We had a FANTASTIC time launching our very first project, "Healthy Me." All 60 first graders became chefs together to create 3 different healthy salads. They were in charge of preparing the ingredients, mixing them together, and, most importantly, enjoying their creations! 1st grade chefs used ingredients such as cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, watermelon, grapes, spinach, and strawberries to create a pasta salad, a green salad, and a fruit salad. We then had a 1st grade feast in the afternoon to enjoy our yummy, healthy salads! We are now so excited to further explore foods and how they can help our bodies to be healthy and active!
We have been busy with a lot of other learning these past few weeks as well! We spent some time learning about critique (a process we use a lot here at HTe). We learned that critique is helping our friends to make their work even better. We do that by celebrating their work and then giving kind and helpful advice that might help them to improve. To help us with critique, we did several drafts of self portraits. The students are very proud of their work and are excited for them to be displayed in our room!
1st graders have also been working really hard to become independent learners during our guided reading center time. This is the time of day when I will read with small groups of students, working through books that are at their appropriate level. 1st grade learners are really enjoying their centers...so be sure to ask them about reading and listening, big books, and response journals (to name a few)!
We are also working to grow as mathematicians! We have spent time these past few works playing games and activities that will help us to grow our number sense. We are especially working on representing numbers using dots in tens frames (ten boxes stacked together...with 5 on top and 5 on bottom). Thinking of numbers this way helps to develop a stronger understanding of number combinations that can make 10. We have also started comparing numbers, using visual representations to decide which is more.
These have been a few great weeks, full of learning and community building! It feels great that we are settling into our routines and we are all so excited to be diving into our "Healthy Me" project!
We have been busy with a lot of other learning these past few weeks as well! We spent some time learning about critique (a process we use a lot here at HTe). We learned that critique is helping our friends to make their work even better. We do that by celebrating their work and then giving kind and helpful advice that might help them to improve. To help us with critique, we did several drafts of self portraits. The students are very proud of their work and are excited for them to be displayed in our room!
1st graders have also been working really hard to become independent learners during our guided reading center time. This is the time of day when I will read with small groups of students, working through books that are at their appropriate level. 1st grade learners are really enjoying their centers...so be sure to ask them about reading and listening, big books, and response journals (to name a few)!
We are also working to grow as mathematicians! We have spent time these past few works playing games and activities that will help us to grow our number sense. We are especially working on representing numbers using dots in tens frames (ten boxes stacked together...with 5 on top and 5 on bottom). Thinking of numbers this way helps to develop a stronger understanding of number combinations that can make 10. We have also started comparing numbers, using visual representations to decide which is more.
These have been a few great weeks, full of learning and community building! It feels great that we are settling into our routines and we are all so excited to be diving into our "Healthy Me" project!