Monday, November 18, 2013

November

It has been a busy month!  I can't believe it is already the middle of November!  We have had a ton of learning going on in our classroom and I am enjoying watching each student grow!  We have been learning new glued sounds in phonics (ing, ang, ong, ung, ink, ank, onk, unk), we've been learning text features and thin and thick questions in comprehension, in science we have been learning about the Earth and Sun, and in math, we've been learning missing addends! Whew! That's a ton of learning, but it has been a lot of fun as well!









I want to give a BIG shout out to all of my excellent students for winning another plinko party and winning snow cones!  Also, a BIG shout out to my book-it students who read at least 6 books last month to win a free pizza and to my Xtramath students who work hard every day to increase their scores!



Reminders!
November 19th:  1st grade program 7pm
November 20th:  Thanksgiving crafts and desserts
November 25-29:  NO SCHOOL!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

October

This month has flown by!  I can't believe we are already half way through October!  We have been learning so many new things and the children seem to be enjoying every bit of it.  In phonics, we have been learning digraphs (ch, wh, th, sh, ck), bonus letters (f,l,s, and sometimes z) and all of those trick words that we can't sound out to spell!  In comprehension we have been learning about main idea, details, context clues and figurative language.  In writing, we have been concentrating on letter formation and writing each letter correctly and we are starting to move on to capitalization, making sure we capitalize the beginning of sentences, names, and I when it is by itself.  We have also been learning new reading centers and rocking the ones we already know!



In math, we have been learning the commutative property (3+2=5, 2+3=5), adding three numbers (3+2+4=9), doubles (2+2, 3+3) and the associative property (grouping numbers different ways, but getting the same answer 3+4+5, 5+4+3).  The children have really caught on to these different properties and the strategies we have learned to solve this problems!

In science, we have been talking about sinking and floating and how heavy objects sink and lighter objects float.  With this, we were able to do our Dancing Raisins experiment.  We used cups, sprite and raisins and predicted what was going to happen.  Some students said sink, some said float, but what they didn't know was that with the carbonation, the raisins danced!  They would float and sink because of the bubbles from the carbonation.




Reminders:
Wednesday, October 23:  Character Dance
Friday, October 25:  Report Cards and Fall Carnival 5-7 at JBES



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September

It has been a busy month!  We finished our FAIR testing, have been learning how to tap out CVC words, we've been exploring our five senses, and started counting back in math!  It has been a lot of hard work, but as always, we've been having fun doing it! Continue to work with your children at home with their reading and math homework.  It makes a world of difference in the classroom!  
Our class has been on their best behavior and earned 10 charms last week, which means we got to play PLINKO!  The students won a movie and popcorn party and loved every minute of it.

Important Dates:
September 12 - Parent Night
September 16 - No School
September 25 - Early Release

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

First Week

   The first week of school was a blast!  I had such a great time getting to know your students and interacting with them.  We jumped head first into reading stories, talking about them, writing and counting.  We have been talking about characters and settings in a story and using what we talk about to write in our Frayer models and answer questions about the stories we have read.  In math, we have been counting to 120 by ones, fives and tens and identifying numbers on our number chart.  It has been a lot of work already, but we've been having fun in the process!
   Please continue to send your child's home folder to and from school every day.  Also, be sure to check it every night to see if something new comes home.  Remember to do the homework, practice sight words and read every night so we can both build the students up for success!  

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

April

April has flown by, as the rest of the year has, but we have been learning a lot and having fun in the process! We are currently learning our vowel suffixes (ed & ing) in phonics, sequencing in comprehension, writing narratives and measurement in math!








We had our field trip to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, which was a blast!  The children had a lot of fun learning about different animals and riding the rides!  We also wrote a narrative about it and what we would have done if an animal had gotten loose!







Just a reminder that we will be testing for the next two weeks!  Please get plenty of rest, a good breakfast and get to school on time!!

Important dates:
May 6-10:  Parent Conferences-check your yellow sheet to find the day and time you come in
May 20:  No School-teacher workday
May 27:  No School-Memorial day
June 3: Field Day
June 5: Last day of school

Saturday, March 9, 2013

It's been a while!

I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in a few months, but I promise we have been learning lots and having a lot of fun!  We have just finished learning closed syllable words and blends along with finishing up subtraction.  We are now learning about two syllable words (i.e. napkin, absent, cobweb) and we are starting up with double digit addition.  The skills are getting harder, but I know they will be able to get them with practice and support!  Over the past few months we have celebrated Valentine's day with our Valentine's dance and giving cards and candy to classmates.  We also just recently celebrated our 120th day of school and Dr. Seuss' birthday!  Also, the students have been able to bring in $1 and have special privileges or treats (wear flip flops, sno-cones, etc) in support of Relay for Life which is coming up on April 6.  Last, but not least, the book fair will be in our Library starting THIS week.  March 11-14 the book fair will be open to students to buy books, posters and other fun school accessories.  Please send money with your child if they would like to purchase something.  Here are a few pictures from the past few months in our classroom!









Friday, December 28, 2012

December

I hope all of you are having a wonderful break with your children!  I'm enjoying my break, but I do miss my students!  We had a blast the last couple weeks before Christmas break!  Between the play and the anticipation for Christmas, we had fun learning about retelling stories by reading some books about Santa.  We also finished our ng/nk phonics unit and did some addition math CIMs.  Please continue to work with your children over the break so they will come back ready to tackle our upcoming units!  Here are some pictures of the last couple weeks in our classroom!

We won a sno-cone party for earning 20 charms!

Our play was a hit!

 My little reindeer!




PJ day!