CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS
- November 25th: Alumni Kickball, Thanksgiving Lunch and Early Dismissal at 12:30 (No Aftercare)
- November 26th-30th: Thanksgiving Break!
- December 1st: Classes Resume at Normal Time
- December 11th- Early Childhood Winter Family night (more info to come)
- December 19th: Early Dismissal at 12:30 (No Aftercare)
This week our classroom was filled the cutest little turkey’s from one of our favorite fall projects—the Turkey Disguise Challenge! Inspired by the stories “Turkey Trouble” and “Turkey in Disguise,” where clever turkeys try to avoid becoming dinner, our first graders helped their turkeys hide in plain sight by transforming them into characters from their favorite books! They then wrote about their turkey and shared it with the class. Our hallway is now decorated with an entire flock of undercover turkeys—each one cleverly hidden in the world of books and safely disguised for Thanksgiving Day. We’re so proud of our imaginative readers/writers and the creative ways they helped their turkeys avoid becoming dinner this year!
This week we reviewed all phonics skills we have learned so far including digraphs, words with double letters, words ending in -ck, and words with an/am/all.
The Thanksgiving season is the perfect opportunity to bring some festive fun into our math lessons. First grade practiced their place value skills by counting turkey 10s and 1s feathers in a write-the-room and then created their own place value turkeys! They solved turkey addition and subtraction problems, formed fact families, and helped the turkey find its feathers in a number order activity.
This week in first grade, we took a step back in time to learn about the very first Thanksgiving. Our classroom explored who the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people were, how they worked together, and what life looked like long before modern traditions like parades, football games, and pumpkin pie. Through stories, discussions, and hands-on activities, students discovered that the very first Thanksgiving was about community, cooperation, and—most importantly—gratitude.
This lead right into our SEL topic of GRATITUDE! Studies have shown that when we practice gratitude, happiness goes up while stress and depression goes down, and we are able to build stronger relationships with those around us. Ask your child what they are grateful for or take a look at their cornucopia that came home!
Our deep dive also included some turkey fun! After reading “Run, Turkey, Run”, students were challenged to create a “special seat “ for their turkey so he could escape via a zip line! The small groups worked cooperatively and learned that plans don’t always work the first time so… you must persevere!
Thank you SO MUCH for supporting our class and our school during 29 Hours! We reached 100% and our class is so excited to earn a PAJAMA DANCE PARTY on Monday, November 24th!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Danielle & Karen
