First Grade
keeping traditions alive The end of each school year is always full of traditions as we wrap up our time together, and this year was no different! Despite the distance between us with remote learning, first graders still wrote letters of advice to the upcoming students, made summer plans, and received memory books! Meganʼ 99 Flannery and Courtney Fleming First Grade Co-Teachers Summer Loving
The Truth About First Grade Each first grade student wrote a letter of advice, which included inside information to a current Crane kindergartner in order to ease his or her potential first grade jitters! We reminisced by taking a trip down memory lane with a video of photos from our time together. As we culminated our letter-writing unit, each first grader wrote a friendly letter entitled, The Truth About First Grade, to a kindergarten buddy. This is a longstanding first grade tradition in which the children usually read their letters while touring the kindergarteners around our room in late spring. While parts of that tradition could not be maintained this year, parents helped to make a personalized video of their child reading the letter, which we sent to each member of the kindergarten class! "You are going to have so much fun in first grade!" ― Etta "You will never forget building skyscrapers with some of your friends." ― Elle
During the last week of school, first graders pondered about their upcoming summer! While summer plans typically include vacations and the excitement of summer camps, we challenged students to think of family oriented, at-home adventures like backyard camping, water play, and family bike rides. We made a video of our own families engaging in these summertime activities to help the students start developing their own summer plans. Each student wrote a five sentence paragraph, full of descriptive adjectives outlining their summer hopes and dreams!
"I am going to the beach to body surf and swim." ― West "This summer will be different but I will still find ways to make it fun." ― Layla
"You need to know that your teachers smile a lot." ― Willow "Remember to always be a first time listener." ― Eastan "Don't worry if the teachers' names confuse you." ― Hudson "My final advice is always be curious." ― Kian Memory Books Traditionally, on the last day of school, first graders take home a special Memory Book full of their writing, artwork, and thematic projects from the entire school year. This year it was particularly important that we ended on a sweet note, so we hit the road and hand delivered First Grade Memory Boxes, full of workbooks, mementos, class awards, and memory books, to every student's house. At each stop we said a safe social distanced good-bye to each student who we had not seen in person for months! It was the perfect ending to a very strange spring semester.
"I will catch a rainbow trout and eat it!" ― Leo
"When we get there we are going to set up for two days of camping!" ― Eloise
