Sunday, December 22, 2013

Happy Grinch Days!

 Happy Grinch Days!  We had so much fun this week.  We wrote about ways to make the Grinch grin, we played Grinch toss in math, we made Grinch Grime, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas and compared the Grinch at the beginning of the story to the end of the story.  We sang You're a mean one Mr. Grinch.  We made Max reindeer hats and then completed our week with our Grinch Party!  Learning the FUN way!




 Grinch Grime





 Max Hats



 Grinchy Green Day!

 Grinch Party, all things green!





To all my Families:  However you celebrate this holiday season, enjoy your time together and don't forget to READ, READ, READ!

Happy Holidays!

Friday, December 13, 2013

This Week...



Now that we are back on track with a full week of school next week, we have a busy schedule!

We will have homework and word study this week.  We will continue with the reading series and do what we had planned for this past week this coming week.  That includes comparing and contrasting and s clusters.  

Our holiday focus will be around the mean Mr. Grinch.  We are going to brainstorm a list of ways to get him to grin and use that for our writing.  We will also compare the Grinch from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

We will make the Grinch, make our Whoville trees and even do a science experiment and make Grinch Grime!

We will also do some extra special gift making this week!

We will finish off the week with our Grinch party!  If you have signed up to contribute, please send in your item as soon as possible!

Many thanks, stay safe ( more winter weather this weekend??)  and please let me know if I can help you in any way!

Mrs. Beltz

Bowling Anyone???




On Thursday we practiced subtraction in bowling style!  We had so much fun subtracting the pins we bowled over from the pins still standing!  What a fun way to learn!

BEE Proud....

I am so proud of all my "bees" and Bears and I can't forget the Wind!

You all did an awesome job and worked so hard!  Here are a few cute pictures to share....












Sunday, December 8, 2013

This week...

This week....

PLEASE send your child to school Monday and Tuesday in their black or yellow bottoms.  If they are already at school, they will change when it is time for the show.  They will also change into their shirt.  We will do 2 performances for the school.  Monday @ 1:30 and Tuesday @ 9:30.  Your child should report back to school Tuesday night between 6:30-6:45 for our night performance.  They need to come to school that night in costume!!!!!  

We will continue with reading groups.  This week we will focus on clusters with s, sn, sw, sm, etc..  We will also work on comparing and contrasting.

We will continue to learn about maps.  We will look at maps going from our county, to state, to country, to continent, and then to Earth.  We will also look at the symbols for Washington, D.C. and Richmond.

We will focus on subtraction.  We will do this through playing games and completing subtraction problems.

Reminders:
PLAY on Monday and Tuesday!!!
Interims going out on Thursday.
Items needed for the following week...I will be sending home a sign-up sheet on Monday with your child.  Please sign and return if you can help us.

Many Thanks,
Mrs. Beltz

Friday, November 29, 2013

This week

This week we will begin our Maps Unit.  This social studies SOL will be incorporated into reading, writing and theme time.  

We will begin with learning the basic map facts like what is a compass rose and a map legend.   We will then move into learning about where VA is located in relation to the USA and the rest of the world.  We will also learn important symbols on a map.

We will incorporate this theme with writing by reading the book As the Crow Flies.  This book follows a crow as it flies through different areas and shows a map of each place the crow flies.  The students will use this format as a guideline to make their own map stories using the 4 square model.

We will review addition in math.  We will review different strategies to help us solve addition problems.  We will play some games and work on creating our own addition problems.  

Reminders for this week:

Friday is a half-day!  Students will be dismissed at 12:30.  PLEASE be aware of this.

Please send in snack daily with your child.

Our room is cold, please send in a light sweater/sweatshirt for your child to keep at school for these chilly days.

If you are able to send in some extra snacks for those forget days, we would appreciate that.

I hope you all enjoyed turkey time with your kiddos!  Thank you for your continued support!

Mrs. Beltz



Making Butter

Making Butter

We finished our past, present/long ago and today unit with making our butter.  We did a lot of learning about how things for the pilgrims and for children not too many years ago, had a very different life style than we do.  We talked about how they couldn't go to the grocery store and pick up some butter like we can.  The class learned that the Pilgrim children almost daily had to churn their own butter and how it was a pretty long process.  

We opened the wall and made some butter with Mrs. Martell's class.  What fun!

Enjoy some of our pictures from butter making:








I saved the best picture for last!  He DID NOT want to try the butter and I kept saying just try it....with many repeats he finally said, if I try it you just let me BE...and he DID!  He had us in stitches!

Author Visit

WES welcomed author and illustrator
Jim Arnosky

Mr. Arnosky talk about how he wrote his books, where he got his inspiration and sang some songs with the students.  They really enjoyed his visit!




Many Thanks to our awesome PTA for sponsoring his visit~

Saturday, November 16, 2013

This week...

This week will be another busy one in First Grade!  Lots of learning and fun to be had!

We will continue to do reading groups and word study.  We will read in small groups as well as in whole group ( as always ).

We will integrate our Social Studies SOL in our writing this week.  We will use four square to write about when we were babies, what we can do now and what we want to do when we grow up.

In math, we will review basic patterns and learn about growing patterns.  We will compare the two and make growing patterns in various ways.

We will continue to learn about timelines, past and present in Social Studies.  The class really enjoyed seeing pictures of things we use everyday from the past.  

Things to remember:
We are BEES in the upcoming Holiday Program. Your child will need to wear black pants and a black shirt.  If you do not have black pants, a black shirt will be plenty.  If you have already purchased yellow that is fine too!  We will be putting either yellow or black stripes on your child's shirt here at school. 

Fall break- November 27-29 

December 6 is a half day for all Elementary Students

Have a great rest of the weekend!
Mrs. Beltz

Money Songs

Money Songs

We found some great songs on youtube to help us remember the coins, their values and other characteristics.

Check them out here!


Enjoy!

Flashlight Friday!

Flashlight Friday!

This week we partnered up and found a quiet spot to read but instead of the same old, same old, we turned off all the lights and read with our flashlights!  They had a blast! 


Special Thanks to the parents who sent in flashlights for the entire class!