Happy Holidays!

I can't believe the end of the first semester is here!  It has been a fun-filled, very busy first semester.  Here is a quick rundown of the many things they have learned this semester:

WRITING
*We have been working hard on complete sentences, capitalization, punctuation, topic sentences, closing sentences.
*Mrs. Larkin has been coming in once a week to do some written expression with 1st grade as part of a grant she wrote in the spring.  The kids are learning to add more details to their writing.  You may have heard them sing this song:

Green group,
Blue do,
What does it look like?
What is it made of?
Pink Parts,
White Where,
What else do I know?

*We have learned about nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES
*We learned about different types of soil:  sand, clay, humus
*This month we talked about different traditions we have in our families for holidays, birthdays, tooth fairy etc.

READING
*We have learned how good readers:  ask questions, make connections, infer, use context clues to figure out the meaning of unknown words.
*We have been working on becoming more fluent readers and reading with expression.
*We have read fiction, nonfiction, articles, poems, etc.
*This past week we did an author study on Jan Brett.  We read:  The Hat, The Mitten, and The Gingerbread Baby.  We also read another version of the mitten and did a venn diagram to compare the two stories.

1st GRADE MATH
If your child is in  my math class, here are some things we have been working on that they can continue to practice at home:
*Counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, 10's to 120
*Counting back by 1's starting with any number between 1-00.
*Telling Time to the hour and half hour
*Solving number stories
*Counting and exchanging coins

That is a A LOT of stuff and it is not even everything.  Next semester will be filled with more fun and learning.  Some things to look forward to:  science unit on solids and liquids, animal research project, map unit and more!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Winter Break!  I will see you all back at school on Tuesday, January 5th (Monday, January 4th is a teacher work day).

Happy Holidays!
Mrs. Selm

Lights Out!

Well we had some excitement yesterday as the power went out around 12:25 and came back on around 1:30. They did a great job!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I was very thankful for that extra day off this year.  I got some shopping done!

I was happy to see all these smiling faces this morning.  We got right back into the swing of things.  Our new unit in reading is about animals.  The big question we are talking about is:  How do animals grow and change?  We will be studying animals for the next few weeks.
Today we started a mini writing unit on polar bears.  We are learning about polar bears and will use the information we learn for an informational writing piece.  The kids were very hard workers today!

On a side note.....our annual canned food drive started today!  I would love if my class could bring in the most cans.  Let's see how many cans we can bring in to help those in need.  The drive will continue through the last week before winter break.  Thanks for your help for a great cause.

Comprehension Strategies

We have been working on using strategies when we read to help us better understand the story.  Last week we learned that good readers create a mental picture in their minds as they read.  The secret to success with this strategy is to put yourself in the story.
I read a book called:  The Salamander Room.
We read the story 3 times.  The first time the kids closed their eyes as I read and got that mental picture in their mind.  The second time I read, they drew what they thought the pictures looked like.  The last time I read and showed the pictures as I read.  The kids compared their pictures to the pictures in the story.  They did an awesome job!  Their pictures will be coming home this week.

Reader's Theater

This week the kids worked in groups practicing a reader's theater.  They worked hard on reading loud, clear, and with expression.  They did an AWESOME job for their first one!!  We have some very animated kids in here.  Enjoy the videos below.

Group 1:  Autumn Leaves

Group 2:  How About Bats

Group 3:  A Seed Surprise

Group 4:  Autumn Leaves

Group 5:  Miss Nelson is Missing

Leadership Day

What a great way to end our week and start our Fall Break!  Today's Leadership Day was tons of fun!  We definitely had an "off" schedule day, but the kids enjoyed the day.

We did some fun team building activities today.  First, we met with our buddies from Mrs. Hepp's class to do the "Marshmallow Challenge."  Unfortunately it got interrupted with an earthquake drill followed by a fire drill so we are going to meet again next Friday.

Then we did the "Hula Hoop" challenge in our classroom.  The kids had to hold hands and get the hula hoop around the circle without letting go of hands.  Way to "synergize!"

We ended the day with our Leadership Convocation.  There were videos of kids showing the 7 Habits, songs, and recognition of students who have been demonstrating the habits during their day at school.  Congrats to Niko for earning a leadership ticket!  

Love to see all the green Leadership shirts!

Scrub Club

We started our day with a handwashing lesson from The Peyton Manning Children's Hospital.  Check out all the kids who are now part of the "Scrub Club."