Hooray, Hooray, 100th Day!

It was the 100th day of school on Monday! We had a day full of 100-themed things!

We had name design patterns to 100, math games about 100, and writing about 100! Here are some photos from our special day!

 

Ask your first grader what her/his favorite thing was on the 100th day!

Four Winds: Snow!

We had a great time with Four Winds again! This time we learned more about snowflakes - how they're formed, what they look like, and what the different kinds are called.

We played a matching game with photographs of different types of snowflakes.

We practiced team work and made snow sculptures!

We used some hand lenses to look at snow up close!

We also had a cup of tightly packed snow and "loose" snow. We made predictions about what would happen when the snow melted. Most of these scientists thought the loosely packed snow would have more water once it melted. We checked back in after the snow and melted and realized that the packed snow had more water when it melted! We connected this to baking with "packed" brown sugar and just a regular scoop of it.

Ask your snowy scientist what they liked best about our wintry experience with Four Winds!

Team Work, Kindness, Hope

We have been learning about some very important social skills! This week we learned about team work. Team work is when you work hard to help your group. You have to do your share and let everyone talk and do (not just you!) To practice team work, groups created examples to show "team work." Then they made posters to show their ideas!

Team members practiced using language to encourage team work. For example: "What do you think?" "____, grab a pencil, we need you to help too!" "Can we do your idea and my idea?"

Throughout the week we also learned about "kindness" and "hope." We will continue to build upon and practice these skills as we learn more. For example: we learned about being kind to each other and practiced team work again by collaborating to make a list of "kind words and actions."

Studying Japan

Konichiwa! Last week we learned a lot about Japan! We started the week with a Tea Ceremony. We had special candies, learned about the process, and then drank some green tea (made with matcha).

We read lots of books set in Japan and created art projects to deepen our understanding of the stories. We also read books and digital articles about Japan and discussed similarities and differences between our cultures.

Teresa Davis visited our classroom to talk to us about Japan. She brought in many different artifacts including a kimono, geta (Japanese sandal), kamishibai (story telling box), and more! She taught us about some holidays like Children's Day and Doll Festival. She also showed us how many things we enjoy are from Japan!

We made obis (sashes worn over kimonos). We wore them and shared about them at the final Cultural Week All School Share.

Sayonara!

Four Winds

Last week we had our first Four Winds lesson! We were so lucky to have Sara and Laurie help us learn about conifers and cones. They did a fun puppet show to teach us about the different cones we find on trees. Then we played "Find and Match." We tried to match cones based on the way they felt. Finally, we went outside and tried to identify the different types of conifers and cones.

We had a lot of fun getting outside and exploring! :)

ECHO

We had a blast visiting ECHO! We learned about snowboarding, did some engineering and experiments, and practiced some boarding techniques. We even had time to explore the aquarium! :)