Georgia Aquarium

Our trip to the Georgia Aquarium was fantastic! We experienced behind-the-scenes views of some of the sea creatures and heard many interesting facts from our guide. The beluga whales were a big hit with many. The playful seat otters received some “oohs” and “aahs” and lots of giggles from our group. On an even smaller scale, observing the sea nettles and the sea dragons fascinated several students. We were so grateful for a day without rain, which provided our group the opportunity to eat lunch just outside of the facility, on their landscaped grounds (see above). The new sea lion show was a big hit with most students, where they had the opportunity to meet 450-pound Diego and two of the juvenile sea lions who performed with him. Overall, it was a great field trip, making for an unforgettable first grade memory!

Thanks to Mrs. Cox & Mrs. Heuser for facilitating Art Wonders

and leading our class in a historically rich painting lesson!

First in Math Ranking: Still maintaining first place in 1st grade at The Rock; 4th in Cobb county; 9th in Georgia; 65th in the U.S.A.

Writing: The narrative writing unit concluded this week, with a culminating assessment where students could demonstrate the narrative writing skills they’ve been honing over the past several weeks. Students’ most recent works will transition with them to second grade. Working with a teacher, students have been video taped presenting a story which they have written or a problem which they have solved, which have been made available for viewing on See Saw. Earlier in the week, information was sent home explaining how to access our class posts and each student’s folder, for parent viewing.

Reading: Students read passages and detailed words and phrases which appealed to the five senses. They worked on identifying the relationship between two items, in an analogy, analyzing the comparison and applying it to two similarly related items. Students completed centers and individuals are beginning to undergo their end of first grade reading assessment.

Math: Students continued working with fractions, reviewed 3-D objects and completed daily word problems in their interactive notebooks. Number Talks provided a review of locating the missing addend or subtrahend in an equation.

Social Studies: Students are learning about goods and services. Lessons will transition to Life Science, where students will be completing their habitat projects to close out this year’s Science curriculum.

We closed out the week with a visit to the Media Center, where, our students created a class story with Mr. Carr, before checking out new books. Please continue to encourage your child to read —  read to them, read with them, and model just how much enjoyment you get from reading books, magazines, newspapers.

Have a great weekend!

First in Math Rankings: First place in first grade at Rocky Mount; 3rd in Cobb county; 6th in Georgia; and 85th in the U.S.

Kudos to our students for doing such a great job at maintaining

peace, while our Milestones-taking neighbors were testing

for two to three hours each day!

This week in Long/Childress Classroom News:

Media Center: Today, our class had our weekly visit to the Media Center. Thanks to Mr. Carr for all of the captivating stories that he shared with us.

Reading: This week in Reading, students learned about first, second, and third person. They practiced determining whose voice was heard (narrator, character one, two, or three), as they read dialogue from a text. Students performed a brief skit, On The Farm. They practiced their lines and presented to the class, today, in small groups.

Writing: Students took on the task of completing books on which they’d been working. They learned about the author’s page and created one of their own, to include in their published work. We are coming to the end of this narrative writing unit. It is wonderful to see how creatively students have expressed themselves during this writing unit. Students have worked tirelessly, producing characters that have navigated through some dramatic circumstances, then resolving conflicts that have been woven into their narratives, demonstrating that they have really grasped the basic elements of telling a story and have had fun throughout the learning process.

Math: This week, there was review of the attributes of 2-D and 3-D shapes (vertices, faces, sides). Students had additional practice with fractions and applied their understanding of fractions while solving multi-step word problems.

Social Studies: Engulfed in the tall tales/folktales unit, students learned about the life and historical contributions of Phoebe Ann Moses – aka – Annie Oakley. Annie Oakley used her skills to help her family, by hunting for food and earning money. She is remembered as one of the leading women of the American West.

Finally, special thanks to this week’s Mystery Reader, Mrs. Calvo, for reading two funny stories to the class. We appreciate you taking the time to visit our class to share your love for reading!

