Smart Watches - motivator or distraction?

Smart Watches

Motivator or Distraction?

Recently, we have had an influx of smart watches coming to school. Especially as we enter our time unit, watches are particularly helpful tools for learning. We are learning both the digital and analog clocks right now! So fun and exciting! Smart watches also track steps and give great feedback and motivation about our physical fitness. 

While these uses are very interesting and helpful to our grade one students, I encourage you to discuss ways that these tools should be used at school vs. home. As I would like to keep us universally designed, I have hesitated to simply remove them from the classroom. So bearing that in mind, we have been talking about proper use and rules. 

Watches are meant for telling time. 

Pictures can only be taken if one has consent and it is a part of a teacher led activity.

Steps should be monitored during transitions only.

Like all technology, students need to learn how use these devices appropriately. 

If you think your child might be distracted by their device, please keep it home. We have all devices needed for learning the curriculum.

Please take some time to discuss rules for technology use with your child.  

Love, 

Mrs. L

Science Homework!

Check out the BLOOD MOON!

Watch this video from Mystery Doug this week and don't forget to jot down what you saw! 

January brings a new year of learning!

Measurement

Students learned the "rules" of measurement this month! We loved using different units to find the length of classroom objects. We discovered how it takes more smaller units to fill the space than larger units!

Nonfiction Reading

 Nonfiction readers read to learn! 

We explored nonfiction texts much more deeply over the past few weeks.

Here are some strategies we know:

Take a sneak peek to start start learning

Chat about a book or page

Stop and study each page

Find and think about keywords

Make your voice sound lively and smooth

Guess what might come next!

Make sure to read nonfiction and fiction books with your students!

Martin Luther King Jr. 

Students explored the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this month.

We watched and discussed his famous, "I have a dream" speech, performed a song with our entire first grade, and made these beautiful posters of Martin surrounded by his powerful words.

Sound

Scientists in 1L have begun our Physical Science unit on Sound. 

We became sound effect engineers, mimicking the sounds of real life things.  

We were inspired by these Disney animators. 

We could grow up to do real jobs like them!

The Acton Discovery Museum joined us and led us in experiments that helped us to discover how different vibrations make sounds.

Continue to have conversations about these topics with your children. It was a great month filled with wonderful learning experiences!

Love,

Mrs. L

New Year Update!

Hello 1L families! 

Happy New Year!

Check out the fun in life and learning we have had!

Therapy Dogs Visit

Students in 1L enjoyed some love and snuggles from our local community therapy dogs! Thank you to Golden Opportunities for this valuable learning and life experience! We discussed how assistive therapy dogs can be helpful to people for a variety of reasons and especially can be used as a strategy for helping kids to overcome sadness, fear, depression and anxiety.   

Word Detectives at work!

Students have completed a Reading Unit all about looking closely at the words they encounter in texts. Word detective do very important jobs when they read! 

Encourage your students to...

Break words into smaller parts

Pay attention to the beginning of the word

Break the ending off the word

Look our for vowel teams

Use parts of words you know to solve new words

Watch out for unusual words

1 Hour of Code!

With the hope of sparking an interest in computer science and coding, students in 1L participated in the HOUR OF CODE! The Hour of Code is a global movement that is attempting to "demystify" computer science. Students explored an app called Koadable and made mice move according to their programming. We highlighted important "coding language" in our attempt to become real computer scientists.

Looking ahead...
Take a look at these videos to guide conversations for our upcoming Science and Social Studies curriculum!
Martin Luther King Jr.
Sound
Light

Love,

Mrs. L