The kids were thrilled this week when all 7 of our caterpillars emerged from their chrysali as lovely painted lady butterflies. We watched as the butterflies drank nectar from flowers that some students brought in. Then, Friday, we released them into the wooded area behind the playground where they all seemed to land momentarily on some sweet smelling flowers. I'm sure I'm dating myself when I tell you that I had all the kids singing "Born Free" at the top of their lungs as we released the butterflies!
Earlier in the week we were visited by David Adler, a world-famous children's writer and author of the very popular Cam Jansen books. Mr. Adler's visit, sponsored by the PTO, was phenomenal! He reiterated everything that we have been learning all year in Writer's Workshop about how writer's write and how they are inspired. He was funny and down to earth. I hope all the kids were as enthralled with Mr. Adler as I was..and hopefully inspired to write their own stories from the everyday occurrences in their lives.
This week I also began reading Roald Dahl's "The Witches," to the students, chapter by chapter. I generally haven't read this story to 1st graders, but everyone seems to be loving it. I get a lot of, "Please, Mrs. Cushing...are we reading The Witches today"! Our read aloud of this book is for sheer pleasure, and the kids have been enjoying just having the opportunity to sit and listen to a really well visualized and written piece of children's literature by one of the greatest writers of children's literature of all time.
As we wrap up our author study of Kevin Henkes, we read Old Bear and discussed the visual images in the pictures. We talked about how the visuals helped set the tone of the story and allowed us, the readers, to really feel what was happening in the book. Then, using water-color paints, the children painted their own pictures of their favorite season in the style of Kevin Henkes.
In math we finished up our last unit in Everyday Math and began reviewing for our final post test. Please review time to the quarter hour and 1/2 hour with your children. We've done a lot of review on this at school, but many children are still finding it a tricky concept.
REMINDERS:
IF YOU ARE NOT PURCHASING PHOTOS, ALL PHOTOS MUST BE RETURNED TO SCHOOL BY TUESDAY. IF YOU DO WANT THE PHOTOS, PLEASE SEND IN YOUR ORDER FORM AND MONEY.
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
No comments:
Post a Comment