Monster Match

Here are pictures from our Skype with a class from New York.  The students had fun trying to draw each other's monsters and follow directions.
*Also, please note it is not Valentine's Day.  It was "Red Day" at school for Red Ribbon week.  Hence, why most of the students are wearing red:)

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkinmania

We had so much fun with Pumpkinmania.  Thanks to Sara's mom and dad for volunteering and for all the parents who sent in pumpkins.

 

 

 

 

Welcome November!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!  This week is busy in Room 110.  While we do have Tuesday off, the end of the quarter also marks the beginning of Benchmark testing for Reading and Math learned this quarter. Here's a run down of the curriculum for the week:

Reading:  Fluency (pausing at punctuation) and Visualizing

Math:  Skip Counting and Identifying Odd and Even Numbers

Social Studies:  Native Americans (The Powhatans and the Lakota Tribes)

Notes:  Please return your child's permission slip for our Jamestown Field Trip next Tuesday, if you  have not done so already.

Red Ribbon Week

Next week is Red Ribbon Week and Spirit Week at Magruder.  Do you remember this from when you were in school?  It is a week to celebrate making safe and healthy choices.  It is also a Spirit week for our school.  This week will also be a really busy week in Room 110 with a Skype session on Monday and Pumpkinmania on Friday.  

Here is what we are focusing on in our curriculum this week:

Language Arts:  Character Analysis and Visualizing, Writing a Personal Narrative

Math:  Patterns on a 100 Chart and Skip Counting

Science:  Magnet Review and Test (The test is on Tuesday)

Social Studies:  Native Americans with a focus on the Powhatans

Fun this week (I just had to add this in):
Monday-Red Day, Skype Session with Mohansic Elementary in New York (We will be doing our monster match activity with them)
Tuesday-Crazy Sock Day
Wednesday-Pajama Day
Thursday-Wacky Tacky Day
Friday-Team Spirit Day
*On Friday afternoon, we will be having pumpkin mania.  I need volunteers and pumpkins.  Please let me know if you are able to help.

Week 7

It's hard to believe it's week 7 of the school year. Time is flying (especially the time between now and my due date on November 14th)!  Here's what we are learning about this week in Room 110.

Language Arts:  In Reading, we will start a new unit on Character analysis and making text 
connections. In Writing, we are still working on personal narratives and will look at adding details to our writing.  The students will draw and write a describing paragraph about a monster.  I will then pick 3 of those paragraphs and those students will read their paragraphs to a class in New York via Skype next Monday.  Those students will try to draw their monster by listening to the paragraph.  We will also be listening to 3 students from New York and trying to draw their monsters.  This should be pretty fun! 

Science:  Our magnet unit is in full swing.  The students are brainstorming how to improve our class with magnets and are doing lots of fun inquiry experiments.  We also have a video conference session with a real scientist on Tuesday.  I meant to do this earlier this month, but they did not have any sessions until now.  It will be neat for students to be able to hear a real scientist talk about their job.

Math:  We are finished with story problems and are on to patterns this week.  We will learn about patterns for the next two weeks.

Notes:  I am sending home parent-teacher conference forms tomorrow.  I hope to have all my conferences next or early the first week in November, so I can get them all in before I leave for maternity leave.  I am also looking for volunteers for Pumpkinmania on October 30.  Please mark your calendars.

Welcome Fall!

I hope you were able to get out and enjoy this weekend's weather.  It was beautiful!

Here's what's going on this week in 2nd grade:

Language Arts:  We are working on fluency this week. Students will have the chance to partner read to help with this skill.  We will work on varying speed when reading.  In writing, students will continue to learn about how to write a personal narrative and will learn about run-on sentences.

Math:  We will continue our unit on story problems.  This week's focus is on subtraction story problems.  Look for a test on story problems next Monday.

Social Studies:  We will begin our unit on communities of the past.  Students this week will have a review of the types of communities and will start looking at how Virginia has changed from the past.  Our focus question for the unit will be on how to let others know that our community is a great place to visit.  There is no quiz for Social Studies this week.

Notes:  Please remember to keep checking ASPEN for up to date grades.  Also, please continue to encourage your child to be responsible for checking and turning in their work.  This is skill I am working on with them in class and your encouragement goes a long way.

Scientific Inquiry

We learned about the difference between data and observations last week.  Here's an example of an experiment when took lots of data and had lots of fun.  Check out the marshmallow shooter experiment:

 

 

 

A Rainy Week Again?

