We are wrapping up our space unit with different crafts and writing activities. Students are making solar system mobiles, or experimenting with new apps connected to their learning. Take a look!
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We are going space crazy in First Grade! The children are having a wonderful time learning ALL about what is out there, beyond our planet. Some classes are working on building solar system mobiles: Others are doing planet research books: Still others are doing experiments and demonstrations: This week, we have continued to study Space. Students have studied the relationship of Earth to the Sun and Moon. They were able to see why the Sun is an important center to the Solar System, e.g. how the planets follow a path around the Sun because of its gravitational force. Students learned that the Solar System is located in the Milky Way. We also had to put up some things we forgot to include with our Earth Day post. Our apologies to Ms. Alvarado's class that we did not put your photos up with everyone else's!!! See their FANTASTIC Earth Day photos below! Our final science unit in First Grade is....(drum-roll please...) SPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!! The children are VERY excited about this unit, and so are the teachers. Space is such a fun unit because there is so much to learn and explore! There are many different concepts we will cover, but this week we began with exploring objects in the sky and how day differs from night. Students are sharing their background knowledge and asking questions about what they would like to learn in this unit. If you would like to check out the Pixar short film "Day and Night", please click the link below. Day and Night Video Some classes have also begun to discuss the Solar System, and forces and laws that control it, such as gravity. The gravity discussion leads to the orbit of the planets, which leads to knowledge about each planet, and so on. Last week we also celebrated Earth Day with fun activities and crafts. Ms. Alvarado's class made earths with coffee filters and markers. We will be wrapping up our Matter unit next week, but this week we continued to have a blast performing experiments to showcase and change the forms of matter. Some classes made the "purple cow" ice cream floats, while others showed how matter can be melted by making grilled cheese sandwiches. The sandwiches were especially interesting, as classes made them in different ways. Mrs. McKenzie's class made them with parchment paper and an iron, while Ms. Jones and Mrs. Bates's classes made them with specially ordered bags that allow you to do it in the toaster! We should be assessing next week, in order to move on to our last science unit of the year.....SPACE!!!
We are describing matter by shape, volume, and mass, as well as texture, hardness, color, and even buoyancy! We are identifying and sorting matter by solids, liquids, and gases. We have looked at how matter changes from one state to another through experimentation, and will continue to do this through next week. We have been having SO MUCH FUN learning about matter!!!! We have discussed the three states if matter and generated lists of examples, we have done matching activities and several different experiments! Some of the experiments we have done are: 1. Watching matter change states by making jello 2. Showing the differences between solids and liquids by making ice cream soda floats 3. Seeing a solid and a liquid react together to make a gas inside a water bottle Check out our pictures below: We also had some special third grade visitors this week! Third grade is learning about recycling and came to speak to us about what items go in our recycling bins and what items go in the trash. Great work, third graders! Next week we will begin a new science unit: Matter! Students will learn about the three main states of matter, how they are alike or different, and by the end of the unit be able to give examples of each state. We are also discussing useful vocabulary like properties, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, melting, heating, and cooling and what they mean. February is National Dental Month, and this week we have been discussing the importance of taking care of our teeth. We talked about flossing, brushing twice and day, and eating foods that won't stain our teeth. We decided to see what would happen if we stuck four eggs (symbolizing our teeth) into different liquids. We made predictions about what would happen, and drew pictures of how the liquids looked. A day or two later, we took the eggs out, made more observations, and then wrote the results of us brushing the stains away!!! The children were really excited to see that coffee, coke, and grape juice could all come off as long as we brush well, and brush every day. We also made our dentist kits! Each class discussed the "tools" we need to keep our teeth healthy. Then we decorated our kits and put the items inside. In Science, we are completing our Healthy Me Unit. The students are wrapping up their learning of the different systems. They are getting opportunities to construct these systems using unique materials and understanding the function of each part of the system. Ask your child about the digestive, or skeletal system. You will be surprised at how much they have learned! In science, we are beginning to wrap up our Healthy Me unit. We have been working on learning some of the body systems, like the digestive, nerve, muscle, circulatory, and skeletal systems. The students have been creating Body System books, showing the different systems in creative ways (like using q-tips for the bones in the skeletal system). It has been a lot of fun! We have also been reinforcing our learning about exercise. Next week we will be finishing up the body systems and talking about the importance of taking care of our teeth.
We have continued to work on exercise and introduce body systems. These body systems include the skeleton system, circulatory system, nervous system, muscular system, digestive system, and respiratory system. Students are recognizing the major body parts and how they work together within each system to keep us alive and healthy. This week, students have begun to learn about living a healthy life, like eating healthy foods and exercising. Discussion has included how living a healthy life affects our body parts and systems, such as our heart, brain, and digestive system. We will continue to talk about these topics next week. Some of our classes focused on exercise this week, while others began introducing the parts of the body. Ms. McKenzie's class listened to their heart beats with stethoscopes borrowed from our school nurse, Ms. Hubbard!
