Social Distancing Video

This awesome video was made by Mrs. Bassett who also teaches first grade at UMS. Please watch with your child!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDFiGoUyZU&feature=emb_title

Nonfiction

This trimester we are very focused on informational nonfiction reading and writing as well as doing some whole class research. A major focus since returning from break has been learning about text features (such as headings, labels, diagrams, maps, captions, photographs, table of contents, index, glossary, bold words...). Last week kids looked for text features in books with their table groups. Here are photos of kids doing a "scavenger hunt" this week to find and identify text features in big copy of the Time for Kids magazine.

Text Features

We are back from break and we are getting into informational nonfiction! This trimester we will be very focused on reading and writing nonfiction and we began with starting to learn about text features. We spent this short week looking at nonfiction in books, magazines, and technology and identifying the different text features in them. Kids also worked in table groups to look for different text features in nonfiction books then we discussed what the features are teaching us. This week's Seesaw posts are also focused on things we learned about text features. Here are photos of kids working in groups to identify text features.

Maps and Black History Month

Two of our main focuses this week were mapping and Black History Month. Kids learned about and made maps of the world, continent, country, state, and our classroom. They will be bringing those home today. We also spent a lot of time this week reading about some different, famous black men and women. We read much about Martin Luther King, Jr. in January so this week we focused on others. We learned about Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges (who was also an important part of the civil rights movement), Jackie Robinson and Usain Bolt (famous athletes), Bessie Coleman (the first black, female, pilot), Louis Armstrong (famous musician), and Lonnie Johnson (who was an inventor of many things including the super soaker). Our class truly enjoyed learning about these famous people and we had many wonderful discussions. Ask your child about these people at home!

Here are some photos from our work with maps:

Our Busy Week!

This week was FILLED with fun things! Tuesday we had the 100th day of school, Wednesday we had our school musical (in the evening with a rehearsal during the day), Thursday we went to the Flynn Theater to see Rainbow Fish the play, and Friday was Valentine's Day! Whew! Here are some photos from our adventures (100th Day photos are in a separate post).

100th Day

Tuesday was our 100th Day of school! We did a fun rotation in first grade where each of the 4 classrooms hosted an activity and students rotated between the rooms to try out all 4! Kids made crowns, made a poster using the number 100, painted a "gumball machine" with 100 gumballs, and designed with 100 objects.