Fall muffins

Thank you Mrs. Hanks for baking yummy pumpkin muffins today! They went along great with our pumpkin study today!

reading groups

Reading groups are plugging along daily. The kids are doing awesome and can see growth in everyone. !Today we used our "witch fingers" to help us track the words when reading...glad I snitched a few from our class party last year!

Picasso self-portraits

FYI...If you are at school you will not be able to hear the YouTube based music!
The students created a self-portrait using oil pastels emulating Picasso’s style. The main objective was to let our imagination run wild with the many possibilities. We looked at Picasso’s painting, Girl Before a Mirror for inspiration.

High Roller

Always a new game...gotta keep them actively participating. Today we played, High Roller. I can see such a difference in their ability to add numbers at a quicker pace already!

Spooky Spaghetti

Please forgive me if I didn't see you at Spooky Spaghetti! There were so many people...and your costumes were very tricky! It looks like everyone had a spooktacular time! I'll be looking for you on Halloween...

garden planting

Today we paired up with Mrs. Musters' 3rd grade class and planted kale, fennel and beans in the new garden. The plan is to take turns daily to water the garden and write in our garden logs along the way. Ask your child if they have watered yet!

National Symbols

Today was as good a day as any to make flags and introduce US national symbols...Statue of Liberty, US flag, bald eagle and the Liberty Bell. The whole lesson about the number of red and white stripes, stars, etc. went over their heads a bit...it was evident when we got 22 DIFFERENT looking flags! Some got it. They're cute...all in their own way.

quotation marks

Today we played around with macaroni to create our own quotes. I'm starting to see quotation marks in their journal writing! :-)

yuck!

Chemo on Fridays makes a yucky feeling teacher on Mondays. Bear with me...we can do it!

Christopher Columbus

Today we finally got around to finishing the lesson on Christopher Columbus that we started on Monday. I swear we just don't seem to have enough time during our busy days! We read a couple of books and a short video on unitedstreaming.com telling the facts. It turned into a discussion whether Christopher Columbus deserved credit for discovering America or not...since Native Americans were already there when he landed. Something to think about.

Gourds Galore!

During reading groups rotations, the children had 2 days to observe the different properties of a collection of gourds. I think their favorite was using the balance to see how many blocks heavy they were!

sticker sentences

I think fun stickers would make almost anyone want to write...don't you think?

Parts of a Whole

Today during reading group rotation, we played a new Envision game called "Parts of a Whole" to introduce subtraction.

Rolling for 50

Today we played "rolling for 50." It is a game to better familiarize ourselves with the 100's chart and how to move around the board. It was very much like the game, Chutes and Ladders! We learned that if you go forward 10 or backward 10...you will end up directly above or below your starting number! I think playing "Give Your Dog a Bone" (link is on the very bottom of this blog...scroll down) online during reading group rotation helped us to play this game with better ease!

class party

Hi Parents! Just a quick reminder that our class party is this Wednesday, October 13th from 5:30-7:30 outside at the Mark Twain Pavilion. We are having a pot-luck style dinner. This is a GREAT way to meet all your child’s classmates and their families. Think about something yummy to share...there is a sign-up sheet outside the classroom. Thank you to all those that have signed up already for fruit salad, appetizers, dessert and drinks. We still need more volunteers to sign up to bring a main or side dish to share. If you do not go by the classroom in the morning, please let me know what you would like to bring, and I can sign you up! Thanks and I look forward to meeting you all!

Matthew's Dream

Today we read Matthew's Dream by Leo Lionni. After being inspired by Matthew's Dream, we listened to classical music and painted our own "dreams." When I get a chance...I will display them in the hallway. We will write about them, too!

garden dedication

Today was the garden dedication. We had lovely weather! To kick off the event, every child in each class wrote their wish for the garden and they were all buried together to eventually become part of the garden. Very memorable!

Mondrian

In art ancillary the children learned about Piet Mondrian. They explored straight lines, primary colors, rectangles, squares and grids.

LDC

This week and last week we have been going to LDC for the first time with Mrs. Diaz. It's been hard to complete our reading group rotations AND go to LDC but we've done pretty well! The children usually listen to a story, have a class discussion, work on a writing project, go to various centers and participate in writer's theater every single day of LDC! This week we've been writing on our peace poems.

rolling for 50

Today we played "rolling for 50." It is a game to better familiarize ourselves with the 100's chart and how to move around the board. It was very much like the game, Chutes and Ladders! We learned that if you go forward 10 or backward 10...you will end up directly above or below your starting number! I think playing "Give Your Dog a Bone" (link is on the very bottom of this blog...scroll down) online during reading group rotation helped us to play this game with better ease!

breaking news...

I'm sure you heard the news...we finally finished The Trumpet of the Swan and watched the movie today. The kids loved it! Be sure to ask your child how the movie was different from the book.