I can....write stories!

Since September the students have been writing! In the past month, they have been focusing on four targets to make their writing better. These targets are:

• I can use an uppercase letter at the beginning of my sentences (lowercase letters for the rest).

• I can use spaces between my words.

• I can put a period at the ends of my sentences.

• I can match my illustration to my writing.

This week we read the book, The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster. 

 

The kitchen window in her Nana and Poppy's house is a special place where magical things happen. Do you have a special place? We all do, and here are some of the stories the students wrote.

My special place is the YMCA. Because I do swimming.

Isla is at Primetime. My mom is watching me.

My special place is Albuquerque. My favorite place at New Mexico is

Itz. At Itz I like to play a Batman game. After I went rock climbing.

My special place is my house because my mom and dad are there. Sometimes my

baby sister Sadie comes out and gives me a hug.

My favorite place is my Nana's house because my Nana has a play room that

I play in. And my Nana's house is my special place because she has a playroom. And because I love her.

Stay tuned for more awesome writing!

How Many Seeds In a Pumpkin?

It all started with this book:

Mr. Tiffin asks his class this question as they look at the small, medium, and large pumpkins on his desk. This leads the class to make predictions, get their hands messy, and explore counting larger numbers. Which pumpkin had the most seeds? Read the book or ask your child!

And now...our Pumpkin Project:

Small, small medium, medium, and large pumpkins

 Pink post-its: which pumpkin do you want to work with?
Blue post-its: which pumpkin do you think has the most seeds?

Medium pumpkin - Messy work!

 Small medium madness too!

Small pumpkin hiding behind the bowl!

Large pumpkin for many hands!

 Drying...

Counting the largest seeds from the largest pumpkin.

Groups of 10.

 Lines of 10.

Careful counting.

And the winner is...the largest pumpkin had the most with 525 seeds!

Look how close the other pumpkins were with their seed count!

We had a lot of fun doing this project!

Finding Combinations of Numbers

One of our math targets is: "I can find different combinations of numbers up to 10". For example:
5 + 5 = 10, 1 + 9 = 10, 7 + 3 = 10.

The students have been exploring this through math games. Two games are "Heads and Tails" and "How Many am I Hiding?" They use either pennies or connecting cubes to explore the different ways to make 6, 7, or 8.

Another activity we use to learn this target is called "Peas and Carrots". If you have 7 in all, how many peas and how many carrots could you have of each? This is a different kind of question for the students to explore, because with story problems there was only one answer. This type of question has many answers.

Check out the games:

So Nice to See You!

It was wonderful to see a lot of you for Parent Conferences! While it makes for long days for Mrs. Pelletier and me, it is certainly time well spent! We are a team in your child's learning experience. Getting to know families is just as important as knowing the student. Thank you for your support at home, we all want your child to have a fun, successful year in first grade!

Here is a link to an article from PBS Parents about supporting your child at home:

The Role of Parents

Thanks again!
Mrs. Caron

Field Trip Fun!

Tuesday morning the three first grades at Skillin went on our first field trip! The Rideout and Jordan families of South Portland and Cape Elizabeth welcomed us to their farm, The Alewive's Brook Farm in Cape Elizabeth. Caitlyn Jordan led us on a tour of the farm with important stops to pick green beans, carrots, beets, peppers, potatoes, and finally pumpkins. Phew...farming is hard work! We also got to feed the chickens and taste apple cider as part of our snack. Although a bit rainy and drizzly at times, we had an awesome time learning about farming in a fun, engaging way!

Check out the farm's site: Alewive's Brook Farm

And check out the photos:

 Caitlin welcomes us to the farm and talks to us about the green beans we will harvest.

We are First Grade Farmers!

 

Bees on the farm are an important part of helping the crops grow.

Green beans are in the bag!

Check out this carrot!

Good lookin' green pepper!

The chicken coop.

Feeding the chickens.

 

 

Farmer Jodie used the tractor and potato digger to dig up the potatoes for us!

 

Time to pick a pumpkin from the patch!

THANK YOU FARMER CAITLIN AND YOUR FARM FAMILY!!

 

It's Fun to Read with a Buddy!

A Visit from Chewonki!

Chewonki is an environmental education organization based in Wiscasset. Each year, Skillin is fortunate to have teachers from Chewonki visit each grade level for an hour long program about various topics. The program in first grade is called, "Fur, Feathers, and Feet". Here is what our teacher, Matt, taught us and showed us:

Mammals
Breathe air, have fur or hair, are warm blooded, mammals are born alive, drink milk...we are mammals!
 

                                                    Beaver paw - webbed for swimming

                                         Caribou's hooves help them to run fast on their toes

                                                   Echo the bat eating meal worms

                    A bear getting his under fur (for warmth) and guard fur (waterproof) put on

                                                                    A friendly bear!


Birds
Feathers for camouflage and to fly, have a beak, hatched from eggs

                 Bird skulls with different shaped beaks - long and thin feet for walking in the water
 

          Downy feathers keep a bird warm and outer feathers to fly and camouflage - cute birdie! 
 

                                                   Peepers the duck (thinks he's a person!)

                                                   A fun way to feel fur, feather, and feet!

If you would like to learn more about Chewonki, check them out here: Chewonki