I'm Thankful!

Thank you so much for all the donations of toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, soap and facecloths. My class made up 50 hygiene kits for Cambodia. The children had to unwrap all items, so no wrapping or plastic was sent to Cambodia (it adds to their garbage problems). Then they put one of each item into a one gallon bag, along with an instruction card that the children made, showing how to clean teeth, wash hands, comb hair etc.
Since I was the Grade 1 organizer for this project, all the leftover items from other Grade 1 classes came to my room, so your children got busy and used those supplies to put together a further 30 hygiene kits. Then, they hauled the kits down to the 4th Grade teacher who was coordinating the whole effort. Altogether, the Primary and Intermediate Schools have put together more than 2000 hygiene kits this week. That's going to make a lot of Cambodian families very, very thankful.  You can see photos of the children making hygiene kits here

Yesterday, when we had talked more about the history and meaning of Thanksgiving, the children wrote what they were thankful for, and displayed their thoughts on turkeys that they made. Some of their statements included:
I'm thankful for

• my family
• my dog
• toothbrushes
• food

Science - this week we explored things that move by rolling. The children set up ramps and discovered ways of making items roll down the ramp. Science is a loud, busy, exciting time in the classroom! There are photos of it here 

Tinsel Time

 Please join us on Wednesday December 15 at  10:00am -- 11:00am for our First Grade Holiday Program, “Tinsel Time,”  in the Elementary Theater.  This will be followed by refreshments in the classroom.. 

 You will be getting more details in the coming weeks, but I wanted to be sure that you have enough time to plan your calendars for this important event.  We will be participating with five other first grade classes.  While I know that some of you might be leaving early for the December Holidays, the date of this event cannot be changed.  I hope this fits into your Holiday plans. Please let me know if your child will not be here for this program.

 Happy Thanksgiving, 

Debbie Woodfield

Celebrating Writing Progress

Today we celebrated the improvements we are seeing in our writing. Everyone chose a piece of writing that is 'harder to read' and another piece that is 'easier to read'. The children talked about wrote about the differences they could see. There were statements like:
"This is easier to read because I left spaces between my words."
"This writing is confusing because I left out some words."
"My writing is easier to read now because I add labels to the pictures and details to my writing."
"I can't read this old writing!"
"This writing is so much more interesting."

The children were invited to share their work with Mr Schunk, Mrs. Donaghey, Miss Cannon or Ms Lyn. They listened really well to each other, and gave lots of compliments.
To finish off we had popcorn and fruit punch while saying "CHEERS!" for all our great work.

You can see some photos of the celebration here

Yay for weekends....
Debbie

8 November 2010

Last Thursday four of the moms came in to celebrate Diwali with the class. Everyone had a great time hearing a story, painting diyas, making rangoli patterns and eating Indian treats. You can see photos here

Welcome Joh!
We are happy to welcome Joh into our class. He has moved to Singapore from Indonesia. Here he is, working on math:

Writing - the children were very amused that I chose to spend my long weekend at school, writing. It was a fantastic 4-day workshop for teachers. I've always loved teaching writing to young children, but now I have even more ideas for it. This week we will finish the writing unit called "Writing for Readers"  where children try to improve their work, making it easier for other people to read it. This includes, adding more details, improving spelling, writing neater, leaving spaces between words etc. All of the children are able to say how their writing has improved this year.
Next week the new writing unit will be "Authors as Mentors." My class will study books written by Mem Fox to see if we can use some of her ideas in our writing. If you have any Mem Fox books at home, I'd love to borrow them!

Reading - Last week all the children practiced reading with fluency. Some performed Readers Theater, while others practiced reading a book until they were ready to read to the class. Here are some photos of that celebration.

We are beginning a new unit this week called "Predicting and Retelling". We will read lots of fairy tales over the next few weeks because they are great for retelling the beginning, middle and end of the story, as well as setting and characters. If you are reading to your children, discuss characters, setting etc with them too.


Math - I know that learning how to count groups of coins can be difficult for some children. We will practice it a lot more over the year. It's a good time to go to the Everyday Math Online site and let your child play the math games there. I gave you usernames and passwords for the site at the Back-to-School night.
Here is Alexa working on her slate. More math photos are here

Science - we've made twirlers and zoomers (things that move or spin) and soon we'll be experimenting with things that roll. Science is hands-on and NOISY while children make discoveries. I love it.

So, we're never bored here in 1st Grade. There's always plenty to learn and do.

Thanks,
Debbie Woodfield

Little India field trip yesterday; Halloween today!

This has been a big week!
We had a great time in Little India yesterday. 10 parents joined us to make it a really fabulous day.
Spending $2 each in the bazaar was a highlight for many of the children.

They had to buy one diya (clay lamp), one Deepavali card and one peacock feather.
So many choices!! I think the most difficult part of the day was deciding what to do with the leftover change after completing their shopping tasks! Some children bought themselves a little trinket box, Ruoyan, Amber and Skye bought themselves an apple to eat, Nick & Hannah put their change together to buy a Deepavali decoration for the classroom. Aedan showed that he knows how to bargain because he kept telling the shopkeeper he only had 70c but wanted to buy the $1:50 whistle. Eventually, the shopkeeper caved in and let him have it for 70c!
You can find a lot more photos of the Little India day here
Harmeet's photos have been added here too.


Halloween was fun today too. Thanks to all the parents who worked so hard to make the party a success. You now have very tired, happy, sugar-filled children! I have loaded all my Halloween photos. Have a look for them here

Have a great weekend and enjoy the Trick or Treating. 
Debbie

So what's been happening in Grade 1?

It's been a while since I updated the blog due to conferences and holidays. It was great to have the chance to talk to you all in the conferences. The children are now working on the goals they set for themselves.

We were so happy to have Alexa Bruschke join our class this week. The other children have been particularly good about making her feel welcome. 

PUMPKIN PATCH We visited the Pumpkin Patch today for photos and a spooky story. The children have brought home a goody bag too. There are more photos here

WORD GAMES - thanks to all the parents who come in for an hour today to help with word games. The children learned lots of new spelling games in that time. There are photos of it here

Yesterday we celebrated Amber and Zara's birthdays.

Nick took the turtles home for the long weekend. He let them swim in the bath for a couple of days!

Chilean Miners - On Wednesday last week I had the children watch as the 3rd Chilean miner was brought up from underground. They were as spellbound by it as I was. Hannah drew and wrote about it in the weekend and I thought it was so sweet I should share it with you:

The wife is saying "He's safe." The miner says, "I'm OK."

A true story in my classroom today

I was reading a story and mispronounced the character's name. Instead of saying Madison I said Medicine. The kids laughed at me. 
I said, "Medicine? That would be a weird name!"
So Nick said, "Maybe her sister's name is Antibiotic!"

We are so proud of Mr Hoss

Yesterday all 786 children from Kindergarten - Grade 2 class stepped out of their classrooms at 8:10am to celebrate the National Distinguished Principal award that is being presented to Mr Hoss next week in Washington DC. He has been recognized as one of the top 3 International School principals for 2010. Their are tributes to him on display in our foyer. I've included a short video here of the children giving him three cheers. There are more photos here