Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you are having a relaxing Thanksgiving break!  Yesterday we had so much fun eating our "feast" in the classroom to celebrate what we are thankful for in our lives.  The students came up with some wonderful things.  We are thankful for our families, our homes, our pets, our friends, our teachers, God, and Santa:)  We are thankful for our clothes and the food we have to eat.  We are thankful for our school and the chance to learn.  Our thankful writing is hanging in the hall for all our friends to see and I will send them home soon.  I told the students that I am thankful for them.  I am thankful for the opportunity to teach them.  I am thankful for their kindness to me.  I am thankful that even when something is hard for them they keep trying.  And I am thankful for all their sweet notes and pictures that are surrounding my desk.  You have wonderful children and I am thankful for your support and for trusting them to me.
From now until Christmas, in both reading and writing, we will be studying non fiction.  Next week, we will be learning about caribou and writing about them.  After that we will do a unit on Christmas Around the World and learning about different cultures.
Last week, I sent home flash cards with the students to practice their math facts.  Next week, we will be on +5.  I asked them to get those +5cards out and practice them.  This will help them with their speed.
I made an error and did not send home a "book it" for the month of November.  There is one now in their red folders behind their behavior charts.  Remember to read and write down your books.  This will earn them a pizza coupon.
Mrs. McKinney's kindergartens class is collecting items for the Ronald McDonald House for Christmas this year.  If you would like to donate, here is a list of things that they need.  Magic Erasers, small trash bags, K- cups, Clorox wipes, disinfectant spray, furniture polish, snack size food such as cereal, granola bars, etc, travel size toothpaste, toilet bowl brushes, and bleach spray cleaner.  The items can be brought to my class or dropped off in front of Mrs. Mckinley's room.  She has baskets to put them in by her door.
Happy

Happy Pumpkin Time!!

We had so much fun with our pumpkin investigation.  We explored our pumpkin before cutting it open and counting the seeds.  We counted 643 seeds in one pumpkin!

For math this week, we did candy corn addition and subtraction!

I hope you have a safe and sweet holiday!

We've been busy! Oh, so busy!

We have had just a super busy last few weeks!  So busy that I have not had time to upload the blog!  Here are a few snippets of what we have been doing.

Mr. Peterson comes every year in the fall and does a lesson about not jugging things on the way they look on the outside.  What counts is on the inside.  The students got to see buckeyes from our back yard.  They are very ugly and poky on the outside.  Then they got to open them up and SURPRISE!  They are very beautiful and shiny on the outside!  We are reminded to not judge a book by it's cover.

We took a "Listening Walk."  We walked around our school without talking, just walking and listening to the sounds around us.  Then we came back and shared our sounds.  We turned our sounds into a "Listening Walk" poem.  This helped sharpen our observation skills!

 Part of our science curriculum is observing our world and the things that change.  We selected a tree to observe throughout the year.  Each month, we go out and check our tree and observe the changes.  We also record the weather.  They already are observing how the weather and the tree are changing each month.  They are great scientists!

During out unit on nouns, the students got to do a cooperative group project together.  They sorted the nouns by person, place and thing.  They worked hard together and had to learn to share supplies and ideas.  It was a great learning lesson for them.

Our week seen through the eyes of Colton and Gracie!

This week I gave a photography assignment to two students.  I had them take pictures of what they thought was really neat about Daily 5.  These are their photos.  I had the rest of the students help me decide what we wanted to say about each photo.  So here it goes ... In their own words

These are some folks who love to play with everything in the room. - Ethan

Some people like to play with the magnets. - David

                                            

 He likes being a scientist.  He is looking at the his paper with the magnifying glass. - Devontae

It looks like she is looking at the flowers for the Discovery Table to write about it on her paper.  - Gracie

He is reading from the book with the iPod.  He is using his earphones. - Amber

She like to write stories.  She is using a dictionary so she can spell her words. - Lindsey

She was writing a story on the computer. - Heivein

Good bye. - Masyn

Thank you for looking at these pictures and reading our words. - Ryan

There will be more of these pictures next week. - Colton

You guys are so nice, - D'Angelo

Good bye moms and dads.  I hope you had a good time at picture land. - Ethan

I hope you had a good time. - Shyanne

I love Daily 5. - David

I love to look at the Discovery Table. - Devontae

Come back soon! - Gracie

Feather's for Lunch

Thursday we read a story called Feathers for Lunch.  It was about a cat that tried and tried to eat a bird for lunch.  After the story, we did a Listening Art Activity.  I hope you enjoy their pictures.

Daily 5

The students have been working very hard getting back into routine for Daily 5.

We are working on Read to Self and building our STAMINA in reading.

We are working on Word Work to help us become better writers! 

We use technology like i Pads and i Pods to Listen to Reading and do Word Work .

And while all of the students are independently working, I am meeting with small groups for reading.  This week we did a reading inventory in our reading notebooks.  We talked about how we feel about reading!

The students have also been learning at Calender Time!  They have become my little "teachers"!  They are so SMART!

Ask your child what they like to do at Daily 5 time.  I am very proud of what they are already accomplishing!

Another Great Week!!

The boys and girls have been working hard this week practicing their Daily 5 and building STAMINA!  They are doing awesome!  They will be working on Read to Self, Word Work, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading and Read to Someone while I am working with reading groups.  We have practiced hard and now we are ready to roll.  Next week, I will begin small reading groups.  Developmental Reading Assessments will begin on September 22.

We are working on Word Problems, counting to 120, writing to 120 and recognizing those numbers out of order in math.  You can help your child by counting with them at home!

Our beginning stories in writing are fabulous!  We are authors!  These stories will stay at school in your child's writing folder and then they will go into their portfolios.  You will have a chance to view them at conference time.

For the month of September we will be doing apple investigations.  We will learn the Scientific Process with an apple experiment.  It is going to be a great month!

Flashlight Friday!

We love Flashlight Friday!  Every Friday at the end of the day, we get out our book boxes and read with flashlights.  The students love it and it is a fun way to end the week and get a little more reading in!  Hope you all have a great 3 day weekend!