Opinion Writing

We have been learning how to use evidence and details to support our statements and persuade our readers. 

Our inspiration for our opinion pieces? Our collections! We have been setting up dog shows, rock competitions, dinosaur races, and more! But who will win the main event in your first grader's competition?

 

First Grade Gardeners

We have been learning about life cycles! While we've been learning about different animal life cycles and are experiencing the beginning of a chicken's life cycle, we have also been learning about plant life cycles.

This week, Johanna Herron, Senior Agriculture Development Specialist, talked to us about plants, how to plant, and plants as food. We got started on planting our own vegetables so we can see their life cycle in action too!

We made our own seed tape! We used toilet paper, moistened it, and put in the seeds. 

We worked together to plant potatoes, radishes, onions, and carrots!

We filled out "ballots" to predict what would sprout first, what they would look like, and what they would taste like!

Johanna talked to us about how foods can be processed - sometimes minimally.

We worked with an adult to learn how to safely peel carrots. Then we prepped our own snack!

Then we got to taste different types of carrots: the carrots we peeled, baby carrots, crinkle cut carrots, and shredded carrots! We couldn't stop munching - almost all of the pictures of us were mid-chew. :)

Now it's all about patience...what will sprout first? More to come...

See Me Beautiful

Thank you for all coming to the performance and supporting the first and second grade classes!
Our superstar first graders are so proud of themselves...and so exhausted!

 And now...the moment you've been waiting for - our movie from the performance - "See Me Beautiful!"

Go ahead. Watch it again. They're beautiful every time.

What is Beautiful?

One of the songs we are singing for the spring concert is called "Everything is Beautiful." So we have been talking about what makes someone beautiful. 

At first, kids shared out about what they thought was beautiful about a person...

No huge surprise, but all of our ideas were about outer beauty...at first. 

We kept sharing ideas about what made someone beautiful and all of the sudden...someone shared that someone's heart could make them beautiful.

The wheels began turning and these thoughtful first graders started raising their hands to share other things that might make someone beautiful on the INSIDE.

Then each first grader stood at the front of the room and we shared out what we thought was beautiful on the outside of the person and then what we thought was beautiful on the inside of that person.

Toward the end, everyone was smiling and laughing. We kept thinking of more ideas about inner beauty. We started talking about evil queens from story books and how it didn't matter how beautiful they were on the outside because they were "down right rotten" on the inside. We talked about how we could tell if someone was being beautiful on the inside.

After our discussion, we brainstormed a new list about what makes us beautiful. Here's what we came up with...

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns!

We are learning about patterns! We have learned about "units" and repeating patterns. We've created our own repeating patterns with colors, cubes, and body movements. Now we're learning about number patterns that grow!

Here are some pictures of these mathematicians investigating patterns and playing some games...

 

 

Cross Country Skiing

We are seriously the luckiest class ever! Vince Franke joined us on our snow adventure with his GoPro camera a few weeks ago. He filmed and edited this amazing video for our class and families to enjoy! :)

Check it out.

We'll sign autographs later. ;)

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Hello Families!

It is conference time again! Signing up for a conference gives you the opportunity to ask questions, see your child's work, bring some of his/her work home, and see the amazing growth your first grader has made this year!

Here are some important things to know...

*The conference sign up is linked on the TBPS website and here! 

*Sign up as soon as possible because the availability works on a first come, first served system.

*Please contact me if you need help signing up for a conference. I would be happy to do it for you or talk you through it! 

*There are plenty of slots open for conferences, but if you should find that there isn't one available that works with your schedule, please let me know and I'd be happy to schedule another time that is more convenient for you! :)

*The directions to sign up were in "Week 28 FYIs," but they are also typed below:

• Conferences will begin the week of March 17th
• Sign on to Canyon Creek
• Choose our school - Thatcher Brook
• Enter the school password (email me if you don't know what it is! :) )
• Enter your student's "Student ID." If you don't know his/her ID, use the "Look up Student ID" button
• Verify your student's birth date
• A list of teachers will be displayed. Check the box next to the name of each teacher you'd like to meet with.
• If you have more than one student in the school, you can see all of your students' teachers' schedules at one time by answering YES to this question: "Do you want to schedule conferences for another student?" then repeat the steps above for your other students. If you only have one student, answer NO to that question.
• You will then see the available time slots for each teacher you selected
• Select the times that work best for your schedule.
• Enter your email address (recommended) if you would like an email reminder sent to you. (Your email address is kept private)
• Once you have finished you can confirm your appointment details and print your conference schedule.
• Write down the confirmation number (you will need this number to cancel your appointment)
• Need help? Contact the school's Online Scheduler specialist: Denise Goodnow (dgoodnow@wwsu.org) / 802-244-7195