Finishing our shark research

For the last two weeks our class has been working on a nonfiction research project all about sharks. We read lots about sharks and students also learned the basics of researching a topic on the internet using the kid friendly search engines Kiddle and Kidrex (see earlier posts). We practiced taking notes together, paraphrasing what we had read into our own words, then students created their own individual "All About Sharks" books using the notes we had taken. Today we bound the books and kids are bringing them home for you to see! Here are photos of some of the kids binding their books as well as photos of the parts of one student's book (so you can see what went into them).

After break we will be starting some different nonfiction writing where students will learn to listen to a nonfiction text then paraphrase the information from the text to write their own nonfiction piece. We will also be moving on to our year end science unit learning about the life cycle of a chick! Hatching chicks is always an incredibly fun way to end our school year!

Two Special Visits

Last week we had some special visitors! A brass trio from the Vermont Symphony Orchestra came to school to do a performance and teach all the students about brass instruments. Then our class had visitors related to our social studies unit. We have been learning about Mexico, Gabriel's grandmother is from Mexico, and his grandparents lived in Mexico. They came to our class to tell us what Mexico is like, to answer questions, and to read to us in Spanish. Having them visit was an other wonderful way to extend our learning about another country!

Research

Our first grade class is beginning a nonfiction research project on sharks! We are working as a whole class and in partners to use the kid-safe search engines Kiddle and Kidrex as well as books and other online school resources such as Bookflix and Pebblego to find information on sharks. Students are learning how to read with a question in mind, how to research the answers to nonfiction questions, and how to paraphrase and write the answer to their question in their own words! This project is always so much fun and I am always so impressed by how much first graders are able to do at this time in the year! Stay tuned for more information on our shark project.

Here are some photos of students working together to research and record answers to their questions about sharks.

Mexico

This month our first grade social studies unit is called Places in Our World and we are studying Mexico! I have a connection with a first grade class in Monterrey, Mexico, and our class has been having fun and learning a lot partly through getting to know those students. The main focus of our unit is having students learn ways that we are similar and different from people in another country so this connection has been fabulous.

To begin, both our class and theirs made a video introducing ourselves and emailed the video to each other. After watching each other's videos both our class and theirs came up with questions for each other and emailed those. One thing both classes were very interested in was the big difference in weather between our two cities. In our video we showed the snow we had on our playground and we noticed that in their video they were all wearing shorts and t-shirts! I pasted our questions below so you can see what the classes asked each other.

Last Wednesday we Skyped with the class in Monterrey and asked/answered the questions we had come up with. It was very meaningful for the kids to get to talk to each other in real time and the kids' biggest take-away was that they have so much in common! The kids in the other class are the same age as the kids in our class, they like many of the same foods, toys, and sports, and they have mostly the same types of pets and wild animals that we find here. The main differences we noticed were that they wear uniforms to school, they speak Spanish as well as English, and it is very hot where they live/never snows!

We asked them:
What is your weather like in Monterrey during the different seasons? What is the weather like now?

What type of wild animals live near Monterrey?

What type of animals do you have as pets?

What are your favorite foods?

Do you have a playground and recess time at school?

What kinds of toys do you like?

Do you have weekends off from school and when do you have school vacations?

How many kids are in your class and at your school?

Do you have special events like parades or festivals in your town?

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They asked us:

1. How do kids have to get dressed to go to school in winter?

2. What type of wild animals live in Vermont?

3. Which places do kids visit in their vacation time?

4. What kind of games do they play when it is snowing?

5. Do kids in Vermont ski in snow?

6. How is the weather during each season?

7. What type of food do they like to eat?

Drop Everything and Do Art

Every so often we get a fun surprise where an announcement comes over our PA system telling us to "drop everything and dance," or "drop everything and read" and we all get a fun break from our usual schedule. Last Friday was our first "drop everything and do art!" In our classroom we covered the tables with giant paper and students drew all over them! We had a blast.