April 10th - 13th

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break.  We got right back to work in 1P.  We started a new unit on Ancient Rome and also began to work on patterns for math.  The students made observations and connections about the owner of a mystery bag.  The objects were from the 1950's.  We learned that you can make hypotheses about the past based on artifacts.  They also predicted what artifacts we would find in a box from "Ancient Rome".  We made observations and some connections about our first artifact from Rome.  Each student then made a hypothesis about what the object was used for.  Next week we will do some research to find out more about it.  We also began to look at Roman Numerals.   They all seem to really enjoy the unit so far. 
Our buddy class came to visit and show us their inventions and how they worked.  They were also studying forces and motion.  We shared our results from the surveys that our class worked on with their buddies. They were impressed that the students had used spreadsheets and made graphs.  I think they enjoyed our graphs as much as we enjoyed watching their force - mobiles race.  It was a great exchange.  I will try to get some pictures up this week. 
We celebrated on Friday that everyone finished all of their work and corrections for the week.  This was a first!  We all enjoyed a much deserved treat at the end of the day.

Next week's new focus words will be:  six, seven, eight, nine, ten
We will continue to look at the various ways that the long o is spelled in English (ow, oa, o__e).
In math we will continue to work on repeating patterns.
We are going to work hard this coming week as the following week we will have a very short week.  The year is going by too quickly!  I am enjoying working with these super students.

March 26 - 30th

Another busy week in 1P!  We investigated magnetism and water resistance.  The kids had a good time predicting and testing things that would float.  Next week we will review what we have discovered about forces and motion and on Tuesday we will take our final assessment.  This is also the end of our data handling and probability unit in math.  We will have an assessment on this math area next week.  We will be picking our portfolio pieces and reflecting on why we chose them.  When we return from Easter break we will begin our new unit on Rome.
There will not be any spelling words or focus sounds for next week.  They will also not be having our weekly homework pages.  We will be finishing up our stories, our spreadsheets and science journals.  They will have one night of reading this week.  This year seems to be just rushing by.  I can not believe it is already April!  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter Break.

March 19 - 23

We had a great week investigating friction.  The students measured the distance a toy car traveled on different surfaces.  They recorded their data and next week we will use Excel to represent our data.  This has been a fun and educational unit.  Next week we will look at water resistance and magnetism. 
We worked on Venn diagrams last week.  Next week we will look a little bit further into probability.  The students each put their survey data into an Excel spreadsheet and made graphs in ICT this week.  We will be sharing them with their buddies when everyone is done.
Our focus words for next week are:  should, his, her, their
We will continue to work on the different ways to spell the long a sound. (ay, ai, a_e)
We will be finishing our current unit before the Easter break.  The time is just flying by.  These students have sure come a long way this year.  They are a wonderful group!
I hope you are enjoying the beautiful spring weather.

March 12 - 16th

We had a busy and fun week.  This week we investigated air resistance.  We designed an experiment to test different object's air resistance.  We collected the data and as a class we input the data into an Excel spreadsheet and made a graph.  After doing graphs by hand for the last two weeks, the kids were excited to see the computer complete the task in seconds.  I challenged the students to use what they found out about air resistance to make a gravity defying object with the supplies at hand.  We had races on Friday to see whose design was able to stay up the longest.  Next week we will focus on friction.
Next week's focus words are:  people. new, out, about
We will begin to explore the ways that the long a is spelled in English, ( a_e, ay, ai).
In math we will continue to look at collecting data and different ways to represent it.  We will introduce and work with Venn Diagrams. We finished our surveys with our Buddy class and in ICT we will be putting our data into a spreadsheet.  (These kids are amazing!)
I hope you get a chance to watch our Push and Pull movie and check out the pictures of our 100 day celebration.
Have a great weekend!

The Push and Pull Movie

Here it is - 1P's first ever self directed and filmed movie!  Let us know your reviews.  The Push and Pull Movie

!00 Day Celebration

Here are the pictures from our 100 Day celebration.  Enjoy!     Link to 100 day celebration.

March 5-9

What a wonderful but long week.  We looked at the force of gravity this week.  The students inquired into the impact of weight on gravity.  They made a hypothesis, designed an experiment, collected data and came to a conclusion based on their study.  It was exciting learning!!  That prompted next week's inquiry into air resistance.  They never cease to amaze me with their thinking!
Next week's focus words have to do with questions.  In science we are always asking questions.  Next week's words are:  When, Where, Why and Because.  This is tricky for students in that in Italian the word why is used both as a question and as the answer.  In English we have two words; why and because. 
Next week we will add wh to our study which will include all short vowel sounds and ch, th, and sh.
In math we will continue to work on data handling.  This is working so well with our forces study.  We are using the math that we are learning.  We will also be learning how to put our data into a spreadsheet on excel in ICT.  These kids are amazing!
I am hoping to finish the video on push and pull.  We had a couple of students gone last week and we were not able to finish the project.  Look for links to this movie and others to come.  I hope you all are enjoying this lovely weather.  It feels like Spring is here!