Friday, December 15, 2017

Week ending 12/15

Hi Families!  What a chilly week it has been!  Happy Hannukah to those of you that are celebrating! Are you a family that likes to get out there all that winter and snow has to offer or would you rather curl up on the couch with blankets and play family games together?

Important information:

  • We have one more full week of school coming up.  If your child will not be here for part of that, please let me know. 
  • Snow pants and boots are needed to play in the snow.  If there is snow on the ground, children without boots will need to stay on the blacktop during recess.  
  • Supplies needed:  If you're out shopping this weekend...we would love it if you could pick up some tissues, paper towels, and cleaning wipes for the classroom!  There are many colds in our room and we're trying to stay as healthy as possible.  Thanks in advance for your help!
3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...
3 math skills we have been working on reading, understanding, and sharing information from a bar graph, making change when shopping at the fruit market, and reviewing place value skills with the game, Race to 100 and Race to 0.  
* Ask your child to count up to $1.00 to see how much change they'd get back for a 40 cents pack of gum.
2 special visitors we had this week were guests from China who visited us for about two hours Tuesday morning.  The students enjoyed learning to count in Chinese, working with chopsticks, making a paper craft, and hearing the story of the Monkey King.  We also had a visit from illustrator, Ralph Masiello.  He is always funny and engages the kids throughout the whole presentation.  You may have seen their drawings they took home.  
*Ask to see your child's drawings and look for shapes within each one!
1 special activity we had this week was pajama day in Friday!  The students earned it say earning 9 baseballs.  They can earn baseballs by receiving compliments from other staff in the building and going above and beyond in their work, their problem solving, kind words, positive attitude, and putting for a strong effort.  Myself, Ms. Houston, and Ms. R. do not give baseballs even though we are with them all day...they earn them from others who notice.

Here's as few pics from our presentations this week!


 












Have a great weekend!
-Megan

Friday, December 1, 2017

Week ending 12/1/17

Welcome to December!
This is a busy time for many families and it's also a busy time in school for our class!  We have many exciting things coming up including visitors from China sharing with us and a visit from a great author/illustrator!

Important information:

  • Thursday, December 7th, is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.  
  • If your child is going to be out as it gets closer to the holidays, please let us know so we can plan accordingly.  
  • Be sure to send in the right clothes for outdoor play as the weather is getting colder!
3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...
3 activities we worked on in math were focused on place value with hands on activities including estimating and counting cubes with different lines and shapes,  working with Base-10 blocks to show our understanding of hundreds, tens, and ones, and learning a new game called Race to 100 to understanding the meaning of what many of you probably call "regrouping".  

2 literacy skills we've been focusing on are identifying non-fiction features (such as labels, captions, index) and their purpose as it relates to the individual story and identifying what's most important in the text.  

1 activity we've been working on more often is using paintings from our country of study (U.S.A. right now) and delving into Visual Thinking Strategies.  The conversations between students has grown quite a bit and it is amazing to hear their ideas laid out clearly  and with meaning as they express WHY they THINK something.  They've developed skills on how to show agreement and disagreement and we've all realized that there are many different opinions in our class and that's what makes this strategy so interesting.  
Below is the painting from Grant Wood that we used this morning: