Thank you all so much for the AWESOME card! It's adorable, I love it!
I hope all of you have had a wonderful extended winter break so far! My surgery went well and I plan to be returning to school on Monday, January 4th!
Enjoy the rest of the break, and have a very happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Oh the weather outside is frightful...
...but our class is SO delightful! Applause to our second graders for doing a WONDERFUL job earning Soaring With Pride Stickers - compliments in the hallway, excellent behavior in the cafeteria, as well as following directions during specials. Way to go kiddos! :)
I would also like to applaud our second graders for all their hard work and great behavior during math. We have been focusing on area, perimeter, measurement to the nearest inch and half inch, converting inches to feet, feet to yards, and yards to miles. We will continue this focus until the break, and then move onto data collection in the New Year! Data collection includes reading, interpreting, and creating bar graphs, pictographs, and tally tables, conducting surveys, and analyzing probability.
Our last spelling quiz of 2009 will be on Tuesday, December 22. This spelling exploration has been on short o and r-controlled o words. Our next spelling exploration will be on words with the long u spelling pattern. (cute, flute, suit, route, etc.)
We've begun our science unit! We will be observing the sky - observing moon phases, learning about the comparative sizes of Earth to the moon, and to the sun, as well as learning about constellations! The students are supposed to keep a log of the moon phases on a pink calendar (which should be in the back cover pocket of their Home/School folders) the website for the moon phases has been added to the "Helpful Links" section of the blog. The students are supposed to try to see the moon if they can - I understand that bedtimes and weather conditions often get in the way of this - but if at all possible, do try to record what they actually see outside, as opposed to on the computer screen. This is provided as a back-up plan :) Thank you!
Due Monday, December 21st - the Holiday Booklet. Students are to choose at least five symbols of a holiday that your family enjoys. This could be a holiday that occurs in December - such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa - or a holiday that you celebrate another time of year - such as Thanksgiving, Diwali, Ramadan, etc. Make a holiday booklet. Illustrate and write to share how your family enjoys these holidays. Create a cover and write a title. Students need to be prepared to share their booklets with the class. The goal is to learn of the different traditions we have in our class! Students are encouraged to use different art materials and to be creative - can't wait to see the final projects!
Tuesday, December 22nd - we will be having a little Winter Celebration. Parents are welcome to come! We'll begin around 9:30 - just some snacks and crafts and wintery fun! Hope you can make it - please be sure to sign in at the front office if you are able to join us. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 23rd - the students will have a substitute teacher as I am having my knee surgery. The students have been asking more questions about what exactly is going to be happening - I have explained that I have some fragments in my knee, and the doctor is going to go in and clean them out! I can't wait to have it OVER and DONE with!!
Please drive safely and enjoy the snow! BRRRRRRRR!
I would also like to applaud our second graders for all their hard work and great behavior during math. We have been focusing on area, perimeter, measurement to the nearest inch and half inch, converting inches to feet, feet to yards, and yards to miles. We will continue this focus until the break, and then move onto data collection in the New Year! Data collection includes reading, interpreting, and creating bar graphs, pictographs, and tally tables, conducting surveys, and analyzing probability.
Our last spelling quiz of 2009 will be on Tuesday, December 22. This spelling exploration has been on short o and r-controlled o words. Our next spelling exploration will be on words with the long u spelling pattern. (cute, flute, suit, route, etc.)
We've begun our science unit! We will be observing the sky - observing moon phases, learning about the comparative sizes of Earth to the moon, and to the sun, as well as learning about constellations! The students are supposed to keep a log of the moon phases on a pink calendar (which should be in the back cover pocket of their Home/School folders) the website for the moon phases has been added to the "Helpful Links" section of the blog. The students are supposed to try to see the moon if they can - I understand that bedtimes and weather conditions often get in the way of this - but if at all possible, do try to record what they actually see outside, as opposed to on the computer screen. This is provided as a back-up plan :) Thank you!
Due Monday, December 21st - the Holiday Booklet. Students are to choose at least five symbols of a holiday that your family enjoys. This could be a holiday that occurs in December - such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa - or a holiday that you celebrate another time of year - such as Thanksgiving, Diwali, Ramadan, etc. Make a holiday booklet. Illustrate and write to share how your family enjoys these holidays. Create a cover and write a title. Students need to be prepared to share their booklets with the class. The goal is to learn of the different traditions we have in our class! Students are encouraged to use different art materials and to be creative - can't wait to see the final projects!
Tuesday, December 22nd - we will be having a little Winter Celebration. Parents are welcome to come! We'll begin around 9:30 - just some snacks and crafts and wintery fun! Hope you can make it - please be sure to sign in at the front office if you are able to join us. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 23rd - the students will have a substitute teacher as I am having my knee surgery. The students have been asking more questions about what exactly is going to be happening - I have explained that I have some fragments in my knee, and the doctor is going to go in and clean them out! I can't wait to have it OVER and DONE with!!
Please drive safely and enjoy the snow! BRRRRRRRR!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!!
I'd like to begin by wishing all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. I know I'm really looking forward to having some time to spend with my family - I hope you are too!
Just a few reminders -
Monday, November 30th will be our Spelling Quiz. This will also be the day we have a small farewell party for Sanchi, who is moving to India with her family later on that week. We will miss her terribly, but certainly hope to keep in touch with her as much as possible! I hope for students to be able to have the students pick their new spelling words for the next two weeks on that day as well.
Monday, November 30th is also an early dismissal day.
Tuesday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd I will be out for a training in Baltimore.
If you have the time over the break, please take a moment to explore the Free Rice and Free Poverty links in the "Helpful Links" section of the blog. Both sites provide some great educational quiz games, and have a great mission as well. Something we can all be thankful for :)
Thank you again for all your continued support, please have a safe, happy, and healthy holiday!
:)
Just a few reminders -
Monday, November 30th will be our Spelling Quiz. This will also be the day we have a small farewell party for Sanchi, who is moving to India with her family later on that week. We will miss her terribly, but certainly hope to keep in touch with her as much as possible! I hope for students to be able to have the students pick their new spelling words for the next two weeks on that day as well.
Monday, November 30th is also an early dismissal day.
Tuesday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd I will be out for a training in Baltimore.
If you have the time over the break, please take a moment to explore the Free Rice and Free Poverty links in the "Helpful Links" section of the blog. Both sites provide some great educational quiz games, and have a great mission as well. Something we can all be thankful for :)
Thank you again for all your continued support, please have a safe, happy, and healthy holiday!
:)
Friday, November 13, 2009
What a WEEK!
WHOA NELLY! We have had a BUSY one!
Please keep an eye out for pictures that I'll be sending from the Field Trip! The kids had a great time! I hope you all can have a chance to visit New Market on your own - the shop owners really did a great job presenting to the kids. All for free!
David Price (town council member, owner of 12 West Main gallery, the individual who helped me organize this field trip) has been trying to get the sign in New Market to change from advertising antiques, to advertising it's rich history. Channel NBC 25 was in New Market the day we were there - some of us made the news!
New Market Video Clip
Each of the second grade classes are going to be making books of our trips to New Market and Frederick. Two students from each class will be selected to join the second grade teachers to the New Market Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, December 9th to present these books to the city of New Market and have their picture taken for the Gazette/Frederick News Post. The drawings will be held as follows:
1. Entry forms will be sent home next week.
2. Second grade teachers will collect the entry forms from their students.
3. Students will be selected lottery-style to determine who will be presenting the books.
Coming up next week....
We will be continuing our study of geometry in math - especially working on answering math BCRs. Students have done a really nice job so far - I've seen great improvements already!
We will be continuing our study of short stories as well! Last week we began focusing on the story elements (character, setting, problem, solution). This week we'll be focusing more on the author's message - with a more specific focus on fables. If you have any collections of short stories, fables, fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, myths, etc. that you would like to share we'd love to see them! Please make sure your name is in the book so we can return them!
Spelling this coming week will be with short i/r-controlled i sounds. Short i sounds can be found in words with the "in" prefix - such as independent, infer, interest. R-controlled i, e, and u sounds are very similar - if not identical. Some examples include: dirt, skirt, first, thirsty.
Students will be taking the Comprehension Strategy Assessment (CSA) this week as well. This will be on Thursday morning. The CSA is a computer-based test, the students took it last year, and will take it every year in elementary school. This test is to see their strengths and weaknesses in reading comprehension - testing their ability to identify the main idea of a story, various story elements, and find meanings of words based upon context clues. These are all skills that the students have been working on since Kindergarten - I predict everyone will do fabulously :) The scores take a few weeks to be processed, and will be provided to you as soon as possible!
Where The Wild Things Are - is showing tomorrow at the Westview Cinemas at 1:30. Let's plan to meet in the lobby around 1:15. See you then!
In my never-ending habit of collecting odd things for the classroom...I was wondering if you could also keep your eye out for The Kids Post in the Washington Post? I have started to collect them myself - I really like it - and it's usually a bit of a step up from the Mini-Pages too! It's always nice to have multiple copies of things, so if any of you are willing to donate those to the classroom, that would be greatly appreciated as well!
Also, we are starting to run a little low on glue sticks and pencils - any contribution would be much appreciated!
Report Cards came home today! In BIG, SHINY, NEW envelopes! Please sign the envelope in the bottom of the box for the first marking period and return it as soon as possible. The report card is yours to keep. Please do not seal the envelope, as we will be using this envelope througout the school year. Thank you!
Finally, I hope you and your families have a great weekend! Thank you so much for all your help and support!
Please keep an eye out for pictures that I'll be sending from the Field Trip! The kids had a great time! I hope you all can have a chance to visit New Market on your own - the shop owners really did a great job presenting to the kids. All for free!
David Price (town council member, owner of 12 West Main gallery, the individual who helped me organize this field trip) has been trying to get the sign in New Market to change from advertising antiques, to advertising it's rich history. Channel NBC 25 was in New Market the day we were there - some of us made the news!
New Market Video Clip
Each of the second grade classes are going to be making books of our trips to New Market and Frederick. Two students from each class will be selected to join the second grade teachers to the New Market Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, December 9th to present these books to the city of New Market and have their picture taken for the Gazette/Frederick News Post. The drawings will be held as follows:
1. Entry forms will be sent home next week.
2. Second grade teachers will collect the entry forms from their students.
3. Students will be selected lottery-style to determine who will be presenting the books.
Coming up next week....
We will be continuing our study of geometry in math - especially working on answering math BCRs. Students have done a really nice job so far - I've seen great improvements already!
We will be continuing our study of short stories as well! Last week we began focusing on the story elements (character, setting, problem, solution). This week we'll be focusing more on the author's message - with a more specific focus on fables. If you have any collections of short stories, fables, fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, myths, etc. that you would like to share we'd love to see them! Please make sure your name is in the book so we can return them!
Spelling this coming week will be with short i/r-controlled i sounds. Short i sounds can be found in words with the "in" prefix - such as independent, infer, interest. R-controlled i, e, and u sounds are very similar - if not identical. Some examples include: dirt, skirt, first, thirsty.
Students will be taking the Comprehension Strategy Assessment (CSA) this week as well. This will be on Thursday morning. The CSA is a computer-based test, the students took it last year, and will take it every year in elementary school. This test is to see their strengths and weaknesses in reading comprehension - testing their ability to identify the main idea of a story, various story elements, and find meanings of words based upon context clues. These are all skills that the students have been working on since Kindergarten - I predict everyone will do fabulously :) The scores take a few weeks to be processed, and will be provided to you as soon as possible!
Where The Wild Things Are - is showing tomorrow at the Westview Cinemas at 1:30. Let's plan to meet in the lobby around 1:15. See you then!
