Just a quick entry to let you know about a few things that we have planned in the coming weeks.
Our schedule has been a bit mixed up lately because of extra rehearsals for Arts Festival. During the next couple of weeks, we will be having a lot of extra, not in the schedule, practices and rehearsals. Please be sure your child is on time for school so that he or she can be a part of these. Some of the rehearsals will be at Hollins; please be sure your child is wearing comfortable walking shoes.
In the class time we have, we have been continuing our rock study when we can. This week we will be reading "Dave's Down-to-Earth Rock Shop" and will be taking a crack at some geodes to see what's inside.
This Friday and Saturday is our annual Strawberry Festival! If you haven't already done so, please sign up to volunteer. Information is avavilable in Quick Notes and on our school website. Please remember that each parent is expected to volunteer 12 hours toward making the festival a success. We cannot do it without your help!
Speaking of the festival, this Friday, we will be walking over to Hollins for some strawberry shortcakes. Please be sure your child is wearing good walking shoes that day.
On Wednesday May 30th, Beth's class will be going to El Rodeo for lunch with Elena. Please send in $7.00 with your child by Monday the 28th.
On Friday June 1st, Tulie's class will be going to El Rodeo for lunch with Elena. Please send in $7.00 with your child by Wednesday the 30th.
On Tuesday June 5th, our two classes will be going to see the Roanoke Children's Theater production of "Go Dog Go". Please send in $3 for your child's ticket. Kim M. has volunteered to help us drive, so we do not need any parent drivers on this trip.
A few things we need for the classroom:
We still need shoe boxes for our pet rock habitats. Please send them by the end of this week.
We need plastic wide mouth jars with lids for an end of the year project. Well-washed nut butter, pickle, jelly, or mayo jars are just the right size.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
It's great to have everyone back after a week of vacation! Things are going to be pretty busy here for us during these last 7 weeks of school. Our final unit of study is on rocks. The week before vacation, we read "Everybody Needs a Rock". The kids all found special rocks of their own and began painting and decorating to turn them into pet rocks. Please send in shoe boxes that we can use to make pet rock habitats. We will need the boxes by the 30th.
This week we have been focusing on "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble". Our centers this week are writing about our own wishes, recalling and writing 3 details from the story, and drawing a map of the important places in the story. Be sure to ask about it. The children also worked with Beth to write cause and effect statements from the story. For example: "Sylvester was scared of the lion, so he wished he was a rock" or "Sylvester's parents were worried about him, so the went to the police station and asked the neighbors if they had seen him".
Next week we will be focusing on the classic folk tale, "Stone Soup". The children will write their own recipes for soup, they will put a variety of soup vegetables in ABC order, and they will make a story map focusing on the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution.
We will also be tasting vegetables and graphing our preferences. We will make our own batch of soup. Please look for a note to come home requesting contributions for the soup pot. We will let you know what we need your child to bring in.
Next Friday during Science Friday with Elena, she will read a variation of the tale called "Cactus Soup".
Speaking of soup, we are going on a fieldtrip to the grocery store to buy soup to donate the either Soup for Seniors or to Second Harvest food bank. We have decided to use our bakesale money that we raised for this activity. Our trip to Kroger is on Thursday the 26th. We need a couple of parents to help us drive. Please let us know if you can help.
Please remember to sign up for your volunteer shifts for the Strawberry Festival. Nicole C. (Colin's mom) is heading up the chocolate dipped berries booth this year and would love some familiar faces to help her out. Beth, Keri, and Tulie are all heading up Kids' Games. We would also love some familiar faces!
This week we have been focusing on "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble". Our centers this week are writing about our own wishes, recalling and writing 3 details from the story, and drawing a map of the important places in the story. Be sure to ask about it. The children also worked with Beth to write cause and effect statements from the story. For example: "Sylvester was scared of the lion, so he wished he was a rock" or "Sylvester's parents were worried about him, so the went to the police station and asked the neighbors if they had seen him".
