Continuing in Academic Pursuit until the very end!

This past week we have been having students finish their scrolls to 1000 and we celebrated many baptism birthdays! We have written 2 research reports: one on inventors and another on an insect. Children have been learning about simple machines we see and use. Thursday we used a fulcrum and lever to create a catapult to see how far we could get marshmallows to fly! (A few marshmallows were also consumed).

The students began reviewing their first grade year and will be reflecting personally on their progress. We will also discuss goals for 2nd grade.

2nd Grade Presentations

The 2nd Grade class wrote paragraphs on the highlights of 2nd Grade for our class. We got to listen to them and ask questions of the students that we had. This was to build community in the school and also to help the 1st graders to start mentally preparing for 2nd grade!

Please remember not to post a picture on social media if there is a child who is not yours in the picture. Thank you!

The Wonder of Literacy

Dear families,

In James and the Giant Peach, James receives a white paper bag of “green things” that are luminous, small, strange, magical, and thousands in number! The children got to interact with a prop that brought the written description to life. This experience was designed to hit many goals:

• spark wonderment in reading and continue a love for stories

• attach a memorable event to the concept of adjectives for better recall

• show children that effective adjectives can create pictures and make it easy to imagine

• inspire use of adjectives in speech and writing

When you read aloud a story at home, see if you can act out or create a moment or item from the story. Highlight how you knew to do something a certain way or make something look like this because of the adjectives and adverbs that the author used. Doing this at home now or during the summer or any time after will be an excellent way to:

• attach fun memories and love of their family to exploring literacy

• show that their parents are life long learners exploring reading with them

• instill habits and love of reading outside of school, making it clear it is a fun thing!

• reinforce understanding of parts of speech for better memory recall later

• see what your child is thinking and learning!

I hope you enjoy this activity. We took pictures with the green things bag for fun. Here they are!

Weather, Lunch, Last Spanish Class

Dear families,

It was such a joy to return to work with your children this week! We started eating lunch in the lunchroom again after 2 years away from it! The children were SO well behaved and so excited. We have really enjoyed our Scientific learning through non-fiction reading, reading for answering academic questions, scientific experiments and time exploring the topic first hand. We will use these exciting experiences to write and propel motivation to dig deeper in our texts.

Our amazing Senora Andreina is an incredible Spanish teacher. However, our contract with her is only for a certain number of sessions per grade. Therefore, classes weekly end mid April. She made the class a piñata and party that was so fun!

Nice to meet you, Mrs. Niccolai!

Dear Families,

On Friday the amazing Mrs. Cyndi Niccolai came into the classroom for the last chunk of our day. She honestly made me emotional as she interacted with the students. Her loving passion, gentle way, and sincere faith communicate such care for children in such a natural way. She had all of them listening and excitedly offering up answers politely in just moments of talking with them. I am overwhelmed with gratitude that God worked it all out for her to be with your children.

She taught at Bethany for many years as both the Kindergarten and 1st grade teacher. She was the department leader for K-2 for much of that time. Her wealth of knowledge and mastery of craft are so evident. I am sure there will be changes and differences here and there. However, I am certain that your children will be in great hands and will have another teacher excitedly helping them grow.

Below are pictures from Friday and an unmasked picture of Mrs. Niccolai [Nicole-i] so you can see her beautiful smiling face!

Authors at work!

The students have reviewed almost every version they could get their hands on of the Gingerbread man. They are almost done writing their first book! The children have taken pride in sharing their work with their peers and delight in listening to others’ stories. Here are some pictures of the process of literary exploration! (My phone filled up on memory and a few pictures didn’t save. I apologize if you don’t see your beautiful one represented here!!)

Gingerbread Day

Each year in 1st grade we read just about every version of The Gingerbread Man. We practice skills of comparing and contrasting. Then we write our own version of The Gingerbread _____. Today we designed our Gingerbread characters and wrote our first pages. They did gingerbread cookie themed sight word writing. They did very active Gingerbread brain breaks and challenges. We had a Gingerbread man science experiment and the children had to build a bridge to “save” their gingerbread cookie from the pool of water. You will see pictures of them with masks down. They know they can slip it down for a quick picture and to eat!

The children got to enjoy eating a couple of cookies, too. :)

Week of November 8

Dear Families,

The children have been involved in many collaborative activities this week. They have practiced skills of listening to one another, voicing opinions appropriately, how to assist without doing things FOR someone, and taking pride in a group accomplishment.

For grandparents day, first grade has been practicing with 3rd grade for our combined singing. They have been learning to listen and sing together, be leaders in knowing words, and working with another teacher. We also worked in groups to complete a visual element of our performance.

In our final days of animal report writing, we switched from solely Library books to some internet videos and articles. The children spent 10 minutes with their research group watching fun animal videos together and discussing the facts they learned. I am so excited for you to see their completed reports!

Lastly, Olivia Norton brought in a favorite book and read it to her class at snack time! :)

Officer Franken Visits!

Officer Marty Franken is a long time Bethany Member and probably one of the kindest men you will meet in your entire life. He is not only talented as a Christian servant in the church, as a policeman, but also the best police officer presenter I have ever seen for children. He loves answering questions and manages the inevitable “what ifs” perfectly. You could tell from his smile and laughter that he truly enjoyed his time with our class. They certainly enjoyed their time with him!!! Thank you for your patience as I recreated this glitched post from SEPTEMBER!

A Mighty Fortress

Families,

In our learning of a hymn by Martin Luther, we took time to learn about words. We studied the meaning of a “fortress” and what it means for those it protects. I challenged children to create their own fortress with building materials of their choosing. The poetry in this song was the catalyst for devotional discussions, a study in vocabulary, and to hear their voices sing in unison these sweet words - oh it is beautiful!

Here are some photos from our building day.

Please comment below! I would love to know you are seeing these pictures. It is a great way to interact with one another, with me, and build our sense of community. THANK YOU!

Reading, Reading, More Reading!

Families,

This long over due blog is dedicated to how your children have been reading lately. Last week and this week we focused on reading in math, reading God’s word together, reading nonfiction for research, and reading music. Thank you for your patience in seeing these pictures. Please try commenting on the post to let me know you are seeing them! It is a way you can interact with one another and with me.

Your children are wonderful! They are all growing in their literacy knowledge and application. I hope you have many opportunities to celebrate your child’s reading knowledge through books, reading signs on the street, writing letters to family… the sky is the limit!

God bless you.

Mrs. Schultz

Lizard Day!

The class worked to earn a group prize - a day with Mrs. Schultz’s bearded dragon, Albi. They learned information about, wrote facts about, drew pictures of, read books about and interacted with this animal!

Royal Run and Map Presentations

This week children started their 26.2 mile run with our kick off on Thursday. Earlier in the week, children presented their maps that they made if they wanted to. Children got excited about maps of the school, the classroom, our community, and pirate treasure islands. :) One student was a guest reader to a class with her own book selection!

Week Three

This week the students earned their first behavior reward! Mrs. Dunwell visited our room and brought a candy treat to the children. They also got to make their word walls that will support their literacy learning over the next few months.

Second Week of School

This week we really worked on sight words, on sentences and math numbers. The children are falling into the routine and doing very well. They are working on earning “positive points” for different reward goals in our room. The children got to “go” to Narnia on Thursday as the children did in the book.

First Week of School

These first graders made quick friendships and loved talking to one another this week! They are growing in responsibility and management of the things in their desks. They love art and coloring, listening to stories and playing!

Here are some pictures from the week. DO NOT SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA pictures including other students’ faces. Thank you!
Mrs. Schultz