December 11, 2013

Hello! 

You have been invited by Melissa Marnell to sign up for "Holiday Party." Please click on the link below to view the online sign up sheet. 

To sign up, go to: 
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0948ADA928A5FE3-holiday

Today was a great day we started off in the computer lab finishing up our research and tomorrow we start the final project.  They are traveling around the world and you should ask your child where and what they are learning about?  They went to Italy and learned a lot about Christmas there.  I hope they are coming home excited about their learning. We are not stopping learning do to around the world, they are still having math, reading, and social studies.  This is how we are getting in geography, map skills, and culture differences.  The students seem to love it.

We also heard from Kelsey, but due to internet not working yesterday I could not post.  

She shared that she loves the color blue,"My sister Lacey loves that color and so do I."  her favorite picture on her poster was the one of her family.  She has two brothers and when asked, "How old they were?" You heard the whole class say, "OH WOW!"  She told us, "They are 17."  We also learned she loves to dance and hopes to get back in to it when her mom signs her up again.  The class though ti twas funny she added a cupcake to her poster, but it is not her favorite dessert. No one thought to ask what was her favorite?  She loves to watch scary movies with her cousins.  I just hope she does not have bad dreams after, like me?    My favorite picture was her in first grade and as a baby, becasue I only get to see them at this age.  I love hearing from Kelsey because she has shared more with me this week and talked more then the whole year.  I love to listen to her and can't wait to hear more.

December 10, 2013

Hello! 

You have been invited by Melissa Marnell to sign up for "Holiday Party." Please click on the link below to view the online sign up sheet. 

To sign up, go to: 
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0948ADA928A5FE3-holiday

December 9, 2013

Dear Parents,

PTA will be selling pizza and bottled water tomorrow prior to our Science Night. 

They will like to have an idea of how many pizzas to get. Please let PTA know if you are planning on getting some pizza:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B4FAEA72FAB9-science

Thank you!

We heard from Nathan about his show-n-tell, then we turned over the room to Kelsey.  She is our new Top Banana, we did not hear from her because we ran out of time.  It was a strange day due to the fact we had a different schedule.  We had a performance and your child performed.  They were the stars of the show the Nutcracker.  They danced, laughed, and giggled the whole time.  They seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.  We did our writing and reading cafe time.  Then moved in to math and discussed our numbers in a table pattern.  Soon after that we did spelling and we ran out the door to head home.

December 4, 2013

Today was early release and we went through all activities quickly.  We started off with writing and had them share about their imagined stories.  Please ask them to share some of their amazing stories with you. We then discussed research and how to come up with questions for our topic.  Then we began math and this new concept of creating a table for number patterns is a tough one because we just started to learn it.  Please give them some problems and have them answer the problems.  As soon as math was done we moved in to Social Studies where we are discussing maps.  They need to practice using north, south, east, and west. We will be look at real life maps tomorrow.  If you have maps please show the students them.    Ms. Wolfean has class today after school and is looking forward to learning new strategies to come back to teach my monkeys.

Nathan  shared that he loves playing Swamp Force, the video game. I love to play with my friends," he stated.  He also said, "I just think it is real cool and fun."

December 3, 2013

EARLY RELEASE TOMORROW

I am happy to report we are back in the swing of our days, and I missed my Monkeys over Thanksgiving.  I am excited to have Nathan as our Top Banana and yesterday we learned he loves piano. He just started playing back in September.  Nathan told us, "I just saw an organ at a friends house and thought it would  be interesting to learn to play." He has a lesson every Wednesday and I would love to hear him play one day.  I forgot to ask him to share his poster today.

We are still learning about how to research a topic and we will be getting in to groups to do more research on our topic.  We are starting to look at tables in math and how to read a number pattern inside the table, to solve problems in math.  We brought home our new CGI problem with modeling this strategy tonight. we are also discussing maps in Social Studies.  i hope your child is excited to return to school as I am.

