Welcome to 1st Grade

Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year!  I am so excited that you and your child will be part of my class this year.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!  I am looking forward to an amazing year!

Welcome to 1st Grade!

Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year!  I am so excited that you and your child will be part of my class this year.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!  I am looking forward to an amazing year!

Apple Fun

Apples, Apples, Apples everywhere!  What a fun week we had learning about apples!

 We read tons of books, both fiction and nonfiction about apples.  A few of our favorites were Amelia Bedelia's Apple Pie , The Bad Apple, and Curious George and the Apple Harvest.

We learned all about the parts of apples as well as the lifecycle of an apple.  Students had to practice retelling the lifecycle to partners . 

Next, an apple taste test is also imperative!  After our little taste test, we graphed the results.  This is a great springboard for introducing pictographs and analyzing data....compare/contrast...more than/less than....how many more/fewer...you get the idea.  This year the Granny Smith Apples won by a land slide!   We then used our senses to describe caramel apples! YUMMY!

We also had a blast investigating apples.   We learned what a prediction was and we made predictions about how tall our apple was, would it sink or float, and how big around it was.  Then we saw if our predictions were true or false.

              

      

 

 Making applesauce and taste testing other apple foods with my class is another seasonal favorite.  I love the way it makes my classroom smell and I absolutely LOVE the experience it gives the kids.  They talk about this all year long!!!

                                                       

Ahoy Matey!

Ahoy Matey!  This week we have been learning all about maps.....pirate style. We started off our map week by learning  all about the parts of a map, including our favorite....the compass rose. We learned a neat way to remember the cardinal directions-Never, Eat, Soggy, Waffles.  We even go to make our own compass.  Then we practiced reading a map using the compass rose.  We learned about map keys and how important they are when you read a map.  To practice using map keys by making edible maps and labeling the food on the map key.  It was so much fun and yummy!!!

   We also learned all about our state, Virginia.  We learned the state flower is a dogwood, and the state bird is a cardinal.  We learned to locate our state capital, Richmond and our town, King George on a Virginia shaped cookie!

To end our mapping unit we put on our eye patches and  were off to find the hidden treasure somewhere in the school.  We followed clues all over the school using our compasses going north, south, east and west.  Sometimes the clues even led us in circles!  We searched all over the place until finally the last clue led us back to our classroom to the treasure!  We got to have a fun pirate snack, too!
 ARRGHH it was a fun day!!

Our yummy snacks!

 Following our clues around the school to find the hidden treasure.

We found the treasure chest........and the treasure was in the classroom!

Walking back to our classroom to find the treasure!

ARRGHH!!!!!

Me on the Map

Last week we began our community unit and we combined it with our mapping standards.  We read County Mouse/City Mouse and discussed the difference between the country and city.  This lead us into a discussion about King George and if we lived in the city or country. 

Next, we brainstormed all the places, people, and things that make up a community.  Students came up with a lot of great places and things.  

We then read the book,  Me on the Map.  

This book is a great tool when teaching about maps.  We made our own Me on the Map flip book.    We talk about what planet, continent, country, state, town, street, etc that we live on.  Our Me on the Map books are hanging in the hallway if you want to stop by and take a peek at them. 

 

OREO Day!

We have been practicing counting numbers to 100 by 1, 2, 5, and 10's.  We are counting both forwards and backwards. We learned how to make tally marks and figure out if the number is even or odd.  We have also been talking about which number is greater than or less than.  To wrap up our unit on numbers, we did a fun activity with OREOs.  The goal was to see how high we could stack the OREOs before they toppled over. The students worked with a partner trying to get the highest stack of OREOs.  While one student was stacking, the other student was counting.   It was so fun to see the students stacking and counting.....trying to get the highest number.  Our highest stack was 23 OREOs high!!!  

After we stacked our OREOs we tasted different flavors of OREOs.  We created a graph that showed which flavor we liked the best.  Thank you for all the OREO donations you sent in!  Fun projects like this are not possible without the support from home!

This is a fun activity that you can do at home with your child.  How high do you think you can stack the OREO's???? Do you think you can make a tower greater than 23? 

Tasting and Graphing Oreos:

Stacking our Oreos!