Student Blogger: Lea

My Elf is so funny. Once he was hiding in the bathtub. Today he was hiding inside my Christmas tree! One time, he also was sitting on the wreath that was hanging on my door. He is 374 years old! His name is Kristoff. I love my Elf!

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Student Blogger: Cooper

My Elf

It hides in weird places. My elf's name is Frisbee. He's funny because he hides in the freezer and on the ceiling fan. It's amazing. I love Frisbee. He flies and hides. Usually when he leaves he leaves notes for me. 

Did you like Cooper's post? Do you have an elf that visits your house at this time of year? Leave him a comment below!

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It's feeling like winter!

For the second week in a row, I decided to give the class a larger role in writing our blog post! Check out the padlet below to read what they had to share about our week:

First graders, if you didn't finish typing your padlet comment, you and your partner can finish it at school next week! :)

First Graders Take Control!

The first graders wrote this week's post all on their own! Check out the padlet below!

Mickey Mouse by Alex

Hi. My name name is Alex and my blog is about Mickey Mouse.

Walt Disney said "it all started with a mouse." But Walt Disney was going to name him Mortimer Mouse. What made everybody like him was lots of little kids liked him. He is also my favorite
character. And I have more than that to tell you. I met him three times when I went to
Disney World and I met more Mickey Mouse characters. I met Goofy, Minnie, Donald, and
Pluto.



Thanks for reading! Did you like Alex's post? Did you learn something new? Do you have any questions for him? Leave a comment!

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Two Types of Whales

This week we learned about two types of whales! But before that, we did a science experiment!

Many animals that live in cold places like Antarctica and the Southern Ocean have blubber to keep warm. A few first graders tell about our blubber experiment below:

The kids asked me SO many great questions this week when I first introduced the blue whale and orca whale, and they continued to ask questions as we learned more and more. This led to... MORE learning! We are now whale experts! 

Every evening this week, I found myself searching online for more whale facts. The kids had so many questions... I knew I'd need to be prepared! :)

Here are just a few of their questions:

"How long is a baby blue whale?"
"What are the lines on the blue whale's throat for?"
"Since blue whales are way bigger, I wonder if they eat orca whales..."
"Is all plankton microscopic? I think I've seen plankton before." (We had to change our signal word definition thanks to Cooper! Jellyfish and krill are plankton, even though you can see them. They float with the ocean currents!)
"Why do whales need blowholes?"

I loved watching the first graders ask questions all week long, but what I loved just as much was hearing them speculate, trying to answer their classmates' questions! These kids are such critical thinkers! I can't wait to talk about finding answers to our questions, and about all of the places in the world that they can find those answers.

We didn't just talk about whales this week... We learned three new addition strategies, too! Ask your first grader about near doubles! Can you use the doubles fact 5+5=10 to help you solve the near doubles fact 5+6? Or ask how we make 10 to solve an addition problem, like 8+4. We also learned how to act out a math problem to solve.

As usual, we also read a few new books...

And Juan Carlos's mom was our mystery reader!

We also made turkeys with our third grade buddies! So fun!

Thanks for reading our post! Happy Thanksgiving!

Addition strategies, Antarctica, and as always... more books

Another great week! These first graders are making connections, asking more and more questions, and showing off their learning in so many ways! So exciting to watch!

Read about our week below!

The only predator of the leopard seal is the orca whale. -Tanaya

We learned about the leopard seal. It eats krill. -Kendall

We made a poster of penguin facts with sticky notes. -Carol

We made a tear art leopard seal. -Allyson

We read new books. -Jared

Today we wrote about things that are scary. -Nya

We read Lost and Found. -Ryan

We read Some Things Are Scary. And we made a class book called If You Were a Penguin. -Anahi

We had no school on Veterans Day and we got to meet a veteran on Tuesday. -Cooper

We read the book Polar Opposites about a penguin and a polar bear. -Fabiana

We learned about doubles facts in math, like 1+1 or 2+2. -Indigo

We read a nonfiction book about leopard seals. -Parker

We learned the word blubber. Blubber is a layer of fat that keeps animals warm in the water. -Lorenzo

We learned what a prepositional phrase is. It means the part of a sentence that tells where or when. The illustrator of Some Things Are Scary has the same name as I do. -Jules

We stuck smart cards on the leopard seal chart and we read a book called Polar Opposites. -Alex

We thought of scary things during writing, like if glue got stuck in your hair. -Juan Carlos

We had to do two workshop jobs today because we had no school Wednesday. -Tianna

We read Sea Life. -Jade

We watched a video about a diver who sees leopard seals. -Isandro
(Isandro found this video at home while doing his own leopard seal research!)

We learned a new signal word, fierce. -Anshika

We made our own leopard seals with whiskers on their noses. -Damion

We learned a new signal word for math. Addends are numbers that you add. -Lea

We watched a leopard seal video with very scientific pictures. -Liam

Leopard seals eat squid and fish and penguins and other seals and krill and cephalopods. -Kyara

I couldn't go to school on Thursday because I was sick. -Deniz

We learned what a number line is. We use it to add. -Jaykob

Thanks for reading! Leave us a comment!
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