November 19

I love Alexis being my Top Banana, she does keep me on schedule and wants to make her own too.  I have to love children's enthusiasm to being the teacher.  We learned a lot form Alexis she shared her poster today and reported she added a picture of her brother and her searching through drawers in the kitchen.  When asked why she told us,"You would have to ask my mother I was too little."  We asked why she liked to play with her brother Alex she replied,"My big brother is always too busy."  I love to report exactly what they say because children do have a vivid explanation for things going on in their life.  She shared she added herself as a baby so we could she her when she was small.  I loved learning about her today, can't wait for more.

We had a great day continuing withe research and learning the key to research is reading and narrowing our topic to fit what we know something about already and have more questions.  We completed our CGI math with subtracting and addition.  Please make sure your child is not just writing a number sentence.  They need to show how they solve for the answer.  I have taught them base ten method or partial sum method.  Please have them show you the strategy to fit them.  If they are to solve 52-38 they would think of it as what number do I add to 38 to get me to 52. 38 is 2 steps to 40, 40 is ten steps to 50, and 50 is 2 more steps to 52.  This would be 2+10+2= 14 the answer is 52-38=14.  They have been doing this in class and should be able to model this for you.  I hope you are having a fantastic time letting them teach you.

Tomorrow we should have enough time to hear from Aiden and Kelly, who need to do their show-n-tell. They forgot on their week.

November 18

We had to sadly say good bye to Aiden as Top Banana and hello to Alexis.  I have to report we did not get to share out with Alexis due to clean up taking longer than it should.  We did get to see her become our new line leader and oh boy she lead well.  

We had a great day filled with lots of learning.  We are starting our research unit during reading and writing.  Their focus is how do we begin research?  We discussed reading and gathering background knowledge and just exploring books is the best way to begin.  Then we continued to write more imagined compositions and looked at our problems and solutions in our writing.  Then we finished up are subtracting and addition with double digits.  We are continuing to discuss our government lesson in Social Studies.

November 12

PTA meeting tonight and we had another great day publishing our books and getting CAFE time, stations.  We also did our new CGI problem.  I will update later need to run to eat before meeting.

November 11

We had a fabulous start to our day with our Veteran's Day Celebration.  I love this assembly every year and cry big time due to my husband being in the Army.  I am proud and honored of our students for their wonderful performance.

We heard from both our old Top Banana and our new one.  Alianah did her show-n-tell from Friday and we learned a lot from her.  We know she loves jewelry, and the keys on her necklace we interesting.  The necklace raised a lot of questions because the keys were on the kids minds.  They wanted to know what she use d them for and she replied,"I try to use them to open the doors my brother locks."  We all thought that was a great reason.  Then she showed her stuffed lion she bought at Wal-Mart, "Just because."  We hated to say good bye to her but Aiden needs a turn.

Adien shared he loves Pokemon Cards.  He reported he did not want to place the good ones on there.  "I was scared they might not still be on there at the end of the week."  I know he can trust me and I am sure the others, but I understand the special ones I would not want to bring either.

We had a great day publishing our book and doing Veterans day activities.

November 7

We learned a lot about Alianah she has two brothers one is 9 and the other is 4.  She loves soccer and plays with her brothers.  she does not play on a soccer team but stated, "I might one day."  She loves to draw and I see that evidence in my class when we do any kind of art work.  She enjoys reading and I felt like dancing because I love hearing this come out of children.  We can't wait to hear more about her tomorrow.

November 5

We are excited to hear form Alianah this week, however, I have been busy teaching we have been running out of time.  We asked her to share something about herself and she reported I like to ride my bike.  The funny thing is I thought she said, "I like to ride my elephant."  I was laughing hard and the students of coarse were laughing just as much.  I used my inference skill to realize this could not be true, but still I had to ask her if she had an elephant?  I can not wait to learn more from our new Top Banana.

