Week ending 4/8/16

It's Friday families!  It was so nice to see many of you here this morning with us to read to your child!  Thank you to those of you that welcomed another student to read with you when their family couldn't make it.  Very much appreciate that!

Important information:

• Monday, the 11th, is the first home game for the Red Sox.  If your child has any Red Sox gear, they should wear them to help celebrate!  If not, they can wear red, blue, or white.  If not…now problem!  
• Next Friday, the 15th, is our field trip to the Chinese Cultural Center.  Please be sure your child is on time and ready to go.  Getting a good night's sleep and having a good breakfast can be very helpful! 
• For the field trip…be sure to send your child in with a bag lunch either in a brown paper bag or plastic bag from Shaws or Target, etc.  Please do not send your child in with a regular lunch box to take with us for lunch.  
• You may send your child in with a snack to have when we return from the field trip.  

3, 2, 1 things you need to know about our week…

3 skills we've worked on in math are measuring with a meter stick, a tape measure, and what linear measurement is.  We used students to measure the length of our classroom by laying down head to feet.  We found out that our classroom is 8 kids long!  We also talked about how I could not go to the store and ask for a rug 8 kids long.  They wouldn't know what I meant!  Ask your child why that doesn't work.

2 writing activities we've been working on writing workshop are completing a graphic organizer for our ideas to write a book recommendation.  Some of us are on the next step of beginning our book awards.

1 activity we've learned this week is "Double Double This This".  Ask your child if they remember how to play.

Here's a few pics from this mornings activities….

Week of 3/28/16

Welcome to April!  Even though we had a few nice days this week...it won't feel like April this weekend.  We're moving to the 130th day of school!  It's amazing how fast the year goes.

Important information:

• With the weather changing so quickly these days be sure your child is prepared for outdoor recess.  
• Friday, April 8th is our school's literacy morning beginning at 8:30 in the auditorium and ending in our room about 9:30.  The focus is on building a reading relationship with your child.  
• Our rescheduled field trip to the Chinese Cultural Center is scheduled for Friday, April 15th.  If your child can not attend, please let me know as I'm making groups and planning for the day.  

3, 2, 1 things you should now.  

3 skills we've worked on in math have been naming fractions, recognizing equivalent fractions, and trying our best while taking our time on the math tests.  Overall students did very well!

2 literacy activities we worked on were identifying the moral or lesson in multiple fables and writing our own class fable.

1 thing we did in library was choose books that are just a little bit more challenging  for us so we can use them during our upcoming literacy morning! 

Week ending 3/18/15

Hello families!
I can't believe we are half way through March already and will be in April before we know it!  We've been working hard this week and have been getting into new units.

Important information:

• Monday, March 21, is our field trip to the Chinese Cultural Center.  Please be sure your child is on time for school as we have items to go over before leave.  If you are chaperoning, please refer to the email sent for some other information.   Be sure to send your child in with a brown paper bag lunch, in a plastic bag, or a zip-loc.  They will not be able to bring lunch boxes and there is no lunch there to eat.  
• Friday, March 25, there is no school.
• If you'd like to donate some tissues and paper towels to our classroom...it would be very much appreciated!  

3, 2, 1 things you should know...

3 skills we've worked on in math this week are story problems, mental math, and doubling numbers, as well as challenging ourselves to half the number.

2 facts about China we've been talking about are the population and where China is located.

1 thing we're working on in reading is making inferences from poetry.  

Week ending 3/4/16

Welcome March!
I can't believe we've hit March already and Spring is just around the corner!  We've had a busy week and back in the swing of things since vacation 2 weeks ago.
Important information:

• Thursday, March 10, is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.  
• Conference information is on Sign Up Genius at the site below.  If you have not signed up yet for one, please do.  
• Conference sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4ea8a928a20-spring

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

3 math skills we've worked on were adding numbers easily by finding combinations that added up to familiar numbers (such as 10, 20, etc), solving word problems and identifying if we needed to add or subtract, and quick fact practice of adding three or more numbers.

