May 22, 2018

May 1, 2018

LEDP 1st Grade April 2018 Newsletter 

LEDP 1st Grade had a very busy April doing various activities both inside and outside of the classroom. With spring finally here the 1st graders have been having lots of fun playing outside in the playground when it is not raining!

Our 4/5/6 Mentors visited us with another great Spring project. We begin making flowers with straws and colorful construction paper.  The 1^st graders were very happy and surprised after completing the project and got to play dodge ball with their mentors. The consensus was that the mentors and 1^st graders had so much fun!

The 1st graders have worked on many different Art, Science, and Math

Activities in April. We started the month by learning all about the rainforest which included animals, plants and the environment.  We created our own rainforest displayed on the bulleting board in the hall. The 1^st graders really enjoyed learning and sharing what they know about this topic especially about each animal. We then continued on to a Forest theme to then compare the animals, plants and the environments.  The 1^st graders were very interested to compare and contrast these habitats, which seem similar initially. The 1^st graders also learned about the United States, individual states they had visited with their families, Massachusetts, and then Boston and Brookline.  They were very interested in the photos of Amos Lawrence and the original Lawrence School. They had a lot of fun learning new facts and sharing their knowledge with their classmates!   

We did a few Science projects like Magical Floating Water by filling a cup ¾ full of water then holding an index card on top then flipping it over to see gravity/force at work by water not leaking from the cup. We also studied the life cycles and habitats of the rainforest vs. the forest animals and learning interesting facts about each one. The 1^st graders did a few Math activities by playing a math game using addition and subtraction, graphing their favorite rainforest animal, and charting the most visited states numerically by the 1^st graders.  We also discussed the results so far of their Lost Tooth chart and who has lost the most or least teeth. They are excited to see the results at the end of the school year!

Reminder:  We provide snacks but the children are always welcome to bring a snack from home also in case they do not like what we are serving.  We usually try to provide fruits and vegetables because of NUT ALLERGIES in our class.  Please make sure if you do send a snack from home that it is a nut free snack!

Reminder: We have a 30-minute homework time daily: Monday-Thursday so please make sure your child’s homework binder is in their backpack!

Reminder: Please contact us by email at Mary_gardiner@psbma.org or call us at 617-879-4379 if your child will not be attending LEDP due to illness, change in schedule, play date, change in pickup, etc.  If we don’t hear from you about a change we will call you with any questions.  Please feel free to call us with any questions or concerns between 1-2pm daily.

We are looking forward to see what May brings to LEDP 1st grade!

 Karen, Jackie, and Kara

April 28, 2018

April 3, 2018

LEDP 1^st Grade March 2018 Newsletter

LEDP 1^st Grade has enjoyed a variety of activities in March.  The 1^st graders have had lots of fun playing outside in the snow and are now starting to enjoy our spring weather in the playground.

We are looking forward to another visit from our 4/5/6/ Mentors on Friday, to see what fun project we will be doing together! 

1^st graders have worked on many different Art, Science, and Math activities in March.  We continued our Space theme by designing their own versions of an astronaut’s space suit and his/her rocket ship, and creating their own constellations with silver stars on navy blue paper.  The 1^st graders then painted the moon with gray paint and bubble-wrap, made a Moon Matter of Fact chart from what they had learned, and created their moon phase viewer to see the different aspects of the moon.  Our class then studied the Desert.  We learned about the environment, animal wildlife (coyotes, camel, foxes, squirrels etc) plants (cactus and palm trees) and fruits (dates, pomegranates, melons and almond trees) that survive in the desert climate. They created the most beautiful Desert landscapes all week and are on display above their cubbies.  The 1st graders finished the month learning about weather.  They painted a spring snow scene, a watercolor rainy day, and a stormy day with thunder/lightning, hurricane etc using oil pastels. We did a couple of Math activities such as discussing how many miles between planets, showing the weight difference of objects on the Moon and Earth (Moon weight is 1/6 of Earth weight) temperature comparisons between deserts of the world and Brookline each day, and math storm facts such as counting seconds between lightning and thunder (5 secs = 1 mile), tornado wind speed over 300 mph. and hurricane wind speed 74-200 mph.  We did a few Science projects such an anti gravity galaxy experiment using baby oil, glitter, food coloring and water to see the glitter traveling up instead of down when shaking, moon craters using flour and cocoa in a pan then dropping a marble to see the effects of a meteor on the moon, understanding how a cactus stores water by wetting paper towels and rolling each in a tube form adding wax paper to one of them letting them set for 24 hrs then observing only the one wrapped in wax paper was still wet because of the protective coating just like a cactus has, and rain clouds using water, shaving cream and drops of food coloring to see how rain comes out of clouds and falls to the ground.  They were really excited and enjoyed doing these projects!

Reminder: We provide snacks but the children are always welcome to bring a snack from home also in case they do not like what we are serving.  We usually try to provide fruits and vegetables because of NUT ALLERGIES in our class.  Please make sure if you do send a snack from home that it is a nut free snack!

Reminder: We have a 30-minute homework time daily: Monday-Thursday so please make sure your child’s homework binder is in their backpack!

Please contact us by email at Mary_gardiner@ psbma.org or call us at 617-879-4379 if your child will not be attending LEDP due to illness, change in schedule, play date, change of pickup, etc.  If we don’t hear from you about a change we will call you with any questions.  Please feel free to call us with any questions or concerns between 1-2pm daily.

April Vacation is April 16th-20th, if you need Vacation Care a notice went out by email and copies are at the LEDP office door.

Re-enrollment- has gone out via email.   If you are planning on your child/ren to attend LEDP next year- please fill this out and return to Mary in the LEDP office.  

Early Dismissal dates for 1^st graders scheduled for that day will come to us at 12:40 on April 4th, April 10th, April 25^th, and May 1.

Our Annual LEDP Walkathon will tentatively be held on Thursday May 10th, more information to follow.

We are looking forward to see what April brings to LEDP 1^st Grade!

Karen, Jackie, and Kara

April 2, 2018

March 30, 2018

March 27, 2018

March 11, 2018

March 6, 2018

March 6, 2018