Grinch Day!

Yesterday was Grinch Day in first grade and we had so much fun!  If you are familiar with the story, the Who's in Whoville help the Grinch's heart grow three times its size!  Here, in first grade, we started our Grinch Day with a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. read to the tune of an accordion played by a first-grader's grandfather!

As part of our Grinch Day, we did lots of grinchy activities, including a guided drawing of the Grinch and some Grinch math.

Then, we each  made a card to help another first grader's heart grow three times its size!  Inside each card was a kind message or picture to share with a first grade friend.  We stood in a circle and passed the cards until the music stopped.  Whatever card you were holding was the one just for you!  We had so much fun and watching each first grader spread kindness to one another on Grinch Day certainly helped my heart to grow three times its size!

From 1-Thomson, we wish you a very happy holiday and a happy New Year.  Merry Grinchmas!  

A First Grade Fairytale

Once upon a time, Mrs. Thomson's class, Miss Klipfel's class, Mrs. Higgins', and Mrs. Scharffenberg's classes worked together to write and illustrate a magical fairy tale...

Our focus in reading and writing has been fairy tales and fairy tale elements. Over the past few weeks, our four classes collaborated to author and illustrate our very own fairy tale.  We randomly selected which part of the story we would be in charge of.  We were very excited when we were assigned to the middle of the story!  We were also very excited to see our completed work today.

Please enjoy our final product of The Magical Tale of Teamwork.  Our three classes are very proud of their hard work.  

You may download our fairy tale on any electronic device to add to your digital library or you can view our book as a PDF for reading or printing on a computer.

Option 1: Add The Magical Tale of Teamwork to your digital library. 

Click on the link: The Magical Tale of Teamwork from an iPad or tablet.
Then click on OPEN IN and then Open in (see illustration below)

Click Open in iBooks:

Option 2: Read The Magical Tale of Teamwork in PDF form by clicking here.

Don't forget to tell us what you think. *Leave a comment for our class to read!

First Grade Gingerbread Exchange

1st grade classrooms from Middleton, Boxford and Topsfield are working together on a fun-filled collaborative project- The  first annual Tritown Gingerbread Exchange! Students were responsible for creating and decorating a gingerbread person to send on a journey from school to school.  As a class, we wrote a letter to each participating classroom that included information about things we like to do throughout our school day and what makes our class unique!  Speaking of unique, each gingerbread person certainly has its own unique design and character.  We sure are a creative bunch here in 1-Thomson!

Gingerbread People in the Making

Our packages are on their way to their destinations, and some have already arrived!  We can't wait to receive some gingerbread people and letters in return!

 Check out more updates and pictures of the project on Twitter with #TTUGingerbreadExchange

Shapes Are All Around Us

Math has been all about shapes in 1-Thomson! To complete our Math in Focus chapter on plane and solid shapes, we created "shape people" and brought them to life using Chatterpix.  Watch the video below to meet our shapes!

Common Core Standards:

1.G.A.1: Distinguish between defining attributes of shapes; build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes

1.G.A.2: Compose two-dimensional shapes or three-dimensional shapes to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape

Mystery Readers

It is so much fun when a Mystery Reader visits us in 1-Thomson!  Over the past few weeks, Mystery Readers have been joining us to read a favorite picture book to the class.  It is not only exciting to be surprised with a mystery guest, but Mystery Readers also model how to read aloud with fluency and expression.  Some stories we've heard so far have been Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins, If Mom Had Three Arms, The Ninjabread Man, and Home Alone.

Thank you for visiting!  We are looking forward to more Mystery Readers in the coming weeks!   If you are interested in joining us as a Mystery Reader, please contact me...we'd love to have you!  

We Are Thankful

This week in 1-Thomson, our focus has been on gratitude.  After reading several Thanksgiving stories, discussing the meaning of traditions, and learning about the history of the first Thanksgiving, we brainstormed all of the wonderful things in our lives that we are thankful for. We wrote our ideas on turkey feathers. For me, among many other things, I am thankful for my first graders and their families!

Families and friends, please take some time to add to our Padlet below.  Double click anywhere on the Padlet screen to type or share pictures of your Thanksgiving plans and/or traditions with us. Wishing you a happy and safe Thanksgiving!  Gobble, gobble!

First Grade Election Day

Extra first grade recess or a no homework night? The results are in!  First grade voices were heard and an extra recess is in their near future!  This past week, first graders worked hard to organize and run an important election that was held on Monday.  Each first grader had a job throughout the day to be sure things were running smoothly.

After a long day of election procedures and voting, votes were tallied, and the results were shared with the students in the cafeteria.  The room erupted in applause and cheers when the results were revealed.  We are looking forward to our extra recess soon!

Bullying Awareness Month

October is Bullying Awareness Month.  As part of our weekly wellness meetings, we have been discussing the meaning of bullying and how to help others who are being bullied.  I was very impressed by how much these first graders already knew about helping others and being good friends!

