Happy Thanksgiving!

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 fall leaves. 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!

Halloween Parts of Speech

 In 1-Thomson, we've been adding some Fall and Halloween twists to our learning!  This week for "word work" our focus was on nouns and adjectives. We started  by creating a list of Halloween nouns--people, places, and things! Then, we worked together to create a spooky Halloween "Noun Town" full of ghosts, black cats, haunted houses, vampires, bats, pumpkins, and more! 

Next, we learned all about adjectives and how they can make our writing more descriptive.  We practiced using adjectives in pumpkin poetry, and then we ended our study of adjectives by creating and writing about our own perfect pumpkins.  Some were funny, some were mad, others were small, and some were scary!  Have a look at our pumpkin patch!

-Mrs. Thomson :)

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.

Reader's Workshop: Character Traits

Our Reader's Workshop is well underway in 1-Thomson!  This past week, we spent lots of time reading books by one of favorite authors, Kevin Henkes.  We especially enjoyed reading Chrysanthemum.  This story is about a sweet little mouse who loves her name until her first day of school, when some of her classmates make fun of it!  By story's end, Chrysanthemum learns to love her name again after she realizes it's what makes her special and unique!  Using this story, along with other Kevin Henkes stories, we discussed character traits and how a character's feelings, thoughts, and actions can change throughout a story.  We thought of just the right words to describe Chrysanthemum as she changes throughout the book- happy, proud, angry, upset, frustrated, confident...

We added these words to our character map:

Then, we made our very own Chrysanthemum puppets! One side shows a happy Chrysanthemum, and the other side shows a sad Chrysanthemum.  As we retold the events of the story, students would hold up the appropriate Chrysanthemum face based on her feelings at that point in the story.

Practice retelling stories at home and using character trait words to describe the people or animals in the story.  Do the character's thoughts, feelings, or actions change?  Happy Reading!

-Mrs. Thomson :)

Common Core State Standards:

RL.1.2: Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

RL.1.3: Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

First Grade Beginnings

I always love the first weeks 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. We have been busy establishing our routines 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!

P.S. We wanted to share- we had the best first day ever! 

-Mrs. Thomson :)

Welcome to First Grade!

I am so excited to see you all very soon!

Summer letters are on their way with all the info you will need for our first day!  If you misplace your letter or parent questionnaire, click the links below for additional copies.  Enjoy the remainder of your summer days! 

😎

Summer Letter

Parent Questionnaire

Field Day Fun

Today we had some unexpectedly PERFECT weather for field day!  The kids and teachers had so much fun.  I always love to see the teamwork and student collaboration on this day.  I especially love the students vs. teacher tug-o-war match!  Thank you to all who helped to make Field Day 2017 a great one!

Tide Pool Research

It is great to be back at Fuller Meadow and just in time for our scientific study of tide pool creatures! Last week was our trip to Odiorne State Park, where I know the students had a blast putting their knowledge to work while exploring the rocky shore.

  In class, first graders have been busy becoming experts in the field, while learning all there is to know about local tide pool creatures and their habitat.  We have been collecting our facts in a "Tide Pool Field Guide".  We've also been working together to write informative/explanatory pieces about our favorite tide pool animals.

 We can't wait to share this work, along with many other impressive pieces of first grade work from this year, after the Tide Pool Boogie on Tuesday, 6/13!  We hope to see families for our "Boogie" at 9:00 in the cafeteria, followed by a portfolio share in each first grade classroom.

Nonfiction Fact-Finders

As we begin our genre study of nonfiction informational text, the students are becoming familiar with nonfiction text features as they learn new and exciting facts along the way! This past week, we researched groundhogs for Groundhog Day.  Using our classroom iPads, the students became "fact-finders" to search and record facts about these furry little animals!  Using the app Popplet (a favorite of ours), each student created a map of the facts they learned.  Take a look at some of their findings.  They are quickly becoming nonfiction experts!

Facts by Angelica and Parker

Facts by Ava

Facts by Lilla and Ella

Facts by Mia and Madison

Facts by Nick and Cam

Facts by Lily and Makinley

Facts by Joey and Madix

Facts by Ryan and Ibrahim

Try using Popplet at home to record facts from nonfiction books!

Common Core Standard: RI.1.5 Reading: Informational Text Craft and Structure- Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text

Reader's Workshop

Reader's Workshop is part of our daily routine in 1-Thomson, and we love it!  Each day we are busy putting our reading strategies to use through independent reading, partner reading, and group reading activities!

The pictures above show most of the materials and activities we use during reading time.  We keep all of our books and reader's notebooks in our numbered book boxes.  We keep track of the books we read by checking them off on our "Just Right" Book Trackers.  We focus on a new reading genre each month.  This month we will complete our fairy tale focus!  And we choose our independent reading books from our leveled library.

MY favorite part of Readers' Workshop is seeing my students grow into amazing readers and writers! Ask your child about our daily reading routines and maybe even try some of these routines at home! Happy reading!

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!