We have been exploring different genres of literature to help us consume a variety of books in our “diet”! This time each student picked a biography. See what they have to share…

What do formic acid, Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, and big numbers have in common? Answer – they all are things your child might bring up at home!

Formic acid, we learned, causes the sting of some ants and bees. Here’s why we learned THAT…First-graders found out a while back that we were going to study an animal community.  Tuesday we learned that our community of study is ants and  I showed them the ant farm we are going to observe. Ants were due to arrive on Thursday, but came one dayearly.  When Mrs. Landt brought in that special delivery envelope to us Wednesday, they knew immediately what it must contain!  The booklet warned us that they might start tunneling for 24 to 48 hours.  However, this morning we found a tunnel had progressed quite a distance after only 16 hours in their new home!

Now for Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. In music yesterday Mrs. Jenkins was inspired by the rain and had one of her “toys” to share– a darling little stuffed animal wearing a yellow slicker. He dances and sings …  “Singing in the Rain.”  In our classroom later I showed them the video of Gene Kelly dancing to that song; I think they thought it was ridiculous for a grown man to be dancing in the rain!  I’m a big fan of a lot of those movies from the 40s and 50s, and could not resist also showing them a clip of Donald O’Connor.  Also in that same movie “Singing in the Rain”, the masterful O’Connor performed a number called “Make’em Laugh!” They certainly did! I was glad it was the end of the day because they could hardly contain themselves.  [My apologies to Fred.  I promise I will show one of yours soon.]

Big numbers… we are adding them.  They are using their knowledge of place value and using various methods to add large numbers.  I am, at this point, encouraging each to use the strategy that makes sense to him/her at this time.  It is very empowering!

Tyler visited us for the eighth time this year.  What a change from the 3 month old baby whom we met in September!

First of all, he did NOT stay in one place in the middle of the circle. He happily- and quickly – crawled around the first grade, exploring and reaching for many things.  He seemed to be interested in math materials, Independent Work, Monty in his cage, Ms. Price’s ball chair and all of us!

Everyone Grows is the name of our class… and you can see that Tyler has been a great example of that. We were all like proud parents- he has TWO TEETH!

Thanks to these Kindergarteners who volunteered during their play time to clean this big bin! Now K and first graders are going to use it for some measuring activities. See more later!

Now our first grade techno tech for the week is doing our filming!

At first, all the first graders thought this was obvious. NINE… Then when they heard that nine was not correct, they carefully studied the diagram a little longer. The excitement as we discovered another square, another one, another one… We found 14 in all. Wait to see the next challenge!