Whales, Penguins, and More

Here's what our first graders had to say about the week...

We did Reader's Workshop. -Isaiah

We learned about orca whales. -Eliana

We learned about the blue whale. -Ariana

We painted blue whales. -Leila

We watched Happy Feet with Mrs. Kahler's class. -Amaru

We retook our pictures. -Analisa

We learned about Antarctica animals like penguins. -Milana

We learned about the blue whale and orca whale. -Parker

We made a list of what we are thankful for. -Emma

We are going to compare the blue whale and the orca whale. -Olivia

We read with our reading buddies. -Noah T.

We did Fit Friday. -Cedric

We did our spelling tests. -Thomas

We also did Read to Self. -Sarah

We got to shop the library. -Rohin

We learned about the North Pole's animals, like polar bears. -Hailey

We read really cool books like How Deep is the Sea? and Antarctic Antics. -Milo

Miss Kloczko told us the story Sea Life. -Jacquelyn

Jacob's mom was the mystery reader. -Jalen

We learned "Penguins Here, Penguins There." -Courtney

We learned that the blue whale has two blowholes. -Katherine

We did "Whales Here, Whales There." -Noah K

We did a new world map. -Ainsley

We read Dear Mr. Blueberry. -Wesley

We ate donuts for my birthday. -Jacob

Ask your first grader to teach you one of our signal words from this week, like "cetacean," "spyhopping," or "hemisphere!" -Miss Kloczko

Thanks for reading! :)

Red Ribbon Week!

Aside from all of the fun spirit days for Red Ribbon Week last week, these first graders did some awesome writing!

On Pajama Day, we read one of our favorite Mo Willems books, Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. Then, we discussed reasons why the pigeon should get to stay up late, or why it is important that he go to bed and get some sleep! Most of our class was in favor of letting the pigeon stay up late. :)

In the afternoon, I let the kids know that I was having a bit of a problem, that I didn't know yet what I would be dressing up as for Halloween on Friday. They each got to tell me their thoughts... too funny!

Tuesday was Twin Day!

Market Day is a big day for second graders at Star Academy, and our class loved visiting Market Day on Wednesday! There were tons of goods and services for sale. With just two "Market Day Dollars," the kids could buy anything from a pet rock to a fancy manicure. These first graders were very happy with their purchases!

We also wrote opinion pieces on Wednesday to wrap up our science unit on weather and matter. What is your favorite season?

Sports Day was on Thursday, and it could not have been scheduled for a better day! On Wednesday night, the San Francisco Giants beat the Royals in Game 7 of the World Series, and Thursday morning, my classroom was full of many happy first graders in Giants gear... as well as football jerseys, soccer uniforms, a karate outfit, and even a Peja Stojakovic jersey, which all of you loyal Kings fans can appreciate, I'm sure!

Thursday morning, we read I Wanna Iguana, and each first grader wrote a letter mom or dad asking for a pet!

Perhaps my favorite writing of the week came on Friday... informative writing about our Halloween costumes!

This was a fun week for SO many reasons. I loved getting a deeper look into the kids personalities and interests through their outfit choices on our spirit days, and it was a pleasure sharing their progress with parents during conferences each day after school. I'm so proud of everything these amazing first graders have accomplished since the start of the year, and there is so much more fun and learning ahead!

Thank you to all who helped to make our Halloween celebration so exciting for our first graders!

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!