Today we had a great time learning how to read nonfiction. We discovered that a nonfiction book gives us facts, but can also be written in a story format.  We compared fiction and nonfiction books and noticed how the types of texts are different. We discussed how we need to use the features to help us read and locate information.  We continued writing imagined fiction stories and are looking forward to be able to start publishing our class book.  We moved in to Math and had a difficult time writing our explanation in our CGI math notebook.  We spent quite a bit of time on this.  Please make sure they are not just giving an answer that they are explaining how they solve the problem.  Foe example if they are to add 45 and 22.  They do not just write the answer is 67.  They should be writing I drew base ten blocks.  I counted the tens and I got 60.  Then I counted the ones and I got the final answer 67.  Thank you for your support on their math homework.  As a class we need to work on about following directions everywhere in the building?  We had a hard time following the teachers directions in the library.

November 4

I will post more when I get home.  Please check back, okay.  I wanted to report that we had a lovely time listening to my husband talk to the class.  He came in to meet your children and to report about being a veteran, due to the upcoming Holiday.  We loved listening to him explain all about his work.

Today we said good-bye to Anthony and hello to Alianah as our Top Banana.  We learned a lot from Anthony who shared his favorite book the notebook of doom.  Then we learned he had to pass up an iPad to buy Stitch from Disneyworld.  "He was just to cute not to buy him," Anthony told us.  We thought so too when we saw him.  We also loved his Chinese checkers game, boy did this raise a lot of questions.

We had a great day continuing reading nonfiction and writing imagined stories.  We are working on money and number concepts with two digit numbers.

October 31, 2013

It is true no homework, except spelling.  We will have a test, and reading homework is extra credit.  I loved our day we had a great time reading, writing, creating a graph, and having science in a creative Halloween way.  Please ask the students what they learned?  

Anthony shared his poster and we learned a lot from him today.  He loves his sister, because we were shocked he let her help him by drawing on his Top Banana poster. We love how he had his hands and feet prints on his poster.We thought that was special because it showed us a part of him.  It told us, "I thought it would be cool to have them on here."  We learned he loved the movie Smurfs because he had stickers added to his poster.  We were surprised he did not own the movie because he knew a lot about the Smurfs.  We learned Jan Brett is his favorite author he reported, "I just love how she adds all those details around her stories."  I can not wait to see his show-n-tell tomorrow. 

October 30

Had a fantastic early release, and learned a lot in my workshop. The most important is to keep children active because my workshop was not. We continued our money unit and are working on ways to correctly write and make amounts.

Oct. 29

I am updating on my cell, couldn't add math problem sorry parents. Kona ice was great not many students remembered it was today. It will usually happen before early release because teachers have workshops to go to on early release days. 

Also Anthony shared his ouster and we enjoyed learning he loves soccer. "I love to run and kick the ball," he told us.  He decided to add a banana to the poster because he is top banana. Great response and idea to add, shows his personality. I love doing this for my class weekly interesting way for our class to get to know one another. 

Tuesday was like all Tuesdays busy and full of new teaching. We learned about reading counts and hoe they can take tests on the computer to build comprehension. They will bring these books home from the library and read them, or you read. Then they come to class and take the tests. I modeled this today. Then we discussed how to read nonfiction texts and using our text to help solve unfamiliar words. During math we did our CGI money math problem and discussed different ways to make an amount. Please help by having them count money and creating as many ways to make one amount as many ways as they can, have a great night. 

October 25, 2013

You could say we had a great day, but I forget to take the students to lunch on time and passing out their individual pictures.  I will make sure to have the pictures to you on Monday.

Yessenia's last day was today and she shared her show-n-tell and book.  We learned even more from her and it was interesting hearing all about her.  She showed us a monkey her Mom got for her from I-Hop.  She does not have a name for it yet, so we gave her ideas like Hoppy, Jumpers, Cuddles, and I-Hop.  She thinks Cuddles might be the best one.  We also know she was lucky and go ta pillow at Christmas of a monkey with a bow on his head.  The only sad thing was that her monkey from her Mom was chewed up by their dog and her Aunt fixed it.  We were happy to see him in one piece with his neck attached.  I am looking forward to Anthony sharing next week.