On Friday, to take a stand against bullying, first graders wore orange bracelets with an inspirational anti-bullying message written on it.  These bracelets reminded us of the importance of taking a stand.

Global Read Aloud

1-Thomson, along with other Fuller Meadow students, are participating in another 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!  This year's book, "The BFG" by Roald Dahl, is a fantasy story about a young girl named Sophie and her adventures with the Big Friendly Giant (BFG) in Giant Country.  We have been busy reading and discussing this book with each other and with other first grade students at Fuller Meadow!  Yesterday, we connected with Miss Klipfel's class to put our visualizing skills to the test!  Good readers visualize, or make movies in their minds as they read.  There is no shortage of descriptive language in this story, so this makes for some exciting visualizations, or mental images.  Here are some students creating images of "The Bloodbottler" (a not-so-friendly giant from the story)...

  To learn more about Global Read Aloud and The BFG, click the book below! We are also participating in this year's Global Read Aloud author study of Lauren Castillo. Learn more about it here.  

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 Observations

This past week brought many changes to the trees around us.  If you look up, there is a sea of reds, yellows, and browns! What a beautiful sight!  1-Thomson scientists have been busy learning what it means to observe, so we put our observation skills to the test by observing the changes to our fall trees in the Fuller Meadow courtyard.

To begin, we talked a lot about how scientists observe, or monitor things closely to track changes by using their five senses.  Next, we each made a hypothesis about the changes we would see in the trees over time after learning about chlorophyll and why leaves change color. We have recorded our findings in our Fall Tree Journals twice so far by drawing, labeling, and writing about changes in color, shape, size, and texture.

Next week, we hope to see even more changes in the trees around us and we will take a closer look at the "leaf litter" that's on the ground. Enjoy this year's fall foliage!

Number Bonds

What is a Number Bond?
Each day begins with our math calendar routine and our Math in Focus lesson for the day.  We recently completed our chapter on number bonds.  The children built and then decomposed numbers to ten by breaking them into various parts.  We created number bonds using scales, connecting cubes, and we even made human number bonds!  Ask your child to show you some number bonds at home. This week, we began our chapter on addition strategies to ten.  Understanding number bonds has helped us to see relationships between numbers.  We are mathematicians!

We know a number bond represents Part+Part=Whole

Practice number bonds at home using the mathszone website:

http://mathszone.co.uk/number-facts/number-bonds-to-10/

Common Core Standards:
1.OA.D.8: Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 + ? = 11, 5 = – 3, 6 + 6 = .

Animal Fantasy

Reader's Workshop has been focused on our genre study of Animal Fantasy.  What better way to kick it off than with one of our favorite characters, Pete the Cat?  We began our study of animal fantasy by first exploring many animal fantasy books with reading partners and discussing all of the ways the animal characters were acting like people.

Next, we took a closer look at some of Kevin Henkes' Animal Fantasy books including Chrysanthemum, Wemberly Worried, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, and Sheila Rae the Brave.  We used character traits to describe the main characters' thoughts, feelings, actions, and personalities.

 This week, we completed our genre study by drawing and writing about our favorite animal fantasy characters.

View on Flipagram

Ask your child all about our study of Animal Fantasy.  Next week, we begin our exploration of the Realistic Fiction genre and our kick off to Global Read Aloud-stay tuned!
Common Core Standards: 
RL.1.3: Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. RL.1.7: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Johnny the K

On Friday, one of our favorite visitors came to Fuller Meadow School to sing and dance with us- Johnny the K! Johnny comes every September to remind us about being kind, respectful, and responsible, and he does it in such a FUN way! We love singing along to his tunes and seeing all of his crazy hats! Johnny the K even chose one of our 1-Thomson first graders to be a helper at the end of his show! Thank you Middleton PTO and Johnny the K! What a great way to kick off our year-it's always a blast!

-Mrs. Thomson

Heart Maps

Writers' Workshop is part of every day in first grade.  This is a time when first graders write and draw about the things that they know the best!  This week, we talked about how writers often choose to write about the things they know and love the MOST!

Next, the first graders created "heart maps" to keep as a resource in their writing folders. Now, each time they sit down to write, they can refer to their map for a little inspiration!  Check out our 1-Thomson heart maps below:

View on Flipagram

First Grade Beginnings

I always love the first week of school! It's so fun getting to know each other and hearing all about summer adventures.  I can tell that this is going to be a great year filled with lots of fun and learning.  This past week, we were busy establishing our routine and learning rules and expectations.  We were able to do this with a little help from our friend, David.  After Reading David Goes to School by David Shannon, we brainstormed a whole list of things we should and shouldn't do at school.  The first graders know their stuff when it comes to expected behavior!  After some good discussion, the students and I created a "classroom promise".  Here is what we came up with:

We are looking forward to a great year ahead!