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