Our last day of first grade was full of fun! Love their reflections on favorite Target Memories! The Water Balloon Toss was epic fun! I’ll miss these Littles! They are amazing, wonderful & absolutely the best!
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It was a crazy mixed-up schedule, but the kids had a blast today! Unit Study: We created a Pop Art Mona Lisa masterpiece. This group task was very challenging because the kids had to figure out what the picture was going to be and how to assemble it. The result was amazing! Take a look at the excellent job the kids did on their Artist Posters! The kids had a great time playing da Vinci Bingo! We had several winners and the kids remembered all the things we learned about da Vinci in our unit. Convergent Thinking: We used our critical thinking skills to solve a challenging 8x8 puzzle. Wow, they did great! Communication Skills: We used our divergent thinking to create a collaborative story in small groups. We shared the finished stories and laughed at the funny situations we wrote about. We'll have Target next Thursday in the morning before Field Day. We'd love to celebrate our year with Italian drinks/treats/snacks. Feel free to send something in, if you like. Until next time, Dr. Kraeger We had the most fun learning and laughing in Target! Stations: We used our convergent thinking to solve two challenging logic puzzles. The kids are enjoying the more difficult problems and most are zooming along. We'll continue to work on logic to build a strong foundation for this work next year. We also used our visual discrimination and problem-solving skills to finish a 300 piece jigsaw puzzle and two 64-100 piece floor jigsaw puzzles. The kids love to collaborate on these activities. We also used our divergent thinking to play some problem-solving games. Unit Study: We worked on our Artist Posters by finishing our drawing of a famous work. We also used our evaluative thinking skills to create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting our Artist with da Vinci. The kids came up with some interesting ideas! Until next time, Dr. Kraeger We started off our mixed-up day with lots of smiles and kiddos ready to work!
Our first activity was logic puzzles. The 5x5 and 6x6 puzzles required all of our convergent thinking skills to solve! Pretty challenging! Stations: We used evaluative and convergent thinking to play chess/checkers. The kids are mastering checkers and many are learning chess. They love the challenge! The kids used their word knowledge to play Boggle. They thought of so many words! Then, they used their divergent thinking to transform a bird. Love the creative ideas! Finally, we used our algebraic thinking skills to solve hard math puzzles. Unit Study: We read a fascinating picture book about the theft of the Mona Lisa. The kids devised plans to catch the thief and recover the painting. We researched other artists and completed fact sheets about them. The kids are creating Artist Posters to finish next week. Later, we solved word puzzles with da Vinci vocabulary. The puzzles were tough, but the kids were tougher! Until next time, Dr. Kraeger We had the most wonderful day of learning! Unit Study: We finished our book, Mondays with a Mad Genius. The kids loved the ending! We shared one more Day with da Vinci Project today. It was fantastic! To wrap up our learning from the book, we did a "One Pager". The kids drew and wrote all sorts of things about da Vinci. Finally, the kids had so much fun creating their own "Mixed-Up Mona Lisas". Check out the creative ideas! Stations: We used our convergent thinking to complete a "Spring ABCs" word puzzle and a challenging logic puzzle. We also used our algebraic thinking to solve math puzzles. Later on, we played the "Categories" game. These kids are fantastic with fluency! Until next time, Dr. Kraeger These kiddos were full of fun ideas & tons of creativity! We enjoyed seeing some of the "Day with da Vinci" projects today. We can see more next week, if any of the kids still want to give it a try! Unit Study: We read a bit more of our book, learning that da Vinci spent three years painting the Mona Lisa. The kids created their own "Recipes for Happiness" based on a part of the story. Later, the kids used symmetry to complete the other half of the Mona Lisa. Much harder than it might seem! Stations: We used convergent thinking to solve Easter Sudoku puzzles, solve logic puzzles, and also break some mystery codes. The kids did a fantastic job with these! They used their divergent thinking to transform paintbrushes. The results are so creative! Finally, the kids used algebraic thinking to solve hard math puzzles. Until next time, Dr. Kraeger We had a fantastic day with da Vinci today! Algebraic & Convergent Thinking: We learned about symmetry today. It was a little challenging for some of us, but we kept at it! We also worked on another tough logic problem, except that these kids are getting good at solving these puzzles. Unit Study: We read another chapter of Monday with a Mad Genius. Leonardo, Jack and Annie got to fly! They were so excited! The kids enjoyed creating a comic strip about the wonderful flying adventures. We continued practicing our Italian songs, "Good Morning" and "Counting". They were in beautiful voice! The kids had a blast building their Flying Machines from the designs they created last week. They built, tested, redesigned, and built again. Take a look at their amazing creations we checked out during our Gallery Walk. They kids had so much fun flying their machines outside! Stations: We played Checkers, Boggle and Knock Out! The kids did amazing with Boggle--making 32 words! Enjoy Spring Break! Dr. Kraeger It was a fantastic day of fun and learning with our First Graders! Algebraic thinking: We started our day with another da Vinci Math Brainteaser. These kids are getting so good, they didn't even need my help! Convergent thinking: We stretched our convergent thinking skills with two grid style logic puzzles. The kids were so proud to be doing "Big Kid" Logic Puzzles! Unit Study: We read another chapter of Monday with a Mad Genius. Leonardo tried to fly, but crashed. We predicted what would happen next...maybe some help from the wand of dianthus! The kids designed their own flying machines and shared them in a Gallery Walk. We all learned a lot from looking at other designs. Next week, we'll build our designs. Stations: The kids used their divergent thinking to create a scene from the book. They did an incredible job--so creative! The used their convergent and visual spatial skills to solve jigsaw puzzles. They created structures with different kinds of blocks. They also solved math puzzles by adding to 100. Tough stuff! Until next time, Dr. Kraeger What a wonderful day of fun and learning for St. Patrick's Day in Target and Reading/Math Extension! We started our day with a creative writing task of St. Patrick's Day stories. These kiddos are so creative! They are becoming good writers! Unit Study: We read another chapter in our book, learning how da Vinci wrote backward because he was left handed and didn't want to smear his ink. The kids tried reading a backward message and writing their names backward in their notebook. Fun and VERY challenging! Stations: We stretched our brains with a variety of tasks. Our divergent thinking helped us to create Rainbow Transformations. Then we collaborated to make words out of the letters in LEPRECHAUN. Some of the words these kids thought of truly amazed me! Wow! They really stretched their imaginations with "Clover Create" to see what they could make out of clovers. We used our convergent and evaluative thinking to play checkers. Not all knew how to play, so this may be a good thing to try at home. Finally, they used their algebraic and critical thinking to solve a math Versatiles activity. They worked hard and got it done! Until next time, Dr. Kraeger It was a wild and wonderful day in Target! We enjoyed a marvelous Puppet Show this morning too! Algebraic thinking: We did some more measuring to finish up da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Check out the fun photos of the kids posing like the Vitruvian Man. They begged me to try it out and take photos! Love their fantastic ideas! Unit Study: We continued practicing our Italian with Colors, Good Morning Song, and Counting in Italian. The kids are getting pretty good at this! We learned so much about helicopters. Leonardo invented a flying machine in 1480. It didn't work, but the modern helicopter is based on da Vinci's ideas. The kids conducted "Fair Tests" on which type of rotor blades would fall more slowly to be safer for a helicopter landing. The kids had so much fun with this part of our STEM Experiment! Until next time, Dr. Kraeger |
AuthorFirst grade--ahh! The year I learned to read! My love of books continues today! Archives
March 2022
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