Geography:

We spent the past couple weeks learning about Geography. We’ve learned that maps are made from a “bird’s eye view” or “aerial view”.  We talked about how when we look at things, we see them one way, but when we look at a map, it looks different.

We read a book called, “Me On the Map” and learned about maps and globes.  We learned that there are symbols on maps and globes in the Key to help us understand.  Where we see green or brown, that is land, and where we see blue, we know that is water.

We also talked about how each person has a special place on the Map. Our Special place is our address. We each practiced writing and saying our addresses at school. There are 3 lines that help make up our address:

First and Last Name

House Number and Street Name

City, State, and Zip Code

Please have your first grader practice saying his/her address at home.  I will be checking in with each child during the month of December see if they can remember all the parts of their home address (even the zip code).

Economics:

 Before Thanksgiving Break we spent a portion of our day studying our first grade economics topics.  We begin with a review of needs and wants.  A need is something we can’t live with out, a want is something that makes life more fun.    We talked about different wants- things that we have asked for for our birthdays or things that were on our Christmas list.

The kids know that we have 5 needs:

food, water, shelter, clothes, air

Then I told the kids that I had some smarties and hershey kisses but not enough for everyone to have one of each.  Everyone was able to choose one piece to have. After they had chosen, I had the kids raise their hands if they weren’t able to get their first choice candy.  I used this example to explain the idea of scarcity to the kids, we talked about how there isn’t always enough of something for everyone to have it (or sometimes we don’t have enough money to buy everything we want).

I then shared how some of the kids had two pieces of candy that they really wanted, but they could only have one.  We talked about how when you can’t have both, then you need to make a choice between the ones you like the best.  I gave the kids the example of how I go shopping and see so many things at the store that I want, but I don’t have enough money to buy it all.  So, we have to make choices!

I asked the kids what you could do if you ended up with a piece of candy that you didn’t want and they came up with the idea to trade.  I had the kids who ended up with candy that wasn’t their first choice come to the middle of our circle and see if they could trade with each other.  Some of them were able to and some were not.  We discussed how trading is a great solution, but how it only works if the other person wants what you have to trade.

It was a fun activity that spurred a great discussion.  There will be many moments of scarcity as the year continues at school.  Be sure to point out if scarcity ever happens at home too!

This week we also discussed what it means to be a good citizen.  Each day we added another attribute to our “Good Citizen” chart.  Here is what we learned:

A Good Citizen...

1. FOLLOWS RULES.  We discussed reasons that we have rules such as rules help us learn, rules keep us safe, rules help make things fair, etc.

2. RESPECTS AUTHORITY.  We brainstormed a list of people who have power with authority (principal, teachers, bus drivers, moms, dads, etc.) and how they enforce rules. When we listen and respond to those in authority we are being respectful.

3. IS FAIR. We discussed what fairness looks like at school, and learned that fair isn’t always equal – it’s getting what you need in order to be successful.

4. IS RESPONSIBLE.  We learned about ways we can be responsible at school such as making sure that you have all of your tools ready (without being asked).  We are planning to begin classroom jobs next week to practice being responsible.

5. HONORS THE USA.  One way we can do this is to respect and remember symbols of the United States that represent our freedom such as the American Flag, White House, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, and Bald Eagle.

If you notice your “first grade citizen” displaying any of the attributes above be sure to commend him/her on a job well done!

We are continuing to practice our addresses here at school. We have practiced writing and saying our addresses. There are 3 lines that help make up our address:

First and Last Name

House Number and Street Name

City, State, and Zip Code

Please help your first grader practice their address at home. I will be checking addresses a couple times in the next few weeks. This will be assessed for our next report cards.

Before Thanksgiving Break we spent a portion of our day studying our first grade economics topics.  We begin with a review of needs and wants.  A need is something we can’t live with out, a want is something that makes life more fun.    We talked about different wants- things that we have asked for for our birthdays or things that were on our Christmas list.

The kids know that we have 5 needs:

food, water, shelter, clothes, air

The next day, I told the kids that I had some candy.  I showed how I had all five flavors, but I only had enough candy for 22 kids.  Everyone was able to choose one piece to have – we pulled sticks to make it as fair as possible, but the last few kids were not so happy about the flavors left.  After they had chosen, I had the kids raise their hands if they weren’t able to get their first choice candy.  I used this example to explain the idea of scarcity to the kids, we talked about how there isn’t always enough of something for everyone to have it (or sometimes we don’t have enough money to buy everything we want).

