Today was Arbor Day so we finished up our activities on sustainability and taking care of the environment. We watched the modern version of The Lorax movie and wrote letters to mother earth. We also made our own truffula trees out of tissue paper.
To help celebrate Earth day we’ve been learning about recycling and how humans impact the environment this past week. We read the story about the Lorax and how the Once-lers actions hurt the land and the animals around him. We then also talked about the R’s of recycling, and sorted items based on whether they were trash or things to recycle.
We also brainstormed ways that we could help take care of mother earth by making a list and then writing sentences.
Today for Earth Day we took our list and made a poster as a class pledge to take better care of our earth. Then we joined up with the 2nd/3rd grade class to do a Shaktoolik clean up! Since it is still wintery and snowy out here in the arctic the clean up ended kind of short, but we still had fun!
At the end of the day we made our own “mother earth” mascots that we will eventually hang up in the classroom once they are finished!
This past week we started our new unit about the sky and the difference between daytime and nigh time. To begin our new unit we started learning about the sun and the importance the sun plays on our planet. We read a nonfiction book called “The Sun: Our Nearest Star” and watched a presentation on BrainPop. We also created a circle map, made our own illustrations, and wrote sentences. 1st grade worked on their own paper with a topic sentence and two details.
The next day we created our own class sun dial by putting a tall stick in the snow and marking where the shadow of the stick ends at various times throughout the day.
As we near the end of the school year our kindergarteners have been working on becoming independent readers and learning about elements of a story. We read one of our Read On Your Own decodable book called Max and Quin. This story had words that students could easily decode as well as the sight words we’ve been learning throughout the week. In the story there are two characters that have distinct characteristics.
Students got into their reading partners and read the book to each other. Then they picked a character (either Max or Quin) and described a character trait. They were able to use the text to find evidence of their findings.
This Friday marked the official end to our unit on Community helpers. To celebrate all that we’ve learned and to help the students gain awareness of what is out there, we invited family members to come in and talk about the jobs that they’ve had or currently are at.
Before the visitors showed up, we came up with a list of questions that the class could ask the visitors. We thought up of questions based on Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Then students picked their favorite job and thought of a question they could ask a person with that job.
Our visitors came and our students had a lot of great questions including ones that weren’t even on our list. We had a former nurse, two teachers, a grocery store manager, and someone that goes crabbing. Students had a great time learning about their jobs and then our visitors stayed with students and read to them during free choice centers.
Yesterday in our K-1 All-Stars class we shared in some Easter fun with easter related centers and egg coloring. We also read the book Easter Eggs Everywhere! and discussed the different sounds that the vowel E says.
Sorry for the long absence in updates it has been quite a busy month with Spring Break and basketball tournaments!
Our class has been learning about places in our community and jobs in our community; and around the world! We went on a class trip to talk to members of Shaktoolik, and created a whole Shaktoolik map of the places that the students felt were important. We have been reading books about community helpers and their tools. We have also been doing literacy centers with a community helper twist!