In my never-ending habit of collecting odd things for the classroom...I was wondering if you could also keep your eye out for The Kids Post in the Washington Post? I have started to collect them myself - I really like it - and it's usually a bit of a step up from the Mini-Pages too! It's always nice to have multiple copies of things, so if any of you are willing to donate those to the classroom, that would be greatly appreciated as well!
Also, we are starting to run a little low on glue sticks and pencils - any contribution would be much appreciated!
Report Cards came home today! In BIG, SHINY, NEW envelopes! Please sign the envelope in the bottom of the box for the first marking period and return it as soon as possible. The report card is yours to keep. Please do not seal the envelope, as we will be using this envelope througout the school year. Thank you!
Finally, I hope you and your families have a great weekend! Thank you so much for all your help and support!
Holy 100 Soaring WIth Pride Stickers, Batman!
....Actually, I believe we're technically at 102! All the same, WOW! Awesome job! Please be sure to ask your son/daughter how we've earned them - they have SO much to be proud of!
In celebration, the students voted - we will be having "Stuffed Animal, Cupcake Day" in honor of our great behavior!
The students had so much fun decorating the muffins at the Fall Festival that they wanted to do that again! I'll be brining in some vanilla cupcakes and whatever cake decorating items I have. If you have any cake-decorating stuffs at home that you wouldn't mind donating to our cause we'd really appreciate it!
The students may bring in ONE quiet, stuffed-animal friend to school today as well.
Congratulations again! Great job!
In celebration, the students voted - we will be having "Stuffed Animal, Cupcake Day" in honor of our great behavior!
The students had so much fun decorating the muffins at the Fall Festival that they wanted to do that again! I'll be brining in some vanilla cupcakes and whatever cake decorating items I have. If you have any cake-decorating stuffs at home that you wouldn't mind donating to our cause we'd really appreciate it!
The students may bring in ONE quiet, stuffed-animal friend to school today as well.
Congratulations again! Great job!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Sweet November!
I'd like to begin by saying (rather belated, I apologize) thank you to all the parents and students for making our Fall Festival such a huge success! I think the students had a GREAT time! Their pumpkin charts are hanging in the hallway now - and I've received many complements on the work they did! Thank you all so much - and I hope you had a great Hallween!
Moving on - it's NOVEMBER!!!!!! Can you believe it? We have LOTS of AWESOME upcoming events!
Beginning with our Field Trip on Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The entire second grade will be traveling to the historical areas of both Frederick and New Market for walking tours. This field trip will help our students to apply what they've been learning in Social Studies to some real world situations! We've been learning about communities - different types (urban, rural, suburban), and how they compare between past and present. The students will also be able to apply some map skills.
We will be able to compare and contrast the two walking tours. We will make predictions before, and then review those predictions afterwards and see what else we can add!
Please remember to have your students:
1. Eat breakfast in morning - we'll be burning lots of energy today!
2. Bring a bag lunch - prefereably in a paper bag/grocery bag that can be thrown away after lunch. This will help to eliminate any excess "stuffs" to carry around.
3. Please be sure to dress appropriately for the weather - the current prediction is sunny with highs in the upper 50s. (Gorgeous! With a light jacket!)
4. Please be sure to wear comfortable shoes with socks- LOTS of walking and standing!
5. Review safety and courtesy rules when out in public - staying with the group, asking an adult to use the restroom/get a drink. using pleases and thank-yous, etc.
Thank you very much to the parents who offered to chaperone! We are limited to two chaperones per class - so we had to draw names to pick the two we would have for each class. There will be other opportunities for chaperoning field trips in the future, so if you weren't chosen this time, you will be in the future! Thank you again for your help and support!
Veterans' Day is also on November 11th
Sent home on Friday was a white, half sheet of paper asking for information about veterans you may have in your family! This information is also going to be used by our upper grades in reports that they are doing on Veterans. If you are able to, I encourage you to please send in what you can! Thank you!
November 14th WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE!
The movie times for the 14th haven't yet been posted on the website for the Regal Cinemas at Westview. If the times are the same next week as they are for today, there is a 2:15 showing. I'll keep an eye on the website, should there be any changes.
November 17th as a part of American Education Week, we'll be having a guest author/illustrator visit UES! John Steven Gurney has illustrated many books - including the A-Z Mystery Series - and has a new book out as well! I've added a few links to the blog about him - check it out!
Academically Speaking...
This week in math we will be starting our geometry unit! This will take us to Thanksgiving! Be on the lookout for homework assignments relating to the topic.
We're also starting our Short Stories unit in Language Arts. This begins with a review of story elements, then moves on to reading different examples (including tall tales, fairy tales, and fables), to the students writing their own!
Spelling - we are studying long i! The spelling quiz will be this Friday, November 13th.
Thank you again for all your support! Have a great weekend!
:)
Moving on - it's NOVEMBER!!!!!! Can you believe it? We have LOTS of AWESOME upcoming events!
Beginning with our Field Trip on Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The entire second grade will be traveling to the historical areas of both Frederick and New Market for walking tours. This field trip will help our students to apply what they've been learning in Social Studies to some real world situations! We've been learning about communities - different types (urban, rural, suburban), and how they compare between past and present. The students will also be able to apply some map skills.
We will be able to compare and contrast the two walking tours. We will make predictions before, and then review those predictions afterwards and see what else we can add!
Please remember to have your students:
1. Eat breakfast in morning - we'll be burning lots of energy today!
2. Bring a bag lunch - prefereably in a paper bag/grocery bag that can be thrown away after lunch. This will help to eliminate any excess "stuffs" to carry around.
3. Please be sure to dress appropriately for the weather - the current prediction is sunny with highs in the upper 50s. (Gorgeous! With a light jacket!)
4. Please be sure to wear comfortable shoes with socks- LOTS of walking and standing!
5. Review safety and courtesy rules when out in public - staying with the group, asking an adult to use the restroom/get a drink. using pleases and thank-yous, etc.
Thank you very much to the parents who offered to chaperone! We are limited to two chaperones per class - so we had to draw names to pick the two we would have for each class. There will be other opportunities for chaperoning field trips in the future, so if you weren't chosen this time, you will be in the future! Thank you again for your help and support!
Veterans' Day is also on November 11th
Sent home on Friday was a white, half sheet of paper asking for information about veterans you may have in your family! This information is also going to be used by our upper grades in reports that they are doing on Veterans. If you are able to, I encourage you to please send in what you can! Thank you!
November 14th WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE!
The movie times for the 14th haven't yet been posted on the website for the Regal Cinemas at Westview. If the times are the same next week as they are for today, there is a 2:15 showing. I'll keep an eye on the website, should there be any changes.
November 17th as a part of American Education Week, we'll be having a guest author/illustrator visit UES! John Steven Gurney has illustrated many books - including the A-Z Mystery Series - and has a new book out as well! I've added a few links to the blog about him - check it out!
Academically Speaking...
This week in math we will be starting our geometry unit! This will take us to Thanksgiving! Be on the lookout for homework assignments relating to the topic.
We're also starting our Short Stories unit in Language Arts. This begins with a review of story elements, then moves on to reading different examples (including tall tales, fairy tales, and fables), to the students writing their own!
Spelling - we are studying long i! The spelling quiz will be this Friday, November 13th.
Thank you again for all your support! Have a great weekend!
:)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Way to go Kiddos!!! :)
We earned our next 25 Soaring With Pride stickers!! Pajama Day tomorrow (Friday, 10/23)! Yay!!! Please remember to wear appropriate shoes! I'm so proud of us! The next 25 stickers will put us at 100 SOARING WITH PRIDE stickers - whoooo hoooo! Happy Friday! :)
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thank You!
I'd like to say thank you for a successful conference week! I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to meet with me. I know our time was brief, but I feel that it was very worthwhile.
We will be taking some time this week to focus a little on multilplication and division. This will be a review for some, and something new for others. The goal is to get everyone on the same page, so that when we start basic facts practice again, there's a stronger understanding of the concepts involved.
The math practice pages that are coming home are all due on Friday. There is also a mulitiplication table coming home. Please have your son/daughter either keep this in their home/school folder, or someplace safe at home to use as a resource. Thank you!
Science Fair information was sent home yesterday!! This is not a required event for second graders, but I strongly encourage participation! (Partially because Science is awesome, partially because I'm on the Science Committee!! :-P ) Science fair participation is required for 4th and 5th graders - I highly reccommend getting some practice in before hand!
Spelling words are coming home today! We will be studying short e and r-controlled e for the next two weeks. I'm going to schedule the spelling quiz on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29TH so as not to conflict with our Fall Festival Day (which is also a half day).
Speaking of the Fall Festival Day...
Our Fall Festival will be on Friday, October 30th. It will be a blast! We are going to have multiple activities arranged around pumpkins, leaves, apples, scarecrows - all things autumnal!
The event will begin at 9:00 A.M and end at 10:45 A.M. If you would like to volunteer, please email me by Wednesday, October 28th to let me know. Please include whether or not you plan to stay for all or part of the time.
Students will be going to lunch directly from the festival. In an effort speed along the process, I ask that you send in a lunch with your child. This will help to eliminate some of the rushing around that can happen on days like these :)
Please send in $2.00 with your child by Wednesday, October 28th to cover the cost of food, supplies, and other goodies. Please be sure to have your child's name attached to this money somehow (envelope, Post-it, etc.). Thank you very much!
Finally, please remember that costumes are not allowed this year. No costumes of anysort. Second grade will be having a special day later on in the year when we can dress up like our favorite community member. Please, no costumes this year.
Additionally...
Please be sure to check out the polls along the right hand side of the blog...
Thank you for your response about Where the Wild Things Are! I'm really excited about this one too! Maurice Sendak is another favorite author of mine - I plan to incorporate an author study about Mr. Sendak before we go see the movie. Let's plan to go on Saturday, November 14th - early afternoon. I checked showtimes today, and they weren't quite available yet. I'll let you know as we get closer! Hope to see you there! I hope to be able to see the $8.00 version this time - not the $11! Yikes! I'm sorry about that!
Mrs. Wagner very kindly sent me the link for the cheapy theater off of rt. 40 - but they arent' going to have the movie until after the new year :( I'll definitely keep this place in mind for the future! Thank you! :)
Knee Status
Thank you all very much for your kind words and concern about my knee, I really appreciate it! I met with the surgeon on Monday, and he doesn't have any openings until December. So, I signed up for the week of December 21st. I'll find out for sure by the end of the week if that's when I'll be out. This will force me to get my shopping done on time! :)
Have a great week everyone! As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to send me an email!
:)
We will be taking some time this week to focus a little on multilplication and division. This will be a review for some, and something new for others. The goal is to get everyone on the same page, so that when we start basic facts practice again, there's a stronger understanding of the concepts involved.
The math practice pages that are coming home are all due on Friday. There is also a mulitiplication table coming home. Please have your son/daughter either keep this in their home/school folder, or someplace safe at home to use as a resource. Thank you!
Science Fair information was sent home yesterday!! This is not a required event for second graders, but I strongly encourage participation! (Partially because Science is awesome, partially because I'm on the Science Committee!! :-P ) Science fair participation is required for 4th and 5th graders - I highly reccommend getting some practice in before hand!
Spelling words are coming home today! We will be studying short e and r-controlled e for the next two weeks. I'm going to schedule the spelling quiz on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29TH so as not to conflict with our Fall Festival Day (which is also a half day).
Speaking of the Fall Festival Day...
Our Fall Festival will be on Friday, October 30th. It will be a blast! We are going to have multiple activities arranged around pumpkins, leaves, apples, scarecrows - all things autumnal!
The event will begin at 9:00 A.M and end at 10:45 A.M. If you would like to volunteer, please email me by Wednesday, October 28th to let me know. Please include whether or not you plan to stay for all or part of the time.
