Week 16

Past Sharing

We had fun seeing all the items from the past! Thank you for helping your child with this assignment.

Hour of Code

This past week we joined a world event called "Hour of Code." It looks like we were part of over 73 million students from over 180 countries who tried computer programming, coding. Even President Obama was part of this movement! What is coding? I told my students that it is a computer language. To make computer do what we want it to do, we have to program the computer using coding. We practiced coding using apps like Kodable, Daisy the Dinosaur and Scratch Jr. On Friday we got together with third graders and worked on coding with them. What an awesome time we had! We will explore more of coding throughout the year. 

Naughty or Nice?

As a part of Language Arts curriculum, we have been practicing an opinion writing. The students wrote why they should be on a nice (or naughty... no one thought they should be on the naughty list, phew!) list. Please check your child's blog to see what they said. Also we have been working on describing a character in a story. Some students made a puppet show about Santa and posted it on their blog. Enjoy!

http://kidblog.org/MrsDeGrootsClass2014-2015/

Upcoming Events

Thursday, December 18 --- Class Christmas Party 1:30-2:30

Friday, December 19 --- Nutcracker rehearsal show 1:00-2:00

Saturday, December 20-Sunday, January 4 --- Winter Break 

Week 14 & 15

History Unit

We have learned so much about America's history. Before Thanksgiving we created a book about the first Thanksgiving. We also enjoyed homemade butter by shaking some heavy whipping cream. 

We also had fun searching the countries of our origin. We've found out that the majority of our families' ancestors came from Germany.

History Sharing

As a part of out history unit, I would like to have a past sharing time. Your child will be asked to bring something from their past, such as a baby blanket, clothing item, baby book, stuffed animal or other items from their past. The sharing item could also be an artifact that belongs to a family member. We will have a sharing session on Wednesday & Thursday.

Music Concert

The children did a fantastic job singing on the stage! It was great to see many of you in the audience.

 Math Talks

We have been participating math talks on Twitter along with other first grade classes. I ask an open ended question on Twitter every week. The students share their mathematical thinking using a hashtag #mtgr1. It has been a great opportunity to talk math, share our ideas and learn from students from other schools. Please view the Twitter feed on the side to see your child's Tweet or click here. This week some of us also shared our math talk on the Kidblog as well.

http://kidblog.org/MrsDeGrootsClass2014-2015/