It's already Friday!

I apologize for not having more updated posts this week - all of a sudden it's Thursday night!  Time flies when you're having fun!  According to our classroom calculations we have 33 more days of first grade!  One of our students was able to mentally solve 180-147 today to find out how many more day - wow!

This week in math we have been continuing to explore skip counting by tens off the decade, for example 3, 13, 23, 33, 43, 53, 63, 73...  This is a great concept for your child to practice at home or in the car!  We have also been sharing strategies for adding two two-digit numbers together.  Instead of teaching the traditional addition methods it is great for students to start with finding 'friendly numbers' and being able to add mentally and truly develop an understanding for working with numbers!  Please contact me if you have questions about these math strategies.

In social studies we have been talking about earning money, as well as spending and saving money.

Today students wrote for 45 minutes independently to demonstrate their learning throughout our opinion writing unit.  Ask your child what they wrote about today!  We have a variety of topics including the best pet, the best book, the best sport, the best friend and more!  Mrs. McFarlin and I look forward to reading and analyzing all of the first grade pieces!

The week ahead...

Monday:
*We will have a substitute teacher in the classroom for the morning only.  I will be in the building, but I will be completing end of year math assessments with individual students.  All students will be individually assessed within the next few weeks.

*At 10:30 there will be an all school assembly presented by historian Joshua Ranger.  He will be telling students all about Dr. Jacob Shapiro and his love of nature and Earth Day!

Wednesday:
*We will be off to our field trip to plant trees at Jacob Shapiro Park near the UW-Oshkosh campus.  Please make sure your child is dressed comfortably in clothes that are okay to get dirty!  We will be returning to school in time for lunch.

*1:35 - Early Release

Math Measurement Exploration

This week during math the students explored measuring lengths of paper using cubes.  We talked about many different strategies.  Some strategies included linking cubes, making color patterns and skip counting!  

Edible Matter Experiments!

This week we took solid chocolate and melted it into a liquid!  We dipped pretzels for a yummy snack!  We also took liquid heavy cream and applied enough force through shaking to turn it into a solid!  We spread it onto bread for another snack!

Building for Kids Field Trip

Here are a few photos from our field trip to the Building for Kids in Appleton!