Students will be going to lunch directly from the festival. In an effort speed along the process, I ask that you send in a lunch with your child. This will help to eliminate some of the rushing around that can happen on days like these :)
Please send in $2.00 with your child by Wednesday, October 28th to cover the cost of food, supplies, and other goodies. Please be sure to have your child's name attached to this money somehow (envelope, Post-it, etc.). Thank you very much!
Finally, please remember that costumes are not allowed this year. No costumes of anysort. Second grade will be having a special day later on in the year when we can dress up like our favorite community member. Please, no costumes this year.
Additionally...
Please be sure to check out the polls along the right hand side of the blog...
Thank you for your response about Where the Wild Things Are! I'm really excited about this one too! Maurice Sendak is another favorite author of mine - I plan to incorporate an author study about Mr. Sendak before we go see the movie. Let's plan to go on Saturday, November 14th - early afternoon. I checked showtimes today, and they weren't quite available yet. I'll let you know as we get closer! Hope to see you there! I hope to be able to see the $8.00 version this time - not the $11! Yikes! I'm sorry about that!
Mrs. Wagner very kindly sent me the link for the cheapy theater off of rt. 40 - but they arent' going to have the movie until after the new year :( I'll definitely keep this place in mind for the future! Thank you! :)
Knee Status
Thank you all very much for your kind words and concern about my knee, I really appreciate it! I met with the surgeon on Monday, and he doesn't have any openings until December. So, I signed up for the week of December 21st. I'll find out for sure by the end of the week if that's when I'll be out. This will force me to get my shopping done on time! :)
Have a great week everyone! As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to send me an email!
:)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Conference Confirmations
Hi again! Conference confirmation slips were put in the students' Home/School Folders today. Please return the slip as soon as possible.
Also, for those of you who are able to attend the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on Saturday, let's plan to meet inside the theater, by the arcade games and tables, at 11:35. All are welcome to attend, a parent/guardian MUST be in attendance! Thank you!
Also, if you could please send in those toilet paper/paper towel rolls that would be great! I have a few neat Creation Station activities that we're going to do with them. Also, some wire hangers would be great as well. They're great for mobiles, wreaths, and I hang poetry posters on them as well!
Thank you very much! Have a great evening!
Also, for those of you who are able to attend the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on Saturday, let's plan to meet inside the theater, by the arcade games and tables, at 11:35. All are welcome to attend, a parent/guardian MUST be in attendance! Thank you!
Also, if you could please send in those toilet paper/paper towel rolls that would be great! I have a few neat Creation Station activities that we're going to do with them. Also, some wire hangers would be great as well. They're great for mobiles, wreaths, and I hang poetry posters on them as well!
Thank you very much! Have a great evening!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Sorry for the Delay!!
Whew! It's been a busy few days, I apologize!
Last week ended on a very positive note - super successful spelling quizzes! Though I did goof in my communication about the sentences - some people understood that it was going to be five sentences (from the earlier blog) and then I goofed and accidently told others that it would be three sentences. I apologize! From this point forward, students will be expected to write five sentences including five spelling words spelled/used correctly. Last week's quiz, since I made a mistake, I told the students that they could choose if they wanted to write three or five sentences. The scores will be taken out of the sentences they wrote, and they will not be penalized this week if they wrote less than five sentences. My bad! Quizzes should be coming home today/tomorrow.
This week we are moving on to words with the long e pattern. All students should have a copy of their spelling list at home. If the list should need to be replaced, please let me know as soon as possible and I will make a copy of the list he/she has in his/her spelling journal.
We are continuing our study of patterns this week with a focus on function tables! They are having a BLAST with this so far! I've been really impressed with their problem solving skills.
Language Arts we are continuing our Ancillary Materials Unit. Ancillary materials include reference materials such as almanacs, atlases, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. Students are creating a state report using some of these ancillary materials in class! Can't wait to share the final projects!
Next week is conference week! If you haven't already scheduled a conference, please do so as soon as possible! Thank you! :) On that note, I'm going to go without a homework packet next week - since the schedule is so bananas. I'm still going to assign daily reading for 20 minutes and a spelling practice activity, but that's about it!
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
This Saturday, October 10th, at 11:45 AM there is a 3D Digital showing of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs at the Regal Cinemas in Westview. I was unable to get group rates, I apologize. This is not a required event - but I would love to see you there!
Just a gentle reminder, students may start entering the classroom at 8:15. They must be here - ready to go - by 8:30. We have so much to do and so little time! :)
Congratulations to our class for earning their next 25 Soaring With Pride stickers! We are celebrating today with a short movie and some popcorn - yummy! Our next reward will be a Pajama Day! Keep up the great behavior!
Picture day is Thursday, October 8!! Our time slot is at 10:40 (Yay! Before recess!) If you wish for your child to clean up real quick before pictures, please send in his/her own brush comb to use - no sharing allowed.
Finally, just FYI, I will be out Thursday afternoon for an appointment with an Orthopedist for my left knee. I have an old injury that is coming back to haunt me (insert spooky laugh "mwuahahah")! Hopefully, no surgery, but it's a possibility. As always, I will keep you informed as to how this will impact the class. Hopefully not at all!
Thank you for your continued support! Have a wonderful day!
:)
Last week ended on a very positive note - super successful spelling quizzes! Though I did goof in my communication about the sentences - some people understood that it was going to be five sentences (from the earlier blog) and then I goofed and accidently told others that it would be three sentences. I apologize! From this point forward, students will be expected to write five sentences including five spelling words spelled/used correctly. Last week's quiz, since I made a mistake, I told the students that they could choose if they wanted to write three or five sentences. The scores will be taken out of the sentences they wrote, and they will not be penalized this week if they wrote less than five sentences. My bad! Quizzes should be coming home today/tomorrow.
This week we are moving on to words with the long e pattern. All students should have a copy of their spelling list at home. If the list should need to be replaced, please let me know as soon as possible and I will make a copy of the list he/she has in his/her spelling journal.
We are continuing our study of patterns this week with a focus on function tables! They are having a BLAST with this so far! I've been really impressed with their problem solving skills.
Language Arts we are continuing our Ancillary Materials Unit. Ancillary materials include reference materials such as almanacs, atlases, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. Students are creating a state report using some of these ancillary materials in class! Can't wait to share the final projects!
Next week is conference week! If you haven't already scheduled a conference, please do so as soon as possible! Thank you! :) On that note, I'm going to go without a homework packet next week - since the schedule is so bananas. I'm still going to assign daily reading for 20 minutes and a spelling practice activity, but that's about it!
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
This Saturday, October 10th, at 11:45 AM there is a 3D Digital showing of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs at the Regal Cinemas in Westview. I was unable to get group rates, I apologize. This is not a required event - but I would love to see you there!
Just a gentle reminder, students may start entering the classroom at 8:15. They must be here - ready to go - by 8:30. We have so much to do and so little time! :)
Congratulations to our class for earning their next 25 Soaring With Pride stickers! We are celebrating today with a short movie and some popcorn - yummy! Our next reward will be a Pajama Day! Keep up the great behavior!
Picture day is Thursday, October 8!! Our time slot is at 10:40 (Yay! Before recess!) If you wish for your child to clean up real quick before pictures, please send in his/her own brush comb to use - no sharing allowed.
Finally, just FYI, I will be out Thursday afternoon for an appointment with an Orthopedist for my left knee. I have an old injury that is coming back to haunt me (insert spooky laugh "mwuahahah")! Hopefully, no surgery, but it's a possibility. As always, I will keep you informed as to how this will impact the class. Hopefully not at all!
Thank you for your continued support! Have a wonderful day!
:)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Autumn has Arrived :)
Hi folks! Hope you were able to enjoy the great weekend! I just wanted to let you know that I sent home the Username and Password information for Spelling City today. It went home on an index-card-sized piece of paper - Username at the top, Password at the bottom. It should be in your child's folder, if not, please let me know and I can email it to you!
Additionally, there is a new link in our "Helpful Links" section - the link to the PDF for the Spelling Practice Activities. Just in case!
Beginning this week, the pages of the homework packet are labeled by day at the upper right hand corner. These are to be used as a reference, as many times certain material won't be discussed until later in the week. Clearly, if your child feels confident (and you feel confident in helping them) in completing the homework beforehand, by all means go for it. The purpose of this was to let you know when the material was being taught. :)
Finally, it is highly probable that no book baggie/RRJ homework will be assigned this week. I am assessing students using the DIBELS program. This program needs to be done individually, child by child. This is being done during the students' Literacy Centers and Guided Group times. I will do my best to meet with each group at least once this week - but the primary goal is to get the assessments out of the way. The results of this assessment will be available to you at conferences.
Thank you so much for your continued support! Have a great week!
:)
Additionally, there is a new link in our "Helpful Links" section - the link to the PDF for the Spelling Practice Activities. Just in case!
Beginning this week, the pages of the homework packet are labeled by day at the upper right hand corner. These are to be used as a reference, as many times certain material won't be discussed until later in the week. Clearly, if your child feels confident (and you feel confident in helping them) in completing the homework beforehand, by all means go for it. The purpose of this was to let you know when the material was being taught. :)
Finally, it is highly probable that no book baggie/RRJ homework will be assigned this week. I am assessing students using the DIBELS program. This program needs to be done individually, child by child. This is being done during the students' Literacy Centers and Guided Group times. I will do my best to meet with each group at least once this week - but the primary goal is to get the assessments out of the way. The results of this assessment will be available to you at conferences.
Thank you so much for your continued support! Have a great week!
:)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Have a Wonderful Weekend!
Hello all! I have to say, I am VERY impressed with the scores on the math quizzes - they did AWESOME!
Just wanted to put up a Super Speed Math reference so that it is available:
1. Please follow the schedule :)
2. 90 seconds, reading the entire number sentence aloud.
3. To record progress, you can either write the date on the last number sentence read correctly, OR write the coordinates of the last problem read correctly on a star on the back of the Weekly Schedule.
4. As your son/daughter passes his/her previous scores, have him/her begin one line below from where they began last week. So for instance, if a student started at row 4, and beat the score, the student would start at row 5 next time.
Thank you for your patience and perserverence with this! I greatly appreciate your willingness to help me work out the kinks :)
Finally, I hope you and your families are able to take some time to enjoy this long weekend!
Take care!
:)
Just wanted to put up a Super Speed Math reference so that it is available:
1. Please follow the schedule :)
2. 90 seconds, reading the entire number sentence aloud.
3. To record progress, you can either write the date on the last number sentence read correctly, OR write the coordinates of the last problem read correctly on a star on the back of the Weekly Schedule.
4. As your son/daughter passes his/her previous scores, have him/her begin one line below from where they began last week. So for instance, if a student started at row 4, and beat the score, the student would start at row 5 next time.
Thank you for your patience and perserverence with this! I greatly appreciate your willingness to help me work out the kinks :)
Finally, I hope you and your families are able to take some time to enjoy this long weekend!
Take care!
:)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
No really, LOVELY weather we're having!! :)
Happy Sunday! Just a friendly reminder to please sign and send in the photography/Spelling City permission forms as soon as possible. This will enable our students to have easier access to Spelling City, thus making it easier to practice!
This coming week we will be studying the short a and r-controlled a spelling patterns. Your child will be coming home with a new list of ten words - 5 short a, and 5 r-contolled a. I am also going to be adding a new component of our spelling quiz for the next go round. In addition to spelling the words correctly. I am also going to have the students select five words to use appropriately in sentences. This will make the breakdown of spelling quizzes like this:
1 point for each word spelled correctly on spelling portion x 10 = 10 points
2 points for each sentence with correct, original meaning and spelling x 5 = 10 points
1 point for each organizational component (name, date, quiz title, and
numbered lists for both spelling and sentence portion of the quiz) = + 5 points
25 total points
This week's spelling quiz did not contain the sentence portion, so the total points will be 14. Be on the lookout for their quizzes - they did a fantastic job!!