2 writing activities we completed this week were writing about our favorite special and favorite place.  We have started our opinion unit and will begin writing book and character reviews next week. 

1 special day this week was Wednesday...it was Read Across America week.  We were lucky to have some very special visitors.  On Tuesday, my mom came in and read to our class.  On Friday, my daughter Lily (who had a half day) Face Timed in to read us a story and at the end of the day, my sister-in-law and I shared stories with our class and her Kindergarten class in Upstate NY.  The students loved it all!  

Here's a picture of Lily with her book:

Here's one of my sister-in-law's class reading to us:

100th Day of School

                                        

February 23, 2016

Today was a great day in our class!  It's the 100th day of school!  Can you believe we've gone through 100 days and only have 80 left!  We did lots of different activities today, and will continue with more as the week goes on, and we wanted to share some with you!

We shared our 100 day clue bags with our peers!  It was such fun giving clues and listening to our friends guess.

We cut, created, and decorated our 100 glasses!  They definitely show that we're 100 days smarter!

 We did used the timer for 100 seconds to see how many times we could write our names.  

We also counted how many times we jumped for  100 seconds!  They were tired!

Week of 2/9/16

Hello families!
I hope you all weathered the snow days well and now for us…it's back to business.  This post has lots of important information that you need to know, so please be sure to read it all and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Important information:

• We will be celebrating Friendship Day on Friday, the 12th.  If you choose to send in valentines, pencils, little notebooks, etc…you may but please send one in for everyone in the class.  We have 25 students.  Please be aware that we can not pass out food as a valentine due to school policy.  There are just so many allergies we know of and those we don't, and we'd hate to have anything happen.  Students will be decorating bags in class so no need to send one in.
• Students have received the directions for the 100th day of school activity.  Right now, the 100th day has been pushed till the Tuesday after vacation.  However, to help eliminate the need to get it done right after break when we return, the homework is going home tonight.  Please read it over and begin collecting the items and return to school this week, by Friday.  
• Homework is going home today…we did miss Monday and students were told they could try it if they wanted, as it's all review, or cross it out and move on to Tuesday.  

3, 2, 1 things you should know about what's happening in our classroom!

3 skills we've been finishing up in math are subtracting strategies such as taking leaps of 10 and decomposing landmark numbers, understanding how a timeline works, and using a timeline as a tool to help us solve age problems of our family.  We will be moving into measurement problem solving and addition/subtraction strategies after vacation.  

2 books we've read during our Friendship Unit are Something About Hensley's and Ivy and Bean, book 1.  We have used these stories to help us understand how characters are feeling based on their actions and how their actions or feelings have changed over the course of a book.  After vacation, we will move onto our questioning and inferring unit.  

1 unit we have started in science is ramps.  We will discuss what makes objects roll or slide faster and slower.  We will also make predictions and then test our ideas.  At the end of the unit, we will create our own ramps and test them out.  

Week of 1/15/16

Hello Families!
I hope you've  had a nice week and enjoyed the little bit of snow we received earlier this week.  Not enough to cause traffic headaches but enough to look very nice on the yards and trees.  Don't forget…there is no school on Monday, due to the Martin Luther King Jr holiday.

Today, I wanted to share with you a little activity we completed in class today.  Today, after snack time I left labels on the table that said "No Girls Allowed", "No Boys Allowed", "No Girls Allowed Up Front", and "No Boys Allowed Up Front".

During the rest of the day, the tables were changed up, placement in line, and the seating on the rug was changed.  Both girls and boys were on either side of the activity.  When they were the ones allowed to do things, they enjoyed it and were pleased.  When they were the ones not allowed to do things, they did not enjoy it.  I admit there were many that were unhappy when they were not allowed to sit up front or be in the front of the line.  There were also some who were allowed to do things that were bragging to others.  This was not allowed and we discussed this as a class when it happened.

