How do you say "I love you"

Aloha friends and family!
I can't believe that we only have one more week of school before our Christmas break! Even though the semester is beginning to wind down we have still been very busy!

Our November book of the month was a book titled "My Brother Charlie". It is a heart warming story of a girl named Callie and her twin brother Charlie. There are things about them that are the same, but there are many ways that they are different, one being that Charlie has autism.


Recognize the author? Yep! This book was written by Holly Robinson Peete and her daughter Ryan. (Anybody else watch "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" back in the day?) This book is inspired by their real life story.

One of the key details in this story is that Charlie has a hard time saying "I love you." But that doesn't mean he can't express it! When Charlie locks his fingers with Callie, she knows that it is his way of saying "I love you". Each of the kids wrote about a special way that they say "I love you". Here is some of our best works!

Speaking of writing...

This week the class became self-directed learners by choosing their own writing goal. The kids first helped make a list of what they thought were important elements for first grade writing. The next day I presented them with this special chart:

Each student had to decide which element they wanted to make their goal... which one did they want to focus on and become really great at it. Then they got to write their name on a star post-it and choose their goal. Once their goal is mastered they get to then choose a new goal. The kids have already begun to take more pride in their work!

As a wrap up to our unit on Arctic animals the kids got to see how affective blubber is to an arctic animal's survival! We had a bowl filled with ice water to model the Arctic temperatures. The kids then stuck their hands in the water. (Brrr!) One hand went straight in to the water, the other hand was protected by a bag filled with vegetable oil. The kids were able to feel a great difference in the temperature. While one hand was extremely cold, the other hand felt warmer. 

Lastly, we updated our spelling station! It's called "Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling". The kids have to write the spelling words in three different ways - and those three ways have to be all in a row (just like tic-tac-toe!)

Here is some samples from their work this week:

Thank you to everyone who turned in their book orders this week. I placed the orders on Friday after school and (cross your fingers!) they will hopefully arrive before the break! If not they should be here when school starts up again in January.

Reminders:
*The PTO Christmas festival is this Thursday at school! It is going to be a blast!
*The off-campus evacuation drill is this Friday. Please have your child wear tennis shoes as we will be walking down to Cornerstone Church and back that morning.

Also, we are "cashing in" on our Million Miles Award Pizza Party this week! On Friday we will be celebrating our class Christmas party with pizza from the PTO! (So no need to bring a home lunch that day!)

Hope you all have a fun and festive weekend!
Mrs. Kawai

Maps, Math and Movies!

Aloha Everyone!

If you recall from last week we learned about how Polar Bears survive the harsh climate of the Arctic. This week we made fun polar bear masks. They turned out super cute!

This week we began talking about maps. In first grade we learn how to draw different kinds of maps and even learn about the compass rose to show north, south, east, and west.

To get us started each of the kids drew a map of their bedrooms.

One of our vocabulary words this week was "route" - the way to get somewhere. All the kids drew a map that shows their route to school. Their maps included a compass rose and anything that they see  on the way to school. The kids did a really great job! 

In spelling this week we learned about the "wh" sound - like in whale. All the kids had to create a "wh" chain with at least 8 words. One word for every link in the chain. They had so much fun making these!

We have also stated learning about base ten. All the kids have their own counting chart on their desk. We play a game with it where I call out a number for us to start on. I then give directions like "add ten", "minus ten", "add one", "minus one". The kids have to move their finger down, up, right, or left to match. We keep going, sometimes getting faster and faster, until I say stop. Then the kids have to say where they landed. Anyone who is on the same number as me is a winner! This game helps kids get familiar with a hundreds chart and how to use it to quickly add and subtract. 

This week was also another "Thinker Thursday". The prompt this week was to write about the best Christmas movie!

These kids are getting really good at their opinion writing!

We certainly did and learned a lot this week!

If you haven't already and you would like to book orders are due Friday, December 12th. You can return them to school or order online. And don't forget to see if you are eligible to use the coupon for a free book worth up to $5!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Kawai

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

This week we wrapped up learning about addition, subtraction, and related facts. (Next week we move in to Base Ten!)

While kids were testing, the rest of the class got to do another True/False sorting activity. They all flew right through this and did a great job without any help from me!