Attached in the email with this blog link are the notes from this week's class meeting. I really make an effort to have a class meeting at the end of every week to have the students discuss what went well, and what they need to improve on. I think it's a great self-reflection opportunity - and I think it's pretty neat to see what they come up with! Everything that is on the list are suggestions and comments that they came up with - I just type what they say! Please take a moment to discuss these notes with your son/daughter.
Finally, as I'm sure you can imagine, we've been going through disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer like it's going out of style. If you could please send in one or the other (or both!) that would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your continued support! Have a great week!
:)
Oh! Almost forgot - I'm looking at the weekend of October 10th to go see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I've sent in a request for a group, and should hopefully have a quote within the next few days. Please let me know if Saturday or Sunday would work best for you - I'll do my best to accomodate everyone! Thank you!
This coming week we will be studying the short a and r-controlled a spelling patterns. Your child will be coming home with a new list of ten words - 5 short a, and 5 r-contolled a. I am also going to be adding a new component of our spelling quiz for the next go round. In addition to spelling the words correctly. I am also going to have the students select five words to use appropriately in sentences. This will make the breakdown of spelling quizzes like this:
1 point for each word spelled correctly on spelling portion x 10 = 10 points
2 points for each sentence with correct, original meaning and spelling x 5 = 10 points
1 point for each organizational component (name, date, quiz title, and
numbered lists for both spelling and sentence portion of the quiz) = + 5 points
25 total points
This week's spelling quiz did not contain the sentence portion, so the total points will be 14. Be on the lookout for their quizzes - they did a fantastic job!!
Attached in the email with this blog link are the notes from this week's class meeting. I really make an effort to have a class meeting at the end of every week to have the students discuss what went well, and what they need to improve on. I think it's a great self-reflection opportunity - and I think it's pretty neat to see what they come up with! Everything that is on the list are suggestions and comments that they came up with - I just type what they say! Please take a moment to discuss these notes with your son/daughter.
Finally, as I'm sure you can imagine, we've been going through disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer like it's going out of style. If you could please send in one or the other (or both!) that would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your continued support! Have a great week!
:)
Oh! Almost forgot - I'm looking at the weekend of October 10th to go see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I've sent in a request for a group, and should hopefully have a quote within the next few days. Please let me know if Saturday or Sunday would work best for you - I'll do my best to accomodate everyone! Thank you!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Lovely Weather We're Having...
Well, well, well - it's been QUITE a week! Thank you so much for viewing the daily blog this week! I hope everyone is either feeling better and/or staying healthy - whichever may apply to you!
I ask that you remain on the lookout for a double-permission slip to come home tomorrow. This sheet will require TWO signatures - one for the permission to put pictures of your son/daughter on the blog (names, of course, will not be included), and the other for permission to create personal accounts for your son/daughter on SpellingCity.com. Without an account, the students have to type in their words every single time they enter the site. Good for practice, bad for time management. The site is free and doesn't share any information. I've been on it for a year now and absolutely love it. I will give the username and password information to you once the account is created. Please feel free to look into the various policies on the Spelling City website. Thank you!
I have also included another poll in our phabulous blog! One of my most favorite books is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - and now it's going to be a movie!!! IN 3D!!!! I would love to do a compare and contrast of the book and the movie with the students. Perhaps we could all go to a Saturday/Sunday Matinee, depending on schedules? I'll look into group rates as well. Let me know!
Today is Constitution Day!! We had much fun reading We The Kids ( a more kid-friendly version of the Preamble to the Constitution) and watching the School House Rock song of the Preamble. Students are still working hard in groups on their own interpretations of the components of the Preamble. And I still have that song stuck in my head!!
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union..."
Anywho - have a fabulous evening folks! Talk to you soon!
I ask that you remain on the lookout for a double-permission slip to come home tomorrow. This sheet will require TWO signatures - one for the permission to put pictures of your son/daughter on the blog (names, of course, will not be included), and the other for permission to create personal accounts for your son/daughter on SpellingCity.com. Without an account, the students have to type in their words every single time they enter the site. Good for practice, bad for time management. The site is free and doesn't share any information. I've been on it for a year now and absolutely love it. I will give the username and password information to you once the account is created. Please feel free to look into the various policies on the Spelling City website. Thank you!
I have also included another poll in our phabulous blog! One of my most favorite books is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - and now it's going to be a movie!!! IN 3D!!!! I would love to do a compare and contrast of the book and the movie with the students. Perhaps we could all go to a Saturday/Sunday Matinee, depending on schedules? I'll look into group rates as well. Let me know!
Today is Constitution Day!! We had much fun reading We The Kids ( a more kid-friendly version of the Preamble to the Constitution) and watching the School House Rock song of the Preamble. Students are still working hard in groups on their own interpretations of the components of the Preamble. And I still have that song stuck in my head!!
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union..."
Anywho - have a fabulous evening folks! Talk to you soon!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
And another thing! :)
WoW what a busy week! Ok, so here are some updates on conferences, homework, etc.
~ The conference schedules are still in the main office and will be there until September 18th (this Friday). If you need to sign up for a conference, or change the time that you've signed up for, please call the office to do so - (240) 236 - 2200. Additionally, if you do not sign up for a conference by 9/18, one will be assigned to you - and you will be notified of this time via a letter home. If this time does not work for you, then you will need to contact me via email to let me know. Thank you!
~ The Labor Day math page - the answers do not need to be converted to letters if you don't want to - I'm more concerned about the sums/differences than the letters.
~ Happy Birthday Constitution page - I'm going to be going over the different types of sentences tomorrow, but just FYI -
A Declarative sentence tells a fact : "I am typing on the blog right now."
An Imperative sentence gives a command: "Please read the messages I am sending."
An Interrogative sentence asks a question: "Did you know that tomorrow is Constitution Day?"
An Exclamatory sentence uses and exclamation point: "HOOOOORAY for Constitution Day!!"
Thank you very much! Stay healthy!
~ The conference schedules are still in the main office and will be there until September 18th (this Friday). If you need to sign up for a conference, or change the time that you've signed up for, please call the office to do so - (240) 236 - 2200. Additionally, if you do not sign up for a conference by 9/18, one will be assigned to you - and you will be notified of this time via a letter home. If this time does not work for you, then you will need to contact me via email to let me know. Thank you!
~ The Labor Day math page - the answers do not need to be converted to letters if you don't want to - I'm more concerned about the sums/differences than the letters.
~ Happy Birthday Constitution page - I'm going to be going over the different types of sentences tomorrow, but just FYI -
A Declarative sentence tells a fact : "I am typing on the blog right now."
An Imperative sentence gives a command: "Please read the messages I am sending."
An Interrogative sentence asks a question: "Did you know that tomorrow is Constitution Day?"
An Exclamatory sentence uses and exclamation point: "HOOOOORAY for Constitution Day!!"
Thank you very much! Stay healthy!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
One More Thing...
Almost forgot!
Everyday I put together a Power Point Presentation for the students. In addition to directions for the morning, I also include "Today in History" facts, as well as famous birthdays. On the day your child has a birthday, I would like to have a slide wishing him/her "Happy Birthday!". If it's ok with you, could you please email me three or four pictures of your son/daughter to include in their birthday slides? This could be done now, or closer to their birthdays.
For the students with summer time birthdays, I will include special birthday slides for them towards the end of the year.
Thank you very much! :)
Everyday I put together a Power Point Presentation for the students. In addition to directions for the morning, I also include "Today in History" facts, as well as famous birthdays. On the day your child has a birthday, I would like to have a slide wishing him/her "Happy Birthday!". If it's ok with you, could you please email me three or four pictures of your son/daughter to include in their birthday slides? This could be done now, or closer to their birthdays.
For the students with summer time birthdays, I will include special birthday slides for them towards the end of the year.
Thank you very much! :)
Super Speed Math
Hi again! Just wanted to review the appropriate rules for Super Speed Math:
1. 90 seconds per turn.
2. Write the coordinates of each record breaking score as you go.
3. Every time a personal record is broken, start one line below where you started the last time. This will have the students move down through the more challenging facts as their scores improve!
Thank you very much! Have a great afternoon! :)
1. 90 seconds per turn.
2. Write the coordinates of each record breaking score as you go.
3. Every time a personal record is broken, start one line below where you started the last time. This will have the students move down through the more challenging facts as their scores improve!
Thank you very much! Have a great afternoon! :)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Book Baggies
Hello all! Happy Monday! Coming home today will be the Book Baggie - complete with book and Reading Response Journal. This, as well as the Home/School Folder and agenda book, is to come back and forth between home and school everyday. The assignment for tonight is just to read the book. This reading may be applied towards the daily 20 minutes of reading. Sometimes there will be assignments in the journal, these are expected to be done that night, unless otherwise directed. Thank you for your support!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Patriot Day
I can't hardly believe that we've come to the end of three weeks already! We've been busy establishing routines, assessing prior knowledge, and getting to know each other.
Thank you so much to the parents who were able to attend Back To School Night yesterday evening! I felt that it was a HUGE success - thank you also for your positive, helpful feedback. Please remember that if you should ever have any questions to just send me an email, and I will answer as best I can! To those of you who were unable to attend, a packet of information should have come home today with your child. It will include various items including, but not limited to: daily schedule, UES Behavior Matrix, Spelling Activity Cards, Super Speed Math Schedule, and a Classroom Directory.
Thank you to those of you who were able to contribute to the poll this week! Majority votes for a packet sent home at the beginning of the week. I'll start sending that out next week! Please be advised that there may be some assignments that will need to come back to school before the end of the week - I will be sure to either write these dates on the specific pages, or have the students write the date in their agenda books.
Speaking of agenda books...thank you very much for be sure to sign the pages! Some students were still missing a few components of their assignments. I highlighted what was missing in the agenda book to bring it to their attention so it may be corrected. My goal with this is to establish organizational skills as early as possible. Thank you for your support!
As you are aware, today, September 11, is Patriot Day. A book I love to share with the students is The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. It's a Caldecott Award-Winning book showing an illustrated version of the story of Philippe Petit - a French street performer who walked a tightrope across the gap of the Twin Towers in August of 1974. True story! This, naturally, served as quite the spring board for discussion about Mr. Petit, as well as about the September 11th attacks. There were many "why..." questions - as I'm sure you can imagine.
I did my best to keep the explanations as honest, yet generic as possible. We discussed how planes crashed the towers in New York City, The Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. We discussed how the people who did this were not mentally well. We discussed how maybe the reasons why the attackers did this was because they were jealous of the tall buildings, or they just wanted more space.
Addtionally, on a more positive side, we discussed how airport security has changed drastically since the attacks (which led to many stories of sunblock, medicine, bugspray, etc. getting thrown out at the airport). Also, how even though it was sad that the the Towers and Pentagon were destroyed, at least they left other places alone.
There was also an interest in wanting to see pictures of what happened. I DID NOT share any, as I think that something this graphic should be left up to your decision as a parent.
There was an additional interest to see photographs/videos of Philippe Petit as well. I'm almost positive that something could be found on YouTube - the site is blocked by FCPS, and I couldn't really find anything anywhere else but a few photos. I have attached links of photos of Philippe Petit, and some pictures of tall buildings from around the world.
Also, we earned our first 25 Soaring With Pride stickers! We will be having a popsicle party on Monday :) Yippee!
Thank you so much for your continued support - have a wonderful weekend!
