Week 24

Lakeside Lab Trip

We were so glad to make it out there despite the weather. We got a little wet on the lake, but we still had a great time and learned a lot! 

 Learning about a food chain in the lakes.

 Looking at zooplankton that live in the lakes.

 We found deer tracks.

 The ice was 24 inches thick! 

 There was a underwater monitor set up in the ice shack.

 We touched a blue gill!

American Symbol Study

We picked one symbol to study and research. Everyone did a nice job working with peers and sharing their findings.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, February 26 --- early dismissal @1:45

Water Helper

Finn

Week 23

Valentine's Day

We had a fun filled afternoon on Valentine's day. Special thanks to Tory, Isabella, Alex, Kiana's moms for helping us celebrate. Also we thank Ryker's family for providing drinks for the party!

Lakeside Lab Field Trip

On Thursday, February 20 our class will go to Lakeside Lab. We will take a closer look at the life under the ice, little creature that live in the water, and fish that live in the area. We will be hiking down to the lake, so please make sure your child has all the winter gear to enjoy the experience.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, February 20 --- Lakeside Lab Trip

Wednesday, February 26 --- Early Dismissal @1:45

Water Helper

Tory

Week 22

100th Day Celebration

We had a blast celebrating the 100th day of school!

After making an awesome hat, everyone picked a way to explore, show & have fun with 100 like...

running for 100 seconds:)

drawing 100 things... 

Counting 100 items by 10's

building with 100 pattern blocks,

building with 100 Legos

building with 100 toothpicks!

finding 100 pencils in the classroom

tossing 100 pompoms into a bucket (he made 72 in!)

passing a ball 100 times



kicking a ball 100 times


finding numbers 1-100 by Finn



We also counted the 100 collections. Please check your child's blog!

Digital Learning Day

Wednesday was Digital Learning Day. Here is a list of what we use almost daily.

(The children could not believe it when I told them I did not have any of the things listed on the chart when I was in first grade:)

We connected with our learning partners.

With Mr. Ross's class in Webster City, we used a backchannel called Today's Meet to write a story from the cat's point of view. Mr. Ross's class was the fish!

With Mrs. Cavin's class in Georgia, we played a shape hunt game on Twitter.

You can view the entire Tweet session here

.Upcoming Events

Wednesday, February 12 --- 1:45 Dismissal

Friday, February 14 --- Valentine's Day 

(Please find a note about the valentines in your child's Friday Folder)

Thursday, February 20 --- Lakeside Lab Field Trip in the afternoon

***Please let me know if you are interested in chaperoning on this trip.

Water Helper

Sicily

Week 21

Jan Brett

We have been enjoying Jan Brett's books.  She is an amazing children's book author and illustrator.  we spent some time analyzing her work. The followings are our findings:

- Jan Brett adds boarders to many of her stories.
- The boarders help us make predictions in some stories.
- The characters in her stories are mostly animals.
- There are several books that have a hedgehog and trolls.
- Many of her stories have problems and solutions.
- She travels and researches places, people and animals to write a new book.

We also visited her website. There were a lot to see! We enjoyed looking at her photos and illustrations. Then we decided to draw a hedgehog! We noticed that her illustration has beautiful background as well. All of us did a fantastic job adding details in the background also. Check out our art work!

Reading via Skype

We had a Skype session with Mr. Ross's first grade from Webster City.  We read "The Three Bears" together.   It was such a great opportunity to practice our reading fluency with first graders in another school.

100th Day Celebration

We will be celebrating our 100th Day of school on February 3. Our first grade classrooms have many fun activities planned for that day. You can help by collecting 100 of something with your child. We have had children bring 100 popcorn kernels, 100 Skittles’s, 100 paper clips, 100 raisins, 100 seeds, etc. Our goal is to see what 100 looks like. Please have your collection here for Monday, February 3rd.
***Please make sure your child's collection is peanut & tree nuts free!

As a part of 100th Day celebration, we will participate in a service project.  The children have the option of bringing one or two cans of food. (To help them feel part of the service project, the children may do light jobs or help around the house to help earn the money for the food.) The first grade classes will collect the cans, count them, and bag them to be taken to Upper Des Moines. If you would like to help us deliver cans to Upper DM with your child, we are looking for a volunteer from each classroom.

KidBlog
Please visit your child's blog!
http://kidblog.org/MrsDeGrootsClass2013-2014

February Water Helpers

Week 20

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Week

This week we learned about Martine Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges.  Please ask your child about segregation and how they felt when they learned about it.  One of the books we read was called, "Martin's Big Words."  His big words were; peace, freedom, speeches, dream, kind, fairness, together, all.  We came up with our own big words.  I will create a class book of this project.  

Mystery Shape Skype

We are learning shapes right now.  This week some of us played a mystery shape game with Mrs. Cavin's class in Georgia via Skype.  We asked each other about shape attributes to guess a mystery shape.  Some questions that we asked them were:

• Is it a 2D or 3D shape?
• Does it have 6 sides and 6 corners?
• Does it have one face?
• How many edges does it have?

We will continue on with this activity next week so that more friends will have an opportunity to play this game.

Water Cycle

We did an evaporation experiment this week.  Please ask your child the answer to the question & how we figured it out!!  #littlescientists 

Upcoming Weeks

Water helper ---Saige

Wednesday, January 29 --- Early dismissal

Tuesday, February 4 --- 100th day of school (tentative) 

Week 19

Water Cycle

Charles from Dickinson Nature Center came to teach us water cycle.  We created a water cycle diagram and learned a song that explains the cycle.  Next week we will brainstorm the ways we can observe each phase of the water cycle, evaporation, condensation & precipitation.  

Glad Monster, Sad Monster

Our high school J-term intern, Kinsey read a story called "Glad Monster Sad Monster" by Ed Emberley.  After reading the story, she helped us make a feeling monster mask and write about our feelings.  Please check your child's blog for this project.

http://kidblog.org/MrsDeGrootsClass2013-2014/

Water Helper

Saige

Upcoming Events

Label Contest

Early Dismissal on Wednesday, January 29

Week 18

Welcome Back!

It was great to see everyone after a long break.  I enjoyed listening to the highlights of their vacation.  We also spent some time revisiting school expectations.  The students worked in groups to review rules and expectations, made a poster and taught each other.  They also showed great team work deciding what to write, photograph and taking turns.

Winter Fun

We have so much fun in the snow at recess.  Please make sure to send boots, snow pants, hat, and gloves everyday! If they don't have boots or snow pants, they have to stay on the concrete area:(

Help Please!

We will be studying shapes next few weeks.  I would like to have some real life recycle items for us to investigate.  Examples are cereal boxes, empty soup cans, toilet paper tubes, etc.  In the end, we will build sculpture using these items.  To ensure safety for every student, please avoid containers that had peanuts or tree nuts products.   Thank you!  

Next Week

Water Helper --- Ryker

Wednesday, January 15 --- Charles from Dickinson County Nature Center will come to teach us about water cycle.