February 1-4 Happenings!

We had our first snow day this week on Friday which gave us a three day weekend.  However, we were very busy during our four days of school!

We began a new unit in reading this week called Let's Explore!  We will read stories about different kind of adventures.  This week we read Rick Walton and Paige Miglio's Bunny Day.  This book shares the adventures a family of bunnies have throughout their day.  We learned that with each hour of the day comes a new adventure such as doing chores, going for a walk, participating in arts and crafts, and reading a story before we go to sleep.  We also focused on the letter Hh this week.  We made a list of words that begin with Hh, and we practiced identifying the word in a group of words that begins with a different sound (hat, hair, car- which begins differently).

Work Board Centers

Listening Center

The children listened to the story Gregory's Shadow written by Don Freeman, the author of Corduroy.  Gregory's Shadow shared the story of a groundhog who loses his shadow right before Groundhog Day.  Spending the day apart they go on different adventures until they are reunited just in time for his annual prediction of the weather! 

Art Center
After the kiddos listened to Gregory's Shadow, they visited the art center and made groundhog masks!

Word Study Center

This week the boys and girls worked on writing sentences, making sure to follow our writing checklist!  The children used two dice: one with names of people and one with what that person did.  Each child took a chance to roll each die, write down what they rolled, and then combine the parts to make a complete sentence.  They paid close attention to making an uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence, spaces in between the words, and either a period or an exclamation point at the end of the sentence.  The sentences did end up being kind of funny!

Alex rolling the die!

Worksheet source: http://thisreadingmama.com/

Math Center
The children went on a shape hunt around the school! They walked around with a clipboard, and drew/wrote what objects were circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles.

Source: http://www.crazyforfirstgrade.com/

Writing Center

This week we wrote a sentences and drew a picture to answer the question "How do you help at home?"  The students shared many different ways they help mom and dad, such as helping to bake cookies, bringing laundry upstairs, cleaning their room, and making their beds!

Writing Workshop

This week we began our first three part story with words!  Each of our stories is about how we get ready for school.  We broke the story into three parts, beginning, middle, and end.  Starting with the beginning, we wrote a sentence to tell what we do first to get ready for school.  We then drew a picture to illustrate that sentence.

Alexis working on the beginning of her story!