Petit Petit1Petit 2
World's Tallest Buildings
CN Tower
Please see our Classroom Meeting Notes for this week attached in the email with the link for the blog :)
Great job Kiddos!
Thank you so much to the parents who were able to attend Back To School Night yesterday evening! I felt that it was a HUGE success - thank you also for your positive, helpful feedback. Please remember that if you should ever have any questions to just send me an email, and I will answer as best I can! To those of you who were unable to attend, a packet of information should have come home today with your child. It will include various items including, but not limited to: daily schedule, UES Behavior Matrix, Spelling Activity Cards, Super Speed Math Schedule, and a Classroom Directory.
Thank you to those of you who were able to contribute to the poll this week! Majority votes for a packet sent home at the beginning of the week. I'll start sending that out next week! Please be advised that there may be some assignments that will need to come back to school before the end of the week - I will be sure to either write these dates on the specific pages, or have the students write the date in their agenda books.
Speaking of agenda books...thank you very much for be sure to sign the pages! Some students were still missing a few components of their assignments. I highlighted what was missing in the agenda book to bring it to their attention so it may be corrected. My goal with this is to establish organizational skills as early as possible. Thank you for your support!
As you are aware, today, September 11, is Patriot Day. A book I love to share with the students is The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. It's a Caldecott Award-Winning book showing an illustrated version of the story of Philippe Petit - a French street performer who walked a tightrope across the gap of the Twin Towers in August of 1974. True story! This, naturally, served as quite the spring board for discussion about Mr. Petit, as well as about the September 11th attacks. There were many "why..." questions - as I'm sure you can imagine.
I did my best to keep the explanations as honest, yet generic as possible. We discussed how planes crashed the towers in New York City, The Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. We discussed how the people who did this were not mentally well. We discussed how maybe the reasons why the attackers did this was because they were jealous of the tall buildings, or they just wanted more space.
Addtionally, on a more positive side, we discussed how airport security has changed drastically since the attacks (which led to many stories of sunblock, medicine, bugspray, etc. getting thrown out at the airport). Also, how even though it was sad that the the Towers and Pentagon were destroyed, at least they left other places alone.
There was also an interest in wanting to see pictures of what happened. I DID NOT share any, as I think that something this graphic should be left up to your decision as a parent.
There was an additional interest to see photographs/videos of Philippe Petit as well. I'm almost positive that something could be found on YouTube - the site is blocked by FCPS, and I couldn't really find anything anywhere else but a few photos. I have attached links of photos of Philippe Petit, and some pictures of tall buildings from around the world.
Also, we earned our first 25 Soaring With Pride stickers! We will be having a popsicle party on Monday :) Yippee!
Thank you so much for your continued support - have a wonderful weekend!
Petit Petit1Petit 2
World's Tallest Buildings
CN Tower
Please see our Classroom Meeting Notes for this week attached in the email with the link for the blog :)
Great job Kiddos!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Happy Labor Day!
Hello all! I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! I just wanted to let everyone know that I plan to show President Barack Obama's address to the students tomorrow. I will be incorporating discussion and reflection around the address. I have also been informed that there is a video contest being held by the Department of Education for students to reflect upon the President's speech. I plan to look further into this contest - and hopefully we can work on some together!
If you do not wish to have your child watch the broadcast, please let me know and he/she can have a silent reading period in the Media Center.
Please take a moment to read the blog entry below, as it as additional information about the beginning of the year.
Hope to see all of you at Back to School Night on Thursday at 7:00! :)
If you do not wish to have your child watch the broadcast, please let me know and he/she can have a silent reading period in the Media Center.
Please take a moment to read the blog entry below, as it as additional information about the beginning of the year.
Hope to see all of you at Back to School Night on Thursday at 7:00! :)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Welcome to the 2009-2010 School Year!
Happy September!
Welcome back! We have had such a fantastic seven days! Thank you so much for all your warm welcomes and support!
This is the BLOG! This will be sent to you weekly with various information on what's going on in class, school, and in the community.
Please take a few moments to explore the BLOG with your child. You'll notice weekly homework assignments, helpful weblinks, links to other Magnet classes, and the option to "follow" are on the left - hand side.
Positive Behavior Support
We now have a new positive behavior program we've designed to meet the needs of Urbana Elementary School. The system includes specific ways students show respect to themselves, others, and to their surroundings. This behavior system is used in conjunction with Character Counts!
Students have the opportunity to earn pride stickers and rewards for their class. When students choose not to follow school rules, they will complete a "Think Sheet". The Think Sheet provides the student the opportunity to reflect on the actions he/she chose, and decide what they will choose to do next time.
First offense: sheet is reviewed with Miss Phelps and kept in a file in class. Second offense: sheet is reviewed with Miss Phelps and sent home to be reviewed with parents, and returned with a signature. Third offense: Student and Think Sheets are sent to the office.
Welcome back! We have had such a fantastic seven days! Thank you so much for all your warm welcomes and support!
This is the BLOG! This will be sent to you weekly with various information on what's going on in class, school, and in the community.
Please take a few moments to explore the BLOG with your child. You'll notice weekly homework assignments, helpful weblinks, links to other Magnet classes, and the option to "follow" are on the left - hand side.
Positive Behavior Support
We now have a new positive behavior program we've designed to meet the needs of Urbana Elementary School. The system includes specific ways students show respect to themselves, others, and to their surroundings. This behavior system is used in conjunction with Character Counts!
Students have the opportunity to earn pride stickers and rewards for their class. When students choose not to follow school rules, they will complete a "Think Sheet". The Think Sheet provides the student the opportunity to reflect on the actions he/she chose, and decide what they will choose to do next time.
First offense: sheet is reviewed with Miss Phelps and kept in a file in class. Second offense: sheet is reviewed with Miss Phelps and sent home to be reviewed with parents, and returned with a signature. Third offense: Student and Think Sheets are sent to the office.
Upcoming Events
September 7 ... No School/Labor Day
September 8...PTA Meeting @ 6:30 P.M.
September 9...Parent Volunteer Training @ 9:00 A.M.
September 10 ... Back to School Night @ 7:00 P.M. Parents only please.
September 16...Parent Volunteer Training @ 6:00 P.M.
September 24...Two-Hour Early Dismissal
September 25...No School for Students - Fair Day
September 28...No School for Students - Yom Kippur
October 13-15 ... Parent-Teacher Conferences
October 16... No School For Students
Thank you again for all your help and support! Have a wonderful week!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Happy Friday!
Hello all! Thank you for the great response about the Summer Packets, I think they will be a great way to keep the students on track for next year :)
Just FYI about next week and down the road....
June 9th @ 9:30...Assembly in the Cafeteria/Multipurpose Room to watch our school play - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
June 10th @ 9:30...Kindergarten and First Grades to view a presentation by the State Highway Administration! They'll be bringing in a variety of vehicles for us to explore - cool!
June 10th @ 10:15...Outdoor Band Concert! (BUSY DAY!!!)
June 12th from 10:00 - 12:30 (weather permitting...) Miss Phelps' Class End of Year Class Party!! We will be celebrating our fantastic year together at the wetlands picnic area! All are welcome! Please send in $5.00 to help cover the cost of food, games, and prizes. Please send an additional $2.00 per person (Mom, Dad, sibling) as well. Thank you! Mrs. Lizik has graciously been putting together a Luau-themed celebration for us - looking forward to it! Please dress accordingly! (Also, the rain date for grades 3-5 Field Day is going to be the same day, might be a little hectic, but we'll be far enough away from their Field Day to have plenty of our own fun!)
June 16th...Last Day of School, Magnet dismissal will begin at 12:30! Also, 9:30a.m. will be the Fifth Grade Clap Out! We'll all stand in the hallways and cheer on the 5th graders for their last day at Urbana Elementary School!
Have a great weekend everyone! Stay dry!
:) KP
Just FYI about next week and down the road....
June 9th @ 9:30...Assembly in the Cafeteria/Multipurpose Room to watch our school play - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
June 10th @ 9:30...Kindergarten and First Grades to view a presentation by the State Highway Administration! They'll be bringing in a variety of vehicles for us to explore - cool!
June 10th @ 10:15...Outdoor Band Concert! (BUSY DAY!!!)
June 12th from 10:00 - 12:30 (weather permitting...) Miss Phelps' Class End of Year Class Party!! We will be celebrating our fantastic year together at the wetlands picnic area! All are welcome! Please send in $5.00 to help cover the cost of food, games, and prizes. Please send an additional $2.00 per person (Mom, Dad, sibling) as well. Thank you! Mrs. Lizik has graciously been putting together a Luau-themed celebration for us - looking forward to it! Please dress accordingly! (Also, the rain date for grades 3-5 Field Day is going to be the same day, might be a little hectic, but we'll be far enough away from their Field Day to have plenty of our own fun!)
June 16th...Last Day of School, Magnet dismissal will begin at 12:30! Also, 9:30a.m. will be the Fifth Grade Clap Out! We'll all stand in the hallways and cheer on the 5th graders for their last day at Urbana Elementary School!
Have a great weekend everyone! Stay dry!
:) KP
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Summer Packets
Hi! The summer packets are now available! If you are interested in one, please let me know and I'll send you a copy! Thank you!
Friday, May 29, 2009
News About Next Year...
Hello and happy Friday! All of the students seem very excited to put me in the dunk tank...a little too excited if you ask me :) I hope you all can make it this evening! Let's hope Mother Nature cooperates!
Many of you have been inquiring about next year, and I just wanted to let you know that I will be joining Ms. Weeks, and the rest of the second grade team next year! Though I will miss working with the fabulous First Grade team, I am looking forward to working with the sensational Second Grade team. Ms. Weeks and I will be teaching the Magnet classes next year. I am not sure what the break down of classes will be at this point in time, but either way I'll be close by!
We have completed the Personal Body Safety lessons this week. I am very proud of our students! It's been great to see how knowledgeable they are when it comes to keeping themselves safe.
Please let me know if you are interested in a Summer Packet! I think I forgot to mention this before, but if the packet comes back complete in the fall, the students will receive a certificate and a treat! You can inform me by either sending me an email, or posting a comment on the BLOG. Thank you!
Our students' Photo Stories are gradually being added to the UES School Tube channel. Our AMAZING technology coordinator, Mrs. Cicerone, has been putting them up for us as I've been receiving the permission forms. The students did such a great job!!!
The link to the website is http://www.schooltube.com/user/ues
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Can you believe that JUNE is next week?!!?
Many of you have been inquiring about next year, and I just wanted to let you know that I will be joining Ms. Weeks, and the rest of the second grade team next year! Though I will miss working with the fabulous First Grade team, I am looking forward to working with the sensational Second Grade team. Ms. Weeks and I will be teaching the Magnet classes next year. I am not sure what the break down of classes will be at this point in time, but either way I'll be close by!
We have completed the Personal Body Safety lessons this week. I am very proud of our students! It's been great to see how knowledgeable they are when it comes to keeping themselves safe.
Please let me know if you are interested in a Summer Packet! I think I forgot to mention this before, but if the packet comes back complete in the fall, the students will receive a certificate and a treat! You can inform me by either sending me an email, or posting a comment on the BLOG. Thank you!
Our students' Photo Stories are gradually being added to the UES School Tube channel. Our AMAZING technology coordinator, Mrs. Cicerone, has been putting them up for us as I've been receiving the permission forms. The students did such a great job!!!
The link to the website is http://www.schooltube.com/user/ues
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Can you believe that JUNE is next week?!!?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
CORRECTION!!
OOOOPS!
End of the year celebration - Friday, June 12th, not 10th - my mistake! Thank you, Kimberley! :)
End of the year celebration - Friday, June 12th, not 10th - my mistake! Thank you, Kimberley! :)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thank You!
