Mary Bleckwehl , a local MN author, visited us on Thursday, April 28th to talk about her work as an author and her two books. We read the two books prior to her visit and looked at her website. Students learned about the writing process and how her books were published. We had fun with her pictures and stories. Check her website out for more information !http://www.marybleckwehl.com/index.php
We had a wonderdul day at the MN History center. Students explored the museum, took a class, and learned in the grainland. Some highlights were the tornado, mine, the past, homes, and recreation. Ot was fun to connect our learning at school to our field trip. Thanks again to our chaperones who made our day possible! We had a wonderful time exploring the MN Science Museum together. We started the day exploring the museum for an hour. There were three interactive floors to explore. After some exploring students met back to take the class Dino Dentistry. Students investigated dinosaur and modern fossils to learn what teeth show scientists. Students also worked on sorting and classifying skills. We had lunch and spent the rest of the day at the museum. We loved it all and the ongoing museum presentations about gravity, rockets, dating dinosaurs, and cryogenics. Ask your child what they liked best. Students had a lot to say during and after our trip. Math- We graphed bar graphs, picture graphs, and line plots with our conversation hearts. We talked about fractions and parts and whole. Before eating our hearts we talked about units and measured with our candy hearts. Passing out Valentines: Our activity SCOOT had us walking around the room working and learning together. :) The Valentine's were the best part! What a great day together! School wide Drop Everything and Read!: The whole school stopped and read on Friday for I LOVE TO READ MONTH!
We talked about Martin Luther King, Jr. this week, and we learned that Dr. King had a dream where everyone would be kind, helpful, and respectful of others. We have begun a special project to celebrate his birthday, which was January 15th.
From Dr. King’s Birthday until our Valentine’s Day party, we are going to see if we can do 100 acts of kindness. Our rule is that you cannot report your own act of kindness; someone else has to report something nice that you did for them. At school, children are going to be watching one another to look for those acts of kindness. If someone helps you find your lost crayon, that’s an act of kindness to report. If you fall and someone helps you up and checks to be sure you’re OK, that’s an act of kindness too. We want to families to participate too. For example, if your child helps you fold clothes, carries out the trash without even being asked, or does an especially nice thing for you, please write a note and tell us about it. If you as a family do an act of kindness, such as service projects in our community, write and share that too. We are looking for those loving things that warm your heart. Share them with us! We are ready to start now, so help us watch for those special acts of kindness. Thanks for your help and participation! The Science Museum of Minnesota came today and talked about dinosaurs and how they are formed. Students partner talked, shared ideas, described bones and fossils, and asked questions. Please look below for more information about the presentation to learn more about what we saw and learned Students did a wonderful job practicing, reading, and working as a team to present "The Hat" (a Jan Brett Reader's Theater) to their classmates and Mrs. Hiner's First Grade class. We enjoyed studying and learning more about Jan Brett. We learned that her style is similar in her books and some of the ways she gets ideas for her stories and illustrations. Students tried to write in her style during writing time. This week we learned about coding during the week of code. Students watched clips and explored what coding is using the iPads and during computer lab. These apps and games exposed students to new terminology and new ideas. Students were challenged to problem solve to understand how websites work. Check out the pictures and clips below for more information. These three clips explain the apps we tried in class. We watched the following two videos to kick off the week and understand coding in its simplest form. With a fresh winter snow on Monday it only seemed fitting to begin our winter writing and art project. After brainstorming ideas, students drew a winter scene on their blue paper. They glued on black strips of paper to make it a window, and then painted over it with water and Epsom salt to give it a crystal winter look. To accompany their project they wrote a winter cinquain poem. This style of poem challenges students to look at syllables, while following a specific topic. Here is an example of-
Winter - (topic-two syllables) cold, icy, white, fresh (describe the topic- 4 syllables) jumping, sliding, playing (actions associated with the topic- 6 syllables) I love when there is fresh snow falling (feelings about the topic - 8 syllables) Season (a synonym or related word about the topic - 2 syllables) It was a great way to celebrate the upcoming winter season and learn a new poem style! |
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