Guess how much I spent to get all these books for our class? ONLY $12!! Our class got all these books because you ordered from scholastic book clubs!! Thank you!!!! The children will be so so excited!
Wednesday
Tuesday
Parachutes and More Air
We had a great breeze for parachutes on Friday!! The students saw how air resistance can slow down an object that is falling to the ground!
Using bendable tubes and syringes the students made more predictions and discoveries about air. You can push air and trap air!
Monday
Monday Update…September 20th
· Our Scholastic Book Order was placed FRIDAY...can’t wait until the books arrive!
· Our PTO change jar is half way full! Send in your loose change, because our class has to be the heaviest to win!
· If you were getting a bag of apples for our apple week please send them in tomorrow, if you haven’t already done so. All other apple tasting items need to be sent it in by Thursday, September 23rd if you haven’t already done so. Johnny Appleseed Apple Tasting Party will be this Friday, September 24th from 12:40-1:15.
· Please complete math homework in pencil and return it the next day for full credit. The math requires a lot of reading and your child will need your help to complete math until they can begin to read the math on their own. Your child will have math homework on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
· THANKS to all that have grabbed giving gators at Meet the Teacher and Open House. If you grabbed one please send in the item.
· Check your food for box tops.
· T-shirt Money due Friday, October 1st
· Walking Field Trip to the Fire Department for Fire Safety Month in October...more info to come!
· Fisheries Field Trip is in the works for November (estimated cost $6) More info to come!
· $1.00 Pickle Fridays
Sunday
What we have been learning…
We have the best class! Have I said that too many times? Well it’s what I think. The students have been amazing during this first week of switching for reading and writing. I am looking forward to all the students growth this year! So here is some of what we learned about this week!
- They learned how to pick a good fit book. A good fit book is a book they can read independently without much support from adults and still have a good understanding of what they read. When we trying to find a good fit book this is what we do!
- Ask your self some questions?
- Is their a series I’d like to read?
- What topics interest me?
- What authors do I like?
- Preview the book
- read the cover
- read the a page
- look at the illustrations
- read the table of contents
- Use the five finger rule
- When reading a page put a finger up for each word you do not understand.
- 0-1 fingers too easy
- 2-3 JUST RIGHT
- 4-5 Too hard
- Students are making predictions left and right. We have been making predictions from our reading. Based on what you have read and what you already know about something…what do you predict. Making predictions makes us think about what we are reading and that is so important. We never want to read to read the words. We always want to take meaning from our reading and predictions make us think! :) When making predictions i give them the terminology such as “I predict….”
- During writing we are learning about ideas and how choosing a good interesting topic to write about makes people want to read your writing. We write for people to read our writing. We haven’t talked to much about this, but we will get to the fact that people write for a purpose. So soon I will expose student to this idea.
- We began math instruction this week with copies. We are still waiting on our student books. :( Students are enjoying using manipulatives to explore and solve addition problems. On Friday we began making number sentences with plus and equal signs. The students enjoyed finding the sum (the answer to an addition problem).
I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend! It has been a great one at the Whitehurst house the gators won! :)
Monday Update...September 13th
· Check your child’s behavior passport in the last sleeve of their folder. If your child receives a whole punch it much be initialed by you in order for them to participate in FUN FRIDAY.
· The PTO Coin Drive has begun; send in your loose change! Our class has to be the heaviest!
· SAC (6:00) and PTO (7:00) meetings on Tuesday September 14th. Sorry there was a typo on the calendar.
· SCHOLASTIC book orders are due this Friday September 17th.
· WEDNESDAY is an early release day and the NEW TIME for dismissal is 12:10!!!!!!!!
· The PBS Pep Rally is Wednesday and the students will get excited about following the ABC’s!
· THANKS to all that have grabbed giving gators at Meet the Teacher and Open House. If you grabbed one please send in the item.
· Use the stories I send home to read throughout the week. The more we read the better readers we become!
· Check your food for box tops.
