Pictured below are a few kids trying to discover, "Are these particles solids or liquids? How do you know?"
In the above pictures, we were using the Engineering Process. We read a book about towers having wide bases. The we went to work. After a while we stopped to talk about what was working, what was not working, and share ides. Then they went back to work. Most kids, then created a small tower! We love science. Pictured below are a few kids trying to discover, "Are these particles solids or liquids? How do you know?"
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The good news is we had excellent PAKRAT participation in December...GO FAMILIES! The bad news is we have stiff competition, as Mrs. Koopmeiner's class has won the competition both rounds. We will need every family to read 20 or more books during round 3! That might give us a chance at leading the parade next time around.
Wow! We had a ton of learning fun in the last two days prior to the winter break. We followed a recipe and mixed ingredients. We worked together to roll out dough and cut it in the shape of a gingerbread man. We planned, iced and decorated our cookies. When the ran away we wrote missing posters and hung them up around school. Then we used our new map skills to find the cookies in Mr. Branton's office. Finally, we ate our cookies. Fun was had by all! Not too worry....there was still plenty of reading!
A special thanks to Merlajean, Levi and Addison's great aunt. She volunteered to do a free puppet show for our class. The show was Friday afternoon. She was a wonderful storyteller. Her puppets we often made out of re-purposed household items, such as milk cartons. The kids giggled and laughed. It was amazing non-violent and simple entertainment. Despite modern technology it was the most engaged I have every seen. Thank you , Merlajean!
The students have been working hard to author informational texts about forest animals. Wednesday we had indoor recess, as it was raining outside. These kiddos, and many more, self selected to work on their books! It was a "goosebump" moment. They love to write. I am so proud!
By know I hope you have had a chance to read your child's science / rock journal. The kids were so engaged. They built a HUGE new vocabulary of science words. The were very methodical in following the experiments step by step. Hands down the most fun I have ever had teaching science! I tried to get a picture of each and every kid. If I missed yours this science unit, I'll try extra hard to photograph him/her next unit!
10 kids in our class were able to join in the PAKRAT parade. Mrs. Koopmeiner's class one the school contest with 265 books read. Mr. Tax, Westwood's Differentiation Specialist, led a lesson in engineering Friday. The kids worked in teams. The goal was to build a freestanding building out of spaghetti noodles, masking tape, string, and a marshmallow. The marshmallow needed to balance at the top of the structure. The kids had fun and were challenged!
Wow! Those first grade standards are shocking! Especially in Language Arts and Science! I am SO THANKFUL for the support I get from all of you.
Even when the learning gets TOUGH, I will try to keep it developmentally appropriate and fun. See the pictures below. We have fun everyday in reading. We practice the HF words in fun ways. We have choice in what we write about. We often work & read with friends. And sometimes we use interesting tools. Subtractions is enticing when you get to use pumpkin candies. Gathering, recording, and graphing data is super fun if you use real pumpkins and their seeds. We had a very fun week! We started by adding "squash babies" to our read to self station. The kids could read to the "squash baby". Amazing how much fun this was for girls and boys! We broke a "lining up" record. The kids got into a quiet line in 21 seconds....UNBELIEVABLE!
14 out of 20 kids got a perfect score on the addition test! Everyone passed:) Finally, we had a pizza party to celebrate your donations to the Westwood PTA Walk-a-thon! Thanks for the apples. We sorted the apples by color. We made a picto graph with our apples. We have been writing about the life cycle of the apple (hopefully these will be displayed when you come for conferences). We learned apple vocabulary; skin,peel, flesh, core, seed, and dice.The kids had a blast dicing their apples on Thursday! 19 out of 20 kids LOVED the applesauce. Best of all, my observations would indicate that making applesauce could be directly correlated with student interest in the apple books in our read to self library!
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AuthorJen Lucken Archives
September 2018
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