Body Parts, Generation Zero, Lucas Miller, 3D Shapes, New Class Pet

In VLA this week, we ended our unit on AN and IN blends. I graded their sound checks on Friday and they did very well! Next week, we will have 3 different blends we will work on. Also in VLA this week, we learned about our body parts in Vietnamese. Here is an activity we did that’s hung up on the wall by the bathrooms in the back of the room.

A group from Keep Austin Beautiful came and did 2 lessons with us on Tuesday and on Thursday. On Tuesday, Ms. Sarah taught us about our community and different vocabulary words like compost, recycle, plastic, paper, landfill, and etc. She taught us the difference between things we should recycle and things we should throw in the trash can. Then we went outside and had a little relay race.

On Thursday, Ms. Sarah came back and helped us build a little compost bin with worms inside that we will be keeping in the classroom. The kids helped her shred newspaper and squirt water in the bin. They even got to touch and observe worms…yuck :-/ We will have one more lesson in April.

We did our monthly Vietnamese writing. This month we wrote about “If I caught a leprechaun, I will…”

Some said they would steal his gold, some said they will catch him and lock him in their room, some said they would trap him in a cage, some said they would trap him and then feed him dessert.

Lucas Miller, a singing zoologist visited Summitt this past week. You can check out some of his catchy songs on YouTube.

In Mrs. Skalaban’s class, the kids wrote about The Legend of the Bluebonnets and painted lovely pictures of Bluebonnets.

My homeroom class earned their link party. They voted on a toy party so we celebrated it on Friday.

We wrapped up our unit on shapes and will be starting fractions for the next two weeks. On Friday, we learned about which shapes stack, roll, or slide.

INTRODUCING…..our new class pet!

Please remember that we have a field trip to watch Junie B. Jones this Friday! Please have your child wear their yellow tie-dye shirt and bring a sack lunch if you checked the option to bring a lunch.

Next week, I will be sending home another field trip permission slip to the Austin Nature Center. This will be our last field trip of the year.

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM MRS. RICHEY!

The Happy Camper Book Fair begins, Monday, April 3 and runs through noon on, Friday, April 7.  While book fair is an annual highlight for many of our students, there are those students who spend a tortured week looking at all they cannot afford.  In fact about 30%, that’s over 200 of our students are considered economically disadvantaged.  If the remaining 600 students from mid to high range SES homes can each donate $1 or $2, we might have up to $1200 to help those students purchase new books.

Please consider participating in our All for Books change drive, so that we make sure all our Summitt Eagles are able to purchase one new book of their very own.

How Can Your Classroom Participate:

1. Pick up a change bucket from the library on, Monday, March 27.  This will be yours to keep, so pick one you like!
2. Explain the All for Books change drive to your classroom.
3. Listen for the announcements each afternoon to find out what coin to bring the next day, and which classrooms are in the lead.
4. Each morning, collect change and count up your total.  Let Mrs. Richey know how much money your class has collected by 1:30 each afternoon.
5. The classroom with the most change on, Friday, March 31, wins a Make-Your-Own Trail-Mix Party and 45 Minute Reading Camp-Out in the library!

Funds will be distributed amongst students throughout the week of bookfair.  Thanks for your support!

3D Shapes

HAPPY SPRING BREAK!

We ended the last week before spring break learning about 3D shapes in math. We learned the names of the different shapes and the numbers of vertices, edges and faces they have.

Mrs. Cardosa visited us this week and did a “following directions” lesson. She read us a book about a boy who had a bad day just because he couldn’t follow directions. If only he had followed directions that day, his day would have been a whole lot different. Mrs. Cardosa had partners set up and each person got a bag of legos. They had to tell their partner where to place the legos with just verbal cues and whatever their partner created, it was supposed to look alike.

We learned a lot about our awesome state of Texas. We learned about our state flower, state emblem, state mammal, state flag, and etc. This past weekend I went to the Houston Rodeo and so I feel pretty Texas-ed out. The kids wrote their own Texas cowboy stories that we hung up in the hallway. Some of the stories are so cute and creative!

Here are our plants from science buddies. Some of the cups started sprouting. The kids will have the chance to take the plants home in a couple of weeks.

This week in VLA was a little different only because we are not working on beginning blends. We are now starting to work in ending blends. This week, we are doing –IN and -AN blends. After we get back from spring break, we will take our sound check on Friday.

2D Shapes, Science Buddies, and Flags

We worked some more on 2D shapes this week. We did a lot of hands-on activities. 

The students got to build their 2D shapes using q-tips and marshmellows.

Marshmellows = vertices =đỉnh

Q-tips = sides = cạnh

 I had a template of a shape for the kids and they had to work with their partner to fill in the shape with other different shapes. Overall, they did a good job working together as a team to figure out this challenge.

 In this activity, the kids had one big shapes that they had to turn into another shape I had asked for. For example, the first one says “a square turns into 2 triangles.”

In VLA, we watched a short video on YouTube about a mouse, crab, frog and snake. We retold the story in our VLA journals. You can click on the link below to watch it.

In the Shade of Trees

In Social Studies, we learned more about presidents and patriots. We learned about the differences between the Texas flag and the American flag. We also learned why the U.S. flag has 13 stripes and 50 stars. Next upcoming week, we were learn about the state of Texas!

 We enjoyed the anticipated Science Buddies on Tuesday. The kids had a BLAST! Their buddies helped them plant their own plant in a cup which we have in our classroom waiting to grow. We worked on making our Friendhship Garden a beautiful place and it was so neat seeing kids be so excited about gardening. If you check out the garden on your way to school or on your way home from school, each first grade class has a flower tub. Ours is yellow and Mrs. Skalaban’s is blue.

Our lizard went back home this week. Here is a better picture of him.

Please remember we have our first grade dance this Tuesday! Students are asked to wear their yellow tie-dye shirts. Also this Tuesday is our Spring pictures!

One more week before Spring Break!