our feast today! We are so thankful for your help in providing a fun and YUMMY way to end our study about the First Thanksgiving! A very special THANK YOU to Keadric's mom (Heather Kern), Lydia's mom (Katie Clough), Leo's mom (Ashley Hanson and helpful younger siblings!), and Mallory's mom (Rebecca Shipton from Mrs. Quists' class). We absolutely could not have done this without your help to warm up the foods, prep 40+ plates and table settings, 40+ pieces of pie topped with cool whip, and dishing out multiple servings of foods. Even though we had a request for chicken nuggets, I think it went off without a hitch! I am so very thankful to work with such caring and involved families!