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.

100th Day of School!

We had activities galore for our 100th day of school! We had crowns, necklaces, bracelets, coloring pages, math stations, Morning Meeting themes, writing, and so much more with a 100 theme! 

Here are some of our thoughts from our 100th day!

 (It's been 100 days and the best thing we've learned is about Russia.)

(It's been 100 days and I made a lot of friends.)

 (It's been 100 days and I did my best.)

(It's been 100 days and I was safe.)

 (It's been 100 days and I am happy because we have learned what magnets can do.)

(It's been 100 days and my favorite thing about school is that it's been fun.)

 (It's been 100 days and I've learned to do magnet stuff.)

(It's been 100 days and we have had a lot of fun and I wish the school year was longer.)

Ask your child about his/her first 100 days of first grader. :)