Week ending 4/10/15

We've had quite a busy week!  We've started new units, such as Folktales, and are working on finishing up other units, such as China and math Unit 9.
Important information:

• Monday is Red Sox day…wear Red Sox gear or red, white, and/or blue to cheer on our team!
• Vacation is April 19-26.  Please let me know if your child will be out before or after.  Thanks.
• May 7th, a Thursday, is an Early Release day.

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

3 learning ideas we worked on in social studies are: China's Forbidden City was built with many features to protect the Emperor and keep others out.  China has rural and urban areas, as many cities do, and we watched a video describing two children's days and how they differ based on where they live.  We learned about Yikang's day and compared it to our day, our routines, and activities.  Ask your child about one of these ideas.  We will be finishing our China lessons next week and then complete an alphabet book on China after vacation.  

2 math skills we have been practicing are comparing lengths of objects and understanding what capacity means.  We will finish Unit 9 this week and next week will begin Unit 10 on place value, money, and making change problem solving.  

1 thing Advik wants you to know about fables is that fables are stories that are not true and there are animal characters.

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Week ending 4/2/15

Hello Families!
Instead of a regular blog post this week since it's a short week…I wanted to call attention to a two activities we participated in.  In the post below you'll see what happened at the Chinese Cultural Center.  Below are some pictures from todays in school program called Life Cycles from the Museum of Science.
Ask your child their favorite part and what they've learned!
Enjoy!

Chinese Cultural Center

Hello families!  I tried to email some pictures but it didn't seem to send to anyone so I thought I'd post online for everyone to see!  We had a wonderful time and the students were so well behaved and interested in everything!
Enjoy!

Week ending 3/20/15

Today is the first day of Spring!  I'm so excited!  I look forward to more sunny days and more time outside to play for recess!  I hope you're looking forward to warmer weather and brighter days too.  Thanks so much to everyone who could make it this morning.  The students really enjoyed it and I look forward to using Soundscapes more often in our writing activities.

• On Monday, the 30th, we are heading to the Chinese Cultural Center.  Your child will need a brown/plastic bag lunch that can be thrown away when done.  They will not be bringing lunch boxes so keep that in mind when send lunch.  Also, we are leaving once we are all ready so please be sure they are on time that day.  Thanks in advance!
• If you have any tissues or cleaning wipes you'd like to donate, please do! 
• It was great meeting with you all at conferences the last two weeks.  I always find it beneficial to be touching base with families regarding their child's progress.  There are no more official conferences for the year but of course, if anything comes up, don't hesitate to touch base with me.  

3, 2, 1 important pieces of information you need to know about this week…

3 skills we focused on in reading workshop were: deciding if a question was meaningful or not, writing THICK (more thoughtful and meaningful) questions versus those that are easy to find to the answer, and we began focusing on making inferences.  Today we did "What's in my teacher's bag?"  Students had to decide what each item I pulled out of my bag, inferred about me.  What was the item?  What do you usually do with it or why do people have it?  Then we thought, "What does that say about Ms. DeKing?"  They did really well and inferencing is hard!

2 activities we did out of the ordinary were "flying" to China and getting our passports stamped and Arts Integration Morning.  We all enjoyed both of them!

1 thing Zoe wants you to know is we practiced measuring arm spans using a measuring tape.

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Week of 3/9/15

 We have been very busy in room 250!  We have been starting new units, finishing up others, and preparing for conferences!
Here's some important information for you:

• Thankfully, the weather seems to be making a good change for us.  All students are heading out recess these days so keep that in mind when sending in jackets, boots, etc in the morning.  
• We have our first field trip at the end of the month, Monday, the 30th.  I am still looking for 1 CORI'd chaperone if you're able to join us, please let me know.
• If you happen to have any boxes of tissues around that you could donate…we'd love them!  

3, 2, 1 things you need to know...

