Congratulations on Finishing the First Quarter!

It's hard to believe we are already one-fourth of the way through First Grade!  Congratulations to all of the hard-working, kind, and brilliant students in Ms. McHenry's class!

Wacky Wednesday!

As you know, Wednesday was Wacky Wednesday!  We took pictures of some of our wacky outfits and wacky faces and then wrote sentences about the pictures.  We had to use past tense in our sentences, since Wacky Wednesday was in the past.  Can you find all the verbs that tell about the past below?

They were wearing their pajamas too!

Lots of first graders wore their pajamas on Wacky Wednesday!

They were making wacky faces!

They had backwards shirts!

They laughed and laughed because they looked wacky!

No Homework???

It's true!  

There is no math homework tonight!  As always, first graders should read their "Just Right" book to an adult this evening.  Don't forget to sign your child's reading log.

Also, tomorrow is "Wacky Wednesday!"  Forest View families have reached their half-way goal for the un-fundraiser, so students may wear their wackiest outfits to school tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to see what silly ensembles they put together.

Place Value

During the first six weeks of school, our math lessons focused primarily on number sense - counting, place value, patterns, and comparing numbers to determine which is greater and which is less.  As we begin our next math unit, the focus will remain on place value as we explore addition and subtraction.  

For grown ups, place value seems pretty straightforward.  We have our ones place, our tens place, and our hundreds place.  But for a first grader trying to grasp this complex, abstract concept, place value can be pretty confusing!  

In the term "place value," place refers to the position of a digit.  That is, whether the digit is in the ones place, the tens place, the hundreds place, etc.  Value tells us what that digit represents.  A 6 in the ones place represents 6 ones, or the number 6.  A 6 in the tens place represents 6 tens, or the number 60.  Understanding place value is critical to a conceptual understanding of our base-ten system, and helps us solve problems by understanding the way numbers relate to one another.

Encourage your child to use models to represent two-digit numbers.  Practice naming numbers (up to 120) you see in print and identifying the digit in the ones, tens, and hundreds place.  Ask your child to tell you what each digit represents.  Use drawings, tally marks, base-ten blocks (or something comparable) to practice making two-digit numbers at home.  If your child is ready, you can even try three-digit numbers!  Remember, your child should be able to count up to 120 by the end of first grade.  Being able to touch and build and move manipulatives around is an important part of first graders' development, so don't just stick to paper and pencil.

Field Trip Photos!

We had such a great time at the Museum of Life and Science on Thursday!  Check out our photos below.  We owe a special thank you to Lainey's mom and Kate's mom for chaperoning.  If you'd like to chaperone our field trip to the Nasher next week, please email me!

On the bus!

We are so excited!

First Stop - Bones!!!

Look what we found!

Roar!!  

The Butterfly House

Releasing the butterflies!

Wow!

I made a new friend!

Admiring the view

 

Insects

CAUTION! Scientists at work!

Bees!

How many legs do you count?

"I found Science!"

Animals and their Habitats

We saw a red wolf!

We got to see this lemur eat his lunch!

Look!  A ring-tailed Lemur!  Can you guess how he got his name?

 Time to go home!

What a great field trip!

We love the Museum of Life and Science!

Look What We Found!

We went on a Science walk on Friday afternoon to search for living and non-living things and recorded our observations in our science journals.  We spotted a bug, a large bird that the class decided was probably a falcon, humans, and this really cool spider!

A New Friend

On Friday, a new friend came to visit our classroom.  Her name is Cassie.  Some students remembered Cassie from Kindergarten, but for those of us who are new to Forest View this was the first time we'd met Cassie.  Cassie likes to read books, play games, and eat tasty treats.  Cassie is just like us, except Cassie is a dog!





Cassie taught us all about how to care for pets.  She taught us what to do if we want to pet an animal, and what to do if we are afraid of an animal.  She taught us how to show animals we love them and how to feed a dog a treat.  We are looking forward to getting to know Cassie better in first grade!

The Mystery Package

Last week, a package was delivered to Forest View addressed to Mrs. McHenry's First Grade Class.  We made predictions about what might be inside and wrote about our predictions in our journals.  What do you think is in the box?