Mrs.Kampf's First Grade : May 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Last Days of School

I could not have asked for a better class this year! I already miss them so much! They have worked hard all year and are going to be amazing 2nd graders. Hope you all have a wonderful summer. Don't forget to read…I know I won't! :)

Mrs. Wishy Washy? No…that's just Mrs. Cranston having some fun!

Rock Candy Surprise

Mrs. Cranston signing some autograph books

Walking back from the movies

Fairy Tale Presentations

The students had a wonderful time with the Fairy Tales Unit. We wrapped up our learning by putting on a presentation of 4 short plays for our families and the other first grade classes. They did The 3 Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, and Jack & the Beanstalk. The students rocked it!

Fairy Tale Treats
Bears and Blondies (Teddy Grahams and Vanilla Oreos)
Magic Beans (Jelly Benas)
House Building Materials (Pretzel Sticks)
Cookies for Grandma
Jack's Juice (7-up & Sherbert)

3 Little Pigs STEM Activity

After reading The Three Little Pigs, the students had a lot of fun practicing their carpentry skills. They worked with a partner to build a house of straw (fabric), a house of sticks (popsicle sticks), and a house of bricks (legos). We then invited The Big Bad Wold (blow dryer) to try to blow them down. We determined which houses were the strongest and why and also measured how far each house blew. It was some great learning…we may have some future architects on our hands!

Working on the brick house

Straw House

Blowing the house down

The brick house won't blow down!

Whooosh….

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Buddy Reading

Open a Book

Open a book

And you will find

People and places of every kind;

Open a book

And you can be

Anything that you want to be;

Open a book

And you can share

Wondrous worlds you find in there;

Open a book

And I will too,

You read to me

And I'll read to you.

By Jane Baskwill

Websites and Resources for Home Practice

As summer draws closer, it's time to think about how you will keep your kiddos challenged over the summer. I am a huge fan of our summer school program and it is available to all students grades K-3. I will be sending home more information about it in the next few weeks. In the meantime, here are some great websites to check out…

Iowa Reading Resource Center- If you click on the parents page, it has some great resources and ideas to help you learner with reading.

Khan Academy- A great site for you students to practice skills and gain points. You must first set up an account for your child but definitely worth the time.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Jack and the Beanstalk

We started our Fairy Tales Unit Last Week. Today we were working on Jack and the Beanstalk. A magic beanstalk grew in our room overnight! ;)

We decided that Jack climbing down the beanstalk was not the quickest or safest way to get away from the giant so we made parachutes for him! The students designed and created their own parachutes from every day materials. Lots of great problem-solving went on! We then tested which parachute took the least amount of time flying of the equipment. A parachute made of dental floss and a coffee filter won!