Room 107 News February 23rd
Science and the Study of Insects
Dear Parents,
Our class is beginning a scientific study of insects. We will be caring for and investigating several different insects to discover secrets of their lives. Some of the insects that will be visiting our class undergo complete metamorphosis, as in the classic case of the butterfly --eggs to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Other insects reach maturity by growing through a less dramatic sequence of stages in a process known as simple metamorphosis. Your child may demonstrate a heightened interest in insects over the next several weeks.
One goal of our work with insects is to help the children develop a deeper appreciation for the diversity of life and to cultivate a sense of respect for all living things. If your child wants to catch an insect in a jar, please invite your child's insect friend into your home for a short time, and encourage him or her to return the insect to the wild after a short captivity. If you are interested in seeing what we have going on, as usual, you are invited to visit and take part in the excitement. We're looking forward to lots of fun and lots of learning as we explore a world full of insects!
- The First Grade Team
What have we been learning?
Writing - The kids really got into their realistic fiction series and many wrote 3-5 books using the same characters. We celebrated our hard work by visiting kindergarten on Wednesday and reading our stories. The kids had a wonderful time and it was empowering to be a writing role model for a younger writer. We are now starting to study how writers make their writing more interesting. Students are now shifting their focus from writing stories to having the choice of what they want to write each day. We will be examining mentor texts in small groups to learn from he pros.
Math - We have been working on fundamental numeracy skills for the past week and a half. Skip counting by 10s, 5s, and 2s past 100 and knowing how to find all the possible combinations that can make a number up to 12 have been a focus. We learned the game, Make 10 Go fish, and this is an easy one to play at home. Ask your first grader to count backwards for you.