This week we had a special visit from another teacher at our school. Her name is Mrs. Finley and she is  a literacy coach at our school. She came and did an opinion writing lesson with the class. They all wrote about their favorite holiday. She was most impressed with the hard work our class did and the results of their writing! Here are some examples...

"...and you can go visit your cousins..."

"Do you like Cheist,as? I think Christmas is the best. You get presents. You make Christmas tree. You open presents. Do you like Christmas?"

Speaking of holidays, we had SO much fun celebrating Thanksgiving this week. Can you guess what we made with all of the paper bags? If you guessed vests than you are correct! Wampanoag vests to be more precise!

We cut paper bags in the shape of a vest with holes for our neck and arms. We also crumpled them up to make them softer and look more like leather. Then we decorated our vests with pictographs. Be sure to have your child tell you what the pictographs mean on their vest!

After learning about Squanto all week we got to do a really cool art project! Squanto taught the pilgrims how to plant corn using fish with the seeds to help make the soil better. So, we made pictures of Squanto planting real corn and fish! (Well... Goldfish!)

After that we made gift bags of goldfish and candy corn to give to the second graders in F21. We dressed as the Wampanoag Indians and they dressed as the pilgrims. We taught them what we learned about Squanto and they taught us what they learned about the pilgrims.

They gave us a gift too! We each received a friendship bracelet to remind us that the pilgrims wanted to make friends with the Wampanoag!

Our neighbors in P1 also dressed as the pilgrims. We gave them a set of goodie bags with the goldfish and candy corn too!  And just like we did last year in Sr. kindergarten we mixed classes for lunch and ate together like the real Wampanoag and pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving! The cafeteria even served a full Thanksgiving meal for lunch. Yum, yum!

Just a reminder - the PTO has a booth at the craft fair this weekend at the King Kamehameha Hotel. They will be selling really cool trucker hats that say "Kealakehe" on the , so be sure to stop by!

I hope you all have a wonderful and peaceful long weekend filled with gratitude and family. And most of all I hope you all have a...

Habitats and Helping Out

Aloha friends and family!

We have been learning a lot about character, setting and events in first grade lately. We even have a cool graphic organizer that we have been using to help us gather the information from the text! As as activity this week everyone read a story called "Thump Thump Helps Out". It is about a bunny who loves to thump his feet, but the other bunnies tell him to stop. They think it is annoying. Well, then one day their bus gets stuck, and no matter how much they yell for help no one comes. Then Thump Thump comes to rescue! He thumps his feet on the so that the grown up rabbits can hear, and they come and help pull the bus out! 

(Hmmm, I don't know about you, but this makes me have a connection! This story reminds me a lot about Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, who also was disliked for being different, but then saved the day!)

After the kids read the story they were each given four Post-it notes. On one Post-it they wrote a page number from a story. On the second they wrote the name of the character from that page. On the third the setting, and on the fourth the event.

The kids then brought their Post-its and book to the carpet. One at a time someone came to the board and placed their Post-it notes. As they did this the rest of the class went to that page number to help double check their peer's work. They all did a great job!

Just like "Thump Thump Helps Out" is a fictional story, we have begun to write fictional stories in class ourselves. The ones that we have been writing are realistic fiction - so no talking animals! Together as a class we created a realistic fiction story about someone who helps out in the community. We first chose our character's name, which was Elsa. (Yes, we love Frozen in this class, can you tell!?!) Then we chose how our character would help in the community. We chose picking up rubbish. Here is the story that we created together!

And just like "Thump Thump" and ALL other stories, we made sure that our story had a beginning, a middle, and an end!

For the last week we have been learning about habitats, and how animals live in a community - just like we do! This week we concluded learning about animal communities with a cool collage project. Each student chose one habitat and then had to find pictures of animals that live in that habitat.

We had the Jungle-

Lots of collages of the Woods -



And LOTS of collages of the Coral Reef-



As I mentioned last week we are now learning in science about animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. This week we focused our learning on the Polar Bear. Here is what we learned...



And of course we had to watch some cute baby polar bears! (I think this class loves baby animals just as much as they love Frozen!)



I am so excited for this up coming week as we gear up for Thanksgiving by learning about Squanto and the Wampanoags! Thank you everyone who brought in paper bags. (Hmmm, have you guessed yet what we are making!?!)

Hope you all day a fabulous weekend!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Kawai