Week Ending 3/6/20

The first week of March is done and the weather is more and more Spring like!  It's so nice to be able to get outside and play on these nice days!

Important information:

• If you have not yet signed up for conferences, please sign up for a time that you and your child can attend.  Conference Sign Ups
• Our first field trip is on Monday, March 16th.  I will send more information next week but for now, be thinking about ensuring your child has a good breakfast, packs a paper bag lunch with throw away water bottle, and is ready to learn and experience our day!
• Thursday, March 19th is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.

3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...

3 math activities we worked on were playing Guess My Number within a 1,000 (determining our partner's number by paying careful attention to their clues), Plus 10/Minus 10 (working on adding and subtracting efficiently within 1,000 by 10s and noticing the patterns on the hundreds chart), and Close to 100 (using our addition strategies to make the closest number to 100 that we can using 4 digits).  

You can play Close to 100 here at home.  It's a great way see what your child is working on in the classroom! Close to 100

2 read aloud books we read this week were Something About Hensley's, where we focused on what we learn about the characters through their  actions and Ivy and Bean, were we have been focusing on the important events in our story.  Next week, we'll be focusing on Ivy and Bean's friendship and how it's changed or stayed the same.  

Ask your child who they'd rather be friends with, Ivy or Bean?

1 important thing for you to know is that the students have been talking a lot about the Coronavirus.  We shift the conversation after letting them know with the flu, coughs, and colds, how important is to wash their hands and everyone is ok where we are.  

Week Ending 2/7/20

We've finished another week of February and we have one week left till February break!

Important information:

• The 100th day is next Tuesday!  Please be sure to have your child bring in their 100 items in the brown paper bag so we can't see them.  They also need to bring in their guessing sheet so they can share their clues with the class.  
• Friday is Valentine's Day and we'll be sharing valentines with each other.  If your child is bringing in valentines, please be sure they have one for every child in the class.  Also, food is not allowed to be passed out.  If any food is brought in, it will be sent home and not handed out. 
• If you have any cleaning wipes or tissues you'd like to donate, we'd love them!
• Conference sign up is here:  Spring Conference Sign Up

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

3 Grace Lin books we've read are The Ugly Vegetables, Dim Sum for Everyone, and Fortune Cookies Fortunes.  We have started learning about Grace Lin, her life, and why she writes children's books.  Here's a link to her website and you can browse at home: Grace Lin's Website .

2 math activities we worked on were collecting date on how many teeth students in Ms. Bowen's class have lost and then sharing what we noticed about the data.  We have been focusing on what they've noticed beyond, "One student lost 4 teeth.", and noticing information such as "2 more students lost 4 teeth than 3 teeth."  Thinking about what the data is showing us helps us become better critical thinkers.   Check out how we represented out teeth data below!

While at my math workshop last week, we learned how to easily send families math games to play!  

We played this math game last week about sorting by different attributes.  You can play this week if you want!

Yekktis Math Game

1 Stretch Your Mind math activity we worked on was Domino Window.  We talked a lot about perseverance!  These activities are a good exercise in how to think differently and out of the box.  They can be a struggle for those kids that are quick computation thinkers and they can be a quick activity for those that struggle with the computation.  Moving forward this year we'll be doing a lot more of these that will lend themselves to different mathematical strengths in the classroom.  

Here's a picture below! 

 

 

Week Ending 1/31

We're moving on to February!  Seems like January was a long month but we accomplished SO much!

Important information:

• Thursday, February 6, is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.  
• February vacation is the week of February 17th.  
• If you have any wipes, tissues, or paper towels you'd like to donate, please send them our way!

3, 2, 1 things we've worked on this past week...

3 math activities we worked on were creating bar graphs to show what we learned about our classmates, sort information about our favorite weekend activities to organize and represent the data clearly to others, and we investigated line plots.  This coming week, we'll collect data about how many teeth we've lost and decide with our group how we should show the data and what we've learned.  

2 read aloud we read were A Story, A Story and Anansi & the Talking Melon.  We finished up our trickster tale unit by reading trickster tales and identifying who the trickster was, the problem and solution of the stories, and more importantly, characteristics of the trickster.    

1 writing workshop piece we're working on is our writing about Mexico.  Students have chosen three topics to research and write the most important facts and ideas they've learned.  Right now we're still in the early stages, but I hope to have them ready for you by conferences!  

Week ending 1/17/20

What a chilly day! We had a busy day despite the cold.  We did all our core subjects of course, talked about Martin Luther King Jr day, moved our bodies with GoNoodle, and did Team Time today.

