Whiffle Ball in PE

Beginning the week of May 18th, 1st graders will be starting a whiffle ball unit in P.E.  We will be focusing on running the bases, throwing, catching, fielding, and hitting.  A combination of whiffle balls and tennis balls will be used to help develop scholars skills. It’s not required to use a glove; however 1st graders are welcome to bring in their gloves from home to use during the unit.

Happy Spring!

Mr. G

Read for 300 Hours = Silly String Mr. Berry

Friday our 1st graders had a huge celebration!  They read for 300 hours and to celebrate we got to Silly String our principal, Mr. Berry.  Each first grader earned their very own can of Silły String to spray at Mr. Berry.  I'm so proud of the readers we've become. A special thank you to Mr. Berry for being a good sport! 

Reading Looks Like Many Things...

As the year winds down, I like to take a moment to reflect on how far our first graders have come.  We have readers!  We have kiddos that devour words.  Today we took a moment to check out how reading looks in our classroom.  We were amazed at how different reading can look.  In just a 60 minute snippet learners were:

-Reading and Spelling on the iPads and Kindles

-Playing the Reading Ball

-Partner Reading

-Close Reading in groups

-Reading Response Articles

-Book Groups

-Reading to Self

It is so amazing that first graders can make choices that help them to become better readers! They have truly taken ownership of their reading growth.

Stay tuned because we are hoping to have our 300 hour challenge completed by Friday!  Then we will celebrate by SILLY STRINGING Mr. Berry!

The Vermont Red Clover Award-winning book is...

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.

Yes, the top Red Clover Book choice of RES students also got the most votes all across Vermont. Click here for a list of the Red Clover Award-winning books from previous years.

image from amazon.com

7th Grade Visit

Today, 7th graders from CHMS came over to our first grade classroom to share some of their writing. The 7th graders wrote ABC books all about Africa!  This was a great connection to our Jeh Kulu week. The first graders not only enjoyed their writng, they also enjoyed hearing stories about when the big kids were in first grade! 

Force and Motion

Today our students used the computer lab to learn more about the forces, specifically push and pull.  They conducted experiments using pushes and pulls to move a car and other objects!  Learners concluded that larger objects require more force to move them.  Students can use these online games at home by going to Great Sites For Kids on our RES library page.  From there, look for Force and Motion under the science section! 

1st Grade Force and Motion

Our new science unit invites our first graders to explore the forces in our world and discover how things move. This week we learned how to create a "fair test".  We then performed our first experiment. Our question was does weight affect how easily something moves.  Students used balls of similar size, but different weights to test the question. Ask your child what the results of our experiment were!