Today we had a productive day we did reading and writing and had so much fun I never wanted to go to lunch.  We wrote about spooky events that happened to us and had a great time sharing our old stories with the class by the fireplace.  We then continued our nonfiction lesson in reading and asking questions of our self.  Then in math we reviewed pictographs.  The best part was after lunch we had Ms. Mernell read to us in Science, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We all got in groups to become piggies and build houses, for our experiment on Monday.  Please ask them about their day?

October 24, 2013

Yessenia was sharing her poster and we learned a lot about her.  She has four brothers and sisters and loves them very much.  Her nickname is Cha-Cha and asked me to call her by her real name.  I do and she giggled at the fact I know her nickname.  We learned she went on a field trip to the park.   She said,"It had loads of fun things there."  Also she is about to turn eight, on November 28, 2013. Oh yes and, she shared, "One of my brothers will be nine."  I can not tell you today all the funny things my students say.  I giggle all day at some of the replies I get to questions.  

Alexis after PE this morning stated, "I am as wet as a wet dog."  I am telling you I love my class.  We are busy working on questions and inference with Nonfiction texts.  We have been learning about Patricia Polacco, who is an author and wrote her own autobiography.  Please ask them what they know about her?  During writing the students are learning to write small moments in their life.  At this time of year they want to write about spooky events and we have been studying about what truly is a spooky story?  We have been reading authors spooky stories and learning to write our stories modeled like the authors we are listening to. We are continuing with graphing and being our unit in money soon.  We are also going to finish up matter in science.

October 23, 2013

WOW!, last night was amazing I loved seeing some of you there.  Thank you for your support and attending the family reading fun night.

We are to wear college shirts tomorrow to support Red Ribbon week, sad to see the PJ's go away.  I loved them, it was a comfy day.

Yessenia is doing an excellent job as my class Top Banana.  We are learning she can be the leader and show her fun side to the class.  I loved hearing her try to get the class to follow her directions.  It is amazing to let the students walk in my shoes for a week and run things a little.  They finally get to see that my job is not easy and sometimes they feel sorry for me.

They are continuing to learn about questions and try to give me deeper questions not flat.  They brought home books with a bookmark, we call it our tool kit.  This should help guide you for things they should be looking for and discussing with you.  Please have them pull it out, and show you how to explain those items in their reading.  We are finishing up graphs and will be moving towards money.

October 22, 2013

Reading night tonight!! Wear slippers and pjs, tomorrow!! 

We had a great day discussing nonfiction text questions. We are learning about bar graphs now!! 

October 21

No spelling this week literacy night Tuesday reason why!! 

Yessenia is our Top Banana and she shared about her guitar being pink, have to love that? I do! She reported it was a Christmas gift and she loves to play. She loves cookies it is her favorite dessert.  I hope she brings her guitar for show-n-tell?  

I will be giving a sight word test. They do not need to study the test will give me data to continue working with your child. We had a productive day. We are working on inferencing using nonfiction texts. We are moving to bar graphs and continue to review pictographs. We will be taking our quick check test on pictographs tomorrow. We are finishing up our science unit on properties of matter. 

October 17, 2013

We learned a lot about Tsa'na today he shared his poster.  It was amazing to see him as a baby.  We loved his dog and he was an adorable little thing.  We all giggled when we saw the dog in the chair, but were more impressed that the chair was made by Dad.  I think there were more AHHHs, when he told us he lived in Pennsylvania.  I think one child yelled, "Where is that?"  I will have to get out the map and show everyone. I know they all wanted to know his favorite gift that he received on Christmas from the picture that was posted on the poster.  We did ask and he reported, "It was a Power wheel thingy you know an electric car deal you ride." I have to tell you I love the way children speak.  We have had a lot of absent students for many reasons, please try to keep me posted.  I miss the monkeys when they are out.

October 16, 2013

!!NO SPELLING!!

Ms. Wolfean decided to not give spelling because it was a short week.

