Wow, how is the school year already halfway over?! I can’t believe it! Second quarter in P.E. was packed full of great stuff. The first graders continued practicing their throwing and catching skills, as well as cooperative skills, kicking and ball control skills, and used scooters to maneuver around. Some of the first graders favorite activities were Perfect Pass, Mat Ball, Cone Flip Tag, dribbling/trapping/kicking, and so much more! Second quarter was also filled with a few holidays which called for some super fun themed activities such as Pumpkin Patch (a Riverview favorite), trick or treat, Thanksgiving relay, Elf Express, and Feed the Reindeer. The words for this quarter were nutrition, courtesy, goals, humility, helpfulness, and grateful. I am looking forward to the rest of the school year! Here’s to 2017!

In first grade this quarter we continued to practice our basic computer skills with educational games. A few of the new games that we used this quarter were a part of The Hour of Code. The Hour of Code is a program that introduces kids to the basics of computer coding. We tried an unplugged activity where students learned the vocabulary words, command, program and loop to the tune of the Gummy Bear Song. We played Angry Birds, Koadables and Code Spark Academy to problem solve creating programs that would run our "mini friends" on the course we wanted. Once students finished the course, they were able to move to a program of their choice. I was surprised to see several students progressing to playing some of the upper level activities. It became quite the competition! If a snowy day finds you locked up inside....take a trip to my website and have your students try a few more levels! www.tseyb.com

During the second quarter, 1st Graders have been busy in Music class! Students worked with high/low sounds, listening, moving, same/different parts of a song, rhythm reading and writing, and we even started playing barred instruments (xylophones). Halloween/Fall is always a fun time in Music class! We used some fun Fall songs to learn about rhythm, play and create movement. Students spent time reading, counting, and playing quarter notes ("beat"), eighth notes ("beat-and") and rests. We also began preparations for our Music Program, "S is for Sunflower"! Students are so excited to be on the Riverview stage for the first time on January 26th! To finish off this quarter, we spent some time learning Winter Holiday songs for the school-wide sing-a-long! I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Break! I’m looking forward to some fabulous music making in 2017!

Our 1st graders have been working hard, drawing and assembling to create wonderful books about the life cycle of the butterfly. There development in drawing, watercolors, observation, and symmetry has been huge. In the last two weeks, students practiced more drawing skills to create chickens and we talked about the art style of James Rizzi.

In our library classes this quarter students were very excited to get to visit the Fiction and Nonfiction sections of our library to select books for checkout. Students in first grade check out an Everyone book weekly. Everyone books are ones that have lots of pictures – we call it the artists’ or illustrators’ section of the library. Their other book choice can be a “read to me” book. If your child ever brings home a book that you feel is inappropriate either for content or reading difficulty, have them return it to the library to make another selection. We talked about the roles of the author, illustrator, and publisher. We read the story, Olivia by Ian Falconer and recalled details from the story to write and illustrate a sentence. We read If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff. This book is a circle story – it ends where the story began. We had fun creating a circle story as a class, “If You Take a Mouse to the North Pole.”