Hopefully, we will be seeing the sun this week!  We did need the rain, but I have some gardening planned this week and hope we can get out to the soggy garden.

Here's what we're learning about this week:
Language Arts:  It's week 2 of main idea and details.  I will officially start guided reading groups this week.  The focus in groups will be on main idea and detail. We will also go over good test taking strategies.  In writing, the focus will be on writing a personal narrative and editing.

Math:  This week's focus skill is story problems.  Students will be learning about different strategies for solving story problems and missing addends again.  We will also continue to review the concept of equality and will have a test on Friday on computation.

Science:  We will wrap up our unit on Scientific inquiry on Thursday.  There will be a quick quiz on vocabulary for Scientific method terms.  There will be no review sheet for the quiz, as this is a short assessment and we will be having a review in class on Wednesday.  The students will be determining how to best fix our school's garden and will be planting our fall garden on Thursday and Friday.  You may send in gardening gloves if desired.

Notes:  Thanks to all who showed up for Back to School Night.  If you couldn't make it, I look forward to meeting with you at the end of the month for parent-teacher conferences.

Some Cooperative Learning Fun

I love cooperative learning!  Here are some pictures from the past week.  
Saving Fred  and Tower Building (to help learn to work as a team)

 
 













Working on a project for Citizenship (What if Everybody helped the Community/What if Nobody helped Posters)

 

Week 4

This week in Second Grade...

Science:  We are starting our unit on Scientific Inquiry.  Lots of fun experiments are planned.  Be sure to ask your child about making marshmallow shooters and how we had to use Science to make determine the best way to move marshmallows.

Language Arts:  This week, I will hopefully finish up beginning of the year testing and can start pulling reading groups!  We will be focusing on main idea and details for our comprehension strategy and will learn about editing and revising in writing.  The students are still working on learning routines. I know they will get them soon!

Math:  We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction.  This week's focus is on equality and missing addends.  To help with basic fact memorization, I am having the students work on Moby Max.com. The students can work on this at home too.  There is a link on my ASPEN page.

Other:  Don't forget Back to School Night is Tuesday at 6:30!  I hope to see you there.

Week 3!

We are getting well into the swing of things in second grade with our routines and daily expectations.  This week, students will bring home spelling words and spelling homework.  The instructions for the homework are in the front of your child's spelling homework notebook.  Also, this week, we will have another addition to our class:  a fish and 2 crayfish.  I think they will provide a fun way for us to learn Science this year and I think they're pretty cool.  Check back for new pictures coming soon!
Here's what we're learning about this week:

Math:  We will start a unit on computation and will review basic addition and subtraction facts to 20.  I will be sending home information on a program called Xtra Math that  your child can do at home to help with this.  We will have a quiz on Friday on basic facts.

Language Arts:  We are continuing to set up our writing workshop.  In reading, we are still working on learning routines. This week, we will add word work to our Daily 3 centers to help with spelling.

Social Studies:  We will finish up our unit on citizenship and the responsibilities of a good citizen.  There will be a test on Friday for this unit.  I will send home a study guide on Thursday night.  This is our first test of the year!

Notes:  Don't forget next Tuesday is Back to School Night at 6:30.  I look forward to meeting with you and providing more information about our class.

Fabulous First Day

We had a fabulous first day in Second Grade!  We thought about expectations for our class and then made our class rules from those.  We also worked on some team building exercises (can you keep the paper balls on the parachute?) and on getting to know our classmates better with a scavenger hunt.  We also started building stamina for Read to Self.  Be sure to check your child's folder and agenda daily and look for more pictures coming soon!

A Rainy Start to the Week...

means inside recess today, but it looks like sunshine the rest of the week.  Here's what going on in Room 110:

Fractions, Oh My!

This week looks like it will turn out to be an interesting week!  Some of our caterpillars are starting to climb up to the top of their jar and I am super pleased that the students are understanding fractions.  This is a very trick concept (parts and wholes), but the students have jumped right into the challenge and are now easily saying 1 out of 4 when describing sets of objects.  Here's what else we're learning this week:

Spring!!!

The weather this weekend wasn't too great, but it looks like a nice week ahead.  Here's what's going on in Room 110 this week:

Week 31!

We are on week 31 and have 8 weeks to go this year!  Here's a preview of what we are learning this week in Room 110:

Language Arts:  It's a fluency week and this week we will talk about using expression while reading.  We will read a Reader's Theatre book and a poem to help with learning this skill.  The focus in writing this week will be on using a 4 square organizer to organize ideas for writing.