· ME BAGS are past due. Please help your child put theirs together and send in tomorrow. Include a photo of your family, item representing hobby, favorite book, and any other item that is special.
· Johnny Appleseed Apple Tasting Party will be September 24th 12:40-1:15. Mark your calendars if you would like to join us! More information to come!
Friday
Air, Ballet, and a Coin Drive
What a fun few days we have had this week! I just love my kiddos! They make me laugh, love, and think all the time. We got started on our Air and Weather SUMS kit. We began the unit today with our air bags. In there bag they had a feather, a flexible straw, and small Styrofoam ball, a balloon, and a cotton ball. I took all the items out of a sample bag and ask the children if there was anything else in the bag. They looked at me like I was crazy until I had one brave soul say, “Oh I know…AIR!!!!” To see their minds work right before me is so neat. Here are pictures of the children exploring air with the items in their air bag. I loved every second of it until they discovered the squeaking noise with their balloon.
Air takes up space! You can feel air, but you can’t see it.
Air makes objects move.
Air makes objects float.
Air bag materials.
Trying to make a feather fly.
Moving that Styrofoam ball with air. 
After a morning of science we had to take a break for some Fun Friday fun. Students that had 3 or less whole punches got to participate. Mrs. Inman and I gave the students options…they could play kick ball with me or stay in for some fun free centers in Mrs. Inman’s room. I took my camera out to get pictures of the kick ball game, but I was the pitcher and completely enthralled in the game until we had to go hydrate. When done playing we headed in to get water and lay down on the rug to cool our bodies off. I turned on my Enya CD so they could cool of and relax for a few moments, but the student had other plans. Ballet was in there future!
I have the silliest kiddos and I love them to death!
After Fun Friday we completed a few math activities and began another science investigation. We used the outside picnic tables for this one since it called for basins of water. The object was to use the vial and the Styrofoam balls to discover more things about air to share when we had our discussion.
You can trap air underwater. Bubble are what air looks like under water.
The students job this weekend was to show you what they learned today about air using the bath tub or a sink.
We are getting somewhere with our coin drive but we have a ways to go!! If our jar is the heaviest I do believe we will get a pizza party.
Tuesday
Collect 20 and other Math Centers
We use a program called SUMS for some of our math and science lessons. SUMS is an acronym for Student Understanding Math and Science. We will get four science kits per year: Air and Weather, Balance and motion, New Plants, Animal Two by Tow. The first kit is Air and Weather which we will begin this week. There is also a math curriculum that has all sorts of math games and activities. I modeled the first SUMS game Collect 20 for students last week. Collect 20 helps them identify the number dots on a dot cube (dice), practice one to one correspondence, and the importance of checking their work. Socially they have to learn to take turns and problem solve when one student want to go first and when they want a certain color counter. The student have worked so well together and I just love to see their little brains at work in the classroom. They also have explored pattern blocks which they used to create designs and linking cubes to create color patterns. We are crossing our fingers that the math curriculum comes this week!
Honeycomb for the bees!
A rocket ship!!
A
Saturday
Tuesday Update...September 7th
Mrs. Inman and I are almost done with FAIR we will be meeting with our administration this week to determining our reading groups. We will begin switching soon for reading and writing.
· Check your child’s behavior passport in the last sleeve of their folder.
· ME BAGS are past due. Please help your child put theirs together and send in tomorrow. Include a photo of your family, item representing hobby, favorite book, and any other item that is special.
· If you have not done so please send in $5 for our first grade T-shirt and a spare set of clothes in a Ziploc baggie (which will be returned at the end of the year).
· THANKS to all that have grabbed giving gators at Meet the Teacher and Open House. You have gone above and beyond for our class! We are so thankful for all you do!
· The PTO Coin Drive has begun; send in your loose change! We want to win! Our class has to be the heaviest!
· Use the stories I sent home to read throughout the week. The more we read the better readers we become!
· Check your food for box tops.
Johnny Appleseed Apple Tasting Party will be September 24th 12:40-1:15. Mark your calendars if you would like to join us! More information to come!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
