BOOK BUDDIES!

Yesterday and today were JAM PACKED! On Wednesday, Joshton’s mom came and taught us about our last two art pieces that we will see tomorrow at the MIA. After, we had Daily 5 reading time then headed to the library to check out new books then returned to the class to finish up our reading block. After lunch we continued practicing the “count up strategy” for 2 digit subtraction. Hopefully the Parent Cheat Sheets helped out at home. J After math, Carol from the Wentworth Library came to promote the  Waggin’ Tails program that the library offers. Students have the opportunity to check out books and read with a dog! Dates for this program are listed outside of our classroom. Soon after Carol left, our brand new kindergarten book buddies came!!! The kids LOVED reading with their new friends and did a great job setting good examples, answering questions, and overall reading to their buddy (ies). We will meet with our book buddies every Wednesday for the last 20 minutes of the day. They can’t wait until next week.

Today, Ms. Casmer came and taught the students about problem solving. Students created “stop lights” that remind them to stop and calm down, think about their choices, and finally make a good choice of how to solve the problem instead of making it bigger.

During Daily 5, students continued to use their checklists that tell me what centers they get to each day. We also did a fun adjective activity! Students drew a picture of themselves with their name below. We then walked around the room and wrote adjectives that describe the person on each paper. The students did a great job and said that they felt special after reading the adjectives that others wrote on their paper. Since our story of the week is The Quilt Story we are going to create a Class Adjective Quilt in the hallway.

In math, we continued to practice 2-digit addition before going to the 1^st grade music program. The students were a wonderful and respectful audience.

Tomorrow we will be going to the MIA in the morning. We will return in time for lunch and some math before we head to the gym for our "I LOVE TO READ MONTH KICK-OFF" Assembly. At the assembly, teachers will read and act out a story. Mrs. Kantola, Ms. Stoffel, and I will present an I Love to Read Challenge to the students along with a special reward if the students meet the goal of reading 2,500 books in the month of February. I love to read month will include a lot of fun events, so watch for updates in our weekly newsletter!

FINALLY, we celebrated Lucas’ birthday today! Tomorrow we will celebrate Alex’s! I can’t believe that I have watched most of this group grow from being nervous and enrgetic  kindergarteners to proud and focused 8 year olds! WOW! J

Zoomers & Twirlers

Happy Tuesday-

On Friday, Students had a blast with the Zoomers during our Balance and Motion Science Unit. Some of the kids got them to work right away while it took others a little while to figure them out. They were tricky! I have a picture of the zoomers on my ipad, but for some reason it doesn't want to upload. 

Also on Friday, our Strawberry reading group performed a Reader’s Theater for the class. It was very funny and opened up a great discussion about bugs, people, and treating others the way we want to be treated.

Students have been working very hard during Daily 5. I have been trying to find a good method of how to keep track of what centers the students get to each day and how to make sure that they get to Read to Self and Word Work every day. Yesterday, I introduced a “Daily 5 Checklist”. Students keep track of the centers they go to by marking the box under the day of the week that correlates with that center. After Daily 5, I go around and check each checklist and make sure that centers were marked. So far, it seems to be working well.

Today, students made Twirlers in Science. We observed how different twirlers move and what makes them move differently.

In writing, we began changing our animal report notes into sentences. Today, we did the characteristics of our animals. Tomorrow, we will focus on the habitat.

Tomorrow Khandy will return and teach the children about 2 more pieces of artwork that they will see at the MIA on Friday. We will also visit the library to check out new books. At 1:30 every Wednesday, starting tomorrow, we will meet with our brand new book buddies! Mrs. Farrell’s kindergarten class will be buddying up with our 2^nd grade class and will read for 20 minutes together. Sometimes, we will have activities and games for the students to play, but the students will mostly be reading together.

Have a wonderful evening!

READY FOR SOME WARMTH!

Good evening-

I hope you are all staying warm in this frigid weather! I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use some warm weather right now. J Indoor recess just doesn’t seem to be as fun for the kids as sliding down the “ice hill” as they call it, or galavanting through the snow! Coloring sheets just can’t compare. Luckily our Balance and Motion Unit has added some extra excitement! The students have been learning all about balance and motion. Yesterday, they got to design their own tops! They had so much fun decorating and then competing to see who’s top could spin the longest. Tomorrow we will be making Zoomers-I’ve heard that zoomers are the best thing about  this unit (source: 3^rd graders and my teammates). I will have to take pictures to post tomorrow.

