Stone Soup

During the season of cold weather and lots of feasting, we took some time to read the story of Stone Soup. This story offered students an opportunity to see how the cooperation of strangers helped to warm the bodies of many. First graders then had the chance to work together to make their own stone soup! There were many brave souls who tried the soup and found it to be tasty!

Native American Games

As students finished up our unit of The First Thanksgiving, Pam Holz came to offer the students insight into Native American games of long ago. Pam shared with the students how hundreds of years of history has been written and documented, allowing us to have knowledge of the past. Students had the opportunity to play two different games. One game had students working on their aim as they worked to drop a rock into a small bowl, while the last game had students 'tricking' the human eye by hiding a rock within their hand and having another students guess the correct hand.

Young Geologists

First Graders wrapped up their unit on geology by finding places in our world where rock is used. The students found many examples of how rock is used not too far from school! Some of the examples our young geologists discovered were sidewalks, brick paved walkways, foundations for homes, and many more.

Apple Fun!

First grade students enjoyed a healthy snack of apples on Friday thanks to the Farm to School Grant Initiative that provided a variety of apples to our school. Students first took a closer look at some apples comparing the seeds and deciding if it contained even/odd amount of seeds. We then ended our time preparing an apple smile treat.

A Hunting We Will Go...

Pam Holz, Washington County Naturalist, visited the first grade students last week to discuss how animals survive as prey and predators. Students also learned about camouflage with two yummy treats, caramel and starbursts. Students were challenged to go 'hunting' in the grassy area outside the classroom to find a 'critter' to enjoy. The camouflaged critters were just a little harder to find!

Fire Prevention Week

First graders are learning about fire safety this week! Wellman Fire Chief, Jeremy Peck and Wellman Firefighter, Kenny Miller visited our class today to visit about fire safety. Students were reminded about how to respond in a fire and the importance of having a 'safe spot' at their house. The rest of this week we will be learning more about how to prevent fires and stay safe.

Let's Get Moving!

Friday, October 7th, at Noon, the State of Iowa kicked off the Healthiest State Initiative. Everyone from around the state was asked to take about 12 minutes out of their day to go on a quick 1K (.62 mile) walk with friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers. First grade along with the other WE classes participated by walking to North Park and back on a route marked off by the Wellman Y. It was a great opportunity to get outside to enjoy the beautiful weather, the crunch of the leaves, and the company of 39 fun first graders!

A Busy Week!

On Thursday, the students of Wellman Elementary had McGruff the Crime Dog pay them a visit. Students were reminded about staying safe and how to respond to strangers.

We also enjoyed getting together in our Friendship groups today on a beautiful day! Students enjoyed tye-dying their t-shirts which will be worn on special days throughout the school year. Many giggles and smiles were also shared during our time as we had time for games in our Friendship groups!

Fun In Science!

In Science we have been studying trees. Earlier this week, Pam Holz, the Washington County Naturalist, visited us to introduce the first graders to five different trees found in Iowa. After reviewing the leaves of these trees, students had a lot of fun with a leaf relay as they were challenged to find a 'particular' leaf!

Dear Parents...

We worked on a shared writing activity this past week in First Grade writing a letter to our parents about our year so far. During this special writing time we looked at high frequency words that we are working on as sight words in reading and also paid close attention to capital letters and ending punctuation. We hope you enjoy these fun letters!

Dear Parents,

1st grade has been awesome! In 1st grade we have fun! We are learning to read good books by ourselves. Our class works hard every day. We do homework now every weekend. We do lots of activities. Math is fun too! We are making friends and helping each other.

From,

1A Friends

Dear Parents,

In 1B we work hard! If something is hard we say, "I think I can!" We are going to try to get 4 pumpkins to find out the surprise. We are reading Clifford books.

Love,

1B

Clifford

One of our beloved storybook characters, Clifford, brought a lot of laughter to our classroom this past week as we read many Clifford books. We discussed the model character that Clifford exemplifies and how each of us can be a great friend just like Clifford. We also wrote about what each of us would like to give Clifford for his birthday and what we would predict Clifford would do with our gift. We ended our Clifford study by making Clifford ears and rolling out sugar cookies cut with our special Clifford cookie cutters!

Back to School Fun!

We have enjoyed getting to know one another more in first grade and building our community of friends within the classroom! We have now been in school one month and it has flown quickly by. To say goodbye to summer we enjoyed reading the story, The Enormous Watermelon. We then sponge painted our own watermelons and enjoyed a slice of this yummy vegetable! Yes...we learned that watermelon is actually a vegetable!!

We also discussed how sometimes we may encounter work that will seem difficult, but we shouldn't be discouraged or give up. We then read the story, The Little Engine That Could and shared ideas of what each of us can do this year in first grade. To complete this short unit, we then made Little Engine Twinkie Trains!