WOW! Read to Feed Complete

First Graders are to be congratulated on an AMAZING job participating in Read to Feed. Our goal was to be able to raise enough to purchase one cow...we have enough money to buy almost six cows! We will actually be able to purchase 5 cows, 1 goat, AND send 1 girl to school. What a difference first graders will make in the lives of others. TAISM's business department is in the process of transferring our money. Soon we will get confirmation from Heifer International and know that we have turned the power of reading into the power of feeding! Well done, First Graders.

Guess My Shape

In math we have begun to explore shapes and learn about the number of sides and corners each kind of plane shape has. Ask your child what makes a square different from a rectangle. And ask him or her to teach you how to play Guess My Shape like you see us doing in the pictures above.

Sorting Animals

This week we began talking about animals as part of our Living Things unit. Just like with plants, we are learning about the features which help animals meet their needs. Yesterday we explored many photographs of animals and came up with various ways to sort them based on the features we could observe. Groups came up with great ideas, sorting based on ways the animals move, what covers their bodies, where they live and their scientific classification (mammal, bird, etc.) Next week we have two special visitors coming to talk to all the first graders about the living things of Oman...we hope no one misses these mystery guests! Today your child brings home a Living Things Field Notebook to work on over the long weekend. Please help your child remember to observe, draw, photograph, label and write about the living things he or she encounters over the holiday. We look forward to sharing these next week.

Watching our Seeds Grow

This has been an exciting week as we wait...and watch...and wait some more for our seeds to grow! Some lucky individuals have already seen their seed coats split open, roots push down, and even sprouts reach up for sunlight. Others are trying their hardest to be patient...grow, seeds, grow! Here are some photos of students observing their seeds and some samples of their written observations in their plant journals. Our students are all growing so much as writers, whether writing their personal narrative stories or observations in science!

Thank You!

Here is a letter written by 1SM expressing our thanks to the parents who organized festivities at TAISM for Omani National Day!

Fact Families

Fact Families

In math we have been talking about fact families, which are three numbers that "go together." For each fact family, we can make two addition sentences and two subtraction sentences. Today we practiced these fact families with Fact Triangles in class. I wanted to share a website with you where your child can practice this at home...click here to practice addition and subtraction fact families with Fact Triangles.

Parts of a Seed

This afternoon we investigated the parts of a seed. We looked at beans that had been soaked in water so they would easily come apart. Students discovered that each seed has a covering like a skin...called the seed coat. We talked about how clothing protects us, and the seed coat protects the seed. Students also discovered the most exciting part...the tiny plant hiding inside the seed, called the embryo. We looked carefully with magnifying glasses to see the root and the tiny leaves of the embryo. Tomorrow we will plant seeds, so we talked about all the things our seeds will need to grow.

Living Things

Today we began talking about the differences between living and nonliving things. We went outside on a "Living and Nonliving Thing Hunt." When we came back to share and sort our findings into living and nonliving categories, we came up with some interesting questions. How do you know if it's living? Can something move if it is not a living thing? What makes it move? Do plants eat food? It was a great discussion to launch this new unit. We are also excited to do our own planting later this week. (P.S. Meanwhile, please keep encouraging your child to Read to Feed! We are halfway through the first week and from what students are sharing with me it sounds like they are doing well and are hopeful they will reach their goal.)

Sharing Our Stories

Recently, all three first grade classes got together to share our Small Moment Stories. We did this in a "Wagon Wheel" format out on the basketball court, so students got to share their stories with as many peers as possible. We came back into the classroom and made fun, wacky writers' hats to celebrate our success. Students later reflected about how it felt sharing their stories, what they were proud about in their writing, and what they would like to improve on next time. We even got to share our stories with our fourth grade reading buddies. Well done, first grade writers!

Read to Feed Starts Today!

Our Grade One Fundraiser Starts Today. It will go for two weeks, ending on November 21st. Please see the large envelope that went home in your child's backpack today for all the details. We have a grade-wide goal of raising $500 for the purchase of one heifer. Who knows, we might even surpass this goal! Please sponsor your child and help your child start finding other sponsors today. Every child is asked to find ten sponsors to each make a donation of one rial or more. For each sponsor, students pledge to read one Just Right book to their family at home. You can read more about this great program Read to Feed on the Heifer Organization website. The details of what your child should do are glued to the outside of the envelope that was sent home today. To summarize in brief...

1. Find Sponsor (Students will give each sponsor an information bookmark from inside the envelope and have the sponsor write their name on the Read to Feed log) 
2. Collect Money Right Away (Record how much on log and put money in envelope.) 
3. Read and Record on Log at home. Students will be doing this INSTEAD of their normal reading logs for the next two weeks. The large envelope should stay at home, please, so students are not carrying cash back and forth to school. They will simply bring their reading book back in their folders every day and swap it for a new one each morning, then write down the book title on their Read to Feed log at home.

 *If your child finds many sponsors in one day, that is great! He or she can read additional books from home or wait to choose additional books from school.

Thank you for helping your child turn the power of reading into the power of feeding!

Recent Class Happenings

Here are some assorted pictures of what's been happening in class recently. See students doing group word sorts and "Blind Sorts" in pairs. See a glimpse of our final Rights of a Child projects on the iPads and a recent morning message. Students are very excited as we wrap up our Rights of a Child unit...as a whole grade level we are going to do a fundraiser called Read to Feed through the Heifer International Organization. Students are inspired to help a family fulfill all the rights of their children through this project. Stay tuned...details come home Thursday. It will be a two week fundraiser ending on November 21st. Meanwhile, next week we begin a new science unit called Living Things.