Canvas Bags...Grade One Goes Green!

Today students will be bringing home their very special canvas bags to keep. After reading several books about how even children can make a difference in caring for our environment and its creatures, students were inspired with their own environmental slogans. They applied all they had learned during our Living Things unit as well and we brainstormed many slogans as a class, from "Bring Your Own Bag Shopping" to "Don't Turn on Flashlights...When Turtles are Hatching!" Students chose a slogan, drafted their ideas in pencil on a planning sheet and then transferred their ideas to canvas bags using fabric markers and fabric crayons. Our Waste Free Wednesday was a success last week...we only had 2 pieces of rubbish in the bin after snack, instead of a half a bin full the previous day. Hopefully these canvas bags will serve as reminders to our students of all the little but important ways (ask your child about these...she/he might mention using reusable snack containers, turning off the lights, turning off the tap while brushing, and bringing reusable water bottles to restaurants as just a few) they can make a difference in caring for our earth.

Holiday Concert

What a wonderful job students did today performing in the Bosch Center! They looked and sounded lovely, and it was nice to see so many of you there to enjoy this special treat.

Living Things Projects

Here are the finished products...our Living Things video projects! We used an iPad app called Explain Everything. Students worked in research groups and became experts on a living thing of Oman. They learned about diet, habitat, physical features and classification. Students photographed their research sheets and then recorded themselves reading their findings. They worked on reading slowly and clearly, and were also introduced to the pointer tool within the Explain Everything app...see if your child used this tool in his/her presentation!

Writing for Readers Celebration

Thank you all for coming to our Publishing Celebration. Students were so proud to share stories from their lives that they had drafted, revised and edited in order to share with you, our readers. They also enjoyed teaching you the amazing facts about animals they discovered in their Living Things research. Now they have their author pens as a reminder that they are all writers with tales to tell. And of course they loved the sweet, starry treat to celebrate with as well!

Working Together Accomplishes More than Working Alone

At a student assembly in the Bosch Center this week, grade one students shared their collaborative Community project from earlier this year. During this unit we had interviewed various TAISM staff to learn about their jobs and about how they are a part of the TAISM team. Students worked in teams to create a paper collage quilt square and a video clip sharing what they learned about our TAISM community. Finally, all the grade one squares were lovingly "stitched" together by some of our invaluable volunteer moms, resulting in a truly collaborative, communal effort. The quilt is now on display outside Mr. Duncan's art room. See the eight minute grade one video presentation by clicking below:

Living Things Research... and Publishing Celebration Reminder

As we near the end of our Living Things unit, students have been hard at work in research groups, gathering information from books and Internet resources . Each group has become experts about an animal found in or around Oman. Students have learned about the physical features, habitat, diet and classification of these living things. Students are excited to share their research with you, and hopefully we'll manage to squeeze this in with our personal narrative stories at our Publishing Celebration on Wednesday. Remember, it starts at 11:15 this Wednesday, December 12th. You will be invited to sit with your child to enjoy some of his/her work and leave a written compliment, and then rotate and visit with other writers in the class as well. Dismissal is at noon on that day.

Rainbow Day

Enjoy these pictures from Rainbow Day...before...and after the outdoor events.

A Visit to Mr. Montoya

Today First Graders went on a scientific excursion. We went to see Mr. Montoya, who taught us about how a turtle's shell and body has changed over time. Mr. Montoya is TAISM's high school art teacher, but is also a wildlife expert and a former science teacher. Ask your child about how the space between a turtle's ribs has changed and ask your child about some of the dangers turtles face in the wild today. Students were intrigued by what Mr. Montoya shared today and they have another two guest speakers to look forward to during our Living Things unit. Thank you, Mr. Montoya, for sharing your time and expertise!

A Post from Ms. Catherine in the Library

Discovering Animals! Grade 1 students are currently studying animals and in our library lessons, we have been looking at how to use information books to discover facts about creatures. We also explored one of Taism’s subscription databases called Pebblego. This site is aimed specifically at young students and finding out about ladybugs was great fun. Many students were keen to try it for themselves as it is at their level and has both audio and video elements. If you would like to explore this site with your child, then please go to www.pebblego.com and log in using ‘muscat’ as both the user name and password. Enjoy learning together and please contact me if you have any questions. Ms. Catherine ES Librarian

Plant Journals and Animal Sorts

Students are seeing a lot of growth in their bean plants. We have seen roots, stems and unfurling leaves. We have also found shriveled seed coats and split beans discarded in the soil. Some students who have not seen growth have decided to plant another bean and try again. All this we carefully record in our plant journals. This week we have started looking at other living things too...animals. Today students looked at photos of many different animals. They talked in groups about the different features of these animals and what they do. They came up with their own categories for sorting them, such as whether or not they are dangerous, what they eat and how they move. Next we will look at the categories scientists use to classify animals. This will help lay the foundation for students later researching a living thing of Oman.

