Well, hello, hello! A couple of things to add to our blog for this week.
MAP- We have been MAP testing every day this week and the students have been doing a downright wonderful job! I have been so pleased with the results and how hard the students have been working. I look forward to sharing the scores with you when they come out next week. Conferences for this semester will be optional- please know I would love to meet with each and every one of you so do not hesitate to sign up.
Celebrations- We had Celebrations of Success last Friday and the students and I made a podcast to express our pride in the work we have accomplished this 9 weeks. Take a look (more like a listen)!
1.26.2012
1.13.2012
Video Conference with Alaska
Wowee! This has been just the most exciting day. Today we had the opportunity to participate in a video conference with an Alaska Sea and Wildlife Associaton and it was truly an amazing experience. This week we have been studying animals and their different adaptations in their environments. Students have learned about the walrus, the snowy owl, and the orca whale. The video conference was about seals and other marine mammals and the structures they have on their body that allow them to survive in such harsh environments. Students interacted with a counselor at the wildlife center and were able to ask and answer questions as well as see live seals and sea lions that they have there at the center. Oh yes, and how could I forget, the students actually got to make little clay seals at the end of the conference. So cool!
1.11.2012
Wednesday, January 11th
Student Teacher: I am excited to announce that starting tomorrow we will have a student teacher in our room unil April! Her name is Miss Jones and she seems very sweet and caring. The students met her on Friday and many have already taken a great liking to her. Yay! We look forward to helping her learn and grow as a teacher...I'm sure the kids will provide her with some great material :).
Homework Bags: As I'm sure you already know we are switching our homework regime to include some reading practice as well. I will be sending homework bags home every Friday to be completed by the following Friday. There is a schedule in the bag; however, you may choose to finish the homework any time during the week. The reading homework is leveled for each student so that they can, and should try, to do the majority of the reading independently. Please remember that this reading homework will also count towards DEARABBY minutes.
Sight Word Assessments: It is the middle of the year and it is time to take a sight word inventory to see how our students are progressing! This week Mrs. B and I have been working to find the sight word list that each student can read independently. Once a student misses a sight word we stop and this is the list that this student will now work on until mastery. I have been sending home the assessments as we finish. Please take a look at the list where we stopped with your student and begin reviewing that list of words at home! In a couple of weeks we will assess again.
Gumball Math: This is a new program that we have started in our classroom. With the gumball math, students will be taking timed quizzes on addition and subtraction facts to 10. Now, I have not always been a huge fan of timed quizzes but I truly think that for many of our students this program with small incentives along the way will boost operation skills and fluency. Each test is given based on where the student is in the program. For example, yesterday everyone started on addition facts (+1). They were given 4 minutes to complete 50 problems. If the student got all problems correct they moved on to the next level today. With each level passed the students get to place a gumball in the machine outside of our classroom.
With this said, we talked today about how no prizes are handed out for passing a quiz (the gumballs are just pieces of paper) and it is ok to stay on one quiz for a while. The idea is that as they practice they will get better. I have not done anything like this with little ones yet and I am hoping that it fosters confidence and the will to succeed. However, if I find that this is making students upset more than boosting skills we will stop. Keep your fingers crossed...they have done well so far and seem excited to advance!
Report Cards- Report cards go home on Friday. I will setting up another volunteerspot conference sheet online for those of you who would like to come in and discuss student growth and progress. This is optional, but please know I am HAPPY to meet with every one of you. This is such an important year for our students.
Well, folks, that is all for today. Thank you for making my job easier by being the best parents a teacher could ask for!
Homework Bags: As I'm sure you already know we are switching our homework regime to include some reading practice as well. I will be sending homework bags home every Friday to be completed by the following Friday. There is a schedule in the bag; however, you may choose to finish the homework any time during the week. The reading homework is leveled for each student so that they can, and should try, to do the majority of the reading independently. Please remember that this reading homework will also count towards DEARABBY minutes.
Sight Word Assessments: It is the middle of the year and it is time to take a sight word inventory to see how our students are progressing! This week Mrs. B and I have been working to find the sight word list that each student can read independently. Once a student misses a sight word we stop and this is the list that this student will now work on until mastery. I have been sending home the assessments as we finish. Please take a look at the list where we stopped with your student and begin reviewing that list of words at home! In a couple of weeks we will assess again.
