Guest Reader

Mrs. Wentz joined our classroom last week as our Guest Reader. She read two wonderful books to us. Thank you for taking the time to read to us.

 

 

 

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We finally got some snow!!! We are so excited. Outside snow means winter clothes for outdoor recess. Please remember that we have outdoor recess every day. Snow pants, winter boots, warm jackets, hats and mittens/gloves are needed so your child can enjoy all the fun outdoor activities at this time. Thank you. Many of you are also sending in an extra change of clothing and indoor shoes as feet and socks sometimes get cold and wet. Thank you. We did a snow melting experiement this morning in our classroom. Ask your child to explain how we can ask questions, make predictions and observations as scientists. We filled one cup with fresh snow, and another only half-way up. We observed the snow using our senses. Then, we made predictions about what would happen to the snow. We quickly agreed that the snow would melt, but how quickly would it melt? Would the snow in the different containers melt at different speeds, and if so, why? Winter-time is a great time for science experiments! We have our classroom outdoor thermometer installed as well. Wintertime is a great time to check the outdoor temperatures.

I hope you all had a chance to see the pictures we posted from our classroom celebration with Mr. Terko earlier this week. If not, please scroll down on this blog to see an earlier post. Once again, thank you all for your incredible generosity sending in all the goodies we enjoyed. We could not have done this without your help, engagement and support. Thank you.

I wanted to remind all of you about our homework assignments again. Please note that students are only expected to spend approximately 20 minutes every night on homework, which includes the reading/writing and math homework. Reading logs are due back on Thursdays. I really enjoy seeing the comments from the parents and hope that you are all seeing the progress your child is making. I have received some feedback on the additional reading log suggestions (the email attachment I sent out earlier this week and which is also posted on the wiki). Thank you. I am glad to hear that they work well for you and your child. Please remember that these topics are voluntary. Math homework is sent out sporadically in grade 1, but second graders receive math homework almost every Monday. This math homework is placed inside your child's red Homework folder, and due back on Thursdays, along with the reading log. I have noticed that many children did not hand in their math homework this week. Please hand it in as soon as possible. I check it at school. It will be returned again so your child can play these games over and over again. Talking about math and doing math will help your child build the necessary and foundational skills for future success in mathematics. Thank you.

We had another great 4 Winds class today, learning about decomposition of logs. We saw a puppet show, enjoyed a visit from a professor from Cambridge University in England (although the students claimed it was Zachary's mom, I am not sure) and explored logs as scientists. Thank you parents for volunteering for this great class.

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend,
Maria

Science Update

We love to do science in our classroom. Ask your child to explain how scientists write and make observations. We have learned to use our senses, rather than our feelings. We have learned that scientists carefully observe their surroundings and write about facts, such as what things/objects look like, feel like, smell like and taste like. This picture also shows how scientists always include labels to clarify their pictures. They also include the time, the date and give their writing a title. Perhaps you can make observations at home?

 

Reading Strategies Tools

We have discussed the various reading strategies tools we use as we read and build our stamina as productive readers in our classroom. This picture shows our classroom "Toolbox". Each "tool" in our box has a different strategy written on it. While certain tools might be better in certain situations, we need all of them to make sense of our books. Thank you for being such supportive parents and working on these at home. We are seeing incredible readers in our classroom!

 

Sharing our writing

We love to share and celebrate our writing every day. Sometimes, we "turn and talk" to a partner, but sometimes we share our writing to the whole class. Here is a picture of one of our friends, sharing another small moment writing piece. As we share ideas and writing pieces, we have realized that we are all authors!

Classroom Celebration with Mr. Terko

As you might recall, one of our students wrote a "Buzz Mail" letter to Mr. Terko, inviting him to our special classroom celebration for earning another "jarful" of buzzies. Today, we had our party and it was fantastic. Thank you to all the parents (and students) who baked muffins, cookies and other delicious treats for us! Thank you to all of you who brought in cups, cider and other snacks, such as tostitoes, pretzels, salsa and crackers and cheese. We could not have done this without your support. We wish you could have joined us, but hope that our pictures will provide a peek into our classroom party. In addition to our special snacks and Mr. Terko's visit, we also listened to our new favorite song on YouTube about bees. It is called "Do the Honey Bee". Who knew that Mr. Terko was such a good dancer??

Kiva Sharing

We had Kiva Share again today. The students did a terrific job sharing their learning with each other. They shared small moment stories, reading responses and wordles. The students from our class shared the video created from the pictures the students took from our visit from Mr. Anderson yesterday. If you missed watching the video, please scroll down to get an opportunity to watch it again.