Next week we will be focusing on the classic folk tale, "Stone Soup". The children will write their own recipes for soup, they will put a variety of soup vegetables in ABC order, and they will make a story map focusing on the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution.
We will also be tasting vegetables and graphing our preferences. We will make our own batch of soup. Please look for a note to come home requesting contributions for the soup pot. We will let you know what we need your child to bring in.
Next Friday during Science Friday with Elena, she will read a variation of the tale called "Cactus Soup".
Speaking of soup, we are going on a fieldtrip to the grocery store to buy soup to donate the either Soup for Seniors or to Second Harvest food bank. We have decided to use our bakesale money that we raised for this activity. Our trip to Kroger is on Thursday the 26th. We need a couple of parents to help us drive. Please let us know if you can help.
Please remember to sign up for your volunteer shifts for the Strawberry Festival. Nicole C. (Colin's mom) is heading up the chocolate dipped berries booth this year and would love some familiar faces to help her out. Beth, Keri, and Tulie are all heading up Kids' Games. We would also love some familiar faces!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
It seems like just yesterday that we were brainstorming for words to describe March's lion and lamb weather. We know it's been a while since we last blogged, but we have been working hard and playing harder during these last 3 weeks. Here is what we've been up to:
Literacy units: Dr. Seuss! Dr. Seuss! Dr Seuss!
The children made story maps for "The Cat in the Hat". For such a short story, there sure are a lot of characters. Be sure to ask about the setting, the problem, and the solution.
We also read "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back". The children cut out hats, each marked with a different lower case letter. They stacked the hats in ABC order on top of the cat.
On Wacky Wednesday, while Beth took the group to the grassy hill behind the main house to read the book to the class, Tulie enlisted the help of a few strong teachers to move all of of tables and chairs to the yard in front of our classrooms. Just to be wacky, we did our work outside that day and even got to play with shaving cream on the tables. The kids had a blast and we got clean tables!
The egg drop on the 16 was a great success. We had a lot of fun (and used a lot of duct tape!) making the containers. While we were dropping eggs off the fire escape, a mischievous leprechaun made trouble in our rooms. If you haven't already heard, be sure to ask about! Later that day, we made sunglasses with our buddies.
In math, we continue to work on a variety of graphing methods, tallying, and measuring. We made horizontal bar graphs today and had to put our adding and subtracting skills to work while answering some questions about the graph's information.
Please remember that tomorrow is pajama day!
A few housekeeping notes:
With the warmer weather, the children are wearing clothing that exposes more of their skin. Please remember to apply sunscreen before the school day begins. Some of you have sent in bottles of sunscreen. We are happy to apply it for your child on days when we are spending more time than usual out in the sun but can not apply it every day before every recess. We have also see a lot sandals lately. While they are super cute, they do not protect their feet on the playground; please make sure your child is wearing shoes that will cover and protect his or her toes.
If you have any boxes, duct tape, foil, wrapping paper tubes, etc. please send them in tomorrow. We are make thingamajiggers with our buddies tomorrow afternoon!
Literacy units: Dr. Seuss! Dr. Seuss! Dr Seuss!
The children made story maps for "The Cat in the Hat". For such a short story, there sure are a lot of characters. Be sure to ask about the setting, the problem, and the solution.
We also read "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back". The children cut out hats, each marked with a different lower case letter. They stacked the hats in ABC order on top of the cat.
On Wacky Wednesday, while Beth took the group to the grassy hill behind the main house to read the book to the class, Tulie enlisted the help of a few strong teachers to move all of of tables and chairs to the yard in front of our classrooms. Just to be wacky, we did our work outside that day and even got to play with shaving cream on the tables. The kids had a blast and we got clean tables!
The egg drop on the 16 was a great success. We had a lot of fun (and used a lot of duct tape!) making the containers. While we were dropping eggs off the fire escape, a mischievous leprechaun made trouble in our rooms. If you haven't already heard, be sure to ask about! Later that day, we made sunglasses with our buddies.
