Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was our Halloween parade and party at Fuller Meadow.  It is always such a fun-filled day!  Thank you to all of the parents that came to the parade, donated to our party, and attended the party as well!  I know the students had so much fun!

Spooky Jack-o-Lantern Crafts!

Pin the heart on the skeleton!

Wishing you a happy and safe Halloween-trick or treat!

Halloween Parts of Speech

 In 1-Thomson, we've been adding a little Halloween twist to our learning!  This week for "word work" our focus was on nouns and adjectives. We started  by creating a list of Halloween nouns. Then, we worked together to create a very spooky Halloween "Noun Town" full of ghosts,  black cats, haunted houses, graveyards, werewolves, bats, skeletons, and more!   

Then, we learned all about how adjectives can make our writing more descriptive.  We practiced using adjectives in pumpkin poetry this week, and then we ended our study of adjectives by creating our own perfect pumpkins.  Some were funny, some were mad, others were sad, and some were scary!

Our adjective pumpkins may be pretty great, but nothing topped the ENORMOUS pumpkin we got to see in in real life.  On Thursday, this year's second place winner of the pumpkin contest at Topsfield Fair visited Fuller Meadow School.  A big thank you to Mr. Lancaster for visiting with us and teaching us all about GIANT pumpkins and how they grow!

Common Core Standard: L.1.1,4: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.  Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.  Use frequently occurring adjectives.

Global Read Aloud

1-Thomson first graders are participating in a very exciting "Global Read Aloud" this year! This means, that we are reading and discussing the same book as over 500,000 other students around the world!  "The Year of Billy Miller" by Kevin Henkes is a realistic fiction story about a boy who faces a year full of new adventures as he enters the second grade.  We have been busy reading and discussing this book with each other and with other first grade classrooms at Fuller Meadow!

And today, we connected with a second grade classroom in Topsfield using Skype!

Next, we talked about what we would do if we were Billy and got caught by a teacher doing something disrespectful.  We shared our ideas on this Padlet:

Created with Padlet

To learn more about Global Read Aloud and the Year of Billy Miller, click the book below!

Common Core Standard: Speaking and Listening.1.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

Fall Tree Observations

Our scientific word for the month of October is "observe".  In science, we have been discussing how scientists observe things around them to learn more about a topic.  Scientists observe their surroundings by looking at things closely, noticing changes, and recording their findings.   To practice what scientists do as they observe, we have been noticing the beautiful fall trees around us!  This past week, we traveled outside to make our first of three observations of a tree of interest in the Fuller Meadow Courtyard.  In our science journals, we drew and labeled our fall tree, noted the color and texture of the leaves, and looked closely at its parts using magnifying glasses.  This week and next, we will visit the same tree to note any changes in color and/or appearance.  

In the classroom, we have been studying leaf parts, their color, shape and size up close. We have even identifed some of the trees from which they came using tree field guides.  The first graders have really been loving this science "observation station" in class!  

Ask your first grade scientist to tell you about the changes they've seen in the trees at Fuller Meadow. Maybe you can even find some interesting fall leaves to observe at home!

Friendship Pie

October is Bullying Awareness Month and September's theme at Fuller Meadow was friendship. As part of our weekly Olweus class meetings, some of our discussions included how to be a good friend to others. We shared Derek Munson's "Enemy Pie".  In this story, the main character realizes that someone he thought was an enemy turned out to be a great friend!  Listen to this story at home by clicking the picture below:

After discussing the "ingredients" for a good friend, the students created their own "friendship pies".  Take a look at these delicious friendship pies!