Week ending 11/22/19

Can you believe November is almost over?  It's come and gone so fast!

Important information:

• As you head into the Thanksgiving week, I hope you all have a wonderful little break, whether you are celebrating or not, and I hope you're able to spend time with family and friends.  I am very thankful to be able to spend the day with each your children!  
• Wednesday, 11/27, is an early dismissal with dismissal at 12:00.  It is NOT a 12:30 day.  There is no ASCA and no extended day. Please plan accordingly for pick up. 
• Wednesday, 12/4, is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.  There is no ASCA but there is extended day.
• We try and get out as much as we can so please send in appropriate winter clothing!  

3, 2, 1 things we've done this week...

3 math activities we worked on were identifying if parts were halves of rectangles or not, identifying fourths and different ways to make fourths, and coloring fraction flags to identify one part or multiple parts of flags.  For example, We looked at a flag with one part colored red out of 4 parts for 1/4 and we looked at a flag with 3 parts colored red out of 4 parts for 3/4.  

*Check out our flags below!

2 read alouds we read this week from the book fair were Pig the Pug and ALMA.  The loved both of them!  Thank you to the parents who donated books and I'm thankful for the PTO who also donated the rest of our class wish list! We were able to receive some read aloud books and books for our classroom library.  

1 new activity we played today was Kahoot!  It's a question game and students are in teams using the iPads.  The questions today were generic questions about what day it is, etc as well as some Mexico, math, and shapes questions.  We'll use Kahoot!  throughout the year to review science and social studies curriculum.  Not only is a it a good review of content, it's also an activity which practices turn taking, self control, respect, and good sportsmanship.

Fraction flags

Week Ending 11/14/19

Even though we had a 4 day week, it was busy!

* Ask your child about our fun science activity this morning!  We learned all about probability!  Pull out a coin and ask them to tell you a 50/50 chance! *

Important information:

• Wednesday, November 27th, is a 12:00 dismissal (NOT 12:30 as a usual early dismissal).  There are no ASCA classes or extended day.
• Please send your child dressed for the weather.  We do go out as much as possible even if it's chilly so sending in jackets, hats, gloves, etc is necessary.  Also, when the snow comes, they must have boots and snow pants to play in it.  Please talk to your child about wearing whatever it is they come to school with each time we go out.
• When it is your turn to bring home the Kaleidoscope bag, please remember to bring it back the next Wednesday so it'll be ready for the next child to take it home on Friday.  

3 math activities we've worked on were choosing a number and showing all the different arrays that can be made using that numbers (many of us had to really put on our thinking caps to think of all the ways), identifying a half fraction and discussing if halves are equal and how do we know.  Check out some pictures at the bottom about different arrays.  

2 writing workshop activities we've been working on were using a checklist to double check our story while editing and revising and many of us have begun publishing.  I can't wait to see their final project!

1 literacy activity we did last Friday was Art In Literacy.  Once a month, we'll be doing some type of art response to what we're working on during reading workshop.  We've been focusing on non-fiction and have read many books.  Students chose one book and an important fact from that book they wanted to share.  They had to write the fact and create an illustration with labels to share that fact.  This was a good way to show their understanding of the text they read and non-fiction features. 

Check them out below!

Week ending 11/1/19

It's been a busy week in room 250!  Between early release days, conferences, pumpkin math, and every day activities, we've been busy!

Important information:

• We are attending the book fair on Wednesday at 1:20.  If you choose to send your child with money, they can shop at that time.  We will visit the book fair on Monday to make a wish list so that will give you a good idea of what they would like to purchase.  
• There is no school on Monday, November 11.  
• Thank you to the families that signed up to come in and help or drop off pumpkins!

3 activities we worked on Thursday were estimating and counting pumpkin seeds in math, in reading workshop we heard two poems and the students could choose which one they wanted to work with while focusing on rhyming words, glued sounds, plurals, and suffixes, and in writing workshop we listened to I Need My Monster  and created our own monsters focusing on not only the illustration, but describing our monster with specific words.
* Ask you child if they remember how many seeds they had in their pumpkin.

2 math activities we've been working on this week were identifying 3-D shapes and their faces and completing Mystery Block.  We've been working on identifying and describing 3-D shapes based on their faces, vertexes, edges, and sides.

1 social studies activity we worked on throughout today was the Mexican celebration, Day of the Dead.  We read a non-fiction article along with watching a Pebble Go on the topic, worked with a poem, and colored our own skulls.

Here's a peek of our pumpkin seeds we counted and our sugar skulls we decorated for Day of the Dead!