Updates

It has been a while since we have updated our classroom blog. I apologize for this. I am posting pictures from the past couple of months to catch you up on events First Grade has participated in at Riverhill. We have been extremely busy these past two months. I can not believe we are about to begin our second half of the school year. We have had a blast working together to learn new and exciting things. You will see pictures from our school's spirit week. We had excellent participation every single day in First Grade. We participated in Character Day, Hippie Day, Spirit Day, and Wacky Tacky Crazy Hair Day. A couple of girls in the class even performed a few cheers during the school's pep rally. We helped raise money for RAPS while having fun as well. Our class had a tremendous amount of school spirit throughout this week.

The week before Thanksgiving, First and Second Grades participated in a Thanksgiving Feast. Each student dressed up as a Native American or a Pilgrim. It was a day full of learning about the life of Native Americans and Pilgrims. The students rotated to different stations that consisted of making butter, making walking sticks, making drums, creating their own Native American pouches, peeling and coring apples, designing a picture frame, and made a ship to hold vegetable dip. We also heard stories about Native Americans, and learned about their history. This was a great learning experience for all who participated.

Around Christmas, First Grade had a pajama day. This was a day filled with fun and educational activities. During the afternoon, parents came in to read a variety of Christmas stories to our class. The class really enjoyed and loved this time. You will see some pictures of the parents who came in to read. First Grade also performed in a school wide Christmas program which they did an outstanding job. All of their hard work paid off the night of the performance! We also had a class Christmas party where the students made a Christmas craft and shared in Christmas snacks. This was a wonderful way to end the first half of our year!

Animals

We have been learning all about animals. I want you to share a couple of things you have learned in our class about either mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, and/or insects. You can even give us some examples of animals and tell what type of animal they are. Have fun!

Community helpers

We had a special guest in our classroom!! One of the parents in our class came to talk to us on Monday. He is a police officer and in the National Guard. He talked to us about his job as a police officer. Mr. Torres taught us many new things about the instruments policemen use as well as how they keep us safe in our community. Our class really enjoyed his presentation! He handcuffed us and explained the steps police officers take in arresting someone who is not obeying the laws. It was very educational for all of us. He even brought his segway to show our class. He explained to us the advantages of moving around on a segway, especially on a college campus. He taught us how to balance our weight and move our arms in order to direct the segway. Everyone got a chance to ride! We had a blast! I think Santa and his elves are going to be VERY busy.....!! Enjoy our pictures of us getting handcuffed and riding the segway.

Pumpkin Patch

We had our first field trip to the pumpkin patch last Thursday. We had a blast!! There were so many things to do! We fed chickens and goats, learned about all types of pumpkins and how they grow, and how to milk a cow. We also learned about vegetables that grow under the ground. We took a hayride to the pumpkin patch where we each got to pick our very own pumpkin. Some of us got big pumpkins, some of us got small ones, some of us got dirty pumpkins, and some of us got clean pumpkins. It was so fun being able to choose the one we liked best. We even got to paint our pumpkins! Our class also built our own first grade scarecrow. We had to work together to make sure he was "stuffed" just right. We played in the hay when we finished. This was a great trip! Check out our pictures to see all the fun things we did!!

Pumpkins

This week begins our pumpkin unit!! We are so excited to learn more about pumpkins. Monday we started a KWL chart about pumpkins (a chart showing what we Know, what we Want to know, and what we Learned about pumpkins). We already know SO much, but there's always room to learn more!! Yesterday, we learned the life cycle of a pumpkin. We found out it is very similar to the life cycle of an apple. We have also been writing about pumpkins and using our imaginations about what would happen if we planted a pumpkin seed in our garden. We have learned about estimation. We all estimated how much a pumpkin weighs, its height, and how many seeds are inside. Towards the end of the week we will find out if our estimations were correct. Today we actually had a chance to look at the embryo inside of a pumpkin seed. We observed and discussed our observations as a group. We are going to the pumpkin patch this Thursday!! It will be our first field trip in first grade. Keep checking back to read about all the fun things we are doing with pumpkins!!

More Apples

This entire week has been focused on apples. We each brought in an apple and shared it with the class. In Math, we graphed apples by their color. We then colored our own graph to show our results. Of course, the red apple won! We also did an apple investigation using our apple. This was fun because we were able to observe our apple from the inside and the outside. We recorded its smell and taste as well. We also did a taste test and voted on which apple we liked the best (Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith), Gold Delicious won! Yesterday we used Apple Jacks for our Math lesson in sorting and addition. In groups we also read different versions of Johnny Appleseed aloud to the class. Today we made our very own homemade applesauce!! It was so good! We used only 4 ingredients to create it! We thought it was much better than store bought applesauce. We have had so much fun learning all about apples this week!!

Apples

This week our class has been learning all about Johnny Appleseed and apples. September 26th was Johnny Appleseed's birthday and October is apple month so it is a perfect time to celebrate. We have been singing songs, making crafts, reading stories, eating snacks and writing about apples. We have been having so much fun learning the life cycle of an apple tree, what happens to an apple tree throughout each season of the year, and parts of an apple. Each student has brought in an interesting fact about apples to share with our class. It is great to see the excitement the children have when they are learning about apples. Please feel free to look at our pictures and comment with any information you may know about apples.