News Flash...We Have a Fish!

You might have heard we have a surprise addition to our class...a class pet! We now have a red, male betta fish. The students have named him Alex. We have been observing this living thing closely, making a list of its needs and writing our observations about him in a class journal. Students will take turns feeding Alex his tasty food...ask your child about this and what he or she has learned about betta fish.

Odd and Even

Today we looked at another kind of pattern...odd and even numbers. We started with "grab bags" of objects. Students counted and sorted the objects in pairs of two. If there was an object leftover, then we knew that number was odd. If the objects could all be put in pairs, we knew that number was even. Some of our observations were that "The even numbers are just like skip-counting by twos" and "Every other number is even. Every other number is odd!"

Preparing to Plant

On our recent observation walk students identified plants and trees as living things. Today we examined beans to see how plants can grow. Students used plastic needles to open the seeds and magnifying glasses to observe them. We learned that the skin is called a seed coat and that when you open beans they have two parts. Inside of them we even discovered a tiny plant called an embryo...complete with stem, root and leaves, ready to grow!

Patterns

Today we explored visual patterns with popsicle sticks. First we extended patterns as a class. Students learned that we need to identify the pattern core before we can repeat it. Then pairs created patterns for each other to extend. We practiced orally naming the patterns (such as a,a,b or clap, clap, slap). Ask your child to create and name a pattern for you at home.

Living Things

Today we began our science unit on Living Things. We started with a discussion gathering what students already know about living things, like "They need water, food and air" and "Humans use nonliving things, like footballs and televisions." With further discussion we realized that humans use living things as well, like fish, for both "pets" and "food". We went on a brief walk outside where students labeled post-its with one living and one nonliving thing. Then we came back to class and sorted our findings. There were a plethora of examples, like kids, birds and ants for living things and swings, slides, and tables for nonliving things. We will delve deeper into the needs and characteristics of living things, especially those found in the habitats of Oman, throughout this unit.

Student Calendars

Each month in class students fill in a calendar. We fill in missing dates, decorate the days with student birthdays and practice calendar skills such as identifying the days of the week and how many days in each month. Today students will be bringing home their November (along with October and September) calendars. A big focus of our first math unit was using the calendar as part of our daily routine. We will continue to do this in class but as we move on to other focuses in math, it would be a good idea to continue some calendar practice at home. Ask your child questions such as what day of the week is November 12th on? What was the date yesterday? See what your child can tell you about what is happening in the month of November. Feel free to add on at home.

Teamwork Towers

During our Community unit, students have been learning about how working together can sometimes make tasks easier. In class students can help each other understand and follow directions.  Writing partners can help each other remember their stories after they have talked about them and are going to write them down. Students can help remind each other of the things they need when we are lining up to go somewhere. In this activity, Teamwork Towers, students attempted to build towers of sticks and tape. At first they tried independently. Students made comments such as "It keeps falling down!", "I need more hands!" and "I'm getting mad!" Then they tried collaboratively in their table groups. Students made very different comments such as "You hold and I'll tape.",  "It's getting taller!" and "Good job, team!" We reflected on the experience of working alone and in a team, through discussion and writing. Ask your child to tell you more about it.

4th Grade Reading Buddies

We meet with our 4th Grade Reading Buddies every 6 day rotation. We first got to know each other by chatting and discovering some of our similarities and differences. We found that many of us have things in common, such as number of siblings and food preferences. Our class and Mrs. Irish's class take turns hosting our buddy sessions. When it is our turn to host, we choose the books to share with our buddies. When it is their turn, they choose the books. Buddies are beginning to use "Book Talk", using some of the same language we use during Readers' Workshop in class. It was a treat to overhear recent buddy conversations...I caught tidbits such as "So what did you notice on this page?" and "Can you make a prediction?"

Math Games

In our first math unit of the year, Routines and Data, students have been exploring calendar routines, collecting data, comparing numbers and sharpening their number sense. We frequently use games to develop number sense, such as Bunny Hop, Monster Squeeze, Complements of Ten and Build a City. In these games students use concrete objects and tools (like dice, pasta, beans, number lines and other game boards) to practice counting and combining numbers. Ask your child to tell you about these games at home!