Happy Easter

                   Happy Easter from Mrs. Stites' class!  We have had a fun day in First Grade!

Learning Centers for Easter Fun.

Writing to 1000 while wearing our bunny ear visors.

We are getting closer and closer as we continue writing to 1000.

Playing Easter Bingo, using our reading vocabulary words and jelly beans for markers.

We made a cute bunny basket to hold our candy after our Easter egg and candy hunt.

Reading an Easter story about Hopper the bunny and the Night Before Easter.

We are getting closer to 1000!

Cute bunnies.  Cute Kids.

Incredible Edible Landfill

Dawn Winger, from the Howard County Recycling District taught the first graders about recycling. We need to Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle.  Each child made an edible landfill using food as each level in the landfill.  They had vanilla wafers as the soil, a fruit roll-up as the plastic liner, Twizzlers as the tubes to release methane gas, pudding and gummy bears as the trash, chocolate pudding for the dirt on top, and green sprinkles for the grass.  Yummy.  What a fun way to learn about recycling. Mrs. Stites was so pleased to see Dawn, because Dawn was in Mrs. Stites' first grade class many years ago! 

Dinosaur Shirts for our Fieldtrip

Our dinosaur shirts will look great for our field trip to the Children's Museum.

Using a stencil and fabric paint to make a Stegasaurus.

This is a fun project!

We put paint on a sponge and dabbed inside a stencil.  We had to make sure to get to all of the edges.

Making a Stegasaurus and a Brontosaurus.

 Each child brought in a white t-shirt for our project.  We made the shirts with dinosaur patterns so children from our class will be easily identified as we visit the Children's Museum.  What a fun project!

Learning about Money in a McDonald's Center

Laying out the correct change to 'buy' a hamburger, french fries, and drink.

After counting the money and getting the correct total,  we need to reduce it to the least amount of coins.

He came up with the correct change!  Good job!

Our 'hamburger' is made of 2 vanilla wafers as the buns, a chocolate fudge cookie as the hamburger, and yellow and red icing for the ketchup and mustard.  Our french fries are the small string potatoes from a can, and the drink is Sprite. Yum!

Working on getting the correct amount.

Did we count the coins correctly?

Telescopes and Constellations

Looking at our constellations through our hand-made telescopes. 

Covering a Pringles can for the telescope.  Punching holes in the shape of constellations to place at the end of our telescopes.

Looking at, and learning about several different constellations.

We see the Big Dipper, Leo the Lion, Orion's belt, and other constellations.

Our very own telescopes we made out of Pringles cans.

Special Person of the Week

     Our special person of the week lives in a brick 2-story house with his mom, his dad, his brothers and his brand new baby sister.  He has 3 cats named Dexter, DeDe and DJ. His favorite color is black because it is the color of Star Wars.  His favorite subject is Reading because it is fun to learn by reading books.  His favorite TV show is ‘The Wizards of Waverly Place’ and his favorite book is The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.  He likes to eat Pumpkin pie.  He likes to play video Lego games, play with his cats and sing.  He plays soccer and baseball and is friendly.  He feels happy when he helps his mom and dad.  When he grows up, He wants to be a CIA agent because he wants to track down bad guys.  If he could go anywhere in the world, he would go to Disneyland in Florida to see his Aunt.  He feels he is special because he is a good helper and his family loves him.  He feels the best thing about him is that he is a good friend to others.

Pie Throw for Lymphoma and Leukemia Society

Our Principal, Mrs. Garrison got a pie in her face!

Captain Vincent gets ready to get a pie in his face.

Howard Elementary raised money for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society.  Student Council members were assigned a classroom.  Someone from that classroom could throw one whipped cream pie in the face of the student council member for each $20 raised by that class.  The school raised enough money that the principal took a pie in the face, and also Captain Harold Vincent, our DARE officer.  This was a fun way to raise a lot of money for a good cause.

Space Camp

Working under water to feel how astronauts work in space.

Catching marshmallows to show that food floats in space.

There was an emergency in the space shuttle! Push the right button to save the shuttle!

Rocketing to the Moon and back to Earth.

Tossing a  bean bag through a loop to show how astronauts have to navigate the space shuttle through space.

Working to put nuts and bolts together underwater.  Astronauts work with gloves to fix things.

Gravity keeps the planets in orbit and keeps us from falling off the earth.  Gravity keeps the paper squares inside the bucket.

Navigating the shuttle through space.

The shuttle has to land on a specific spot.  We made paper airplanes and tried to land them on a mat.

We need enough power to rocket to the moon and back.

      We had Space Camp in our room for Learning centers.  Each child rotated through 5 stations set up to teach something about Space.  We had nuts and bolts under water to demonstrate how it feels to work with gloves on in a heavier atmosphere.  Each child blew up a balloon and hooked it to a straw on a string, then propelled their 'rocket' from the Earth to the Moon to show you need enough power to get there or you'd be lost in space. The children tried to catch marshmallows in the air, because things float in space.  Then they tried to launch a bean bag through a hoop to demonstrate that the astronauts have to guide the shuttle to the correct spots.  The children swung a bucket full of paper squares around and around to show that gravity holds us on the earth.  Then they pretended there was an emergency in the shuttle and had to push the right button to save the shuttle.  They made paper airplanes and tried to land them on the landing pad. We had a lot of fun experiencing concepts about Space!