1st Grade MP3 Campus

School Data is open on the 1st for parent reviews. These are due by the 5th. We hope the cut and paste grade level newsletter will be helpful to supplement your remote learning plan reviews. Thank you for submitting in a timely manner and if you need help please reach out to your SLPC.

Topics: sums to 20, number bonds, 3 addends, thinking flexibly with numbers, modeling problems with manipulatives and pictures

Activities: Students continued their work with addition and focused on finding combinations of Cuisenaire rods that would equal a given length, solved story problems with missing addends, and worked hard to brainstorm a variety of equations for number of the day. Students also worked to model problems with cubes and then record that model using simple pictures and an equation.

Teacher Tip: One way to practice story problems is to take out the numbers and ask what is happening. Sometimes students get focused on the numbers and want to skip to the adding or subtracting so taking out the numbers can help bring focus back to what we know and what we are trying to find out.

Teacher Info: Mrs. Kurashige, skurashige@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: story ideas (not too big or too small), spelling resources (Word Wall, personal dictionary, word lists), 5 Star rubric goals (start sentences with a capital letter, end sentences with an end mark, space between words, proper letter formation, writing makes sense), editing marks, informational writing vs. stories, graphic organizers

Activities: Students continued to work hard on our story writing unit in this review period. They took their mini books through our writing process and enjoyed sharing their work. A big focus has been spelling resources. Students are now using their personal dictionaries and word lists to support their spelling. We have also been adding sight words to our word wall.

Now our focus has turned to information writing. We explored many informational books and talked about why they are different from the stories. Students have each chosen an animal that they want to write a report on. Students are now using a graphic organizer to organize their information.

Teacher Tip: Ask your student to score a piece of their writing with the 5 Star Rubric. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need another copy of the rubric!

Teacher Info: Mrs. Giesen, jgiesen@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Voting/Elections, Veteran's Day, Then and Now, Mayflower Journey

Activities: After listening to the book, Vote, by Eileen Christelow, students learned more about voting rights, the campaign process and elections. They used ballots to vote on their favorite color, type of weather, zoo animal, pet and food and then worked in small groups to create graphs highlighting the results. In the final part of the study they wrote math questions related to their graphs and "election" results" for their classmates to answer. Our class celebrated Veterans Day by viewing two informative powerpoint presentations designed to introduce them to vocabulary and ideas associated with this holiday. Students learned how Veterans Day got its name and date and about the five branches of the U.S. military. They concluded this study by playing a true/false game to test their knowledge and completing a USA ribbon directed drawing project. Students worked in small groups to brainstorm ideas about the difference between the past and the present. (ex. transportation, daily chores, foods, school life) After brainstorming and discussing ideas, the students used picture sorting cards to compare/contrast life today with life in the past. Finally students discussed what it may have been like to travel on the Mayflower and arrive in a land they knew nothing about. Students were quick to realize that being on the Mayflower for 66 days might not have been much fun! A power point presentation gave us the opportunity to see the Mayflower II, a replica of the first. When we measured its dimensions, we discovered that it was a small amount of space for a long trip. We concluded by putting together a Mayflower quilt square designed with squares and triangles. The triangles proved to be a little tricky and required a careful eye.

Teacher Info: Mrs. Elgersma, gelgersma@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Correct Login, Keyboard Identification, Changing Cell Color, Using the Shift Key

Activities: We now are at 75% of the class able to login without teacher assistance and about 50% of the class has memorized his/her password. Each day we continue to practice opening/ closing tabs correctly and shutting down the computer. The students are also working hard to locate keys on the keyboard; we began playing a new online game that teaches Home Row. Finally, we have spent time learning how to color cells in Google Sheets while identifying reading sight words.

Reflection Questions: What do you press to type a capital letter?

Teacher Info: Mrs. Montgomery, rmontgomery@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Elements of Art: Shape, Value, Form, Color, Space, Line, and Texture; Techniques: printmaking, paper cutting, clay

Activities: This month, we read the book, The Spider, by Elise Gravel and discussed what we know about spiders. (Which is a lot!) Students created their own stamps by wrapping a piece of cardboard with yarn and practiced printmaking by painting their stamps and filling their background paper with it. These made such great textured backgrounds for the adorable spiders they cut and assembled with pipe cleaner legs. Next, we read the book, Snail Trail: A journey through modern art, by Jo Saxton. This fun story introduces several famous works by Picasso, Dali, and Matisse and highlights Matisse’s collage piece titled, “The Snail.” We discussed abstract art and how Matisse used cut-paper collages for many of his artworks. Students used Model Magic clay to roll coils for their snail bodies and shells. After they dried, we added tissue paper with mod podge for the colorful shell. These were each so unique and adorable! Our last project was inspired by Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the artwork of Jeff Koons. We read the book, Balloons over Broadway: The true story of the puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet and learned about puppeteer Tony Sarg. Next, we looked at artist Jeff Koons and his “Balloon Dog” sculptures. We created our own balloon dogs using oval shapes and pained highlights and shadows to show form and emulate the shiny finish of the real Balloon Dogs. Our cityscape backgrounds were created using vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines.

Reflection Questions: Did you watch the Thanksgiving Day parade and look for the giant balloons? Ask your student what they remember about Tony Sarg and the first few Thanksgiving Day parades!

Teacher Info: Mrs. Warnock, swarnock@meridian.wednet.edu