3 important skills we've worked on this in reading workshop are: thinking about the text as we read to determine what we've learned and what we still wonder about, understanding that writing questions before, during, and after read is very important to our comprehension of the story as it makes us think in and beyond the text, and sometimes our questions are not always answered (and that's OK!).  

2 math skills we're working on this week are mental math facts and patterns and using unifex cubes to check our work helps us become more independent.

1 thing Daniel D. wants you to know is…constant difference helps you figure out subtraction problems.

P.S.  There's no "What did we learn this week?" post…we ran out of time!  We'll have it back up next week!  :)

Week of 3/6/15

Hi Families,
We've had another full week of school.  I can't believe it!  Hopefully the weather has turned and Spring will arrive on schedule!

Important information…

• Don't forget to keep the warm clothes in school just in case we need them.  
• Don't forget to sign up for conferences.  The link is in the post below.  This is a time for your child to attend with you for us to meet together and they share their work and reflections with you.  

3 things to share with you from this week: 

3 skills we worked on were: determining our the ages of those in our family and starting to recognize constant difference (more work next week on that), providing evidence from the book for why we are like a particular character, and understanding how the sun, moon, and Earth all work together.  

2 things we did for Read Across America this week were…kicking the whole week off for the whole school at our assembly Tuesday morning and taking 10 minutes each day to Drop Everything And Read.  2 of our classmates announced it for the whole school on Wednesday!

1 exciting presentation was Mr. Joe and Ms. Vida today!  Please see the "What did we learn this week?" page to see all their favorite parts!

Enjoy the weekend!

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Week ending 2/27/15

Is February over already?  I can't believe how quickly it's gone by!  We've had quite a few snow days this past month and it's been great to be in school for a full week, especially after vacation.

Here's a few reminders:

• Don't forget to send appropriate clothing in to go outside for recess.
• Don't forget to send in sneakers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for physical education.
• Be sure your child is practicing their math facts on a regular, if not daily basis.  There are lots of computer games you can search for, flash cards, paper and pencil, etc.  Everyday Math, our math program, even has apps to practice with.  Find one way that works well for your child. 
• If you do not have a current CORI on file, please check with Ms. Sheehan.  I have checked with her about many parents and only a handful of parents in our class have a current CORI on file.  Please check with her about how to attain a current CORI.  Thank you. You can not be considered for a field trip, to work in the library, or help with an activity in the classroom without a CORI.  

3, 2, 1 things that have been happening this week…

3 skills we've worked on are understanding how a character's actions tell us about their feelings while reading Something About Hensley's in reading workshop and practiced solving ages problems in multiple ways, explaining how we solved the problems, and why the strategy worked.  We also learned about how why the Earth and moon are important to our solar system.  

2 very important pieces of information for you are:

• The field trip forms went home yesterday.  There are 3 sheets: The first explains the field trips and the cost.  The second is the form for the Chinese Cultural Center and the third is the form for the Museum of Science.  Both of those forms must be filled out completely, along with cash for $45 which covers both trips (admission and busing).  Forms are due back to me by Thursday, March 5th.  You MUST have a CORI or have filled on out (and hope it returns on time) in order to be considered for field trips.  After that, I will put the names of those who offered to chaperone in a hat and we will pick the chaperones that way.  
• Conference sign up is now live and you can sign up following the link below.  Conferences are for you AND your child so please find a time that works for both of you.  Looking forward to it!

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0A4EA8A928A20-spring3 

1 thing Ceasar wants you to know about science this week is when the Earth moves, the moon moves with it and orbits it while moving.  

Week of 2/2/15

What a crazy two weeks it's been!  I know all the students love the snow and being home but I also know we all love summer!  Hopefully, not too many more days are used and we can continue with the learning we're going without many more interruptions!