In math, we continue to work on a variety of graphing methods, tallying, and measuring. We made horizontal bar graphs today and had to put our adding and subtracting skills to work while answering some questions about the graph's information.
Please remember that tomorrow is pajama day!
A few housekeeping notes:
With the warmer weather, the children are wearing clothing that exposes more of their skin. Please remember to apply sunscreen before the school day begins. Some of you have sent in bottles of sunscreen. We are happy to apply it for your child on days when we are spending more time than usual out in the sun but can not apply it every day before every recess. We have also see a lot sandals lately. While they are super cute, they do not protect their feet on the playground; please make sure your child is wearing shoes that will cover and protect his or her toes.
If you have any boxes, duct tape, foil, wrapping paper tubes, etc. please send them in tomorrow. We are make thingamajiggers with our buddies tomorrow afternoon!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Just a quick entry today:
During the month of March, the whole school will be participating in a Dr. Seuss unit of study. One of the activities is "Reading Across America". Outside Sharon's room, there is a map of the USA. Each book that we read counts for 1 mile. As a school, we are attempting to read as many books as there are miles across the USA. The students are all bringing home a reading log. Please keep this log in your child's folder. As you read a book to your child or your child reads a book to you, please have your child write the title and the author. If you are working on a chapter book together, each chapter counts as a book read--just be sure to write down the number of pages read. We will check the log and tally up the miles weekly. In addition to the log, we have enclosed a Dr. Seuss hat page. Throughout the month, your child can fill out as many of these as he or she wants (only one per day, though!). As they are returned, we will send home another. The ones that have been returned will be cut out and displayed throughout our rooms.
Happy Reading!!
Please be sure to read Quick Notes to find out more information about the month's Dr. Seuss activities.
Tulie will not be here on Friday. Beth will not be here on Monday. Don't forget to send in a teddy bear on Friday the 2nd.
During the month of March, the whole school will be participating in a Dr. Seuss unit of study. One of the activities is "Reading Across America". Outside Sharon's room, there is a map of the USA. Each book that we read counts for 1 mile. As a school, we are attempting to read as many books as there are miles across the USA. The students are all bringing home a reading log. Please keep this log in your child's folder. As you read a book to your child or your child reads a book to you, please have your child write the title and the author. If you are working on a chapter book together, each chapter counts as a book read--just be sure to write down the number of pages read. We will check the log and tally up the miles weekly. In addition to the log, we have enclosed a Dr. Seuss hat page. Throughout the month, your child can fill out as many of these as he or she wants (only one per day, though!). As they are returned, we will send home another. The ones that have been returned will be cut out and displayed throughout our rooms.
Happy Reading!!
Please be sure to read Quick Notes to find out more information about the month's Dr. Seuss activities.
Tulie will not be here on Friday. Beth will not be here on Monday. Don't forget to send in a teddy bear on Friday the 2nd.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Here's what's been going on in our room lately:
Last week we celebrated our 100th day of school. As you probably know, Nate the Great LOVES pancakes. In honor of Nate, during our celebration, we made and ate 100 pancakes! Not to worry--since we have 20 children in our two groups, each child only had to eat 5. The children also made portraits of themselves showing how they would look when they are 100 years old. Be sure to ask how they made all those wrinkles! Thanks to Katie and Nicole for all your help that day!
Last Wednesday, Charlie's dad and one of his bandmates came to school and gave an outdoor concert. They played fiddle, banjo, and guitar for us. The children had a great time singing, drumming out rhythms, and dancing.
We finished up our black bear study last week by reading Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Have you read it? Ask your child about the story. Be sure to ask about the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution. Be sure to ask your child what sort of sound the berries made when Sal dropped them into her pail. At the end of the week, during Science Friday with Elena, we predicted how a variety of items would sound when we dropped them into a tin pail. We dropped them in and documented the results.
