Go Green for the Blue Planet Project

During the Earth Day week, we watched this video from Wonderopolis.

After viewing the video, we had big questions.

What happens to trash? 

Why do people litter?

What kind of effects do trash have on animals? 

What can we do to help?

We spent some time investigating and researching how to take better care of our Earth.

We would like you to take a moment to view the following videos to learn what we could do to help keep Earth a safe and healthy home for everyone.

Book made by Evelyn

Puppet show made by Luke, Kucas, Kierstin & Olivia

Video made by Indy, Nolan & Racheal

Video Created by Wes, Carter & Solomon

Video Created by Mackenzie, Isaiah, Jaedyn & Alex

Poster Created by Karlie & Lauren

Well, what do you think?

Please leave a comment to let us know your thoughts!

Thank you!

Week 34

Poetry Party

Thank you for coming to the poetry party. I was so proud of everyone. What a great group of performers!

Lakeside Lab Trip

Our day was filled with excitement, exploring and learning! Please ask your child what they learned about mammals on our trip. We will continue with mammal study and research till the end of the year. Thanks to Isaiah's dad and Solomon's mom for coming to the trip with us!

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, May 5 --- Music Concert @9:00
Wednesday, May 13 --- R.I.F.
Tuesday, May 19 --- Zoo Trip
Friday, May 22 --- Last Day of School

Week 33

Earth Day Kahoot!

Our class joined six other classes to research and write a quiz about Earth Day. On Thursday all seven classes got together via Google Hangout to play the quiz using a site called Kahoot. A lady from Kahoot also joined our meet all the way from London, UK to see how first graders utilize their product in the classroom. After each question, the class that created the question shared the information to teach others a bit more about what Earth Day is all about.

Other classes were from Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

What Time Is It?

Tick, tock! We are busy practicing to tell time to the hour and half hour! 

12 o'clock was a bit tricky to do:)

Poetry Party is on Thursday, April 30 at 10:30 a.m. It should last about 30 minutes. We are looking forward to having you all there!

Week 32

Letter Writing Project

 Thank you for helping your child with this assignment! The students enjoyed writing a letter to their family member. We learned how to address an envelope and where to put a stamp. We marked on our map where everyone's letter is going. We also learned how mails get delivered. Of course the highlight of this project was walking to the post office and mailing the letter. The post master gave us a nice tour of the post office. We are curious about how long it will take for the letters get to the destinations. 

Upcoming Events

 Thursday, April 30 @10:30 Class Poetry Party

Friday, May 1 All Day Lakeside Lab Field Trip

*I'm still looking for two chaperones for the trip. Please let me know if you are available.

Week 30 - 31

Dominican Republic Presentation

A special guest, Mrs. Kriener (Director of Learning & Development) visited us to give us a presentation on her Dominican Republic trip. We learned about their culture, language, schools, foods, and geological characteristics. She even brought some sugar canes, a mango and a coconut for us to try. We all had a fantastic time! Your child blogged about their learning.

"My Father's Dragon" Book Club

We finished a chapter book called "My Father's Dragon." As we read a chapter a day, we shared our thoughts on Twitter along with 32 other first grade classes in the U.S. and Canada. We enjoyed reading and responding to other classes' Tweets. Next week we will start the second book in the series. The book club tweets are labeled with #1bc15 as shown in the Twitter feed on this page.

On Wednesday, I had an opportunity to present a session called "Power of Twitter" at a technology conference in Des Moines. I was proud to show all the learning and collaboration my students have been part of this year. It was great to show how capable 6, 7 & 8 year-olds are, and learning can go beyond four walls of the classroom.

Letter Writing Project

We are practicing our letter writing skills. Next week we would like to write a letter to someone special and mail it to him/her. I would like you to take a few minutes to talk to your child and decide whom he/she can write a letter to. Please write down your address and friend or family member's address on a piece of paper and send it back to school with a stamp by Tuesday. We will walk to the post office on Thursday to mail the letter. Thank you for your help!

Please Save the Date!

Our class would like to invite you to a poetry party on 

Thursday, April 30 @10:30. 

Lakeside Lab Trip

We are going on a field trip to Lakeside Lab to learn about animals on Friday, May 1 (8:30-2:30). I am in need of two parent volunteers. Please e-mail me if you are interested. 

Week 29

R.I.F.

We had a great day of reading celebration! Many thanks to all the parent volunteers and Noon Kiwanis for making this event successful.

Wearing a Purple Ribbon on Epilepsy Awareness Day

Yummy Rocks!

We made an igneous rock from melted chocolate (lava) and a layered cake to show how sediments turn into sedimentary rock over time. Of course we enjoyed tasting the rocks most:) Special thanks to all the families who provided the food items! 

 

Week 27-28

Thank You!

Thank you for taking time to sign up and come to the parent/teacher conference. It was great to share your child's progress. It is hard to believe we only have 2 months left in this school year. We will continue to work hard to get ready for second grade!

Rock Presentation

The Dickinson County Naturalist, Charles visited us to teach us about rocks and minerals. We were all fascinated by different ways we use minerals every day. We also learned about 3 types of rocks; igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. We will explore rocks deeper next week.

Data Collection

On St. Patrick's Day, we participated in a Lucky Charm data collecting project. We paired up with Mrs. Malchow's class in Wisconsin. First we shared our predictions via Twitter with them. Then we counted the marshmallows in the cereal. We connected with Mrs. Malchow's class via Google Hangout in the afternoon to share our results. What was interesting was we had 200 more marshmallows than they did (same amount of cereal)! Lucky us:)

On Thursday we connected with Mrs. Flicek's class in Wisconsin to collect data and discuss results over Google Hangout. We used a site called Kahoot to ask questions, cast a vote and view a graph of our responses. We also asked each other questions about the data collected.