Time for Africa!

We read Oh No, George! -Mihir

Today we wrote our own stories about discipline after reading Oh No, George! -Aiden

We learned about the African elephant. They dig up roots to eat with their tusks. -Lilliana

Baby elephants have baby tusks and they fall out just like our teeth do. -Owen

We read a book called Little Elephant's Trunk. -Alexis

There are different teams now. Our teams are Lions, Cheetahs, Elephants, Giraffes, and Ostriches. -Antonio

We celebrated Dr. Seuss this week. We did a Cat and the Hat math job during workshop. -Noora

We learned that there are different species of elephants. We are learning about the African elephant. -Jacob

We did Kahoot. It had questions about the world map. -Oscar

We learned new chants. My favorite is the chameleon one, because I like when we say "I'm a... chameleon!" -Krishelle

Last week we used an app called Chatterpix to make animals talk. We made our animals from Europe say facts. -Sophia M.

We made a new world map. It shows where savannas and deserts are. -Logan

We started "Polar Bear March." We get to adopt a polar bear if we walk to school the most. -Brielle

We learned a new word, matriarch. The matriarch is the female leader of a family or group. Elephant groups are led by a matriarch. She is the oldest and biggest. -Lucia

One our new literacy awards that we can earn
for showing respect, making good decisions,
or solving problems!

We did a new blue chart. We are working on discipline. Discipline is when you have excellent self-control all the time. -Savannah

We brainstormed times that we showed discipline after we read Oh No, George! George showed discipline when he was on his walk. -Alexia

We watched a video with a fact family song. It has the same tune as the continents and oceans chant from the beginning of first grade. -Ella

A fact family has 3 numbers, the mama and two children. If we are being scientific, we call the children offspring. If we are being mathematicians, the mama is called the sum or the whole, and the babies are called parts or addends. You can use a fact family to make related facts, which are math facts with the same 3 numbers. There are two addition facts and two subtraction facts. -Jonah

We learned a word called savanna. A savanna is a warm, grassy place with scattered trees. Elephants live in the savanna. -Henry

We learned about two types of trees in Africa. One is called an acacia tree and one is called a baobab tree. -Sam

We wrote on sticky notes about what we know about African animals. -Carson

We have a new inquiry chart with lots of information and lots of questions. -Sophia D.

We learned about the African elephant and it took two days to finish the whole chart. We didn't do smart cards on the elephant or the world map yet. When we first did the map, Miss Kloczko forgot to label the continents, but we reminder her the next day! -Ginger

Lots of Writing and a Little Rain

This week went by so fast! We only had three days of school, but we still learned a bunch and did a lot! Here's what we did this week:

It rained and we got to play with our toys. And we read a book from the library about siberian tigers. -Oscar

We had indoor recess and played with our toys inside. -Jonah

It was raining and wrote an opinion piece about it. -Ms. D.

Today we made our own pandas, just using paper, q-tips, and water. -Ginger

We wrote two times in one day! -Lilliana

We wrote informative pieces about pandas. -Aiden

We ate lunch in our new gym today. -Logan

We wrote about the rain after Miss Kloczko showed us a picture of an orangutan in the rain. -Krishelle

We had a new signal word today, opinion.  Opinion is what you think. -Antonio

In the gym, we had a dance party when we were eating lunch, and it was really fun. -Sophia D.

We all wrote stories about a panda who fell asleep. -Ella

We learned more about giant pandas. -Alexis

We did opinion writing today. -Lucia

We have new table groups. I'm on the peacock team. -Mihir

Yesterday we read The Not So Quiet Library, and then we played a game where we had to had to guess whose voice we heard. -Savannah

Today we read books with our third grade buddies. -Noora

We read a book, Panda and Polar Bear, on the chart. -Brielle

We started to talk about subtraction. That's when you take away. -Henry

Our third grade buddies came today. -Sophia M.

We learned what closure means. It means bringing your writing to an end. -Owen

We read Please, Mr. Panda. -Carson

We read I'll Wait, Mr. Panda, the sequel of Please, Mr. Panda. -Sam

I made a tiny panda during Fun Friday. -Gino

We also had a special mystery reader this week, our books for our Donors Choose project arrived (THANK YOU to those of you who contributed!), and one of our first grade friends lost a tooth! I love missing-tooth smiles! What a fun week! Thanks for  reading— leave us a comment if you have a minute!