Buell's Orchard

We had a wonderful time on our field trip today, and perfect fall weather! On our field trip to Buell's Orchard we got a tour of the orchard, picked our own apples, saw how apples are processed and stored before going to the grocery store, tried apple cider, and ate lunch outside at the orchard...all before recess! Thank you so much to our chaperones- Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Kravet, and Mr. Cartier - for helping us have a great trip.

Apple Seeds

To get ready for our field trip to the apple orchard we've studied seeds and how they grow. We started by looking at different types of seeds, and then we narrowed our focus to apple seeds. Over the last couple weeks we soaked apple seeds in water so that they expanded. After they soaked, we were able to peel away the layers to see the different parts of the seeds.

Junior Great Books

Last week we began our first unit in the Junior Great Books series. Junior Great Books is a reading program that combines high quality literature with art, drama, and discussion. The main focus is answering interpretive questions through discussion and using evidence from the text to support answers. To kick off our first unit we read a variety of stories and worked on asking and answering questions about the text. One story that we read was called "The Fox and the Stork." In the story, both characters play tricks on each other. The question that we answered after reading was "Who was meaner: the fox or the stork?" Students wrote their answer on a sticky note and then posted it. From their answers we had a discussion about why they chose one character over the other. We had a perfect opportunity to talk about how during discussion sometimes we change our minds when one student did just that. We will use Junior Great Books to support reading and discussion skills throughout the year.

Nature Walk and Descriptive Writing

As we work on narrative writing we've begun to think more about descriptive writing. Last week we started working on using our five senses to describe what we observe around us. This week we went on a nature walk on the trails behind Southeast. We were careful to pay attention to what we saw, heard, felt, and smelled (no tasting!). Afterwards, we started working on turning our observations into descriptive sentences. 

Literacy Centers

Today we began our literacy centers. Literacy centers are stations that we visit to practice skills that we've learned in reading, writing, and phonics. When we go to centers we have to practice responsibility and problem solving. Our centers will change weekly or biweekly. This week our centers are whisper phones, spelling beads, Raz Kids, and sandpaper sight words. Ask your first grader for more information about each center! 

Our First Published Books

Your first grader is an author! This week many of us finished up our Jasper's Beanstalk Part 2 books and we added them to our student library. Yesterday we had time to enjoy reading each other's work and seeing our own work on display. 

Measuring with Non-standard Units

This week we worked on measuring using non-standard units. We measured different objects around the room using popsicle sticks and recorded our findings in measurement booklets. For each item we measured we made an estimate and then recorded the actual measurement. We practiced measuring with no gaps and no overlaps between units. 

Next week we will try the same activity using unifix cubes (a much smaller unit). We'll compare the two units of measure and discuss why each object is more unifix cubes long than popsicle sticks.