First Grade News
Mrs. Work/Mrs. Baker, Room 22
Highlights from Week 33: April 25-29
Hello Families!
This was another busy week in our first grade classroom. A highlight was a visit by Nicole from Portland Metro to teach us how worms help create compost. She brought us a tub of worms in a compost pile so kids could interact with it, and they did! (see pictures below) Her goal was to spread the word about being great composters!
Sofia V. was a responsible and efficient helper as Top Dog this past week. I could always count on her to do whatever needed to be done. She has now passed on the role to Ben who is the final Top Dog of the year.
In case you missed it last week, this is the link to our Earth Day video from 4/22.
(Although it is on YouTube, only the following link will allow you to watch it. You cannot find it by searching.) The kids have told me they want another chance to do another video, and make it better the next time. So we'll see...
Reading Groups: Students have shown consistent progress in their reading fluency and comprehension activities. We continue to work on decoding new words using phonics, as well as being able to retell beginning, middle, and end of a story, both verbally and written.
Writing: We focused this week on writing complete sentences using descriptive words and adjectives. The subject of many of our sentences was describing how animals move and adapt as we learned about this in our Nat Geo lessons.
Insect Unit/Science: We are observing two insects now, mealworms and waxworms. This past week we observed that several of our waxworms have transformed into the pupa stage which means they are now inside of a chrysalis. We are anxiously awaiting the next stage, moths. The mealworms are busy growing and molting and will eventually become beetles.
Math: (Chapter 11) We've had fun exploring 3-D shapes. Our focus has been learning the vocabulary of naming the shapes, examining their features, combining them to make new shapes, and learning to draw 3-D shapes. The highlight for the students was building 3-D shape towers with the manipulatives we have for each child to use. They used teamwork to build some impressive looking structures. Chapter 11 test will be coming up early this week.
Thank you to the parents who volunteer at Oak Creek in many different ways. We could not have such an enriching environment without them.
Our class has a field trip coming up on May 25 to Dischinger Orthodondics. It is during our lunch hour so each student will be required to have a sack lunch, either from home or ordered from our kitchen. Please be looking out for the sack lunch request form in a separate email.
As always check out our classroom photos and upcoming calendar dates below. Please note that my email is at the end of this newsletter and contact me (not Claire Baker) with important daily emails.
Thank you for working with me to educate your child.
Happy Spring!
Mrs. Work
Observing Worms from the Compost Pile
"WE CARE" Program coming to Oak Creek Elementary
WE CARE program is...
Educational and entertaining shows with hands-on instruction, teaching character traits
GAMES AROUND THE WORLD
SPOTLIGHTING CHARACTER TRAIT: Empathy
Celebrate the differences and commonalities of many cultures through the games people play.
Travel around the world and discover that smiles are the same in any language.
Equipment list- Flower Sticks, Diabolo (Chinese Yo Yo), Lariat, Pelele (Fling It Net), Peteca (Volleybird)
Volunteering
Sign-up here if you are interested:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0d48a9aa2aabfb6-reading
Upcoming Events
- May 6: "WE CARE" assembly, 9:15
- May 6 & May 10: "WE CARE" games with our class (45 min. sessions)
- May 12: "WE CARE" Family Night, 6:00-7:30pm
- May 20: Art Lit
- May 24: Science Night
- May 25: Field trip to Dischinger Orthodontics
- May 26: Early Release, 1:20pm
- May 26: All library books due
- May 27: NO SCHOOL, Teacher Work Day
- May 30: NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day
- June 10: Last Day of School
Mrs. Work (Deb Nead-Work)
Email: neadd@loswego.k12.or.us
Website: oce.loswego.k12.or.us
Location: Oak Creek Elementary School, Kingsgate Road, Lake Oswego, OR, United States
Phone: (503) 534-2323