Happy Friday! Here are some highlights of our week:

In Art on Monday, Ms. Susan taught us about 3-D shapes. We drew a bird in a basket, using a cylinder shape for the basket.

On Tuesday, we went on a field trip to the Peace Center. We saw a Magic School Bus show about weather and climate change. Our class used their best manners while watching the play. After lunch, we wrote about what we learned from the play in our journals.

On Wednesday, we talked about the tradition of Groundhog Day and what it means if the groundhog sees his shadow on February 2nd. During Math, the first graders practiced data collection and analysis by polling Ms. Claire’s, Ms. Marydell’s, and Mr. Phil’s classes to see how many students thought the groundhog would see his shadow. When we returned to our classroom, we graphed our data to see how many people thought he would see his shadow and how many people thought he would not see his shadow.

During Science on Wednesday, we discussed the water cycle and learned about evaporation and condensation. We also made rain wheels to show each step of the water cycle.

On Thursday, we celebrated Groundhog Day by discussing whether or not Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. (He did!) We made our own goundhogs and used a lamp to see their shadows. We saw how the shape of the shadows changed when we moved the light closer to, farther away from, beside, and behind our groundhogs.

We attended our school-wide assembly on Friday where Ms. Lisa continued the discussion of setting personal goals and working toward those goals. In Chapel, Ms. Sandy talked about ways we can tell spring is on its way using our eyes and ears.

What a busy week we’ve had in Academy 3. We hope you have a restful weekend!

January was an eventful month for Academy 3. Here are some of the things we did last month:

~We learned about silhouettes, foreground, background, and middle ground in Art.

~In Science, we studied the different states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—and conducted experiments to see these states firsthand.

~In Social Studies we studied types of transportation and Martin Luther King, Jr.

~We continued practicing telling time, counting mixed groups of coins, adding, subtracting, and collecting data in Math. We also began discussing three-dimensional shapes.

~In Language Arts, we learned about vowel teams and how to identify nouns and verbs. We also practiced writing out the date and following basic punctuation rules.

~We celebrated Joshua and Gracie’s birthdays. Both their families spent an afternoon with us to make crafts in honor of their students.

~We celebrated the 100th day of school by writing numbers 1-100, counting and comparing groups of 100 items, and writing about “when I am 100 year old…” in our journals.

Check out the highlights of our week:

This week in Art, Ms. Susan taught us about the foreground, background, and middle ground of a picture. While discussing these topics, we drew pictures of a waterfall cascading down a rock wall and painted them with watercolors.

In Science, we continued talking about the three types of matter—solids, liquids, and gases. On Wednesday, we explored these concepts by conducting several experiments. We saw how water changes its shape based on the container into which it is poured. We learned that air takes up space by placing a tissue in a glass and submerging it upside down in a bowl of water—because air takes up space, the tissue stays dry! We also used baking soda and vinegar to blow up a balloon.

During Social Studies on Wednesday, we talked about different modes of transportation. We read a book about vehicles and watched a video about the different ways people get around.

On Thursday, Ms. Lisa brought a flute to Music. We learned that the flute belongs to the woodwind family even though it does not have a reed. We watched one video that showed how a flute is made and another of flutist Rampal. We also learned that the flute is 40, 000 years old.

Don’t forget that we do not have school on Monday, January 16th. Enjoy your long weekend!