The Cooper School Daily

Hands On Learning in Grade 1!

Tree Decorating at Marion Square

On Thursday, November 29th 1st grade and Kindergarten scholars, along with their parents and teachers, headed to Marion Square in downtown Charleston to decorate a tree. This year our theme is “The world is your oyster”.  To celebrate our coastal home and the promise of bright futures, students wrote their hopes and dreams for their future on the inside of gold-dipped oyster shells. Students enjoyed making oyster themed decorations and finger knitting during learning centers. It was a joy to share this special time together!

 

Opinion Writing and Collection Museum

1st Graders bravely and excitedly jumped into their new Writing Workshop unit, opinion writing. Students brought in collections of items such as art supplies, bracelets, hair accessories, and toy airplanes, as prompts to inspire their writing. They used the following steps to help them judge their items fairly and award one with a “best in show” ribbon: putting them in a line, comparing the same things, deciding which is best and then giving reasons why using the word “because”.

Bridges, Bridges Everywhere!

In Social Studies, we launched our bridge study. We started by reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff as a fun introduction to a simple beam bridge and talked about why bridges are important. As a class, we came up with a definition of a bridge. Students reflected on how bridges play a part in their everyday lives in Charleston, connecting them to school, friends, and stores. We learned the main types of bridges: beam, arch, suspension, cable-stayed, and cantilever. Then we looked at pictures of bridges, and watched several short video clips about bridges around the world. Students were challenged to build beam bridges from cardboard and wooden blocks that would be strong enough to support their water bottles and to build arch bridges out of Legos. Next week, we will discuss what makes bridges so strong, learn what civil engineers do, and continue building bridges from different materials in small groups. We will also take a water taxi ride from downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant and walk part of the Ravenel Bridge. Finally, students will each choose a unique bridge to research independently.

Important Dates

Thursday, December 6th-  1st Grade Study Trip-Water Taxi Ride/Walking the Ravenel Bridge

Friday, December 7-  K-2nd Grade Movie Night

Tuesday, December 11-  1:30pm Winter Choir Performance at the Circular Church

Friday, December 21-  Pajama Day, half day