Igneous Rocks and Volcanoes

We have started a new Rock unit in science. This past week we have explored Igneous Rocks and today we made volcanoes. It was very encouraging hearing the students shriek and giggle with excitement as the volcanoes were erupting. Here are some pictures of our fun afternoon.

Week of March 7th.

We have sure fit in lots of learning into these past four days! In reading class we have started unit 7 with the theme "Keep Trying" The students now read from their own student anthology book and complete comprehension tests. You will notice these tests coming home in the Friday Folders. Please read over these tests with your child and discuss any questions they might have missed. We have been reviewing the tests and discussing how important it is to look back through the story to find the answers. You will also notice page numbers next to the questions, I am having them write the page numbers down to show exactly where they found the information. We are also working on writing complete sentences to the personal response questions. In science we are studying the three layers of the Earth and what they are called. The students used three colors of clay to create their own Earth representations. (check the photo page) We also did an interesting experiment with an apple to resemble the three layers of the Earth.

Monday is the first day of the fourth quarter. Wow, it feels like the school year has flown by. We will start Monday off with a new specials time. 12:58-1:48pm. We will be switching times with the 3rd Graders. This means we will be exiting the East doors at the end of the day. Hopefully this will help us dismiss at a reasonable time and students will not be so rushed and forget things.

* The students were able to choose their free books that they earned from the Reading challenge last month. EVERYONE was able to choose at least one book it was a great to see so many smiles! I will post the pictures later this weekend.
Book Orders due March 18th.
Spring Fundraiser Money and Orders due March 15th.

Thanks for all you do! : )
Mrs. Freeman

2011 Reading Challenge

The results are in and we WON! : ) The students did an incredible job reading books and filling out book reports. I AM SO PROUD OF THEM!! These First Graders read and completed 265 book reports in two weeks. Wow! Today they got to celebrate by having some special people in the building come down and read to them. The first one to read was our principal Ms. Harrell. She read the Dr. Seuss book Sneetches and even brought along her own stuffed sneetch. After she read to the students she even had a star sticker to give to each of them. They LOVED the stickers and put them on their belly buttons to pretend they were sneetches. Ms. Aramburo also read Horton Hatches an Egg and brought the kids juice and lots of cookies. Please refer to my photo page to see more pictures of our celebration party.

February Book Reports

The students did an excellent job with their February book reports. They created a puppet character from the book they chose to read. This assignment focused on the students sharing the title, author, and two events that happened in the story. They all did a wonderful job presenting the information to their peers.