Learning Update

Math: We continued to study shapes during math this week. We learned that shapes can be divided into halves or fourths. It’s important to know how to make equal shares when we are sharing an object like pizza, a cookie or a granola bar with a friend. We also combined triangles, rectangles and squares to form new shapes. Later in the week, we learned the attributes of 3-dimensional shapes, combining them to make new shapes. On Friday, we used this knowledge to build cities with our table teams. This was a great opportunity to work cooperatively. Each group had a mayor who assigned tasks and made sure that everyone got along. These cities were amazing! Some of the structures were a car wash, a church, an apartment building, a sports arena, a tunnel, and a water park.

Writing: During Writer’s Workshop, we continued working on our All About Books. We learned the importance of using headings on each page to tell our reader our big ideas. We also worked on writing great introductions to hook our readers into reading our books. Our introductions always Ask a Question and Tell our Topic, so our audience will want to keep on reading.

Reading: We jumped back into Reading Workshop by checking our prior knowledge of our special topics before reading. This strategy gets our minds ready to make connections to new ideas. We spent time comparing books with our table partners and confirmed facts by finding them in multiple books. We also recorded new vocabulary words that related to our topics. With the help of illustrations and glossaries, we taught our classmates the meanings of these new words. 

Science: This week, we studied the sun and weather. We did some fun experiments and learned how the sun shines on just half of the Earth at a time, how rain falls from clouds, and how a tornado spins. We even simulated a thunderstorm in our class, complete with lightning flashes! These smart first graders are now experts in recognizing severe weather and they also know how to stay safe. Next week, we will start our study of animal life cycles to prepare for our field trip to the zoo.

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