Important information:

• Monday, there is no school.
• Next Thursday is Peek Week in PE.  We have PE on Thursday at 1:10.

3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...

3 read aloud books we heard this week were How Turtles Got Their Shell and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears (both pourquoi tales about why the world is how it is), and we finished up fables with The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  Next week, we'll finish up pourquoi tales and move into trickster tales.  

* Ask your child why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears.

2 math activities we worked on this week were playing Guess My Number up to 500 and Plus or Minus 10/5 in a Row.  Guess My Number is a good challenge to play when they have to pay attention to not only guessing the correct number but also keep track of all the clues their partner is giving them with the < > signs.  Plus or Minus 10/ 5 in a Row helps students focus on adding or subtracting 10 efficiently and strategically placing their chips to get 5 in a row.  There's ALOT of organizational thinking and mathematical problem solving going on!  We'll be finishing up this unit on tens and hundreds and start exploring data next week.

1 Team Time activity we worked on was creating snowmen with just 3 marshmallows and 4 toothpicks.  The task was to create the highest marshmallow they could with only those materials.  It was so interesting to see their ideas come to life!  

Check out the pictures below to see our results!

 

 

Week ending 12/20

Hello families!
We have had a wonderful week talking about vacation plans and what students are excited about for next week!  We also spent some time talking about holidays we celebrate, traditions that happen each December, and how the holidays and traditions are similar and different.  Did you know that not only presents (as the students are awfully excited about) but light is also a common theme through many holidays.  We've also shared our Heritage Bears this week and all of us have learned so much!  Students asked thoughtful questions and shared connections and differences to their own countries.

Thank you to all of you that donated supplies to make our snow globes!  They came out great!

Also thank you all for the gifts and kind words this week!  Ms. Snyder and I feel very appreciated!
Have a wonderful holiday week to those celebrating and enjoy all the moments!

See a pic of our bears and snow globes we made below!

Week ending 12/13/19

We've had a busy week in room 250!  One highlight was playing in the snow the last few days during recess!

Important information:

• Don't forget to check in with Ms. Sheehan about a CORI if you still need one.  Also, don't forget Ms. Sheehan's last day with us at Memorial Spaulding is next Friday.  
• Winter break is Dec. 20 - January 1.  School resumes January 2nd.  If your child will not be here, please let me know.  
• Heritage Bears are due on Monday and we will start sharing them in class then.  We're really looking forward to learning even more about each other!

What's happening in room 250...

3 math activities we've worked on were the game Close to 20, determining all the ways to show a number using tens and ones, and identifying a missing addend.  In Close to 20, students needed to use  3 cards to get as close to 20 as possible.  

2 writing workshop activities we worked on were... we finished up our narrative writing stories and then took a pre-prompt on an informational book.  Students wrote about a topic they know a lot about to teach another person.  Ask your child what they're topic was.  

1 special activity we had was an author visit by Kevin Hawkes.  The class really enjoyed his visit and hearing about how he works on his drawings and comes up with story ideas.  

Week ending 12/6

Well it's certainly been an unusual week schedule-wise at school but the kids have taken it in stride and have been really flexible!  I hope you all enjoyed the snow day and we enjoyed hearing what they did on their day off.

Important information:

• Please be sure ALL your child's Winter clothes are labeled with their first and last names.  You'd be amazed how many gloves and hats are lost.  Also, if you'd like to leave a change of clothes in your child's locker please send it in with them.  Some kids also leave a second pair of snow pants so they don't have to bring their own back and forth.  
• We'll be doing a little activity before Winter break and we need a few supplies.  If you can purchase one, we'd really appreciate it!  Here's the link for supplies needed:
• Sign Up for Supplies
• We are off for Winter break December 23-January 1.  School will resume on January 2nd.  

3, 2, 1, things you should know for this week...

3 math activities we worked on were solidifying our skills in counting tens and ones, finding all the possible ways to make a number (with different amounts of tens and ones), and we learned a new math game called, Roll A Square.

*Ask your child to show all the different ways to make 31.

2 read aloud books we read this week were Thank you Mr. Falker which focused on the author, Patricia Polacco's own childhood, and growing up with dyslexia and Have You Filled a Bucket Today? which we used to talk about how we can build each other up.  The kids had lots of ideas!  

We made a chain to keep this in our thoughts all the time!

*Ask your child what they wrote on their strips.

1 team building activity we worked on today was cooperative games.  Often, students do well in team activities with teacher direction but when left to play a cooperative game with their peers, with no teacher sitting next to them, they can forget about taking turns, helping each other, etc.  We talked about ways to make games successful and after we discussed how it went and what we still needed to work on.  

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!