Pleeaaasseeee!!!!!

We just finished working on opinion and persuasive writing. We learned that writers have an opening and closing sentence and give reasons to persuade someone to believe what they believe.

We started learning about persuasive writing by reading "I Wanna Iguana" by Karen Kaufman Orloff and illustrated by David Catrow.

Enjoy Karen Kaufman Orloff's website.

To practice our craft of writing, the children were asked to write their teachers a letter to persuade us   to get a class pet. As you can imagine, there was great sadness when they learned we weren't persuaded to get a class pet. To soften the blow, each child made and named their very own class pet.

Take a look at some of our writing and class pets.
          

Penguins

We learned lots about penguins this winter! To top off our learning we made penguins in an icy environment.
Besides reading, we learned a lot from Penguin videos.
Here are a few......Penguin Cam,  King Penguins,  Penguin Dance.

Mrs. Hoffman showing the penguin makers how to...

Take a look at a still shot of the Penguin Cam we checked out!
That's our Penguin Bulletin Board with writing and our icy penguin landscape!

Take a closer look at our list of penguin facts and reading area.
That is Jana and Taylor crafting their penguins.

More displayed penguin art and Mrs. Hoffman guiding the artists as they make the background,

A close up of Domenic and Mara painting while the others are listening to the directions.
You can also see one of our many penguin  reports!

Essential Question: What generalizations can be made about all penguins?

Going Places

Read Across America Day!

First thing in the morning we got online to  submit questions to the author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds. At 1pm from Dedham, MA he read his newest book "Going Places".  From Dedham, we, and all of America got to listen to him tell us about himself, read Going Places, and answer questions. He didn't answer any of our questions but many children in our class asked the same ones we wanted answered. Ask your child what they remember about what he said.

"Make Your Mark"- Peter H. Reynolds website. Click here

Here we are watching and listening to the author!

We really enjoyed it! It was very exciting!

Common Core Standard: Comprehension and Collaboration
 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

All You Need Is Love, Room Parents, and Valentine's Day

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

There's nothing you can do that can't be done

Nothing you can sing that can't be sung

Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game

It's easy

There's nothing you can make that can't be made

No one you can save that can't be saved

Nothing you can do but you can learn to be you in time

It's easy

All you need is love

All you need is love

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

All you need is love

All you need is love

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

There's nothing you can know that isn't known

Nothing you can see that isn't shown

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

It's easy

All you need is love

All you need is love

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

All you need is love, all together now

All you need is love, everybody

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

Love is all you need

Love is all you need

Love is all you need

Lyrics from the Beatles

Aren't We Fancy

Well, it only took a few snowstorms to pass for us to have our fancy day....We did it in style!
We wore fancy chinos, tiaras, bows, dresses, ties, skirts, boots, and sweaters. Take a look at us while the entire grade shares Fancy Nancy stories. We had a glorious (that's fancy for good) time!

Before you enjoy the fancy pictures, you may love to peruse (that's a fancy word for look) Fancy Nancy's website!! Click here .

The Fancy First grade sharing Nancy's Fancy Stories

This one is for the boys!!!

"Don't we look fancy!"

The t-shirt says it all.......Beautiful!

Looks like a great story!

Mara reads....

Hanging on Christopher's words.

Lovely listening ladies!

Reading: Literature Common Core Standard-

Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

Fancy Monday

Nancy exclaims (a fancy word for says)

"Let's be fancy on Monday!" 

We will have Fancy Day on Monday since we had a Snow Day on Friday!!!

P a T t E r N s

Patterns are everywhere; in nature and in math. For us they are being created all over our classroom with our classroom materials.      Do you see the pattern?

Our pattern makers have chosen crayons, pencils, blocks, markers, paintbrushes, and expo markers to make their interesting patterns.            Love the colors choices!

Take a look at the children hard at work!

*After all the fun of making patterns, the final step is to document the design in the math journals*.

Math in Focus Common Core State Standards
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Model with mathematics.

Essential Question: What kinds of patterns can you make with familiar materials?