The first grade is beginning to study the culture and geography of China. To begin, 1-B students are reading a wonderful book called One Year in Beijing, Illustrated by Grace Lin and written by Xiaohong Wang. The book takes readers on a year-long journey through the life of Ling Ling’s, an 8 year old girl who lives in Beijing, China. Ling Ling shares personal accounts in a month-by-month, journal-style format. In 1-B, every day for 12 days we will read about a different month in Ling Ling's life. In doing so, 1-B students learn about Chinese culture and destinations, holidays and festivals, school and family life, and more. It is easy for 1-B students to relate to Ling Ling’s experiences and feelings and make comparisons to their own life. After reading about a month, 1-B students write a sentence about what children in Beijing do during that month and what children in Brookline do during that month. First graders are already starting to see how their life is both the same and different from life in Beijing!
Ms. Dobrotka began teaching 1-B students about national United States symbols this week in Social Studies. The first symbol the class learned about is the American flag. The students created their own flag, with the correct amount of stripes and stars. To complete the project, each student added a sentence describing one new thing they had learned about the American flag. Their flags are flying in our classroom windows!
Thank you to those family members who were able to attend our Winter Writing Celebration! Please visit the individual student blogs to hear each child read their winter story (click on the child's name on the right side bar).
In math, 1-B students recently learned that they could create two triangles by drawing a diagonal line through a square. They used this new information to make many triangle pieces mosaic snowman. Their work is hanging in the hallway outside our classroom.
This week in math we began exploring attributes in geometry. We started with 2D shapes. Students drew upon some of their background knowledge about shapes and also learned some new attribute vocabulary. Next, we will discuss 3D shapes and compare and contrast them with 2D shapes.
Enter your e-mail to receive 1-B Blog updates!