Science
Our newest science unit is a big hit! We are exploring solids and liquids and getting lots of hands-on learning opportunities. This week students explored the properties of solids and attempted to build towers out of simple materials. They made discoveries about which properties were most useful for tower building: strong, flexible, straight, and tall. At the end of the week we got a chance to explore some mystery liquids and discuss their properties. Which ones were viscous? Which were translucent? These scientists are growing their vocabularies every day!

Responsibility
We have been engaged in a fascinating conversation about responsibility for the past two weeks in Grade One. During our Close of Day meeting, we have been reading scenarios together and discussing how we would react if we were in that situation. Would we do the responsible thing? Would we be tempted not to? Some scenarios have been so rich that we broke into groups to role-play and act them out in front of the group in order to see differences in how groups would behave. It has been an enlightening conversation that students have continued at the lunch table and on the playground!

Author Expert Project
Students were in the home stretch of their Author Expert project this week. They put the finishing touches on their mentor-author-inspired books and on their colorful presentation boards. It has been a pleasure to see them working independently to complete this challenging work. This is the perfect project to have at the very end of the year because it truly showcases all the ways students have grown as first graders: in their writing, penmanship, research skills, fine motor skills, independence, and presentation skills. We can’t wait for our presentation on Tuesday!

Important Dates
•   Monday, May 29 – No School, Memorial Day
•   Tuesday, May 30 – 1st Grade Author Expert Presentation, 8:00am-8:30am, TCS Library
•   Thursday, June 1 – 5th Grade Graduation (Half Day, 11:30am dismissal)
•   Friday, June 2 – Field Day! (Half Day, 11:30am dismissal)