How To...

In Writer's Workshop, 1st graders have been focusing on informational writing. Each student chose a topic they were an expert on to create a "How To..." book. Once students decided on a topic they began with a rough draft, making sure to use rich transition words. Next, students used green pens to revise and edit their work. After that, 1st graders used a new app Scribble to create a book.

Check out our published digital creations by clicking on the book titles below:

Anna: How to Swim

Angie: How to Have a Sleepover

Alexandra: How to Have a Sleepover

Francesca: How to Play Basketball

Davis: How to Throw a Party

Emma: How to do a Coffee Grind

Nick:How to Catch a Leprechaun

Preston: How to Score in Hockey

Roland: How to Make Spring Eggs

 

Thomas: How to Hit a Home Run

Sophie: How to Swim

Shay: How to Roller Blade

Henry: How to Ski

How to Score

Jimmy: How to Build a Robot

Victoria: How to Swim

Reader's Theater

1st graders have been hard at work learning about the water cycle. We have been learning about all the different places water can go by following two drops in a reader's theater. After practicing reading it with fluency and expression, first graders were ready to set up the giant green screen and record. Using the Green Screen app by Do Ink (one of our favorites) we were able to add real water, clouds and even waterfalls behind our videos. Students said they were nervous to record but proud of their finished work..and they definitely should be very proud. Check out our Water Cycle Reader's Theater video below. It is definitely worth a view or ten.

 

Common Core State Standard RF 1.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Chicks!

Talk about one egg-citing day!  In case you haven't heard, Room 116 has nine new feathered friends.  Today was our official hatch day and our chicks didn't disappoint.  The whole first grade came to visit this morning and we were lucky enough to see a live hatching.

  1st graders spontaneously burst into a happy birthday serenade (which was adorable!).  Check out the video footage we caught.  

During math, we wrote chick word problems and even connected the time the chicks hatched to our math unit.  We of course had some chirping background music.

After lunch we were lucky enough to see another chick hatch and catch another live hatching video.  Check it out:

To end our day, scientific observers wrote, drew and diagrammed what they had been observing for the past 21 days.

It truly has been a special science experience (for me too).  Another special THANK YOU to Mrs. Bucchiere for allowing us to take part in this real life science learning!

Meteorologist Visit

Last week, 1st grade had the pleasure of meeting meteorologist, Haley LaPoint from WMUR.  Haley is a former MASCO graduate with a real passion for weather.  1st graders and myself learned so much from her weather expertise.  We were shocked to learn that cirrus clouds are really made of ice and that the Empire State building has been struck thousands of times by lightning!  Did you know that lighting is 5 times hotter than the sun?  She even showed us baseball size hail.  Ask a first grader to describe how hail is really made.

Using our cloud knowledge, we played a cloud game where Haley gave describing words and hand motions for our favorite clouds. She also took us on a behind the scenes tour of the WMUR studios and showed us the magic behind how meteorologist use the green screen.    

Haley let us help her predict the future and showed us the Doppler radar.  Together we could tell that it was going to rain later that day. This week spend time observing the clouds. Do you see any clouds that are high and wispy, cirrus clouds in the sky? Are there any cumulonimbus clouds precipitating? 

Water Cycle

Look right in front of you. Do you see that? Yes, right there all around you. It's water vapor!  1st graders have been hard at work learning about the water cycle and transforming into scientists to begin a water cycle experiment.

Students were paired up to construct their Mr. Potato head inspired water cup for our experiment. Cups were filled with water and placed around the classroom. Some experiment cups have nothing on top of them, other have napkins, tissue paper, duct tape and even plastic bags (some with holes). We need lots of variables for a good scientific experiment.

Once experiment cups were filled with water, students worked as pairs to make a hypothesis about what they predict will happen to the water in their cup. 1st graders wrote their hypothesis in their water cycle journal.  Now we wait and observe what happens...