Maps and Globes

Our class has been learning about mapping throughout the month of January. Students have learned the difference between maps and globes and what different map features (such as the key/legend, compass rose, and scale) are for. We have also explored different types of maps and discussed what they show and how/why people use them. Students put together a lapbook (a folder that fits our our lap :) full of their learning about maps which includes different maps we have learned about. As we learned about maps we started big and "zoomed in," exploring maps of smaller and smaller areas. If you look at the maps in your child's lapbook with him/her you will see a map of the world, then a map of our continent, then one of just the USA, a map of Vermont, a map of Colchester (with our school and street highlighted), a map of our school building, and finally, a map created by the student of our classroom! Your child should be able to tell you about the difference between maps and globes, what continent we live on and what the three large countries on our continent are, about the compass rose and cardinal directions, what some different types of maps are and how people use them, and more!

This week we have been doing some fun wrap-up activities with mapping, such as creating the map of our classroom, and today we explored Google Maps and Google Earth on the Smartboard. We tried zooming in and out with both tools to get different perspectives of familiar places as well as places we have not been but are curious about. We had a great talk about why people might use these tools and how having access to Google Earth and Google Maps can help us. Our class has had a lot of fun learning about mapping! Below are some photos I took of students with the maps and globe as well as a few others. Stay tuned for information on our weather unit in February!

Identifying continents and oceans on a world map

Exploring Google Earth

The kids with some maps and a globe!

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Flynn Trip Cancelled

Today all first graders were scheduled to go on a field trip to the Flynn Theater to see the play, Dream Carver, however the theater ended up losing heat and was not able to get things fixed before today's shows! We were disappointed to miss our trip but continued with our school day and got lots of learning done. I will let you know whether or not we are able to re-schedule for another play at the Flynn later this school year as soon as I am able!

Learning More About Coding

Today Mrs. Boucher, our K-5 tech integration teacher, came to class and got our class started with some new computer coding apps that we had not tried yet! Last month I taught the students in our class about the app Kodable, which is a coding game requiring the player to give "Kodable" certain computer commands to navigate his way through different mazes of increasing difficulty. This morning Mrs. Boucher came in to teach us more about what coding is and to teach us how to use two new apps to practice coding skills. We started by making the rug in our book area into a large grid and using different arrow cards to direct a stuffed animal through the grid to a chair (see photos below).

Mrs. Boucher talked to the students about how we were giving the stuffed animal "commands" with our arrow cards, telling him how to move through the grid. She explained that all computer programs are controlled by codes that give the computer commands and tell it what to do. We connected this to our experience with the app Kodable and how, in the game, we place arrows to give computer commands, creating a code to move Kodable through the games' mazes. Mrs. Boucher then showed us two new coding apps called Daisy the Dinosaur and Light Bot - Hour of Code, which both have the same idea as Kodable (deciding what computer commands to give in order to navigate different puzzles) but are a bit more challenging. Students in our class had time to try these apps on the ipads with partners and had a lot of fun! These apps should all be free in the Apple App store if you want to put them on your devices at home for students to use. They are a great early way for kids to gain exposure to the world of computer coding!

Nonfiction Learning

Since returning from our December break, students in our class have been learning lots about reading and writing nonfiction! We began by discussing the differences between fiction and nonfiction, reviewing examples from both genres. Students are now well into reading nonfiction books, learning how we can read informational texts differently from narrative texts, and learning about text features (such as the table of contents, glossary, index, captions, labels, headings, text boxes, and more) and how we can use them to help us read informational texts. The children in our class have begun applying their learning about reading informational texts to writing informational texts. They are writing teaching books, or informational texts, on topics they know all about! These are booklets with many pages, full of lots of detail, explaining topics they feel that they are experts in. Their books range from those about specific animals, to sports, to video games, to favorite superheroes. Today students began practicing writing with their readers in mind, anticipating the types of questions a reader would ask about their book topic, and writing to provide all of the information a reader might want to know! Below are a few photos of students reading and writing nonfiction today!

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Upcoming Events Remider

Please remember, first graders will be going on a field trip to the Flynn Theater on Wednesday, January 22. Thank you to all of the parents who were interested in coming with us as chaperones! Unfortunately we only have enough tickets to bring two parents with our class. I have already spoken with the two parents whose names were drawn to come on this trip so, if you were not able to join us for this event, please stay tuned for other opportunities to volunteer later in the year!

Secondly, this year our music teacher, Ms. Mutz, will be leading the school in another wonderful school musical! This will take place at 6:30pm in the Colchester High School auditorium on both February 12 and 13. Half of the school will perform on Feb 12 and the other half will perform on Feb 13. Our class will be performing on the 12th so that is the night to attend (though you are certainly welcome to watch both ;).  A yellow flyer went home about the musical today. If, for some reason, yours didn't make it home just let me know and I will send another copy!

DARE

Starting today, and for the next three Thursdays in the month of January, our class will be having DARE lessons with Officer Fontaine of the Colchester Police Department. Officer Fontaine is one of the two education officers in Colchester who spend much of their time at the schools in town teaching students about safety. Students in all grades learn about safety through DARE, though the lessons look different at the different grade levels. In first grade the four DARE lessons are Personal Safety (today's lesson where students discussed rules, safety drills, street signs, who to go to if you need help, and calling 911 -- students are bringing home two worksheets corresponding to this lesson), Drugs: Helpful or Harmful (next week's lesson which discusses medicines, household cleaners, unknown substances, etc and how to be safe around them), Learning to say No, and Dealing with Angry Feelings. Below is a photo of Officer Fontaine teaching today's lesson!