Mrs. Perelli joined our class today for an Open Circle and read the the book The Magnificent Thing. In this story, a little girl works really hard on a project and shows fantastic determination and applies her personal best. As the project stops looking as she had planned she stops being a flexible thinker and becomes very frustrated. We watch as the girl becomes very upset and has a HUGE reaction to a small problem, calms down, and eventually is able to finish what she started. Our meaningful conversation today covered so many Open Circle topics:
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I am very thankful for the opportunity to work with your children everyday. This class is especially amazing and the vibe in this room at all times is incredible. I see evidence of PRIDE all day. Thank you for the HUGE turn out today for our pajama day read in and for joining us at school meeting. The first grade community is strong and I am honored to be a part of it. Happy Thanksgiving to all and thank you for sharing your children with me. Safe travels and enjoy time with those you love. Celebrations come in many forms and yesterday we celebrated the loss of a first tooth! Like walking, talking, reading and writing- losing teeth happens when the time is right. It makes me so happy to be part of the celebration the first time a tooth is lost. This little lady was scared of losing her first tooth (very common) and to see her classmates encourage her to wiggle it and give it a tug filled my heart. Yes, there is lots to learn in reading, math, science, etc.... but my favorite lessons are ones I do not plan for and let happen organically between kids.
Today we read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and focused on comprehension. Students were asked to focus on the important events that happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story. It is really hard for first graders to weed out the most important parts of stories and that was our focus today. After reading to your child at night, ask them what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story. Encourage them to tell you only the MOST important parts. Thinking about what you are reading or what is being read to you is an important and challenging task.
aBalance and motion is our first unit in science this year. We will be studying the motion of objects, including vibrations and sounds. We will observe and compare how objects balance, spin, roll and we will communicate the things we discover orally and in writing. The processes of observing, communicating, and comparing are important thinking processes that your child will use during our investigation of motion. Today we figured out how to balance a crayfish on its nose! How cool is that?! We learned that objects can be balanced in different ways and the way an object balances can be changed by counterweighting. A gigantic thank you to the PTO for our first cultural enrichment program this year. Bill Harley visited Loker School today and entertained us with stories and songs. We had a blast listening to his wild tales and singing along with him. Check out his website at http://www.billharley.com/. Truly a wonderful entertainer! Today in writing we focused on writing a complete paragraph. We talked about creating a topic sentence, writing at least three sentences to support the topic and a concluding sentence. We shared our writing pieces and the audience was asked to visualize what the author wrote before seeing the actual illustration. AMAZING work today! I will hang these masterpieces in the classroom this week. Please stop by and check them out!
In a recent Open Circle we discussed always trying our personal best in all subjects. I am very proud of the way Room 3 students attempt every challenge I put in front of them in class. We discussed the importance of applying that same determination in all classes including physical education, music and art. We talked about how some activities are preferred and easier, but all subjects are important.
Yesterday we read the book Stone Soup. We enjoyed the story and how the boy convinced a woman to give him ingredients to make a soup out of a stone. Today we read the story Bone Button Borscht. and learned how a man convinced a town to make borscht out of buttons. We compared and contrasted both stories and talked about the wonderful message of helping others in need. Many thanks to Bella for bringing in her book to share with the class and helping us make connections between stories.
Each grade met with Mr. Jones and Officer Bowles to discuss our upcoming school safety ALICE drill. Mr. Jones will discuss the details of ALICE in his newsletter being sent out today but I wanted to let you know Room 3 handled the information very well. I did not see any stress after the meeting and none of the students asked me further questions. As a school we will have an ALICE drill next week. Room 3 will practice as a class prior to the drill and I will answer any further questions (if they arise) then. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
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