Here's What We Will be Learning in March....

Reading and Writing Workshop:  We will focus on asking questions.  Asking questions while reading helps the reader clarify information, gives a purpose for reading on and helps the reader remember what was read.  In writing, stopping to consider what the reader might want to kow and then adding that information makes writing clear and specific.

Spelling:  The focus will continue to be long vowel/silent e words.  Examples of the spelling pattern are bike, cake, bone and tune.  We will also explore long e/double ee as in sheep and jeep.

Math:  Students will be learning to tell time to the hour and half hour.  They will be introduced to analog as well as digital clocks.  To support this unit of study at home, practice reading clocks as you talk about specific times during the day:  bedtime, dinner time, waking up, leaving for special activities.

Check out:  http://www.ixl.com  for some great math practice.

Science and Social Studies:  Students are investigating the properties of magnets, and they are expected to predict and describe how a magnet can be used to push or pull an object.  Important vocabulary:  attract, repel, north pole, south pole.  Also, first grade will be planting a vegetable garden in Cannon's new outdoor gardening center. 

IMPORTANT DATES:
March 8 - Spring Picture Day
March 11-15 Spring Break
April 24 - Field Trip to Casa Manana 

Index Cards Can Be Challenging!

Our challenge was to use 15 index cards to build the tallest structure possible that was also strong enough to hold a cell phone.  Students were utilizing what they had learned during their study of shapes in geometry to come up with a plan.  Pairs were planning, building, testing, evaluating and improving their structures over and over in the process of achieving a successful structure. 

The look of pride is on display by Jack and Bella.

Oh, no!

Nick and Nandini are preparing to test, will it work?

Back to the drawing board!

Jada and Lizbeth are certain that this structure will be a success!

Natalie and Paige are talking the plan through.

Aston and Kameron are thinking triangles will work well for support.

Manya and Micallen cannot believe what they are seeing!

Dakota is watching with great anticipation as Jackson places another card.

Is it going to stand?

Trey and Harley are doing a victory dance.  Sweet success! 

Day 3 of Animal Research: Putting It Altogether!

  Our class, combined with Mrs. Hall's class, went to the library for our final day of animal research.  We began by learning how to use PixnTell, a slideshow app on the iPad.  Mrs. Berumen modeled the process we would follow to create our slideshow.  After we completed our slideshow, Mrs. Goins and Mrs. Berumen helped us upload our work onto YouTube.  If you are wanting to see our awesome slideshows, you will need to attend Open House on Thursday, March 7 @ 6:00.  Hope to see you then!

Students are watching as Mrs. Berumen demonstrates how to title our slideshow in PixnTell.

Mrs. Berument is modeling how to upload our photos from our camera roll.

Mrs. Goins is explaining to a group of girls how to record and save.

Mrs. Berumen is helping a group of students upload their slideshow to YouTube.

Students are working on their PixnTell.

Students are listening to their animal research slideshow that they have on YouTube.

Engineering has taken on new life!

Bella Truman took engineering to a whole new level in making her snack! WOW!! Great and creative thinking!

Research Day 2

Today was our second day of animal research and what a day we had!  Mrs. Berumen and Mrs. Goins were on hand to help us with this next step.  Today we learned to use School Clipart to find photos depicting various animal facts that we had previously gathered using the World Book app.  We saved the pictures we found to our camera roll then uploaded them to a new app called, Skitch.  In Skitch we were able to label the parts of our animal and add captions to the pictures.  Our next step for the next two days will be to write a script for the pictures we used in Skitch.  This is in preparation for our third day in the library which will be learning yet another app, PixnTell.  Stayed tuned for more details of our animal research!

Jada and Kameron are working on the alligator while Aston, Jack, Harley and Jake are focused on the Cobra.

Micallen, Landon and Nick are trying to decide which picture to use for the title page of Alligators.

Mrs. Goins is helping the dolphin group select pictures.

Mrs. Hall was helping the hummingbird and panda group.

Mrs. Berumen is helping the group of students make their picture selection.

Nandini, Lizbeth, Natalie and Paige are all working to add captions to the photos in Skitch.

Spelling Focus

The new spelling focus for February 28 through March 8 is:  long-o-consonant-silent-e.  Examples of this pattern are:  hope, note, cone, rose.  The two high frequency words are:  a and an.  The test for this new pattern will be on Friday, March 8.  Remember, you can access Spelling City from this blog.  Once here, your child will find several activities that will allow them to practice this new spelling pattern.

Animal Research

On Thursday our class and Mrs. Hall's class went to the library to do animal research with Mrs. Berumen.  To prepare for this day our classes have been studying the text features of non-fiction. While in the library, Mrs. Berumen showed us how to use the iPads and an app called, World of Animals, for gathering our information.  We were put together in groups according to the animal we selected then we began working together to find the information needed for our tree map.  We were completely and totally engaged in research for over an hour....my how time flies!

Natalie and Nandini are working talking about dolphins.

Landon, Nick, Micallen, Jada and Kameron were working together to learn about alligators.

Natalie is helping Paige find information on dolphins.