This week our centers were based on Brown Bears (aka Kodiac bears and Grizzly bears). We read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and learned about alphabetical order by putting the animals from the story in ABC order. The centers were:
1. Cutting out 10 words/images and putting them in ABC order.
2. Writing facts about brown bears on the inside of a cut-out and glueing brown fur to the outside.
3. Using small (1 inch) toy bears as a unit of measure, the children chose from a variety of items in the basket to measure. They wrote the measurements down in sentences (for example: The doll is 13 bears long.).
Today during Science Friday, we worked with Laura who will be our Spanish sub while Elena is in Bolivia for 6 weeks. We read "Inch by Inch" by Leo Lionni. Using bears as a unit of measure, we predicted how far we could jump. We actually jumped. Finally, we noted whether the prediction was correct and, if not, whether it was more or less than our actual jumps.
This afternoon during buddy time, we went to Betsy's room to see her class perform puppet shows. After the puppet shows, we got a chance to meet Colin's new puppy. She sure is cute!
A couple more things:
Next Friday (the 2nd), please allow your child to bring in a teddy bear. We will be measuring the bears with help from our buddies.
We need about 45 20oz clear soda/water bottles for a project we have coming up. Please start saving and sending them in. Thanks!
Last week we celebrated our 100th day of school. As you probably know, Nate the Great LOVES pancakes. In honor of Nate, during our celebration, we made and ate 100 pancakes! Not to worry--since we have 20 children in our two groups, each child only had to eat 5. The children also made portraits of themselves showing how they would look when they are 100 years old. Be sure to ask how they made all those wrinkles! Thanks to Katie and Nicole for all your help that day!
Last Wednesday, Charlie's dad and one of his bandmates came to school and gave an outdoor concert. They played fiddle, banjo, and guitar for us. The children had a great time singing, drumming out rhythms, and dancing.
We finished up our black bear study last week by reading Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Have you read it? Ask your child about the story. Be sure to ask about the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution. Be sure to ask your child what sort of sound the berries made when Sal dropped them into her pail. At the end of the week, during Science Friday with Elena, we predicted how a variety of items would sound when we dropped them into a tin pail. We dropped them in and documented the results.
This week our centers were based on Brown Bears (aka Kodiac bears and Grizzly bears). We read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and learned about alphabetical order by putting the animals from the story in ABC order. The centers were:
1. Cutting out 10 words/images and putting them in ABC order.
2. Writing facts about brown bears on the inside of a cut-out and glueing brown fur to the outside.
3. Using small (1 inch) toy bears as a unit of measure, the children chose from a variety of items in the basket to measure. They wrote the measurements down in sentences (for example: The doll is 13 bears long.).
Today during Science Friday, we worked with Laura who will be our Spanish sub while Elena is in Bolivia for 6 weeks. We read "Inch by Inch" by Leo Lionni. Using bears as a unit of measure, we predicted how far we could jump. We actually jumped. Finally, we noted whether the prediction was correct and, if not, whether it was more or less than our actual jumps.
This afternoon during buddy time, we went to Betsy's room to see her class perform puppet shows. After the puppet shows, we got a chance to meet Colin's new puppy. She sure is cute!
A couple more things:
Next Friday (the 2nd), please allow your child to bring in a teddy bear. We will be measuring the bears with help from our buddies.
We need about 45 20oz clear soda/water bottles for a project we have coming up. Please start saving and sending them in. Thanks!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Just a quick entry today. Please remember to bring in Valentines that your child has written for each classmate. You can bring them in on Monday--the mailboxes are already up! Also, please be sure to check your child's folder. Enclosed is some important information about the 100th day of school. Have a good weekend.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Happy February everyone! Here's what has been going on this week:
Continuing with our bear unit, we have moved from polar bears to black bears. Our centers have been:
1. Match snowflakes and make your own snowflake.
2. Write three facts about black bears and, similar to the cotton ball polar bears you saw in our window at conference time, the students used black and dark brown felt stickers to add fur to their bears. Beth's class has already painted a black bear habitat on their window. Tulie's class will paint their habitat next week. Ask you child to tell you about black bears!
