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

Cross Country Skiing Adventure

We are skiers!

Today was our first day going cross country skiing together! We've been waiting for the most perfect weather conditions for our first experience and it was amazing. This morning we found out that 7 of us had never been cross country skiing before and 8 of us had! We talked about how that was almost half and half (pretty cool!)

We took a lot of time to discuss how to encourage each other, respect each other, and help each other throughout this experience (from boot-tying to ski-fastening to actual skiing).

Last week, we read a Scholastic News about an ice skater named Evan who fell in the 2006 Olympics. He got back up and kept skating. Then, at the next Olympics, he tried again and won a gold medal!

These smart first graders connected his "get up and try again" attitude with their own attitudes about skiing. They shared that saying, "You can do it!" or "Get up and try again, remember, even Olympians fall sometimes!" were things they could say to encourage each other. (By the way, they came up with those ideas completely on their own.)

They also came up with helpful and respectful words to say to each other during the experience. We talked about how when you see someone fall, it's polite to ask if they need help or ask if they're okay.

Before skiing we talked about how to put on our boots and tie them, how to put on our skis, how to hold them, and how to use them! As soon as skiers finished getting their tasks done, they quickly moved to help others. They were all independent, hard working, determined,  and helpful!

Ask your child about his/her experience cross country skiing today and how s/he helped others! :) 

Can't handle this amazingness through photographs only? Join us on Tuesdays from 11:30-1:00! You can ski, snowshoe, or walk. There's lots of encouragement, helping with boots and skis, exercise, socializing, slipping, and laughing!

Oh yeah, and there's some silliness, too.

Magnificent Magnets

We just finished our unit on magnets! We have learned so much about them and all that they can do. 

We had a lot of free explore time with different magnets. We investigated, asked questions, created experiments, discovered new things, shared our ideas, and then asked more questions! Ask your child about his/her favorite experiment and what s/he knows about magnets!

Visualizing

We have been working on making visualizations as we read. When we visualize we make pictures in our heads to help us understand what's happening. 

We read the poem, "My Neighbor's Dog is Purple" By Jack Prelutsky, in small chunks. As we listened, we drew what we were visualizing along the way.