This blog is short this week with just a few updates…

• Secret Pal is due next Wednesday.  Please be sure to have you child bring it in by then, if not before, and I will collect them.  
• Right now our 100th day of school is next Thursday, the 12th.  There will be a notice going home  next week about dressing as if you're 100 years old and finding 100 small objects…start thinking about it this weekend and more info will be sent home next week.
• We will be doing valentines in our room on the 13th, next Friday.  There is a notice going home today as well as a class list.  Be be sure that if you are sending in valentines that every student will receive one (we have 18) and that there is no food.  If valentines are brought in with food, I'll have to send them back home.  If you choose to send in something...little erasers, pencils, temporary tattoos are always big hits, but you definitely do not have to send in anything.   Home made valentines are just perfect!  
• School vacation is the week of the 16th.  
• Please be sure to send your child in with everything they need to go out if they are planning on it.  

We finished up our unit on Mexico and we wanted to share our final project.  

We made a book…called Mexico ABC Book.  We used a program called VoiceThread to record our voices to match the pictures.  We hope you enjoy it!

http://voicethread.com/share/6522607/

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update 1/16/15

We've had a busy week and have been moving right along in all academic areas this week!

A few reminders...

• Monday there is no school.
• The kids are coming in nice and warm with lots of clothes for recess!  Please keep sending them in with the appropriate winter gear.
• In the next few weeks there will be emails going home about the 100th day of school and friendship day activities.  Please keep an eye out for these as there's things the students will need to do and some may require a little bit of help from you!  Thanks!
• Here is a link the the current Scholastic ordering!  You can order directly online and I will send the order on the 30th, so please order by then.  The points used from the books you purchase are used for books for the classroom.  I love choosing new books and old favorites to add to the library for our students to expand their love of reading!
• Order at: scholastic.com/readingclub
  One-Time Class Activation Code: H6JBB

3, 2, 1, things you should know...
3 skills we worked on in math were identifying characteristics of 3-D shapes, working on explaining how we solved our math problems (addition and subtraction) and noticing that many can be solved in different ways, and working on comparing quadrilaterals.

2 skills we worked on in writing were adding a more interesting introduction to our informational stories by asking questions, telling a fact, or talking to the reader.  We also practiced writing questions about our topics that we want more information about and we will research for the answers next week.

1 activity we did this morning was to recognize the Martin Luther King Jr holiday coming up.
When students arrived this morning, they were surprised that some tables were marked "no girls here" and others marked "no boys here".  Also, when sitting on the rug there were signs for "no girls upfront" and later "no boys upfront".  This is an activity that helps them understand a little bit more what it may have been like for Martin Luther King, Ruby Bridges, and Rosa Parks.  They were instructed to follow the rules and they changed throughout the day in the classroom.  After reading workshop, we had a talk about what they thought about it, how they felt, how people may have felt then when they couldn't sit on the bus where they wanted or couldn't use the water fountains (for examples).  The students did a great job in the discussion!

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Weekly Update 1/9/15

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful break and enjoyed family time and winter activities.

Important information:

• Unless it is badly snowing or unbearable cold, we typically still go out for lunch recess so please be sure your child is dressed appropriately.  Also, if it does snow, only children with snow pants are allowed on the snow so please send those as well.  It's also helpful if you have your child practice putting it all on before they come to school.  I know it can be hard! 
• Monday, December 19th, there is no school.  
• Homework is back in full swing.  As before, typical homework is a math sheet, Fundations review, math fact practice a few times a week, nightly reading, and the reading response on the website 1 time a week. 

3, 2, 1 things you should know about this week…

3 skills we practiced during math were learning to draw and identify parallel lines, sort polygons based on their sides and angles, and identify quadrangles in the classroom.  Have your child point out some quadrangles/quadrilaterals in your own house.  How many can they find?

2 skills we've been working on with our author study of James Marshall are identifying the events, problem, and solution of the stories and writing lesson of the story using evidence from the text.

1 person we learned about during social studies was Diego Rivera who was a Mexican painter.  His paintings helped tell the story of all Mexicans in many different situations.

Have a great weekend!