First Graders Learn about the Body!

Health

          Our first grade class recently began a health unit encompassing lessons on the outside and inside of the body as well as our 5 senses.  Literature, exploration and discussion are great tools from which we are learning some new ideas.  It has been so fun discussing physical traits (birthmarks, dimples, clefts, freckles, hair color and skin color etc.) that make us different from others or sometimes the same as someone in our family!

(We began by listening to our hearts with a stethoscope and feeling our pulse in our wrists.)

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Using our Sense of Smell:

     Miss Biedl has been teaching us all about our sense of smell.  She has been teaching us the importance of this sense and how it can keep us safe.  We even tested out our noses in a "Guess What You Smell" game! 

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We Are Unique!

     As a part of our discussions about what makes us different from others we used mirrors to help us create self portraits.  They turned out beautiful! The students did a great job including freckles, dimples, hairstyles and colors, rosy cheeks and other wonderful characteristics that make us stand out as individuals.  Here are a few pictures of these portraits!





Dr. Seuss and More...

Healthy Snack Program

     This week we were fortunate to participate in a school wide program encouraging students to eat healthy snacks through a cooking activity.  Each child added healthy ingredients to a blender for our smoothie while our healthy snack teacher told us all different ways to remember these healthy ingredients in her special sing-song way.  It was a high energy, fun and exciting way to learn this important concept.  The best part was the tasting our Sunshine Smoothies!

(Jason adds honey while ARrielle watches.)

(Damion adds vanilla.)

(Blending away!)

(We can't wait to try it!)

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A Seuss Celebration! 

      Dr. Seuss's birthday is March 2nd!  So Riverside took the opportunity to celebrate Dr. Seuss and his many works! We celebrated this amazing author in our classrooms.  But that's not all! Mrs. Iannello, our librarian, set up a celebration with snacks and reading in the library too! What a fun week!

(Thanks to Leah, Josh, Owen and Madalyn our Dr. Seuss classroom library was bursting with great books!)

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One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

(Our silly snack to go with this great book!) 

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Fox in Socks

      This rhyming book is crazy and silly.  When Miss Novellano was reading it she was getting all tricked up over some words! It was so much fun wearing our silly socks all day long!

(Josh made Miss Novellano laugh and laugh with his camo, pink and rainbow socks!)

(Reading Fox in Socks.)

(Take a look at all these silly socks!)

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Library Celebration

(Mrs. Iannello dressed up like The Cat in the Hat!)

(Mrs. Kelly read two Dr. Seuss books to us!)

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"If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good!"

- Dr. Seuss

What's Goin' On In First Grade?

Welcome Miss Beidl!

       Miss Kate Beidl began her student teaching experience with us on February 11th.  She jumped right into the classroom and began to meet the first graders as soon as she started.  Her sweet, flexible personality is a nice addition to our classroom.  Welcome Miss Beidl! We are so glad you are working with us!

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Practicing Shoe Tying

     It has been my goal this month to get every first grader to learn how to independently tie his/her shoes.  This tricky skill requires a lot of practice and patience. Please take the time to work on shoe tying with your first grader.  

     To help along the shoelace tying process I thought a repetitive tying activity would be fun.  So this week we made heart shaped knot pillows.  Note: There were several students that did not finish their pillows.  We will continue to work on them when we get back from break.  

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Valentine's Day

     We had been preparing for this day for two weeks! During writing time we wrote about showing love to others.  Journals included sentences answering the question "What is love?". We wrote valentine's letters to special teachers in our building and made valentines at home to exchange.  We delivered valentines, ate special snacks and partied the day away!

 (Finishing up our valentines before we deliver them.)

 (Valentine's Day mail carriers on their way to make some special deliveries!)

(Mrs. Murdock received a valentine from Madalyn.)

 

(Mrs. Iannello received a valentine from Arianna.)

(Passing out our classroom valentines.) 

(Opening up our valentines.)

(Our Valentine's Day smorgasbord.)

       

First Grade News

What's Going on in First Grade?

     It's been a busy week! We worked around half days, spirit week and classroom visitors.  We enjoyed 60 degree weather and bundled up for blustery snow.  We completed big writing projects and nearly finished a math chapter.  We laughed, learned, experienced new things and met new people.  All this in one week? You bet...these are busy first graders!

Spirit Week

(Madalyn all dressed for "Retro Day")

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A Book Drive

     Some Hartwick College students have been working with Mrs. Murdock on a project involving a book drive.  This week one of the students visited our class, read us a story and told us about the drive.  She informed us that they are collecting books that will eventually be donated to the Riverside Library.  Wonderful!

(Miss Kelsey (from Hartwick College) read us the story 

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats)

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Fun Friday

     It was a perfect winter day to paint a winter picture.  But we didn't use just regular old white paint, oh no...we mixed our own! Using shaving cream, glue, glitter and food coloring we created puffy, sparkle paint. It looked so smooth we wanted to touch it with our hands. Black construction paper was the best background for our artwork. The outcome? White, puffy, winter scenes containing igloos, snowmen, snow forts,  snow covered trees and of course many, many snowflakes!

(Craig is painting a snowman.)

(Isabella painted a snow covered hill.)

(Athena made a snow fort.)

(Take a look at Gwen's puffy snowflakes!)

(Sharon is adding a pink hat to her snowman.)