Some recent happenings in 1st grade

Here are a few photos that tell about some of our activities last week:

On Monday, we started our day with a school-wide meeting. We also had a new student, Lexey, join our class from Hawaii! It was a very exciting day! At the school-wide meeting, Olivia was one of the first graders who read the "No Bullying Pledge" to the entire school! Hooray, Olivia!

We continued to add reading strategies to our CAFE board last week, and we practiced making mental images. Here, students were drawing their mental images after I read a poem about the winter sky. We talked about why everyone's drawings were different (we all have different background knowledge, or "schema"). 

The 1st grade scientists watched the BrainPopJr. video about Magnets one more time, this time with the option of taking notes with a clipboard while watching. Everyone recorded four interesting or new facts they learned about magnets. 

Some students wanted to take notes as they watched the video. Others chose to watch the video and then record their ideas. Both were fine--I offered both as options since we all learn in different ways! Also, students could decide whether to draw their thoughts, write their thoughts, or draw AND write their thoughts.