Thankful Turkeys

Last Thursday and Friday our class talked a lot about Thanksgiving, read some fiction and nonfiction books about the holiday, and made turkeys with speech bubbles telling what they were thankful for to go on our hallway bulletin board! Parents, you can check them out when you come in for conferences today and tomorrow! Here are some photos taken while the kids were making their turkeys.

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Ben and Jerry's Field Trip

Today all four first grade classes took a field trip to the Ben and Jerry's Factory in Waterbury to connect our learning about solids and liquids to the way that ice cream is made! We had lots of fun and got to see and hear about the change from liquids to solids in the ice cream making process.

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Guidance Class Update

Click the link below for updates on what our students are working on during guidance class with Mrs. McCleary!

http://umsschoolcounseling.blogspot.com/

Solids and Liquids

Today and tomorrow we are wrapping up our unit on solids and liquids! Here is a padlet we made today to showcase our understanding of the states of matter.

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Ben and Jerry's Trip Chaperone Info

Our first grade field trip to Ben and Jerry's is coming up this Thursday, November 20! If you sent in money to come with us as a chaperone, please meet us in our classroom at 8:45 Thursday morning. We will be leaving school just before 9:00. Looking forward to our trip!

Solids and Liquids

First graders have been spending the last month learning about solids and liquids (and some about gas) to have an introduction to matter and its states! Try asking your child to explain to you what the words solid, liquid, gas, and matter mean. They should all be able to describe these four things now!

During this unit our class explored different solids and learned about their properties. We then explored different liquids and their properties and took time to compare how the properties of solids and liquids are quite different from one another. Yesterday we read the Dr. Seuss book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, then made our own oobleck by mixing corn starch and water. The kids had fun with this experiment because the oobleck appears to have both properties of a solid and a liquid and it becomes more solid throughout the day. The kids got to play with it a few times throughout the day describing its properties as they did so.

Students made another lapbook for this theme, which is a folder of all the different things they learned throughout the unit. We will wrap up our unit this Thursday with a field trip to the Ben and Jerry's factory in Waterbury where we will get a tour focused on solids and liquids in the ice cream making process!

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Editing Our Writing

It's hard to believe but we are coming to the end of our fist trimester in first grade! We are finishing up different units of study including our writing unit on personal narratives. Our class has been taking some time to learn about the editing process and is using two editing checklists to help us improve some of our finished pieces of writing. We have used the one titled " strategies good editors use" and are moving on to the the "editing checklist II" next. I am posting from my iPad and apologize that the photos are coming out sideways!

Dreambox

Today our class learned about our Dreambox math accounts! Students each have an account where they are able to play math games and, like RAZ kids and their blogs, they may use this at home and at school. Dreambox is a new learning tool at our school so I will be learning much about how it works along with the kids. Today we all explored it together at math time, it seems like fun, and the kids are very excited about it!

To use Dreambox at home go to the top right hand side of this blog where it says "student links," and click "Dreambox math." The kids usernames are their first names and their passwords are their last names, just as with their blogs and RAZ kids. Enjoy!

**I just explored the use of Dreambox through the app (we had been using it on computers and Chromebooks) and discovered that you do have to use a school code. It is 5spm/unionms.**

Twitter

Our class has been using Twitter each afternoon to connect with and learn about other first graders in the USA and Canada (we hope to expand beyond our continent in the future) and yesterday/today we used Twitter to learn about Veteran's Day by checking out and posting to the hashtag #VeteransDay. We have been learning about hashtags, Twitter handles, "tweeting," and replying to tweets, what it is to follow or be followed by others on Twitter, what our online profile is, and more!

If your child has been coming home talking about Twitter and you are hoping to understand more of what it's all about, consider the offering below. The tech integration specialist in the Williston elementary schools will be hosting an online class through CVU Wednesday night to introduce the basics of Twitter!

 http://cvuweb.cvuhs.org/access/#a609

Ben and Jerry's Field Trip

First graders have all been studying solids and liquids this month and on November 20th we will all be going on a field trip to the Ben and Jerry's factory in Waterbury to connect our learning to the ice cream making process! Please be on the lookout for a permission slip coming home today. Student admission for the tour is free and adult admission is $2. Please let me know if you would like to join us!