Thank you so much for such a wonderful birthday, and Teacher Appreciation Day! I was touched and honored by what you did for me - I get teary-eyed just thinking about it!
You have been a great joy to work with this year. The support, love, encouragement, and care that you give to your children is amazing. The students have worked so hard, I am so proud of what they have accomplished!
The Strawberry Festival is this Friday from 3:30-6:30. Thank you to all the parents who were able to donate some time to work at our "Sensational Strawberry Sun visors" stand :) In case your child hasn't informed you yet, I'll be in the Dunk Tank, towards the end of the festival - come on by and try to knock me in! Some dismissal forms were sent home today, if you're planning on coming to the festival right at 3:30, this will allow your child to stay at school until you get there. I look forward to seeing you there!
In addition to the Strawberry Festival Dismissal form, a School Tube permission slip also went home yesterday. This will allow me to post your child's PhotoStory work online so that you can view it, and send it to family and friends! UES has a specific channel on School Tube, and your child's last name is NOT on the video. School Tube is very similar to You Tube, only appropriate for more elementary school-aged students. Here is the link for our UES channel if you'd like to check it out:
http://www.schooltube.com/user/ues
FYI... for upcoming events...
Our end of the year celebration will be Friday, June 10th at 10:00 AM...details to follow soon :)
LAST spelling quiz is TOMORROW, May 29th
Field Day is June 3rd
Finally, Mrs. Pangborn and I will be putting together a summer activities packet for the students. It includes math activities, FCPS recommended book list, and a calendar of possible activities to do over the summer. In an effort to avoid wasting paper, we ask that you email us to let us know if you are interested in having this for you child. Please let us know by Friday, June 5th if you are interested, thank you!
You have been a great joy to work with this year. The support, love, encouragement, and care that you give to your children is amazing. The students have worked so hard, I am so proud of what they have accomplished!
The Strawberry Festival is this Friday from 3:30-6:30. Thank you to all the parents who were able to donate some time to work at our "Sensational Strawberry Sun visors" stand :) In case your child hasn't informed you yet, I'll be in the Dunk Tank, towards the end of the festival - come on by and try to knock me in! Some dismissal forms were sent home today, if you're planning on coming to the festival right at 3:30, this will allow your child to stay at school until you get there. I look forward to seeing you there!
In addition to the Strawberry Festival Dismissal form, a School Tube permission slip also went home yesterday. This will allow me to post your child's PhotoStory work online so that you can view it, and send it to family and friends! UES has a specific channel on School Tube, and your child's last name is NOT on the video. School Tube is very similar to You Tube, only appropriate for more elementary school-aged students. Here is the link for our UES channel if you'd like to check it out:
http://www.schooltube.com/user/ues
FYI... for upcoming events...
Our end of the year celebration will be Friday, June 10th at 10:00 AM...details to follow soon :)
LAST spelling quiz is TOMORROW, May 29th
Field Day is June 3rd
Finally, Mrs. Pangborn and I will be putting together a summer activities packet for the students. It includes math activities, FCPS recommended book list, and a calendar of possible activities to do over the summer. In an effort to avoid wasting paper, we ask that you email us to let us know if you are interested in having this for you child. Please let us know by Friday, June 5th if you are interested, thank you!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Happy Mothers' Day!
Hello! I hope all you mothers out there had a WONDERFUL Mothers' Day! What great weather we had too!
Last week was so fantastic, on so many levels! Thank you all so much for the lovely gifts and cards, it brought tears to my eyes! Thank you very much :)
We're on our way to completing the Photo Stories! The students put in extraordinary efforts last week and they look SO impressive. I hope, with the help of our technology resource teacher, that I will be able to either put these up on the BLOG or to send them to you so you can see their masterpieces!
Last Wednesday morning we went to Mr. Esko's (fifth grade Magnet instructor) to learn about compound microscopes! We learned the different parts of the microscope, and were able to view some samples of algae and water from the Wetlands! Thank you Mr. Esko for donating your time to us!
Friday we were fortunate to experience a Percussion Assembly!! Almost everybody - teachers included - had a chance to participate! They had drums and other percussion instruments from all over the world, including Africa, China, Japan, the Caribbean, Cuba, Brazil, Switzerland, The United States and Mexico! Thank you to the PTA for organizing this for us :)
Finally, we are starting to wrap up the end of the year! I am going to stop sending homework packets home for the remainder of the year. There will still be an occasional Reading Response question, or math practice page sent home - but no more packets!
I am going to skip a spelling list this week as Friday is both a two hour delayed start, and the Teddy Bear Picnic. Informational sheets will be going home today about the Teddy Bear Picnic - I hope you can make it!
The last spelling list will be created by the students, made of words that they want to learn before the school year is out. We will create these lists next week, and have our last spelling quiz on Friday, May 29th.
Thank you so much for your continued support! Have a great day!
Last week was so fantastic, on so many levels! Thank you all so much for the lovely gifts and cards, it brought tears to my eyes! Thank you very much :)
We're on our way to completing the Photo Stories! The students put in extraordinary efforts last week and they look SO impressive. I hope, with the help of our technology resource teacher, that I will be able to either put these up on the BLOG or to send them to you so you can see their masterpieces!
Last Wednesday morning we went to Mr. Esko's (fifth grade Magnet instructor) to learn about compound microscopes! We learned the different parts of the microscope, and were able to view some samples of algae and water from the Wetlands! Thank you Mr. Esko for donating your time to us!
Friday we were fortunate to experience a Percussion Assembly!! Almost everybody - teachers included - had a chance to participate! They had drums and other percussion instruments from all over the world, including Africa, China, Japan, the Caribbean, Cuba, Brazil, Switzerland, The United States and Mexico! Thank you to the PTA for organizing this for us :)
Finally, we are starting to wrap up the end of the year! I am going to stop sending homework packets home for the remainder of the year. There will still be an occasional Reading Response question, or math practice page sent home - but no more packets!
I am going to skip a spelling list this week as Friday is both a two hour delayed start, and the Teddy Bear Picnic. Informational sheets will be going home today about the Teddy Bear Picnic - I hope you can make it!
The last spelling list will be created by the students, made of words that they want to learn before the school year is out. We will create these lists next week, and have our last spelling quiz on Friday, May 29th.
Thank you so much for your continued support! Have a great day!
Friday, May 1, 2009
One more thing...
The "wh" list on spelling city did not let me add these three words to the list: whippoorwill, whelk, and whooping crane. These will be on the list that is sent home in the homework packet!
Thank you! Have a great weekend!
Thank you! Have a great weekend!
MAY DAY! MAY DAY!
Hello and Happy Friday, May Day, and Mother Goose Day! We've had another busy week in first grade. Today we released our guppies and snails into the Great Heron Wetlands. This turned out to be quite the event as a mini-down pour started just as we got there!
We are going to be switching to Social Studies content now, which is focusing on "Peoples of the Nations and World" - comparing and contrasting our own cultures to those of others around the world. I'm very excited about this unit! Should be lots of fun!
The students did a GREAT job with their spelling lists this week! Very impressive! The next list, "wh", will be available soon on Spelling City.
This coming week in math we are going to be reviewing and extending some of the skills we've focused on in Geometry. We'll be working more on some writing activities that require the students to use math vocabulary to describe how they solved certain math problems. The students should do very well - these are GREAT brain-stretching activities :)
The students have finished typing their "How To..." paragraphs this week. Next week, we'll be moving on to taking pictures of each step, and putting them together in PhotoStory! Some of the students have chosen to do their "How to" paragraphs on something that requires some materials from home. If this is the case for your child, please send in these materials with your child so he/she may use them in his/her presentation. Thank you so much!
Have a great weekend!
We are going to be switching to Social Studies content now, which is focusing on "Peoples of the Nations and World" - comparing and contrasting our own cultures to those of others around the world. I'm very excited about this unit! Should be lots of fun!
The students did a GREAT job with their spelling lists this week! Very impressive! The next list, "wh", will be available soon on Spelling City.
This coming week in math we are going to be reviewing and extending some of the skills we've focused on in Geometry. We'll be working more on some writing activities that require the students to use math vocabulary to describe how they solved certain math problems. The students should do very well - these are GREAT brain-stretching activities :)
The students have finished typing their "How To..." paragraphs this week. Next week, we'll be moving on to taking pictures of each step, and putting them together in PhotoStory! Some of the students have chosen to do their "How to" paragraphs on something that requires some materials from home. If this is the case for your child, please send in these materials with your child so he/she may use them in his/her presentation. Thank you so much!
Have a great weekend!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Happy Friday!
Hello! We had quite the interesting week! We had a little unexpected lesson in how it's important to be flexible...after taking our recently planted seedlings outside for some natural sunlight, we returned later that afternoon to find them blown all over the Wet Lands :( The students handled it all very well, and we hope to try planting again sometime soon in the upcoming weeks. Our science time will now be occupied with our recently arrived "organisms," including guppies, snails, and various marsh plants. Hopefully these won't blow away!! :)
The girls and boys have been doing a GREAT job with the more challenging spelling lists! Thank you for all your help at home! Our next list, digraph "th", is now available on http://www.spellingcity.com/ if you wish to start practicing over the weekend.
The students have begun their rough drafts of their "How to" projects. I'm really excited to see the final projects - we have everything from "How To Draw a Cube" to "How to Make Oobleck" - it's going to be great! This coming week we should be able to finish the writing portion of the assignment and hopefully start learning how to use the PhotoStory Program with Mrs. Cicerone.
To coordinate with the "how to" writing assignment, I am going to be putting various "how to" craft and drawing books in the art center for the students to use. If you have any craft books that you would like to share, or any old craft supplies that you would like to donate that would be most greatly appreciated! The craft supplies could be anything like scraps of tissue paper or wrapping paper, fabric scraps, water color paints, wall paper scraps, old crayons, paint brushes, sponges, etc. Thank you!!
We are finishing up division this coming week, and will be focusing more on some problem solving strategies. Thank you for your support at home with subject - I know it can be challenging! We've done a lot with using manipulatives (cubes are what we use in class, Cheerios, Legos, paper clips, anything along these lines works just as well at home!), drawing pictures, and using fact families. The students have really embraced the challenge of this - WAY TO GO KIDDOS!!
Finally, I think we have all been going through a bit of Spring Fever lately! We are all very excited about Spring - warm weather, spring sports, school being over soon, etc. Our behavior has been a little off because of it. I've been trying to be consistent with the language of "You know the good choices you need make, you need to choose to do them." We've also been reveiwing the good choices we need to make in the cafeteria, in the hallway, in specials, at recess, etc. If you could please continue conversations like these at home, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much!
I hope everyone has a great weekend - enjoy the WONDERFUL weather!!
The girls and boys have been doing a GREAT job with the more challenging spelling lists! Thank you for all your help at home! Our next list, digraph "th", is now available on http://www.spellingcity.com/ if you wish to start practicing over the weekend.
The students have begun their rough drafts of their "How to" projects. I'm really excited to see the final projects - we have everything from "How To Draw a Cube" to "How to Make Oobleck" - it's going to be great! This coming week we should be able to finish the writing portion of the assignment and hopefully start learning how to use the PhotoStory Program with Mrs. Cicerone.
To coordinate with the "how to" writing assignment, I am going to be putting various "how to" craft and drawing books in the art center for the students to use. If you have any craft books that you would like to share, or any old craft supplies that you would like to donate that would be most greatly appreciated! The craft supplies could be anything like scraps of tissue paper or wrapping paper, fabric scraps, water color paints, wall paper scraps, old crayons, paint brushes, sponges, etc. Thank you!!
