Welcome back, everyone!

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great week! It has been a fantastic transition back to school after vacation. It seems everyone is well rested and ready to learn. It's been a productive, happy couple of days. I have just a few new things to share today...

Kidblog 

I've written about this several times before, but I wanted to remind family and friends that all students in our class have their very own blog on kidblog.org. Starting today, children are going to be guaranteed time to use Kidblog at school at least once per week for 20 minutes, but I hope more. We use the computers and iPads quite often, so I'm trying to figure out how to get students more guaranteed time to write on their blogs. 

I encourage you to read your child's posts and comment on them. Blogging is best when the blogger gets feedback from his/her audience. So, log in to Kidblog and check it out! Your child knows how to log in, and if you need help with leaving a comment, ask your first grader! :) If you need my help, please be in touch. 

Learning to blog helps develop familiarity with the keyboard and other critical computer literacy skills. Also, it's a way for children to share about things that are important to them and to get feedback from others. (And it's FUN!)

SWR

As indicated in the note sent home yesterday, we are spending time with review of our SWR skills this week. and there is no new SWR list, nor will there be a check-up tomorrow. Today, students had fun with their 'magic e' wands as they went on a hunt for magic e words throughout the room. Using a recording sheet, they had to figure out which short vowel word was pictured on the page, find that word hanging in the room, go to the word card and use their wand to add 'e' to the word, and then read the new word. When we gathered on the carpet after this activity, students checked their work, discussed the meanings of new words (such as 'gape') and wrote a sentence using one of the 'magic e' words. 

 

Mexico...and the SCIENCE to come!

We have now officially finished out unit of study on Mexico, which was the focus of our "Places in My World" social studies unit. Monday will be the official kick-off to a spring filled with lots of science! We will do three units between now and the beginning of the year: Solids and Liquids, Weather (with perhaps a bit of The Night Sky integrated), and the Life Cycle of a Chicken (hatching chicks!!!). I am eager to begin our work as scientists together!

These sombreros are so colorful and fun, I think we'll keep these hanging until the end of the year.