Friday, December 14, 2012

Blogger slacker!

I'm sorry to you guys that I have been a blogger slacker this week.  My entire family has been sick with this funk and it seems that it is my turn now.  We have had a busy week with the dress up days, can collecting (we got 110), and the field trip.  Next week is going to be very busy and fun as well.  Monday is going to be a regular school day and we will continue with multiplication, biographies, plants, and the aftermath of the Revolutionary War.  Tuesday will bring Holidays Around the World to our classroom.  The students will travel to each classroom and will learn about different holidays that are celebrated all around the world.  On Wednesday, we are going to have Polar Express Day.  We will wear our jammies to school, read the story, complete many different writing and reading activities, make a multplication Santa, drink hot cocoa (Mrs. Claus' own recipe), and enjoy a viewing of the movie.  This is always a fun day and the kids have a blast.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Field Trip and Wacky Wednesday and 12-12-12!!

Tomorrow is a very exciting day for us in class.  We are taking a field trip to Brattonsville and we will get to see what it was like on a regular school day during the Colonial Days.  Tomorrow is also Wacky Wednesday!  The students can dress up as wacky as they want to.  Backwards clothes, shorts on top of pants, mismatched shoes or socks, crazy hair and remember if they dress up, please have them bring a canned good or five or $.25 or five.  Tomorrow is also historical in that it will be 12-12-12!  This will not happen again for 100 years!

Number of the Day:  137 (next odd, next even, ten more, ten less, number in words, number in flats, rods, and cubes)

Writing Workshop:  We read the story Olive the Reindeer.  This is a cute story about a dog that misunderstands the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song and she thinks they say "Olive the other reindeer."  She takes off on an adventure to the North Pole.  The students created their own reindeer's and came up with three characteristics to describe their reindeer.  We will write stories about our reindeer and their adventures.

Reading Workshop:  We finished our reindeer and then took a reading mini assessment.  The students continued to work on their reading workshop activities.

Math Workshop:  I read a math story about Sandy Bean that always liked to count anything and everything, but she discovered that counting took to long when counting a lot of items.  She found out that multiplication was a good way to add faster.  We practiced solving some multiplication problems and then created some of our own.

Science:  We looked at our celery stalk and saw how the water moved through the roots.  We watered our seeds and then created a study guide of a diagram of a seed and plant.  This test will be next week.

**Field trip tomorrow.
**Wacky Wednesday (Bring canned goods!)

Monday, December 10, 2012

WOW!! Get better soon!

These are the three words that I want to say today.  We had six students out today and four more left sick.  Please keep your child at home if they are complaining of a stomach ache, headache, or aching body.  If they have a fever 100F or over, you MUST keep them at home.  They must be fever free for 24 hours. Please make sure your children are taking their vitamins and washing their hands.  I am disinfecting the room every afternoon when the students leave.  Thank you for your help.

Morning Journal:  What is your favorite snack?

Writing Workshop:  We read a story about snowflakes and how they are all unique.  We then discussed the different ways that we are all unique.  We made our own snowflakes and wrote down five reasons we believe we are unique.

Reading Workshop:  We read a few more biographies and then the students completed questions about a reading passage.

Math Workshop:  We completed a multiplication problematic task.  The students did extremely well and I am excited to see how they do over the next few weeks.

Science:  We watched a short video about plants and all their parts.  We looked at how the food coloring moved through our celery stick to get to the top of the plant.

SS:  We looked at what life was like in Brattonsville versus our lives today.

**Field trip on Wednesday!!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Whew!!!

That is really all I can say about today!!  Please remember to have your child bring in money for the Santa Shop on Monday, if you would like them to purchase items.  Monday is also camoflauge day.  If your child would like to dress up in camoflauge or if you just want to help out, please have them bring in a canned good or five or $.25.  Thanks for your support.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Program was amazing!!

I once again would like give a big congrats to Mrs. Colter for the awesome holiday program that she put on last night.  The kids did a great job.

Number of the day: 663 (next odd, next even, count on three, count back three)

Writing Workshop:  We are finishing up our final drafts of the small moment stories that we created.