3. Gummy bear sort, count, and graph. Be sure to ask about it; it was delicious!
On Thursday with Keri's class, we compared and contrasted human hands to bear paws. The children looked at images of regular hands and paws in addition to x-rays of hands and paws. They worked in groups to come up with 2 similarities and 2 differences. Ask you child what a phalange is!
Because of Groundhog Day, we did a mini unit on shadows. During Science Friday time with Elena, we used an old-school overhead projector to cast a light on the wall. Using a variety of toys from around the classroom, we made shadows and tried to identify the source of the shadow. We discovered that a shadow is only the outline of the object and does not contain details like colors or facial features.
This afternoon, Beth's class traced a bear shadow that was enlarged by the overhead projector. After tracing it, they got to fill in their own details. Tulie's class worked outside with their buddies from Betsy's class. They took turns tracing their shadows with chalk. After that, they played shadow tag. It was a great day!
Thanks to everyone who sent in bake sale goodies. We will count up our money next week and then decide what we want to do with it.
We will be taking a trip to the Cloverdale post office next week. We will be going on Thursday the 9th at 10:15. We need a parent volunteer to help us with transportation. Please let us know if you would like to help. If any addresses have changed from the beginning of the year, please let us know. The children will be mailing Valentines to each other.
Tulie will not be at school on Monday. Julie Forehand (our former drama teacher) will sub. Mattie, our intern will also be here.
Auditions for the school talent show will be on February 9, 10, and 16. If you or your child would like to audition, please sign up with Kim M. or Karen Q. More information can be found in Quick Notes.
On a very different note, as many of you read in Quick Notes, the father of one of our student's passed away last weekend. We have told the children in our class about it. We have told them that they are welcome to talk to us about it at any time. They may also want to talk about it at home. We just wanted to let you know.
Enjoy your family time this weekend.
Continuing with our bear unit, we have moved from polar bears to black bears. Our centers have been:
1. Match snowflakes and make your own snowflake.
2. Write three facts about black bears and, similar to the cotton ball polar bears you saw in our window at conference time, the students used black and dark brown felt stickers to add fur to their bears. Beth's class has already painted a black bear habitat on their window. Tulie's class will paint their habitat next week. Ask you child to tell you about black bears!
3. Gummy bear sort, count, and graph. Be sure to ask about it; it was delicious!
On Thursday with Keri's class, we compared and contrasted human hands to bear paws. The children looked at images of regular hands and paws in addition to x-rays of hands and paws. They worked in groups to come up with 2 similarities and 2 differences. Ask you child what a phalange is!
Because of Groundhog Day, we did a mini unit on shadows. During Science Friday time with Elena, we used an old-school overhead projector to cast a light on the wall. Using a variety of toys from around the classroom, we made shadows and tried to identify the source of the shadow. We discovered that a shadow is only the outline of the object and does not contain details like colors or facial features.
This afternoon, Beth's class traced a bear shadow that was enlarged by the overhead projector. After tracing it, they got to fill in their own details. Tulie's class worked outside with their buddies from Betsy's class. They took turns tracing their shadows with chalk. After that, they played shadow tag. It was a great day!
Thanks to everyone who sent in bake sale goodies. We will count up our money next week and then decide what we want to do with it.
We will be taking a trip to the Cloverdale post office next week. We will be going on Thursday the 9th at 10:15. We need a parent volunteer to help us with transportation. Please let us know if you would like to help. If any addresses have changed from the beginning of the year, please let us know. The children will be mailing Valentines to each other.
Tulie will not be at school on Monday. Julie Forehand (our former drama teacher) will sub. Mattie, our intern will also be here.
Auditions for the school talent show will be on February 9, 10, and 16. If you or your child would like to audition, please sign up with Kim M. or Karen Q. More information can be found in Quick Notes.
On a very different note, as many of you read in Quick Notes, the father of one of our student's passed away last weekend. We have told the children in our class about it. We have told them that they are welcome to talk to us about it at any time. They may also want to talk about it at home. We just wanted to let you know.
Enjoy your family time this weekend.
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