Insects Everywhere!

Good Afternoon First Grade Friends,

This week is already breezing by. It is Wednesday already and we have done so much in and out of our classroom. This is an especially special week because we have three Birthdays in our class. Today was Zakiya’s Birthday, tomorrow is Kiana’s and on Friday we celebrate Derrick’s. We also earned our first toe tokens for miles walked in morning milers.

Since last Wednesday we have jumped into insects. We are investigating student initiated questions, we are looking for insects and sketching them outside, and we are searching through books looking for facts and new lines of inquiry. The kids are super excited about it and I’ve already had bugs brought to me found in aftercare, and books about insects being created during writing workshop and explorations. Some kids are even looking at the reference books we have for how to spell words about insects and what they look like so they can have detailed sketches. We have expanded our vocabulary as we become Entomologists and study insects. Some key words we’ve discovered are metamorphosis and chrysalis. Together we researched Charlie’s question about the hairs we were seeing on pictures of insects. We found they are called Setae and they sense things in the environment such as sounds and surroundings. Today we went out into the garden armed with our clipboards and magnifying glasses to find insects and either write or sketch what we saw. There were butterflies, ants, and some new insect we will be identifying tomorrow as we look at types of insects.

The most surprising thing we discovered early on is that spiders are not insects and actually fall under the arachnid family because all insects have only six legs! This one fact has been brought up every time we’ve seen a spider, from out at recess to in the classroom.

Obviously this investigation has already led beyond the classroom and I am very excited to see where it takes us next!

In math we have learned new math games like the fun roll and solve where they roll the die twice and add up the sum. This one has been played many times already during the choice time when they first enter the classroom. We are also graphing our toe tokens from morning milers and making many different representations of how many days we have been in school. It has already been 15 days and so we are tallying, bundling each group of ten, and talking about place value.

In reading and writing we are practicing analyzing books we read. Looking at how the characters feel and what might happen next in the story. We are also looking at why the authors make the choices they do. We ask how the author and illustrator show us the readers how the characters are feeling. There could be thought bubbles, sad faces, angry bright colors. So many choices authors make and we are just starting to look at them and put them in our own writing. I love seeing these patterned in the stories written during writing workshop. This class is filled with amazing writers and I can see these writing strategies and even our science content pop up in stories. Finding inspiration from new content and other authors is what makes our own writing improve and I am seeing that!

That’s all for this short week so far but stay tuned as we continue our investigation into insects and have a great night!

Important Information:

Morning Milers is in full swing and as you know we have many who are already earning their toe tokens. If your child would like to participate it begins each morning Monday through Thursday at 7:40.

Tomorrow is our school library day and so any books that need to be returned from last week should be brought back in so new books can be checked out.

Home to School Connections:

As we learn about insects we love having more resources and information brought into the classroom. Please bring a fact to share, illustrations, or books. The kids love having something to share with the group from home.

Many have asked about homework and while we will be starting a home reading log and will have home to school connections each week which will become more extensive, I will also be sending home a packet from our math workbook if you would like to have some extra practice at home with your child. I will not be checking it and so this is just for you and your child if you would like it to work on. If there is a page your child is struggling with feel free to send it back in their folder and I will look at it with them and help them through it. I will send several pages home at a time that are related to our current unit of math study.

Pictures: Creations, recess explorations, and budding scientists during exploration time