Gumball Math: This is a new program that we have started in our classroom. With the gumball math, students will be taking timed quizzes on addition and subtraction facts to 10. Now, I have not always been a huge fan of timed quizzes but I truly think that for many of our students this program with small incentives along the way will boost operation skills and fluency. Each test is given based on where the student is in the program. For example, yesterday everyone started on addition facts (+1). They were given 4 minutes to complete 50 problems. If the student got all problems correct they moved on to the next level today. With each level passed the students get to place a gumball in the machine outside of our classroom.
With this said, we talked today about how no prizes are handed out for passing a quiz (the gumballs are just pieces of paper) and it is ok to stay on one quiz for a while. The idea is that as they practice they will get better. I have not done anything like this with little ones yet and I am hoping that it fosters confidence and the will to succeed. However, if I find that this is making students upset more than boosting skills we will stop. Keep your fingers crossed...they have done well so far and seem excited to advance!
Report Cards- Report cards go home on Friday. I will setting up another volunteerspot conference sheet online for those of you who would like to come in and discuss student growth and progress. This is optional, but please know I am HAPPY to meet with every one of you. This is such an important year for our students.
Well, folks, that is all for today. Thank you for making my job easier by being the best parents a teacher could ask for!
1.06.2012
Friday, January 6th
We are back and better than ever! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday break and are finding themselves well rested and ready to return to school.
Reading/Writing: This week in reading we really got into character development and character traits. We have been discussing adjectives, so this was a very natural progression for the kiddos. We read the book Goldie and the Three Bears and Three Snow Bears. Each story had characters that were similar yet different. After analyzing each character we compared and contrasted their traits, actions, and thoughts. We had a great time with this skill!
As I previously mentioned we have been working on incorporating adjectives into our writing. This week we learned more about adjectives and synonyms. We played a great synonym match game together.The following website has a variety of online synonym games. Please play these with your child as I have not had a chance to look at them all. Some of the games are quite hard! http://languageartsgames.4you4free.com/synonyms.html
Math: In math we worked on subtraction to 20. Most of the students have mastered addition to 10; however they still struggle with subtraction. We used number line this week to help us with larger numbers. We played a polar bear subtraction game that the students loved. We will be moving on to new content next week; however, we will still be reviewing addition and subtraction facts to 20 DAILY! Please continue to practice facts at home.
Science: Our study on polar bears has been a huge success. The students have really gotten into the special polar bear adaptations. We have created posters, watched videos, and read many books. Next week we will be learning about more polar animals. Please check out the following website to view live feed from the San Diego Zoo (Polar Bear Exhibit): http://www.sandiegozoo.org/polarcam/
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Spelling words and graded tests were sent home today. :)
Reading/Writing: This week in reading we really got into character development and character traits. We have been discussing adjectives, so this was a very natural progression for the kiddos. We read the book Goldie and the Three Bears and Three Snow Bears. Each story had characters that were similar yet different. After analyzing each character we compared and contrasted their traits, actions, and thoughts. We had a great time with this skill!
As I previously mentioned we have been working on incorporating adjectives into our writing. This week we learned more about adjectives and synonyms. We played a great synonym match game together.The following website has a variety of online synonym games. Please play these with your child as I have not had a chance to look at them all. Some of the games are quite hard! http://languageartsgames.4you4free.com/synonyms.html
Math: In math we worked on subtraction to 20. Most of the students have mastered addition to 10; however they still struggle with subtraction. We used number line this week to help us with larger numbers. We played a polar bear subtraction game that the students loved. We will be moving on to new content next week; however, we will still be reviewing addition and subtraction facts to 20 DAILY! Please continue to practice facts at home.
Science: Our study on polar bears has been a huge success. The students have really gotten into the special polar bear adaptations. We have created posters, watched videos, and read many books. Next week we will be learning about more polar animals. Please check out the following website to view live feed from the San Diego Zoo (Polar Bear Exhibit): http://www.sandiegozoo.org/polarcam/
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Spelling words and graded tests were sent home today. :)
12.30.2011
Party Time
Well, hello there! It feels like forever since I last posted. I have to say I am missing your little guys and girls over this holiday break. I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday, bright and early. I wanted to share some of the sweet pictures that were took at our holiday party on Thursday, December 15th. The kids had a blast! Thank you to Mr. John Peterson for sharing these wonderful pictures with us.
Can you tell we had fun?
12.12.2011
Monday, December 12th
Man, I have a lot to post tonight! We have been doing so many exciting things in our classroom that I want to share with everyone.