 

 

First in Math Rankings: Our class is standing strong, still maintaining 1st place for first grade at The Rock; 4th place in Cobb county; 7th in Georgia; and 87th in the U.S.

Science Lab: Thanks to Mr. Honeycutt and Mr. Grider, who volunteered their time to assist our class with making bird feeders. It was a pretty wormy experience!

                  

Writing: Students continued to work on their narrative chapter books, using their editing checklist to review and revise their work. Daily, teachers continue to conduct writer’s conferences with each student. To see the growth that our young writers have made over this school year is tremendous. Some of our budding writers have even brought in stories that they’re working on at home, to share with the class. It’s been really great to witness our students, taking concepts learned in class and applying them outside of the classroom.

Reading: This week’s Phonics focus was on the rule of when to use ‘C’ versus when to use ‘K’ in words that they might not be sure of how to spell.

How can illustrations help readers? What might an author’s purpose have been for selecting certain images to include in a passage? Those are some of the questions that students pondered this week. Reading text and identifying details gleaned from the text versus information learned from photographs which accompanied the text are also concepts which students analyzed during this learning segment.

Math: During Number Talks, students solved addition problems with 3 numerals and shared strategies for problem solving with their peers. They read and analyzed word problems, demonstrating multiple ways to show their work, when providing the answer. Students also reviewed multiple styles of graphs and documented data using bar graphs, picture graphs, pie graphs, and tally charts, in addition to comparing/contrasting and understanding relationships between different pieces of data on a given graph.

Social Studies: John Henry was the focus during this week’s learning segment. Students discussed tall tales and distinguished fact from fiction, as they continued to learn about some of the stories that have been passed down through our country’s history.

Thank you to this week’s Mystery Reader, Mrs. Heuser, for reading one of the humorous adventures of Frog and Toad to our class, in addition to sharing some of the successes and challenges faced by Charles Willson Peale – an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist.

Last but not least, we want to commend our wonderful students for their patience and perseverance with peacefully working, while our neighboring 3rd grade friends are completing their End of Grade Assessment, The Georgia Milestones. Our students have done a wonderful job of maintaining peace for the first two to three hours of the school day, which is a tremendous feat, but not beyond the realm of possibilities which they can successfully tackle. Three days down; two more to go ….

 

SPRING BREAK: April 4 – 8; No School

First in Math Rankings: 1st place for first grade at Rocky Mount; 4th in Cobb county; 7th in Georgia; 79th in U.S.

Writing: Narrative writing continued. Students worked on expanding their stories by adding chapters to their narrative books and considering making their initial narrative part one of a series. They incorporated dialogue, speech bubbles, and worked on adding feelings and expressing emotions through writing.

Reading: This week’s focus was on fables and the life lessons that can be learned through the story-telling process. Students completed graphic organizers, detailing story elements and the central message in various fables which were read aloud. Small reading groups met, and students also had the chance to read different fables in small groups, analyzing and interpreting those teachable moments.

Math: This week’s focus in Geometry was on 3-dimensional shapes. Students worked on double-digit addition, reviewed greater than/less than concepts, and enjoyed jelly bean graphing activities.

Social Studies/Science: Students learned about tall tales/American folktales. Towards the end of the recent Life Science unit, students had some hands-on activities with plants. They will be coming home, today, with their planted bean-in-a-cup, which they’ve been excited to observe how quickly they have sprouted.

Science Day: Today is Science Day. With it being the final day before a break, students were arrived on campus, already bubbling over with excitement and anticipation for the day’s events. Students rotated through different areas, on campus, performing Science experiments, such as: making ice cream in a bag, predicting experiment outcomes involving placing Peeps in different solutions, such as milk, water, vinegar & baking soda, soda pop. Students  crawled into a blown up planetarium that was constructed in the gym and experienced a thrilling dinosaur presentation in the cafeteria . A couple of our students were even selected to participate in the show. See images below.

  

Wherever this break may take you and your family, enjoy every moment of it!

Have a wonderful Spring Break and we look forward to hearing all about it,

when students return to school on Monday, April 11!