Ms. Jones's class made an exercise log in their science notebooks, where they can write what exercises they are doing, for how long, and on what day. Tune in next week when we go more in depth on our bodies! Oops! There is no science this week. Visit our social studies page to see all the great holiday learning we have been doing!
Check back in January for more updates on our science learning. We continue to discuss healthy eating habits. Students are reviewing food groups and what group this foods belong to. Students have been showing their knowledge of the food groups through various activities and assessments. Check out Mrs. Bates's class below. Ms. Alvarado's class shared their healthy snacks with their classmates during snack time. Ms. Jones's class wrote persuasive "essays", convincing the reader that either fruits and or vegetables are better. Their pictures were very funny!
We have delved further into our study of healthy foods and balanced meals this week. Students are becoming more confident in naming and giving examples of each food group. We integrated the My Plate activity with how to shop for healthy foods when getting ready for Thanksgiving. The students are starting to think about whether they prefer fruits or vegetables and how they can persuade someone to take their side. Over the Thanksgiving Break, you can have daily discussions from breakfast to dinner about food items and decide what food groups these items belong to. Our next PBL unit has begun! We started our Healthy Me unit this week, with a focus on healthy eating. After the winter break we will get into exercise and other healthy habits like brushing our teeth. We have been learning about the different food groups, and naming various foods from each group: Dairy, Protein, Vegetables, Fruit, and Grains. We have also discussed the Oil/Fats group (It is not displayed on My Plate, which has replaced the food pyramid in recent years), and talked about sugar and the role it plays in our diet. Ms. Alvarado's class also made a class fruit salad and shared it together while they learned more about the food groups. Fruit salad is one way we can eat healthy!
This week was our final week for our Plant Unit. Students showed the order of how plants grow using the strategy of sequencing. They were assessed on their knowledge of living and non-living things, plant needs, parts of plants, and stages of plant growth. Students placed their plants in soil in our lower school field as a culminating event. We are now plant experts! We are getting ready to begin our next science PBL unit, which will be Healthy Me part 1, where we will connect this unit with our Plants PBL by learning about healthy eating habits. The children can utilize previous learning right away by connecting plants with eating healthy.
We've had an exciting week continuing our Plant Unit. The students discovered plants we can eat and what is the edible part of the plant. They learned about a famous legend Johnny Appleseed, who planted apple seeds across America. The students can research, at home, the real name of this legend, John Chapman. We are reaching the end of our unit, and some of out classes were able to transplant their plants into the big garden beds in the field. Take a look: One of our classes is even beginning a compost tower!!! Ms. Jones's class wanted to know more about how things decompose and break down, so they built a compost tower out of used soda bottles and packing tape. They learned that you can compost things like fruit, vegetables, and bread (with nothing on it), as well as tea bags and coffee grounds. Check out their tower so far!
Science has continued to excite all of our First Graders this week as our plants continue to grow (some have even grown all the way to the top of the greenhouse!). We have measured our plants and are tracking how much they grow each week (more than you might think). We have learned about the 5 major parts of the plant (including seeds), and can easily identify them. We also know the 5 most important things that plants need: water, nutrients (food), sunlight, soil, and carbon dioxide! We also made seed stories, where we combined our knowledge from math and science to build an equation using seeds, and then write a number story that explained the equation. See some examples from Ms. Alvarado's class below. See how much our plants have grown!!! This week science has been very exciting! We came back from the Columbus Day holiday and out plants had not only sprouted, they had taken off!!! Students have enjoyed learning about the difference between living and nonliving things. We have discussed why plants are living things. They have also enjoyed labeling plant parts, inventing seed packets belonging to made up plants, as well as sorting and tasting seeds that we eat like beans, sunflower seeds, and almonds.
We kicked off our Plant PBL this week with much excitement. We compared seeds and tried to match the seed to the fruit. It was really difficult! We found the size of the seed did not determine the size of the fruit. The children all planted seeds this week and cannot wait to watch them grow. Next Tuesday will be exciting as we check how much the plants have grown. In science, we will are summing up our science unit in Scientific Investigations. We finished learning about safety when conducting a science experiment. Students were able to understand why tools are important in science. The students were assessed in the scientific method, science tools, and safety rules. We are also gearing up for our first PBL (Project Based Learning) unit about Plants! We will kick off the unit next week. We wonder what kinds of amazing questions your children will have, and what learning they will do? This week in science, students conducted two different experiments, in order to see the scientific method in action: "How many drops of water will fit onto a penny?", and "How do different additives affect an apple slice?". Students got to practice making predictions (forming a hypothesis), actually conducting the experiments themselves, and then recording their results. We also continued to learn about different science tools, and how we can use them. Check out Ms. Reguera and Ms. Jones's classes below. |
Helpful Links:For plant games, check out the link below: |