We had another productive day and we got through most of our learning.  We need to get back on Science, therefore, we will need to spend time catching up.  We finished our OLSAT testing today and boy this is GREAT!!  I love having all my time to teach.  We learned Ms. Wolfean taught us that pictograph should not have numbers on them, and we laughed because she learned something new.  Our class graphed our eyes and we will be moving towards bar graphs soon.  We are working on questioning while reading fiction stories.

October 15

Tsa'na is our new Top Banana and I am loving how helpful he is being.  I will have to give him an extra day due to the fact he has missed his Monday.  I bet if I asked he would say he loved having the holiday.  We are having fun discussing questions before, during, and after reading in our fiction stories.  We will continue to discuss this tomorrow and also write them down.  We are still writing small moments and revising our writing.  We headed to the library and learned we will have a book fair next week.  We then cam back to math and had a blast learning about graphing.

We preview books on MONDAY AT 9:15 and we get to buy our books on WEDNESDAY at 9:15.

October 9

Great day yesterday we had fun doing our reading going over questioning thoughts floating in my head while reading. We are still discussing small moments in writing and focusing our writing. During math we are still working on number sense and finding patterns in the hundreds chart. Make sure they know counting by 2, 3, 4, 5,...etc. we are enjoying Science and finished with matter moving to weathering soon. Take care have a fatantic day!!

October 4

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, be safe. Kelly had a great last day for top banana and I forgot to choose one. Man I think I might be losing my mind. 

October 3, 2013

WOW, I did my homework tonight.  I am lucky, I get to have my recess.  I am excited to report that Kelly made me hungry at the end of the day because she had a cookie on her poster.  She likes the inside and outside of them the best.  I wonder does this means she does not like the whole thing?  She also has four sisters and one brother, oh boy that's a lot of girls.  Is this what you were thinking?

We learned a lot about matter today, please ask them what they are learning about.  Also we are still working on questions during reading and making predictions along the way.  This will help build our comprehension.  Please have them show you this while they do their twenty minutes of reading.  We are still working on number sense in math and I hope their CGI was easy for them?  have a fantastic evening. 

October 1-2

I have to start off by say I am bad I need study hall, I forgot to do my homework. I did not update the blog. However, I have stayed at school every night till 7 holding conferences with your parents. I am loving getting to know your parents, and boy they are doing better than me.

Kelly is a super top banana she reported we have learning about even and odd numbers. Also asking questions and making predictions in our books. I love kids words to describe their learning. She reported about her poster again and told us she made her glitter thing in first grade and had fun in Ms. Drews class last year. Her favorite part of her year in first was making a home run. She says that's staying green all day. She enjoys learning, hope all my students continue to love learning this year??

September 30, 2013

We have started our Top Banana off and Kelly reported today that she loves her Kumon class and has received awards for her math abilities.  She also reported that she loves track and field.  She has competed in several races the 50, 100, and 400 meter races.  She won ribbons in the races and hopes to win more someday.  She learned new concepts today in math about number sense and the greater and less than sign.  This is what she called the alligator mouth.  During reading she reported we began spelling, this is going to be interesting.  I love she is excited about her new homework.

Our new spelling lesson has taking on in class.  They are to study their words in creative way, I have ideas listed on here under the homework section.  They can do jumping jacks or write them on the sidewalk. Please have them review the words with you and then you sign their paper.  I love the students are readign and enjoying their library books.  Please let me know if the books are either too hard or too easy.  Also remember they are to have an easy reader and a leveled books for them.  I will be sending home books on their level this week.

Sept. 19,2013

Ahoy there, it was national pirate day and I wanted to let them have time to enjoy writing about an adventure as a pirate. We created a treasure map and then we discussed where we could hid them. We read How to Became a Pirate. After watching the book on video we edited our stories to make them better. also during math we had problems dealing with a pirate life. I can't wait to finish our activities tomorrow. We closed our day with of course our pirate hats and wanted posters with our pirate names on them. I can't wait for you to see them, they are priceless. I hope you ask them all about their pirate day?? I do hope they had just as much fun as I did??