Math:  This week, students will be measuring weight using a balance scale and temperature.  The students will compare heavy and light objects using direction comparison and the balance scale.  Students will also review the tools used for measurement.

Science:  This week, I hope to finish up our unit on matter.  We will be learning about things that sink and float and will keep reviewing solids, liquids, and gases.  Students will also learn about healthly foods for animals and will be making dog biscuits to sell at the Transformative Learning Fair next week.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a nice Spring Break.  This week starts the 4th and final quarter of the school year.  Wow! Time has sure flown by.  Here's what's going on this week in Kindergarten:

One Week to Spring Break!

There is only one week left in March and the 3rd quarter marking period and Spring Break is just around the corner.  The students (and teachers) are very excited in Room 110.  That being said, we still have a lot to do this week.  Here's what we're learning in Kindergarten:

Welcome Spring!

I am so happy that we seem to be finally getting the warm weather of Spring (and that there are only 2 more weeks until Spring Break!)

Here's what we are learning this week:

Math:  We are continuing our work with coins and money.  We will be working on this unit for 2 more weeks.  Students will need to identify all the coins and count a set of coins to 10 cents.  This week we will have a "candy store" in our class and will be using a number line and hundred chart to help with these skills.

Language Arts:  This week is a fluency week.  We will be reading a big book called Farm Animals and will work on phrasing and volume when reading.  In writing, students will work on making "super sentences" and will write to their  First Grade Pen Pals for additional writing practice.

Science:  We will start our unit on magnets with some fun experiments.

Notes:  The book fair will be at school this week.  If your child is purchasing anything, please have having a BBQ dinner on Thursday.  You may pre-purchase meals or buy them at the door.

March 16-20

What a busy week we have planned in Room 110!  This week, we will be practicing and then performing the Kindergarten Patriotic Program.  The students will also create their Famous American Museum, as well as continue to make things to sell in our gift shop.  Check back for picture later in the week to see the result of all our efforts. 

Here's what we're learning this week:
Language Arts:  The comprehension skill is making predictions and making inferences.  Students will work on learning how to edit their writing and how to brainstorm ideas for writing.

Math:  We are working on our money unit again.  This week, students will practice counting coins to 10 cents and identifying coins and their values.  Students will also have the chance to design a carnival and make prices for the rides (all under 10 cents, of course).  We will also have a "candy store" open this week during centers.  The students got a sneak preview on Friday and were excited.

Social Studies:  This week, we are finishing up our unit on America and will be making exhibits for our museum.  I can't wait for the grand opening!

Notes:  Look for information on the Patriotic Program coming home in your child's folder on Monday.  Also, don't forget class picture day is on Thursday.  If you are ordering pictures, please send in your form on or before Picture Day.

A New Month, A New Display

Check out some of the bright ideas the students in Room 110 have come up with!

We made shamrocks and wrote what things we are lucky to have.

 

We read "Of the Thinks you can Think" and made inventions to celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday.  One of my favorite inventions is the Puff Ball Monster who can clean your house!

 

 

We went on a Pigeon Book marathon and wrote summaries about our favorite book.

March 9-13

With all the snow that we have had, we have a busy, busy week ahead so we can catch up.  Here is what we are working on this week in Kindergarten:

Math:  We will finish up our unit on telling time to the hour and will start our unit on coins and counting pennies and nickels up to 10 cents.  Please start practicing coin recognition with your child if they do not know their coins.  This will be a big help for this unit!

Language Arts:  We are starting a new unit in our Reading Series.  The focus skills for the next two weeks will be on making predictions and making inferences.  We are also learning how to use the writing process and are learning  about adding "fancy" words to make our sentences better.

Social Studies:  The Junior Curators are hard at work thinking of ideas to get more people to want to visit Colonial Williamsburg.  So far, we have learned about Pocahontas and Powhatan through a book and a Skype session with a real historian!  This week we will learn about some Famous Americans and will decide if something about them should be in a museum.  I can't wait to hear some of the ideas the students come up with.

Have a great week!

So much Snow!

I'm hoping we'll be back at school tomorrow, but now I hope you are enjoying the snow.
Here's what we are learning this week in Room 110:

Room Changes

We are finished with journals and are graduating to using the writing process and writing folders.  Also, check out the 100 hearts hanging from our ceiling.  On the 100th day, students wrote 100 kind things and we hung them around the room.

Our New Writing Center

Our New Writing Process Poster

100 Hearts!

Mr. Kipper and Tyrion came to help me set up the new writing center after school and decided to provide me with some entertainment!