We are finishing up division this coming week, and will be focusing more on some problem solving strategies. Thank you for your support at home with subject - I know it can be challenging! We've done a lot with using manipulatives (cubes are what we use in class, Cheerios, Legos, paper clips, anything along these lines works just as well at home!), drawing pictures, and using fact families. The students have really embraced the challenge of this - WAY TO GO KIDDOS!!
Finally, I think we have all been going through a bit of Spring Fever lately! We are all very excited about Spring - warm weather, spring sports, school being over soon, etc. Our behavior has been a little off because of it. I've been trying to be consistent with the language of "You know the good choices you need make, you need to choose to do them." We've also been reveiwing the good choices we need to make in the cafeteria, in the hallway, in specials, at recess, etc. If you could please continue conversations like these at home, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much!
I hope everyone has a great weekend - enjoy the WONDERFUL weather!!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Welcome Back!
Welcome back! We've had another eventful week in first grade!
We planted our seeds! Thank you very much for the generous seed donations! Each student was able to plant 11 plants - pumpkin, squash, peas, mustard, grass, blankets of snow, royal blankets, columbines, daisies, tomatoes, and carrots. We took the plants outside today to expose them to some natural sunlight and water them. We were also able to spend some time in the Great Heron Wetlands - which look FABULOUS in full bloom! Some of the students observed frogs, toads - even a snake in the water! We also saw daffodils, forsythia, and hyacinth.
Division has been great! The students have been using manipulatives to help solve problems they were given in class. We discussed about what items could be used at home, and we came up with: paper clips, Cheerios, pennies, pieces of paper (cut into small pieces), Legos, toothpicks, straws and dried pasta. Another strategy the students have used to solve division is "inverse operations" which in this case, is multiplication! The students used what they knew about fact families from addition and subtraction and applied it to fact families with multiplication and division. Great job kiddos!
This week in writing we have been practicing writing ordered steps. Students were assigned index cards with simple tasks written on them. For example, brushing your teeth, making a PBJ, braiding hair, eating a banana, and so on. The students were able to use what they knew about the writing process to create a rough draft of the steps, and then transfer their draft onto sentence strips for their final copies. They're almost finished - looking good!!!
I've been hearing great feedback from the students about Frindle! I thought it was a great book, and the plot of the story coincides VERY well with our Language Arts curriculum! I hope you have been able to enjoy the book along with your child - it's a great story!
The "ch" word list was challenging, but a lot of fun! The students did really well with the various sounds of "ch" as well as with the spelling of some pretty complicated words. We have another batch of 30 for next week as well! The "SSSSHHH!!!" list is now available on SpellingCity.com - enjoy!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the WONDERFUL weather!
We planted our seeds! Thank you very much for the generous seed donations! Each student was able to plant 11 plants - pumpkin, squash, peas, mustard, grass, blankets of snow, royal blankets, columbines, daisies, tomatoes, and carrots. We took the plants outside today to expose them to some natural sunlight and water them. We were also able to spend some time in the Great Heron Wetlands - which look FABULOUS in full bloom! Some of the students observed frogs, toads - even a snake in the water! We also saw daffodils, forsythia, and hyacinth.
Division has been great! The students have been using manipulatives to help solve problems they were given in class. We discussed about what items could be used at home, and we came up with: paper clips, Cheerios, pennies, pieces of paper (cut into small pieces), Legos, toothpicks, straws and dried pasta. Another strategy the students have used to solve division is "inverse operations" which in this case, is multiplication! The students used what they knew about fact families from addition and subtraction and applied it to fact families with multiplication and division. Great job kiddos!
This week in writing we have been practicing writing ordered steps. Students were assigned index cards with simple tasks written on them. For example, brushing your teeth, making a PBJ, braiding hair, eating a banana, and so on. The students were able to use what they knew about the writing process to create a rough draft of the steps, and then transfer their draft onto sentence strips for their final copies. They're almost finished - looking good!!!
I've been hearing great feedback from the students about Frindle! I thought it was a great book, and the plot of the story coincides VERY well with our Language Arts curriculum! I hope you have been able to enjoy the book along with your child - it's a great story!
The "ch" word list was challenging, but a lot of fun! The students did really well with the various sounds of "ch" as well as with the spelling of some pretty complicated words. We have another batch of 30 for next week as well! The "SSSSHHH!!!" list is now available on SpellingCity.com - enjoy!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the WONDERFUL weather!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Spring has SPRUNG!!
Well, we made it! I hope everyone has a great spring break!
When we return on Tuesday, April 14th we will be bridging from multiplication strategies to division strategies. The students have been doing a FANTASTIC job with multiplication, so I'm really excited to see what they can accomplish with division.
We are going to be starting our Organisms unit in science when we return as well! This is when those egg cartons you saved for us will come in handy! Also, if anyone has any flower/herb/vegetable seeds that they don't plan on using this year, we'd really appreciate it if you could send them in! Thank you! We will be starting with the life cycle of plants, and then moving on to the life cycle guppies!
Our next spelling pattern will be the "ch" consonant digraph. Digraphs are a combination of multiple letters that result in one sound, such as "ch" "ph" "wh" "th". The word list is available on Spelling City - there are 30 WORDS on this list. The purpose of this is to provide examples of the three primary sounds of "ch" - as we've learned - the English language is FULL of crazy exceptions!! For example, there's "ch" as in "chair," "ch" (sounding like "k") as in "chorus," and "ch" (sounding like "sh") as in "chic". We also have some more advanced words which we will be exploring more for vocabulary development purposes.
We are also going to be starting our "how to" writing. We will be taking a look at different examples of this type of writing next week, as well as taking a look at the different steps of this specific writing process. We will be beginning our individual "how to" projects the following week. I look forward to having Mrs. Cicerone (UES's technology specialist) show us how to use the PhotoStory program - it should be lots of fun!
Additionally, we will be starting to read the short novel, Frindle, by Andrew Clements. This will be an excellent story to follow along with our growing focus on vocabulary! Be on the lookout for questions in your child's Reading Response Journal.
With our constant efforts to try and keep the germs away, we have run out of cleaning wipes. I plan to go to Costco over break to pick up some to add to the supply, but if you could send a container in as well that would be most helpful!
Also, with our spring weather being so wacky, and our indoor climate being equally as wacky, please send in a light jacket, sweater, or sweatshirt for your child to keep here. Please have your child's name in the garment somewhere in case it should wander off. Thank you!
Finally, thank you all so very much for your help, support and communication! I hope you and your families have a wonderful spring break! Enjoy!
:) KP
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Best is Yet to Come!!
Happy Friday! It's hard to believe we're in the FOURTH QUARTER!! Thank you to all parents and students for a wonderful year so far - the best is yet to come!
Be on the lookout this week for the "Mystery Liquid" assignment that is coming home. We have been studying the various properties of liquids - and this will put our knowledge of those properties to the test! The information for this assignment will be included in the homework packet.
Thank you to all the students who submitted entries for the Economic Concepts poster contest! They all looked FABULOUS - I'll keep you posted as to the results!
We will be continuing multiplication this week, and leading into division next week. The students have done a very impressive job with the various skills of multiplication - way to go kiddos!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! If anyone goes to the Cherry Blossom Festival I'd love to see any pictures you take!
Thank you for all your continued support! :)
Be on the lookout this week for the "Mystery Liquid" assignment that is coming home. We have been studying the various properties of liquids - and this will put our knowledge of those properties to the test! The information for this assignment will be included in the homework packet.
Thank you to all the students who submitted entries for the Economic Concepts poster contest! They all looked FABULOUS - I'll keep you posted as to the results!
We will be continuing multiplication this week, and leading into division next week. The students have done a very impressive job with the various skills of multiplication - way to go kiddos!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! If anyone goes to the Cherry Blossom Festival I'd love to see any pictures you take!
Thank you for all your continued support! :)
Friday, March 20, 2009
Happy Spring!!
Hello and happy Spring!! As I'm sure you've heard, our classroom was painted this week. The students were great with being flexible when it came to helping out, and understanding that things may be moved around due to the painters coming and going.
Next week will be a short week - we have an early release day on Thursday and no school for students on Friday. The students will not have a spelling list or mad minute quiz next week. The students will be taking the quarter 3 Math assessment - which we have been preparing for!
We have also started taking a closer look at multiplication this week, and the kids have had a BLAST with it! We've discussed different strategies that can be used to solve multiplication problems - including repeated addition and using arrays.
Next week will be the last week to turn in the economic concept poster contest entries! I included an attachment of the informational letter and a piece of paper that meets the requirements in the email that was sent with the blog. Can't wait to see all the results!
Have a great weekend! Enjoy the spring weather!
Next week will be a short week - we have an early release day on Thursday and no school for students on Friday. The students will not have a spelling list or mad minute quiz next week. The students will be taking the quarter 3 Math assessment - which we have been preparing for!
We have also started taking a closer look at multiplication this week, and the kids have had a BLAST with it! We've discussed different strategies that can be used to solve multiplication problems - including repeated addition and using arrays.
Next week will be the last week to turn in the economic concept poster contest entries! I included an attachment of the informational letter and a piece of paper that meets the requirements in the email that was sent with the blog. Can't wait to see all the results!
Have a great weekend! Enjoy the spring weather!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday the 13th...
Good afternoon! We've had another fantastic week in first grade! Seussical was a hit! If you've never been to the Weinberg Center, I highly recommend it! What a cool place! Thank you to the chaperones who were able to join us!
We've been reviewing time, temperature, and money - and finished up the week with a Jeopardy game with Mrs. Pangborn's class! TONS of fun! Our quarterly assessment for math will be coming up the week of the 23rd, this was a great way to prepare!
Thank you to all of you who have sent in egg cartons for our upcoming planting project! Our final science unit is titled "Organisms" and focuses quite a bit on various life cycles. For example, seed to plant, caterpillar to butterfly, tadpole to frog, etc. Either the cardboard OR Styrofoam cartons are acceptable! Thanks so much!
Coming up in April, our students will be focusing on "how to" writing, as well as persuasive writing. I plan to show the students how to use PowerPoint, and another new program we have called PhotoStory, to create their "how to" projects. Please be brainstorming some different ideas that your son/daughter could show others how to do. Some examples we've had in the past include "How to...make a paper football, draw a dinosaur, do a cartwheel, make a picture frame..." and so on. I'm really excited to see what the students decide to do! Please be mindful that the students will need to be able to show how to do this in five minutes or less. Their PowerPoint presentations will show the different steps of their process. PhotoStory will be put together of photos that I, or another teacher will take of the different steps of the process - and then the students read their directions into the computer! The finished product is like a "how to" video - narrated by them!!
Additionally, I've added a new prize to our classroom prize basket - No Homework Passes! Some of you have seen these come home already. The rules for these are as follows: 1. May only be used for one page of homework. 2. May not be used for book baggie homework. 3. Must be attached to the homework page the student chooses not to do. Thank you!
I have inserted the letter I received from the Magnet Department with a list of links for summer vacation programs.
Summer Program Options for Elementary and Middle School Students
Following is a list of summer program options for children in the Frederick area. The list certainly is not inclusive, but provides some possible options that address a wide variety of student interests. In providing the list, the Office of Gifted and Talented Education of Frederick County Public Schools is not endorsing or promoting the programs, but is simply offering information as a service to parents and children. The programs, phone numbers and web addresses are accurate as of March 2009, but subject to change without notice.
· Maryland Summer Centers for Gifted and Talented Students are sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Education and are held in locations throughout the state. Information and online registration are available in February at www.marylandpublicschools.org/summercenters. Summary sheets about the programs are available in FCPS schools in mid-March. A limited number of brochures are available from FCPS Office of Gifted and Talented Education (301-696-6891).
· Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University. Advanced screening process, including testing, is required. Information for this program is available at 1-410-516-0278 or at http://www.cty.jhu.edu/.
· Frederick Community College offers year round programs for students. Parents may call 301-624-2820 to be added to the mailing list or visit www.frederick.edu/courses_and_programs/children.aspx, Programs for Children.
· Summer Institute for the Gifted offers high quality summer programs for academically advanced students in grades 4-11 at prestigious institutions of higher learning. This two-week program is costly. For more information call 1-866-303-4744 or http://www.giftedstudy.com/.
· Rose Hill Manor offers history camps for students in the summer. Information is available at 301-600-1650 or visit http://www.rosehillmuseum.com/ .
· Delaplaine Visual Arts Center offers many classes for students in grades preschool through high school in the arts. Parents may call 301-698-0656 or visit http://www.delaplaine.org/ to request a brochure or to be added to the mailing list.
· YMCA offers summer programs for students. Information is available at 301-663-5131 or
at http://frederickymca.org/ .
· Hood Athletics Summer Camps for boys and girls of various ages in Basketball, Soccer, http://frederickymca.org/ Lacrosse, Volleyball and Field Hockey are available at www.hood.edu/athletics/athletics.cfm?pid=athletics_summercamps07.html.
· Hood College offers swimming classes. Information is available at the Aquatics Center at www.hoodathletics.com/aquatics/aqu-welcome.
· Mount St. Mary’s University Residential/Commuter Soccer Camp is sponsored by the Rob Ryerson Professional Soccer School and offers week long soccer camps for both boys and girls from ages 10-18. Information is available at 301-447-5383 or http://www.scoringoals.com/.
· Dream Catcher Farm, located in Adamstown, Maryland, offers summer riding camps for one or more weeks, with limited enrollment available. The farm features an indoor and outdoor riding rink. Camp includes riding instruction, training in horsemanship, horse care, trail rides and arts and crafts (1-301-607-4238).
· Frederick Arts Council sponsors programs (301-662-4190).
· West Winds All Sports Camp at 11411 Gas House Pike in New Market offers week long camps focusing on golf, tennis, swimming and other sports. Information is available at
1-800-627-2267 or at http://www.campchannel.com/.
· Clustered Spires Golf Course offers golf camps for students all summer (301-624-1295).
· The Frederick SportsPlex offers summer sport camps. Information is available at 301-662-6866 or at http://www.sportsplexent.com/.
· Fountain Rock Park and Nature Center is rich in natural and historical interest and offers many hands on programs for children. Information is available at 301-898-1460 or at www.byways.org/explore/byways/58845/places/73744/ .
· Life and Discovery is a learning institute for enrichment and discovery. Classes include math, Chinese studies, reading and writing. Information is available at 301-631-6838 or http://www.lifeanddiscovery.com/.
· Volunteer Frederick Inc., located at 31 West Patrick Street, offers summer opportunities for students from ages 11-17. Students can choose from three two-week programs called SummerServe Express or one five-week program called SummerServe. There is a charge for these programs, but scholarships are available. Free volunteer opportunities also are available. Students may consider any of these opportunities offered through Volunteer Frederick Inc. to fulfill their service learning requirements. Additional information is available at 301-663-5214 or at http://www.volunteerfrederick.org/.
Local magazines, published each spring, provide information about additional summer youth programs. These magazines, which usually may be obtained at no cost in grocery stores, doctor’s offices and real estate offices in Frederick County, are:
· Frederick County Guide, 301-662-6050 or www.thefrederickguide.com/thefrederickguide/ .
· Family, 301-662-8171 or http://www.fredmag.com/.
· The Recreator (a free brochure prepared by Frederick County Division of Parks and Recreation) 301-600-2936 or http://www.co.frederick.md.us/index.asp?nid=3034.
· Child Guide, 540-955-2004 or http://www.childguidemagazine.com/.
Summer Program Options for Elementary and Middle School Students
Following is a list of summer program options for children in the Frederick area. The list certainly is not inclusive, but provides some possible options that address a wide variety of student interests. In providing the list, the Office of Gifted and Talented Education of Frederick County Public Schools is not endorsing or promoting the programs, but is simply offering information as a service to parents and children. The programs, phone numbers and web addresses are accurate as of March 2009, but subject to change without notice.
· Maryland Summer Centers for Gifted and Talented Students are sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Education and are held in locations throughout the state. Information and online registration are available in February at www.marylandpublicschools.org/summercenters. Summary sheets about the programs are available in FCPS schools in mid-March. A limited number of brochures are available from FCPS Office of Gifted and Talented Education (301-696-6891).
· Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University. Advanced screening process, including testing, is required. Information for this program is available at 1-410-516-0278 or at http://www.cty.jhu.edu/.
· Frederick Community College offers year round programs for students. Parents may call 301-624-2820 to be added to the mailing list or visit www.frederick.edu/courses_and_programs/children.aspx, Programs for Children.
· Summer Institute for the Gifted offers high quality summer programs for academically advanced students in grades 4-11 at prestigious institutions of higher learning. This two-week program is costly. For more information call 1-866-303-4744 or http://www.giftedstudy.com/.
· Rose Hill Manor offers history camps for students in the summer. Information is available at 301-600-1650 or visit http://www.rosehillmuseum.com/ .
· Delaplaine Visual Arts Center offers many classes for students in grades preschool through high school in the arts. Parents may call 301-698-0656 or visit http://www.delaplaine.org/ to request a brochure or to be added to the mailing list.
· YMCA offers summer programs for students. Information is available at 301-663-5131 or
at http://frederickymca.org/ .
· Hood Athletics Summer Camps for boys and girls of various ages in Basketball, Soccer, http://frederickymca.org/ Lacrosse, Volleyball and Field Hockey are available at www.hood.edu/athletics/athletics.cfm?pid=athletics_summercamps07.html.
· Hood College offers swimming classes. Information is available at the Aquatics Center at www.hoodathletics.com/aquatics/aqu-welcome.
· Mount St. Mary’s University Residential/Commuter Soccer Camp is sponsored by the Rob Ryerson Professional Soccer School and offers week long soccer camps for both boys and girls from ages 10-18. Information is available at 301-447-5383 or http://www.scoringoals.com/.
· Dream Catcher Farm, located in Adamstown, Maryland, offers summer riding camps for one or more weeks, with limited enrollment available. The farm features an indoor and outdoor riding rink. Camp includes riding instruction, training in horsemanship, horse care, trail rides and arts and crafts (1-301-607-4238).
· Frederick Arts Council sponsors programs (301-662-4190).
· West Winds All Sports Camp at 11411 Gas House Pike in New Market offers week long camps focusing on golf, tennis, swimming and other sports. Information is available at
1-800-627-2267 or at http://www.campchannel.com/.
· Clustered Spires Golf Course offers golf camps for students all summer (301-624-1295).
· The Frederick SportsPlex offers summer sport camps. Information is available at 301-662-6866 or at http://www.sportsplexent.com/.
· Fountain Rock Park and Nature Center is rich in natural and historical interest and offers many hands on programs for children. Information is available at 301-898-1460 or at www.byways.org/explore/byways/58845/places/73744/ .
· Life and Discovery is a learning institute for enrichment and discovery. Classes include math, Chinese studies, reading and writing. Information is available at 301-631-6838 or http://www.lifeanddiscovery.com/.
· Volunteer Frederick Inc., located at 31 West Patrick Street, offers summer opportunities for students from ages 11-17. Students can choose from three two-week programs called SummerServe Express or one five-week program called SummerServe. There is a charge for these programs, but scholarships are available. Free volunteer opportunities also are available. Students may consider any of these opportunities offered through Volunteer Frederick Inc. to fulfill their service learning requirements. Additional information is available at 301-663-5214 or at http://www.volunteerfrederick.org/.
Local magazines, published each spring, provide information about additional summer youth programs. These magazines, which usually may be obtained at no cost in grocery stores, doctor’s offices and real estate offices in Frederick County, are:
· Frederick County Guide, 301-662-6050 or www.thefrederickguide.com/thefrederickguide/ .
· Family, 301-662-8171 or http://www.fredmag.com/.
· The Recreator (a free brochure prepared by Frederick County Division of Parks and Recreation) 301-600-2936 or http://www.co.frederick.md.us/index.asp?nid=3034.
· Child Guide, 540-955-2004 or http://www.childguidemagazine.com/.
Have a great weekend! Thank you for all your help and support!
:) KP
Monday, March 9, 2009
Monday, March 9th
Hello! I hope everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the FABULOUS weather we had over the weekend. We had another busy, successful week last week. Students were able to create town maps using what they learned about coordinate graphing, and we learned how to write limerick poetry! Keep an eye out for these assignments to come home - they turned out great!
Special thanks to Mrs. Phelps for coming in on Friday - the students had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the goodies she brought in for us.
Please remember that tomorrow is our field trip to the Weinberg Center!! We're all really looking forward to it.
Thank you to the parents who have sent in egg cartons! I'm realizing that the cardboard kind are more of a rare find than I thought! So, if you normally purchase the Styrofoam kind, those will work as well - thank you! Also, thank you to those who've sent in the disinfecting products. It's been really very helpful in keeping the classroom as clean as possible.
Have a great week! Let's hope this weather sticks around as long as possible :)
Special thanks to Mrs. Phelps for coming in on Friday - the students had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the goodies she brought in for us.
Please remember that tomorrow is our field trip to the Weinberg Center!! We're all really looking forward to it.
Thank you to the parents who have sent in egg cartons! I'm realizing that the cardboard kind are more of a rare find than I thought! So, if you normally purchase the Styrofoam kind, those will work as well - thank you! Also, thank you to those who've sent in the disinfecting products. It's been really very helpful in keeping the classroom as clean as possible.
Have a great week! Let's hope this weather sticks around as long as possible :)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
In the event...
...that school is closed tomorrow due to the weather, all conferences will be cancelled. I will be in touch to reschedule conferences at another time. Otherwise, I plan on being there for morning conferences. Have a wonderful evening!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Goodbye February and Hello March!
I am QUITE impressed with how well all the students have done so far with coordinate graphing! We did quite a few graphing lessons on the Promethean Board in the computer lab this week. The students have done a great job writing down ordered pairs (coordinates), moving objects to a designated ordered pair, identifying X and Y axis, as well as being able to differentiate movements between graphs that use number/number coordinates, and letter/number coordinates!
I hope to continue this concept next week with a social studies connection. The students will be designing maps of their own towns! Each town will need to be complete with various services - those provided by taxes, and those that are not. It should be a great integration of subjects!
With Saint Patrick's Day and Spring coming soon we will be learning how to write Limerick poems in the up coming weeks! Limericks are a form of poetry that was actually created in England, not Ireland. However, the jovial rhythm of these poems are often associated with Spring and St. Patrick's day - as one can often picture a leprechaun reciting them at the end of a rainbow somewhere :) I'm excited to see what they create!
Just as a reminder, if you haven't yet signed up for conferences, it's not too late! Please check the schedule from a few blogs ago, and email me your request. Please remember that these conferences are optional, not required like the ones in the fall. I ask that you have your conference requests in by 2:00 PM on Sunday - I'll check what's available and send you a confirmation by Sunday evening. Thank you!
The Pizzas were a hit! The students had a lot of fun and were excellent at identifying the different economic concepts that went into the process. Way to go first graders!
You should have received a permission slip for our field trip to the Weinberg Center to see Seussical the Musical. This permission slip is due back by Friday, March 6th. If you volunteered to chaperon, you will be notified that afternoon!
Next Friday is also our Dental Health Presentation!
Thank you so much for all your help, communication, and support! Have a great weekend!
Kelly Phelps
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