Reading Workshop:  We are continuing to study biographies and today the students made a time line of 10 important events in their life.

Math Workshop:  Today we completed the review centers for our pattern unit.  We will have a test on patterns tomorrow.  The students need to know how to solve color, shape, picture, and number patterns, in/out (function) boxes, growth patterns, and missing addends.

SS:  We watched a Detective Bonz video about South Carolina and the Revolutionary War.  We have a test tomorrow.  The study guide came home two days ago.

Science:  We discussed where seeds are found, how water effects seeds, changes that we think we will see after 5 more days of observation of our seeds, and what is inside a seed.

**Town Hall meetings tomorrow.  Please have your child wear an Independence shirt or red, white, and blue.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Holiday Program Tonight!!

The holiday program is tonight at Castle Heights Middle School.  The students need to wear green, blue jeans, and sneakers.  They must be there at 6:30 in the chorus room.  You can pick them up after the program from the chorus room.

Morning Journal:  Happy birthday Mickey Mouse!!  What is your favorite Disney character and why?

Science:  Today we pulled apart our lima bean seeds so we could see the different parts.  We found the embryo, seed coat, and cotyledons (dicot and monocot). 

The students need to know the following definitions from this lesson:
germination: when a seed begins to develop
organisms: all living things, including plants and animals
growth: when an organism gets bigger
seedlings: young plants that grow from seeds
roots: first structure to grow.  Grows downward and hold the plant to the ground and gets nutrients.
stem:  grows up and supports the rest of the plant.
leaves:  flat (usually) green parts of the plant

SS:  We reviewed over the answers to the study guide and I introduced the Heritage project.  The heritage project is the culminating activity to our Global Children's Challenge.  The student's will research the country of their heritage.  Please note: the only people from the United States are Native Americans, so unless your family is Native American, your child should not be doing the United States.

**Town Hall meeting on Friday.  Please have them wear their Independence shirt or red.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Beans, Seeds, and Plants!

We have started the germination process with our first seeds and beans.  The students will observe the germination process over the next week.  Tomorrow, we will plant our first bean plant, where the students will observe how this plant grows over a three week period.

Number of the Day:  444 (number before, number after, 10 more, 10 less, next odd, next even)

Writing Workshop:  We are finishing up our small moment stories to display in our classroom.

Reading Workshop:  We read a few biographies about famous Americans.  The students answered questions about a famous African American, Martin Luther King Jr., after reading a short passage.

Math Workshop:  We continued our study of growth patterns and made t-charts to solve the patterns.

Science:  See above. 

SS:  We completed the Revolutionary War study guide and the students were supposed to bring it home tonight to study.  The test will be on Friday.

**Holiday program is tomorrow.  The students need to wear a green shirt and jeans.

**Town Hall meeting is this Friday.  Please have your child wear their Independence shirt or red.

**Can food drive starts Monday.  We are incorporating a spirit week with our can food drive.  If your child brings in a can good or $.25, they can dress in that days appropriate clothing.  The class with the most cans brought in will have a pizza party.
Monday: Camoflage Day
Tuesday: 80's Day
Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday
Thursday: Twin Day
Friday: Team Spirit Day

Monday, December 3, 2012

Field Trip Fun!

We had a blast at our field trip on Friday.  I am working on a slide show of all the pictures that I took and I hope to have it up on my blog by this Friday.

Morning Journal:  What is your favorite Sesame Street character and why?

Reading Workshop:  We are beginning our study of biographies and autobiographies.  We will be writing our own autobiographies and choosing a famous African American to write a biography about.

Math Workshop:  We practiced solving growth pattern word problems by using a t-chart.  The t-charts help to keep us organized when working with such large numbers.

SS:  We created a battle map of SC to show where all of the battles in our state took place.  We will continue to add to this map as we study more battles.  We will have a test on the Revolutionary War this Friday.  The study guide will come home tomorrow.

Science:  We watched a short video about plants and how they grow.  Tomorrow we will plant our first seeds and observe how they grow over a two week period.

**Holiday program is this Wednesday!!

**Town Hall meeting this Friday!!