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

Rainforest

March 30, 2018

Rain cloud experiment, Spring snow, Rain showers.

March 27, 2018

1st grade Deserts

March 11, 2018

Constellations, Stars, Galaxy in a Bottle, Rocket Ships. Craters on the moon experiment, Moon fact posters.

March 6, 2018

LEDP 1^st Grade February 2018 Newsletter

LEDP 1^st Grade had lots of fun in February doing various activities. The 1^st graders have been having as much fun playing outside enjoying the mild weather as they have inside creating their masterpieces.

We had another visit from our 4/5/6 Mentors, who our 1^st graders enjoy spending time with. They used watercolors to paint hot air balloons after which the mentors took their photo to put inside the hot air balloon. 1^st graders enjoyed this project!, We are really looking forward to seeing what our March mentor project will be.

We have worked on many different Art, Science, and Math activities in February. The 1^st graders started February by studying dinosaurs such as T Rex, Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops. We had a 4/5/6 student come in to discuss all kinds of dinosaurs with the 1st graders. It was amazing to see the excitement of the 1^st graders and mentor discussion about dinosaurs! The mentors had an abundance of knowledge on this topic and are excited to share with our class! The 1st graders then learned about the Winter Olympics by designing their own Olympic medals and drawing their favorite winter sport and also making the closing ceremony Olympic torch with construction paper and tissue paper. They were excited to share the amazing facts they learned by watching the Olympics with their families! The 1^st graders also celebrated Valentine’s Day by drawing Kandinsky hearts, wrote in their journals about Chinese New Year, and celebrated Dr Seuss’ birthday by reading and enjoying snack time with kindergarten! We finished the month making their own Solar System mobiles using oil pastels which they loved creating! This was another topic they loved sharing facts they knew with the class! We did a few fun Math activities such as measuring the 1^st graders as a class (65ft) to see if they were as long as the largest (longest) dinosaur, the Argentinosaurus (130ft). We also did an activity counting and totaling the Olympic medals daily for each country and another activity discussing planet size from smallest to largest. We did a couple of Science projects such as the Melting Ice experiment by sprinkling salt to ice then adding drops of watercolors to see the reaction which highlights the crevasses and tunnels made during this process, Elephant Toothpaste using peroxide, soap, food color, yeast and warm water causing a colorful eruption spilling out of the bottle, and making a Nebula by layering water, paint, cotton balls and glitter to see the effect of a interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and gases. They were really excited and enjoyed experimenting with 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 please 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.

Please Note: April Vacation care will be available April 17th-20th, as well as Good Friday on March 30th. An email notification will be sent out to sign up.

We are looking forward to seeing what March brings to LEDP 1^st Grade!

Karen, Jackie, and Kara

March 6, 2018

Studying the Solar System, Nebula Experiment

Rainforest

Rain cloud experiment, Spring snow, Rain showers.

1st grade Deserts

Constellations, Stars, Galaxy in a Bottle, Rocket Ships. Craters on the moon experiment, Moon fact posters.

Studying the Solar System, Nebula Experiment

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