I do this activity each year and students are very happy with it by the end. It is a great way to see what it's like to not be allowed to do something simply because they are a girl or boy. It's a great way to know what it's like to feel separated from other kids simply because they are a girl or boy.

At the end of the day, we had a wonderful conversation about why I set this up.  We talked about what is was like for whites and children of color during Martin Luther King Jr's time.  What each group of kids must have felt, how it wasn't as much fun, how it was great to get things but hard when they didn't, and how being separated from each other was unfair and sad.  We learned a great lesson that being treated equally is a great way to be and we are thankful for Martin Luther King Jr. teaching us that.

I appreciated your children trying the activity and working through it.  Also, for their good discussion at the end.
Have a wonderful long weekend!

Week ending 1/8/16

Happy New Year to everyone!
I hope 2016 has started off right for you this week and we're back to business here in the classroom.
Important information:

• In your child's folder is a packet of paperwork about upcoming field trips!  Please read it over very carefully, sign the permission slips if your child can join us, and send in the appropriate cash.  If you would like to be considered to be a chaperone, you must see Ms. Sheehan in the office to be sure you have a current CORI on file or complete the paperwork for.  Please do this next week so we can consider you.  Chaperones will be chosen out of a hat with those names that have a CORI or the paperwork completed.  
• Homework continues each week so please be sure that your child is completing their math and Fundations work, as well as reading nightly.
• The weather is definitely cooler and students still go out for lunch recess so please send them with clothes appropriate for the weather. 
• There is no school on January 18th for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

3, 2, 1 things you need to know this week…

3 activities we've been doing during our reading workshop time is reviewing what a just right book is (how to choose one, when to abandon a book, how you know a book is too easy or too hard), conferring with Ms. DeKing to talk about whether our books are just right, and we started an author study on James Marshall.

2 skills we worked on in math were estimating costs and pretend shopping.   

1 thing Nikol wants you to know is we started doing morning stretch before math. 

Weekly Update 12/18/15

Hello Families!
We've been very busy here in room 250!
A few reminders:

• Next week, Wednesday is our last day with a regular 3:00 dismissal.
• There is no creative arts next week as that session has ended.  
• Please remember to send your child with a jacket as it gets chilly during recess now.  
• Thank you to everyone who donated and/or helped with our project today…they loved it!

What's been happening in room 250?  

3 math skills we've practiced are writing and solving comparing word problems, problem solving both addition and subtraction, and adding and subtracting fluently within 20.

2 writing skills we've focused on are creating introductions that will make the reader want to read more and adding more to the page.

1 fun activity we did this week was snow globes!  

Here's a pic from today's activity…Enjoy!

Week ending 12/11/15

What a great week!  We've accomplished so much, had wonderful weather, and a great morning meeting this morning!  I'm so glad so many of you could make it today.  I understand it can be difficult attending activities but there will be other things this year.  

Important information:

• We need more mason jars, regular medium size (not too tiny and definitely not large) for a project next week.  I know AC Moore or Michael's usually has them.  Target too, I believe.  
• Next week is our last full week before the holiday break.
• Break starts on Wednesday the 23rd.  Dismissal on the 23rd is 3:00…same as a regular day.  There may not be extended day so please check with them if needed.  
• Break ends after New Years when we will return on that Monday.
• If your child will not be here, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks!

3 skills we practiced this week were making change using coins, picking out the most important facts about a person's life based on the biographies we chose, and how we need to be very specific about writing the "How to" portion of our informational books.  Ask you child about how I put on my sweater and made a jelly sandwich.  ;)

2 activities we did at morning meeting today were "What's the News?", where we can all greet our neighbor and share something important we want the class to know, and "Rainstorm" which is a great movement activity and helps us wake up first thing in the morning!

1 activity we worked on today was Hour of Code.  Students worked with a program where they gave the instructions for the character to move.  They loved it!  Be sure to look at our school website on the library page…you can get on it there too and have some more fun!

Have a great weekend!