FIRE SAFETY AND LOTS MORE IN FIRST GRADE

We’ve had some visitors on campus over the past few weeks. Firefighters visit St. James every year to teach us all about fire safety. This is a great program for young children to attend. It reminds the children what to do when there is a fire and how to talk about fire safety with their parents. This year the firefighters focused on two ways out of a burning house, making sure fire detectors work, and making sure the kids know where to meet with their parents outside in the case of a fire in their home. I always look forward to this program, it’s very useful information that the children need to hear year after year. We are so thankful for the firefighters!

Friday, October 12, 2018, was Pink Out day. This is the day the school takes part in the community wide effort to bring awareness of breast cancer. The Komen race for the cure is a huge event in Texarkana that brings the whole town together. The children loved getting to where pink and supporting breast cancer awareness and research.

The pre-k students have a study about pets. One morning while we were on the playground, we noticed two horses in the preschool drop off lane. The pre-k classes had planned to take a field trip to a farm that belonged to a St. James parent, but the weather had been very wet and they were unable. The very thoughtful mom didn’t want the children to miss out on a hands-on learning experience. So, she brought two horses to campus for the children to see, pet, and learn about first hand. Luckily for first grade, we saw the horses and asked if we could pet them. We were able to have an impromptu lesson about horses and how to take care of animals. The students were so gentle with the horses and were very attentive to Mrs. Ashley and Mrs. Donna. We are very thankful for thoughtful parents!

In science we have been studying air and weather. The children have discovered that moving air is wind and there are several ways you can see how wind moves.The class has investigated types of clouds and what moves them. The children have made pinwheels to notice the speed of wind. The students observed a wind vane to understand that wind blows in directions (north, east, south, west). They have also viewed different clouds to see speed and the direction of wind. Another way the children have interacted with wind is by blowing bubbles. Blowing bubbles is a quick way to notice how and where wind is moving. I grouped the children and had them try to blow bubbles around corners, up, down, use a lot of force, and barely use force to notice how wind moves and behaves. It was a beautiful afternoon and the children loved having science outside and exploring wind.

Have a blessed week,

Mrs. Gordon