Sept. 18, 2013

Please sign their Science Notebooks

Hey there parents thank you for checking in and I have to report your children are doing well.  I am doing my homework late and it has been a long day, I am still at work.  It is six o'clock and I am at my desk.  We had a busy day and the children are learning a lot. We are continuing with connections and added a new connection to media.  Please ask them to describe what they are learning.  In math we have moved on to time, I notice they are struggling with not the hour but to the minutes.  We are also getting the minute and hour hands confused.  Please quiz them on time and remember we use an analog clock not digital one.  We have moved on to Science and we completed our Social Studies lesson on community and citizenship.  I hope you all are enjoying your reading at night and your child has taken you to my website.

Sept. 16

Picture day tomorrow 

Another day come and gone and boy we did a lot. We are finally almost getting through all our lessons, yeah! We are learning about connections and have been discussing sequence of events. During math we are working on mountain math and telling time to the hour and minute. Please work on them with all our wonderful concepts and ask them questions about it. We also start our next author study, Marc Brown, ask your child what they learned about our fantastic new author?

September 10, 2013

HEY HEY, I am sorry this is late in the evening.  ALSO DO NOT STRESS, I KNOW CGI HEADACHE.  I promise it will get better and please be patient this will take practice.  I know my job is to continue to teach and give them strategies.  This is to be done by them, we have been doing this in class, and they should be independent on this.  Do not stress out, send it back, and they will have to complete with me.  If you understand it and can guide them, please do this but with minimum help.  Please write and let me know you had to help too much.  THANKS and GOOD LUCK!!

With that being said, a teacher's and parent's job is never done.  I am sitting at my desk at five-thirty in the evening.  I must really love these students, and I would tell everyone, "I do."  I asked several kids what they learned and they reported to me their thoughts about our day. I had to share what students were saying. This was when we were gathered outside at recess chatting.  I hope I get this right most of what was said because I laughed..  I am placing this in the blog because students version of what they learn is powerful.  One reported, I learned how to add and subtract kids on a bus.  I have to say they got that right on the money. Yes, go ahead and laugh like I did.  We did have a story problem in math dealing with kids riding on a bus.  One child reported we made connections all day long.  I thought how horrible am I to only teach connections all day, but they clarified. They added we did it reading, library, and math and we still are making connections outside.  I guess they learned my mini lesson for reading and applied it all day.  I can now check that off my list student got connections.  As you notice we made connections in our reading. During writing we continued to write and keep up our stamina to complete at least one or two stories this week.  We will be moving on to subtraction and continue to add as well.

September 5, 2013

Welcome to a new year and a wonderful start to my classroom.  I am trying to get in gear and now I am right back to posting about our daily adventures.  Today we had a blast learning to get moving in reading by asking questions before, during, and after.  We have been studying about Kevin Henkes a wonderful author.  We have focused our learning to character traits.  We have now moved on to story mapping using problem, solution, characters, and setting.  Please make sure to ask your child about all they are learning.  During math we are working on number fluency and CGI.  I will start math homework next week, be on the lookout!! We are working on citizenship in Social Studies and how a citizen can help build a better community for us.

August 22, 2013

New year, new attitude, new students, and old things are still around. I love seeing my old class, my old students, old staff member, and old things, however ready for my first day with new kids and parents. The bonds we will make and the joy your students will share with me. I can't wait to kick it all off on Monday. Please get rest, and be ready to kick it in to gear because I am over joyed. I loved seeing those at welcome walk and supply drop off. Those who could not make it, I am sorry I missed you and look forward to greet you on Monday!!

Summertime

I hope all is well with my little monkeys, my summer is going great. I have been at the pool, working, and attending workshops. I am missing you all and am looking forward to seeing and hearing from each of you!!

May 30

Game day and beach towels tomorrow!!

Also we made play dough and made a Father's Day gift!! Great day!!

