Rocks, Trees, and Poetry!

The children have been very busy little scientists.  We launched our Pebbles, Sand, and Silt unit last week. The children looked closely at, and learned about, three types of volcanic rock: basalt, tuff, and scoria.  Ask them to tell you about each!  They also studied river rocks and sorted a collection of them by categories of their choice.

Last Friday, we walked to Royal River Park to celebrate Arbor Day.  We watched our local arborist plant a tree.  We had the opportunity to decorate our own pots and plant tree seedlings.  We learned about tree pests and learned why trees are so important.  It was a great morning!

As a follow-up to our Arbor Day celebration, the children painted beautiful tree pictures, then we launched our poetry writing unit by writing a tree poem.  We've spent this week writing poems.  I have been so impressed with the poetic language of the children.

During Reading Workshop, we've been working on going deeper with our comprehension.  The children have learned to infer what characters are feeling, add dialogue where they think appropriate, write predictions, and compare and contrast characters and stories.  We have also been working on word families.

On Thursday of this week, Mrs. Vitalius came to our classroom to play the violin as I read aloud The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson.  The children participated in this interactive read aloud by waving scarves to the tempo of the music, and they shook their own percussion instruments during different parts of the story.  Then, she gave all of the children the opportunity to try playing a mini violin.  This was such a lovely performance and a great experience for all involved!  Thank you, Mrs. Vitalius!

 

During Math, we've been playing lots of addition and subtraction games.  In first grade, students will take timed fluency assessments, so we are working on becoming fluent with our addition and subtraction facts.  We have also continued to work on number stories and writing number models. One day last week, we worked on using positional language by playing a game called "Make My Design."  One child built a design on one side of a privacy wall then described the design to a buddy. The buddy had to build the exact design without seeing what his/her buddy built.  The children loved this game!

Dates to Remember 
Monday, May 29 - No School for Memorial Day
Wednesday, June 7 - Ice Cream Social
Tuesday, June 13 - Rowe School Beach Day (more information to follow)
Monday, June 19 - Portfolio Celebration (4:00-6:00 PM)
Monday, June 21 - Last Day of School (dismissal at 11:45)

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  Thank you to all the people who work so hard to keep our country safe.
~Katie