What fun we had presenting our houses and then seeing if they could stand up to the “huff and puff” of our “wolf” (my electric fan). The creativity used for this project was outstanding! Thank you for helping your child. I hope it was fun for you, as well. It was so great to explore the magic of fairy tales and the wonderful ways authors interpret and change fairy tales to make them entertaining and different. This is one of our favorite 1st Grade experiences. Thank you to everyone who returned their permission slips for next week’s trip to the Rice Rock Museum. Because our trip is Monday, please ensure that lunches are packed and students are at school on time ready for our trip. Our school is participating in a food drive this week for Project Second Wind. Donated food will be used for families in need throughout the Portland community. If you are able to help out, send in non-perishable food items by Friday. This week in math we are learning about the Gentoo penguin as well as the Chinstrap penguin. Along with learning information about penguins, we have also been studying the globe and have gained an understanding of where the equator is, as well as where Antarctica is located. We also learned that penguins are only found below the equator. Please ask your child to tell you what they are learning about penguins! We have been celebrating our culmination of narrative writing by “publishing” a small moment story. Kids have learned so much about stretching out their ideas, telling the inside story (feelings), as well as the details of what happened. They have also learned how to use anchor words like “First”, “Next”, and “Finally” to give their writing structure. I am impressed with the growth I am seeing. We are now beginning to focus on teaching others through expository writing, as learn about How-To writing. In science this week we have created our own soil and sorted that sample to find a variety of rocks that we have studied. We are also lucky to have Delia’s dad, Scott visit us on Thursday afternoon to give us a rock presentation. This is such a wonderful community of learners. It is a true pleasure working with your child and you each day! Thank you for all you do.

This entry was posted on March 6, 2012 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.