In math, we have been learning about 2 digit subtraction. The students will be learning multiple strategies as to how to solve 2 digit subtraction. A number of strategies are taught so that students can figure out which way works and makes the most sense to them.

In reading, we continue to practice visualizing while we read. The students listened to music yesterday and many noticed that composers, like authors, write music that puts a picture in your head.

We also continue to do research for our animal reports. I think I am just as excited as the kids! The students are doing such a great job taking notes. Next week, we will begin to turn our notes into sentences that will create our final animal report book. All of the children are taking a lot of ownership in this project and are proud of their work.

Report cards are being sent home tomorrow along with a conference sign up slip. Please return the conference slip as soon as possible.

We are also going on our field trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art next Friday. Field trip permission slips were sent home last week. Please return them to school as soon as possible as well. If you are interested in joining us for the field trip, we would LOVE to have you! Please contact me if you would like to come.

Have a wonderful night!

Catch Up!

I can’t believe how far behind I am on blogging!

After being sick last week and trying to finish up end of the quarter work, blogging has been pushed to the wayside. I am sorry!

Last week….

• Khandy Vongxay came and taught us about 2 more art pieces that we will see at the Minneapolis Art Museum on February 1^st. If you would like to join us on the trip, please contact me :) 

• Students learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. Students then wrote about their own dreams to make the world a better place.

 

• Students chose an animal to do a nonfiction report about. In art, they will make papers that have the textures and colors of their animal and their animal’s habitat. In class, students will use the papers to create a cover page showing their animal in it’s habitat (similar to Eric Carle’s illustrations). This process is called Image Making. So far, students have taken notes on their animal’s characteristics. We will continue taking notes on their animal’s habitat, diet, predators, and interesting facts. Students will create an ibook using the ipads as well as a paper book to take home. 

• Ann Luke visited us and taught us all about Kiwi!!! Kiwi was our healthy snack of the week. Did you know that you can eat the entire kiwi including the hairy skin?? Did you know one kiwi provides you with all of the Vitamin C you need for a day??  

Today students…

• Practiced visualizing while reading. “You don’t use your eyes when you visualize…you use your brain!” (one of the chants we learned today) 

• Ann Luke visited us again and taught us about this week’s snack—JICAMA. Jicama is the Spanish name for “Yam Bean”. It is full of fiber as well as Vitamin C. We will taste this vegetable tomorrow!

 

The blue jug shows the size of a second grader’s stomach.

                                                    

This picture shows the length of a 2^nd grader’s small intestine (14 Feet)

                                                    

This picture shows the length of a 2^nd grader’s large intestine.

                                                    

• Learned about adding 3 numbers
• Took notes on their animal’s characteristics.

I hope you are all staying nice and warm! Please make sure your child gets enough sleep at night and gets lots of fluids! If they are sick please keep them home. The flu is going around like crazy!

Busy Bees

Good morning-

Our Balance and Motion Science Unit  has been a blast and the kids have been having so much fun figure out what balance is, and what it takes to get objects to balance. Yesterday, students experimented balancing a triangle and arch on a popsicle stick using counterweights. They didn’t want to stop trying to find more ways to get them to balance. We began a word bank to make notes about all of the new words we have learned with this unit. We have also been adding to our KWL chart. I have been amazed with the vocabulary they have picked up and continue to use throughout the lessons.

In reading, students continue to practice finding verbs. Students also learned a song all about asking questions while they read to help them understand what they are reading. Yesterday, we practiced asking questions before, during, and after reading a book. I modeled how to do it, the students helped, and then they did it on their own. “Carlos”, our paper friend, has helped students understand that good readers make connections to their own lives, the world, and to other books. Good readers also ask questions. All of these things along with MORE go on in Carlos’ brain every time he reads and eventually we will add more too.

Below is a picture of a sheet students fill out to practice asking questions before, during and after reading.

In math, we are learning a lot about geometry. Students have been reviewing polygons (from 1^st grade) and have now learned about quadrangles. Students learned that quad means 4 making quadrangle mean 4 angles or as I say “4 corners”. Students also learned about 90 degree angles/ square angles. On Tuesday, we reviewed points and line segments. Instead of using paper and pencil, we used our bodies! The students had so much fun and it helped some of the students really grasp the concept of naming line segments.