Hello, Fall and Hello, Asia!

Our first week learning about Asia! So much fun in only four days of school! Here's what we were up to this week!

I wrote almost a whole page in my notebook today during writing. -Henry

Pandas eat 20 pounds of bamboo every day. -Sam

We watched a panda video. The panda was bleating! -Antonio

We learned that pandas live in forests in mountains and we read this cool story with a panda bear and polar bear. The polar bear fell down the snowy mountain. -Noora

We learned the word sluggish. It means slow and tired. -Ella

We read by ourselves this week. -Brielle

My favorite thing this week was getting a new team. I'm on the tigers. -Oscar

Jacob and I read stories to the class. -Jonah

We did a marshmallow contest—the marshmallow challenge. -Carson

We learned about true and false in math. -Lilliana

We learned about giant pandas. They have a big wrist bone that acts like a thumb. -Alexis

We watched a couple of panda videos and learned all about them. -Ginger

We are learning about the panda. Babies are born pink and without hair. -Lucia

We did a special world map for Asia. -Jacob

We got to write about two dogs playing in leaves. -Aiden

I got to read my dinosaur book during reading time. -Gino

We watched a video with a baby panda crying and squealing. -Sophia M.

On Monday, we did the marshmallow challenge. I just wanted to eat the marshmallow, but it was an exercise for self-control, so I waited until the end, and then I got to eat two. It was worth the wait. -Sophia D.

We learned all about pandas. Their cubs are as big as butter. -Owen

We did F is for Fireworks for our America books. -Savannah

Our first math unit is officially finished, we delivered kindness capes to kindergarten for Kind Kids Club, and I had the best time reading these kids' writing all week long! AND I got the most thoughtful gifts this week-- goodies from Alaska, sweet notes and drawings, and a beautiful sunflower from Apple Hill! Thank you, first graders, for a wonderful week before Fall Break! What in the world am I going to do for 5 days without you? :) -Miss Kloczko

Thanks for reading! Leave us a comment if you have a minute!
Parents, check out What's Coming Up? to read about next week.

Finally Feeling Like Fall!

What happened in first grade this week?

This week we started our unit on Weather and Matter. Ask your child to tell you what the word "matter" means. That was one of our signal words this week! We learned about solids, liquids, and gases, which are everywhere!

We also reviewed the four seasons of the year and the different weather each one has.

Check out this week's Science Digital Challenge...

Created with Padlet

Since it's officially feeling like fall, we talked about all of the things we know about fall. There is a lot to do and wear and eat during this season!

We brainstormed a big list of settings for stories. Some of these came from things we have learned about, like habitats, but most came from places we have been or places we have seen in movies of read about in books. 

We also learned about informative writing, or writing that gives information. We wrote informative pieces about something we each know A LOT about... ourselves! The kids did so great. I LOVED reading them!

The social skill we are working on right now is self-control. We launched our discussion about self-control with this silly video! 

We thought of some ways that we can show self-control at school, and throughout the week, we read some stories about characters that learn to show self-control!

Mad Science came to visit us for an assembly where we got to see some super cool experiments. A few first graders even got to participate! A form came home in your child's Friday Folder about the Mad Science after-school program.

A special visitor came to our class! On Friday, Wesley's mom was the mystery reader, and she brought Cinder, therapy dog-in-training. Cinder was a great guest and a great listener during the story! And the first graders were SO surprised to see a puppy in first grade!

For Fun Friday, we made pumpkin mosaics with Milo's mom. They turned out so cute!