Morning Chores

What a gorgeous day we had today!

Right off the bat, the class learned a new word: intentionally.  They learned this because I intentionally (on purpose) did not feed our animals this morning.  Instead, we went over as a class to feed them, water them, and let the chickens out of their coop.  Along the way, we learned about their needs, their need to be protected from predators, and we even learned about catalpa worms!  We have a few catalpa trees that are full of the cute little caterpillars right now.  The kids loved it!

In grammar today, the class recorded their video for the poem, "Work".  We also discussed common and proper nouns.  It is taking a lot of practice to remember which nouns need to be capitalized and which ones do not!  We used individual white boards to practice this.

We have finished up with our letter by letter study of the alphabet in handwriting class.  The kids were given a little quiz to show that they are ready to move on to the weekly lessons and border sheets!  I am trying to get each one of them to slow down and focus on letter formation in handwriting class.  When they slow down, each of them write beautifully!

In math today, the class learned how to apply the part/whole method that we have been working on for weeks to subtraction problems.  This is simply a way to look at subtraction problems that can help with mental calculation.  The students worked on word problems for subtraction, and created their own word problems.  I explained to the class that although addition problems can be set up in different ways (2 + 3 = 5 and 3 + 2 = 5), subtraction problems cannot.  In addition, the two "parts" add up to the "whole", no matter what order they are in.  In subtraction, the kids learned to always begin with the "whole", and then subtract a "part" to find the other "part".

After we discussed each spelling word and the special rules that it follows (or doesn't), we played a game of "popcorn".  Each student took turns popping up and spelling a word from the list.  We will continue to use our Wednesday class as a review and follow up to the list that was learned and studied at home throughout the week. 

The kids had a great time sharing their stories today on their favorite hiding places!  Each of them took turns sharing their stories.  Even though it has only been 7 weeks, they have come so far with their attitude towards writing!  I am going to continue to "pump them up" on this subject... in an attempt to make writing fun!  After we listened to stories, the class worked on a dragon story... and a dragon booklet to keep it in!  Crafts like these are such a big deal to 1st graders!  They really worked hard on them, and were very careful to bring them home without squishing their creations!

In science today, Ms. Caroline taught the class about mixtures.  They learned about soluble and insoluble substances, and were able to see these in action!  According to the children, some substances love each other, and some do not!  I guess solubility is all you need.

Ms. Rose worked with the class on the months of the year, days of the week, numbers, and time today.  Each of them did an amazing job studying their numbers up to 31!  When they work hard at home, it really shows in class!  They used calendars and clocks as hands on prompts for their Spanish words.  They will be working on these words at home in the upcoming week.