Reader's Theatre Plays- I would like to thank everyone who attended our Thanksgiving Reader's Theatre Plays. Everything went so well and, I think we would all agree, the students did a great job. Reader's Theatres are such a fun way to work on reading fluency and through this process our student's fluency skills really improved. They are starting to sound like mature readers and that is wonderful!
Slippery, Slimy Creatures- We had a very special guest come in on Thursday to show us the adaptations reptiles have in order to survive in their environments. We got a chance to actually see specific structures on a variety or reptiles and we got to see how those structures worked firsthand! At the end of the presentation the students even got to hold and touch a real snake....yikes!
Reading- Ok, so on to the content! This week in reading we are finishing up our unit on key details and events from stories. As I am giving the Winter rounds of DRA's I am noticing that many students can read the passages but are having difficulty recalling the important events from the story. This is why we continue, and will continue after the break, to study key details and main topic.
Today, to try and help students understand how the key details help "support" the main idea we played JENGA. We built a tower of "key details" and placed the big "main idea" block on the top of the tower. We discussed how it was so important to have as many key details to support the main idea as possible, or, as we found out, the main idea would tumble to the ground! It was a neat way to physically show the kids how important key details are in reading comprehension.
Math- Well, we have moved on to doubles facts in math! Students have caught on quicker than I anticipated which means we will be moving on to bigger and better things by the end of this week. No time to waste! Today, we played "Double Trouble" a dice game where students could practice their doubles skills.
I will not be sending out math homework for this week, but will continue with the review packets following the holiday break. This has made a big difference and the students LOVE homework!!!
Remember, Janie Griggs Day is tomorrow. Please allow some time tonight for your student to write a special thank you to Ms. Griggs as she has been with Stonewall for many years and has been a true blessing to Stonewall!
Reader's Theatre Plays- I would like to thank everyone who attended our Thanksgiving Reader's Theatre Plays. Everything went so well and, I think we would all agree, the students did a great job. Reader's Theatres are such a fun way to work on reading fluency and through this process our student's fluency skills really improved. They are starting to sound like mature readers and that is wonderful!
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| Check out the Mayflower! |
Reading- Ok, so on to the content! This week in reading we are finishing up our unit on key details and events from stories. As I am giving the Winter rounds of DRA's I am noticing that many students can read the passages but are having difficulty recalling the important events from the story. This is why we continue, and will continue after the break, to study key details and main topic.
Today, to try and help students understand how the key details help "support" the main idea we played JENGA. We built a tower of "key details" and placed the big "main idea" block on the top of the tower. We discussed how it was so important to have as many key details to support the main idea as possible, or, as we found out, the main idea would tumble to the ground! It was a neat way to physically show the kids how important key details are in reading comprehension.
Math- Well, we have moved on to doubles facts in math! Students have caught on quicker than I anticipated which means we will be moving on to bigger and better things by the end of this week. No time to waste! Today, we played "Double Trouble" a dice game where students could practice their doubles skills.
I will not be sending out math homework for this week, but will continue with the review packets following the holiday break. This has made a big difference and the students LOVE homework!!!
Remember, Janie Griggs Day is tomorrow. Please allow some time tonight for your student to write a special thank you to Ms. Griggs as she has been with Stonewall for many years and has been a true blessing to Stonewall!
12.07.2011
Wednesday, December 7th
Happy Wednesday to everyone! We have been busy, busy, busy this week with our Culture Around the World trips. I hope you have found time to ask your student about each country that they visited this week. So far the students have visited Russia, France, Sweden, and Mexico to find out about the different cultures in each country. We have been discussing the word culture this week and what is included in a culture (language, dance, food, music, holidays/traditions). I will be sending home completed passports on Friday!
Students have been working hard in their reading stations this week. I am so proud of the progress that they have all made since the beginning of the year. They are certainly becoming more independent! I am currently working on assessing student's reading through the DRA. The winter scores will be on the next report card. Be on the lookout for that and remember to read every night with your student. Practice makes perfect.
In math, we continue to work on addition to 20. We will be focusing our studies on doubles facts towards the end of this week. For fun math links please visit the classroom website. Websites provide a fun and engaging way to practice basic math facts at home.
Oh yes, and a big congratulations is in order for our very own, Caroline. As of Monday she became a proud big sister. What an exciting time of the year!
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