Tuesday, March 25, 2014

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...
 
 

Monday, March 24, 2014

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. ;)

Monday, March 10, 2014

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