I then shared how some of the kids had two flavors of candy that they really wanted, but they could only have one.  We talked about how when you can’t have both, then you need to make a choice between the ones you like the best.  I gave the kids the example of how I go shopping and see so many things at the store that I want, but I don’t have enough money to buy it all.  So, we have to make choices!

I asked the kids what you could do if you ended up with a piece of candy that you didn’t want and they came up with the idea to trade. We discussed how trading is a great solution, but how it only works if the other person wants what you have to trade.

It was a fun activity that spurred a great discussion.  There will be many moments of scarcity as the year continues at school.  Be sure to point out if scarcity ever happens at home too!

Now that we’ve finished Mind Up, we are learning about Geography.  Our class has some great schema for maps.  We know… this tool is something that can help you if you get lost, something you use on a trip, something to help show you where you are, or to find a treasure!!

We’ve learned that maps are made from a “bird’s eye view” or “aerial view”.  We talked about how when we look at things, we see them one way, but when we look at a map, it looks different.

We read a book called, “Me On the Map” and learned about maps and globes.  We learned that there are symbols on maps and globes in the Key to help us understand.  Where we see green or brown, that is land, and where we see blue, we know that is water.

We also talked about how each person has a special place on the Map. Our Special place is our address. We each practiced writing and saying our addresses at school. There are 3 lines that help make up our address:

First and Last Name

House Number and Street Name

City, State, and Zip Code

Please have your first grader practice saying his/her address at home.  I will be checking in with each child during the month of November see if they can remember all the parts of their home address (even the zip code).

In Social Studies we have been continuing to learn about HISTORY.  This week we talked about how families have a past. We looked at family trees and talked about the history of our families. We also discussed schools of the past and compared to what a school day is like now.  The kids noticed a lot of differences in the book we read.  In the past, kids got to school by walking or by horses, girls wore dresses, not everyone had shoes on all the time, all different ages were in ONE room, and they didn’t have much on their playground.  The kids were encouraged to talk to grandparents to see what school was like when they were little – to see if there were any similarities.

We also talked about how we can celebrate events AND people from the past.  The kids came up with some great holidays, and we discussed how these are events that happened LONG ago, but because they are important to our country, we celebrate them every year.  🙂  Just like each of them have a birthday every year, the 4th of July is the birthday of our country– so it’s something everyone in the US can celebrate together!

Spend some time chatting with your child about how life was different when YOU were little.

We are learning about history, and history is the study of the past.

There are four ways to learn about the past:

Pictures

People

Written Records

Artifacts

The kids had a blast looking at pictures from my past, hearing stories about my past (from me), looking at written records from my birth and childhood, and checking out some artifacts from my past (VHS tape, hand made book, an old game boy etc).

We read the book, “The Little House” and talked about how the land around us can change. The students were shocked to see the transformation from a little house in the country to an entire city being built up around it.  We talked about how our environment around us has changed: houses built, trees cut down or trees planted, roads paved, etc.

We introduced the word “adapt” to the students– getting used to something new/making a change to fit our needs, this led us into our last lesson about adapting to different situations. We discussed the birds and squirrels living in the trees in our backyards. Then the students were told that those trees were being cut down! We talked about what would happen to the birds and the squirrels that lived there. The students came up with the ideas that they would have to move- and they couldn’t stay in that yard anymore. We call that “adapting” or changing. We talked about how we have four different seasons and we do different things to adapt during each of them.

Winter: Wear a winter coat, Shovel the sidewalk, Turn up the heat, Wear hats and gloves

Spring: Open windows, Plant flowers, Use umbrellas

Summer: Swim, Eat popsicles, Use fans and air conditioning, Wear sunscreen

Fall: Wear sweaters, Rake the leaves, Go apple picking, Drink cider

We wrapped up our Geography unit here at school but we will keep practicing those addresses! Continue working on your home address with your child!

In Social Studies this week we continued practicing our address! We talked about how each person has a special place on the Map. Our Special place is our address. We each practiced writing and saying our addresses. There are 3 lines that help make up our address:

First and Last Name

House Number and Street Name

City, State, and Zip Code

Our next lesson was discussing objects that were man-made or nature-made.  We looked at a bunch of different pictures of man-made items and nature-made items and sorted them into two piles. Man-Made and Nature-Made. We talked about what was nature-made or if an object was man-made and how we knew. We talked about how most nature made things can fall into two different groups: WATER or LAND.  We then talked about a few different kinds of landforms and bodies of water:  river, lake, ocean, plain, mountain, and forest.  We know that each of these things are nature made.