The Bowling Truck

These pictures are shockingly overdue. Several weeks ago the bowling truck visited our school. We had two chances to go and bowl a frame. While waiting for our turn there was some fabulous music playing and many folks couldn't stand still. It was great fun.

More Book Talks!

Thanks to the bravery of our first book talker, we've had lots of students ready to share the books they love. Here are a few with more to come next week. The presenters wrote their book talks, practiced them, and made their presentation. That's impressive enough but I'm thrilled with their taste in books!

Field Trip #1 - Hidden Oaks Nature Center

Our first field trip of the year was wonderful! We began in the nature center's classroom. There we talked about metamorphosis, the life cycle of insects, and lots of other things having to do with animals. We got to see tadpoles, a toad, a butterfly, and bunches of other small critters.

After the classroom time we split into two groups. One group headed off on a nature walk. During the nature walk each child got one ladybug to set free in the forest. The ladybugs loved the kids and many didn't want to head off onto leaves. The feeling was mutual. The ladybugs were quite popular and everyone was sad to send them off and move on to the next step in our field trip.

The final piece was planting a seed. To begin each child got a lima bean and had the opportunity to take it apart to look inside with a magnifying glass. Students found the seed coat and the brand new plant growing inside the seed. They looked really closely at their lima beans. After inspecting their lima beans the students were given a brand new one and a yogurt cup to plant it in. They took these cups with their seed ready to grow home last week and I hope they are getting ready to sprout!

Exploring Maps

We are studying maps and spent one morning exploring a bunch of them. We looked at different state maps, a map of state parks, and a simple map of the United States.

By looking at these various maps we identified a lot of different parts of maps. Using these parts we will create a map of our own.

Worm Wonderings

Last week we set up our earthworms in their temporary home in our classroom. Currently it is covered in black construction paper to help them feel at home. In a few more days we'll peek in and see the tunnels they've made. As soon as the earthworms made an appearance there were a ton of questions. We had only a brief time so everyone wrote down their questions for us to research sometime soon.

The questions listed here are:
Do worms have noses?
Do they have tongues?
Why do the worms need paper? (We put paper below the dirt in their new home.)
Do they have eyes?
Do they have ears?
Do they have mouths?
Do they have teeth?
What do worms eat?
Do worms hatch out of eggs?

Talking About Books!

Our fabulous librarian has introduced us to the idea of giving book talks. She has been talking up some books to help us pick good ones in the library. Well, we decided we could do it too! Here's the first one to give this a try, talking about the book Lunch Lady.

I hope we will have a lot more book talks to share soon.

Mothers' Day Tea

Last Thursday the first grade classes, with the guidance and support of our fabulous music teachers, presented a tea for their mothers. It was a lovely event with a number of beautiful songs and poems written by each class. The students were poised and talented. It was wonderful.