May 28, 2013

Today was a fabulous day, we are having a great time closing down for the year.  We are eating in the room everyday, if behavior and homework are complete.  We are still learning, but it is geared to summer and creative books.  We are reading and writing all the time.  We even made a summer glyph describing all about us and our summer.  We shared them with the class, and we are enjoying listening and learning about out classmates.  We also shared our character descriptive writing of our character feeling words.

TOMORROW is economics fair!!!! 

May 24, 2013

GAME DAY AT 12:30!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got home, May 22 at 10 pm

We have had a fantastic start to this week and I am excited to report today all testing will hopefully be done tomorrow. We are getting ready to have our party and the kids will celebrate by having game day/movie day on Friday. This is for all their hard work this last nine weeks. We are still learning and I have fantastic creative things in store for them, you all thought I couldn't make learning fun. Just wait till they come home tomorrow. We are working on finishing our PowerPoint slides and published books. Then we tried to complete our math test. We are working on multiplication and division.
Keona Is an excellent Top banana and we are loving her be our leader.

Sorry May 15, 2013

Two nights I have run out of school and forgot to click update. I am not sure if I was too busy or old age? You all can answer this question, parents and students.

Today we had a lot of learning going on. We learned not to mumble over words and read with our reading voice. Have them model this strategy to you. In math we are working on exploring with division. I loved hearing them ask, "Do we check that with multiplication." Wow the love of learning going on in my class is fantastic.

May 13, 2013

THERE IS NO SPELLING, I will be sending home word sorts.  This will start on Wednesday.

We all got to eat in the classroom because we needed to celebrate Katelynn's birthday from last week.  We also heard from Jaydin our Top Banana. He just started to play basketball this year.  He reported he was on a basketball team and his mom talked him in to joining the game.  He enjoyed his couch because he got to play both offense and defense.  He went to Gattiland to celebrate the end of our game.  He shared by tell us, "I quit football because my couch would not let me play offense only defense."  He attended a carnival and he was not scared to go on the rides because he rode them all.  He was going to go on one ride with his cousin, but it was closed.  

We had a great day filled with tons of work.  We learned the difference between coping facts and taking notes.  We had cafe reading and cafe math.During Cafe time we are practicing all skills taught this year and our last comprehension strategy read cover tell.  Have them practice for you, and model how it is done.  We are discovering multiplication and division.  This does not need to be mastered just discovering how and why behind it.  Please do not think they need to memorize their facts that will not happen till next year.  We also went to the computer lab and we were completing our research, and continuing to finish our slide shows.  we also played a game during math.

May 9, 2013

We heard again form our Top Banana Katelynn and she explained all about her family and the things they do together. We loved knowing that she loves to get her picture taken and can't wait to see her show in tell tomorrow.

The students had a fabulous day, I was very impressed with them.  I am excited to report that we got through all activities.  I even love they are still learning a ton this close to the end of the year.  We have been doing research on our topics of interest, and will soon begin creating our projects to go with them.  We have been reading a book called My Father's Dragon, and they seem to love it.  Ask them about it.  We have been studying and explore multiplication.  They do not need to have multiplication memorized, just exploring and understanding it is repeated addition.  They are learning about animal adaptations and how they use them to help them survive in the wild.  We have been comparing birds, bears, fish, and other animals to see what adaptations are similar and different.  Please continue to read every night because they will fall behind on their reading level and this is not something we wish.

May 8, 20

Today we heard from Katelynn, our Top Banana.  Her birthday was yesterday and lucky girl had her Aunt Nicole and Mom come eat lunch with her.  I loved learning about her family and how she has two homes.  She has an older brother and sister and a younger sister.  Her sister is in Mrs. Rodriguez's class and her name Yazmyne.   She reported that when we have a birthday we celebrate it all together as a family.  I love to go to my Aunt's house on the weekend because she does not have children.  I think it is cool she has a brother who is attending Ridgeview.  My brother plays basketball and my older sister takes dance class.  

I know parents I have fallen down on my job keeping up, but I ma back full on ready to report we are learning a ton about animal adaptations, this is how they survive in the wild.  Ask them all they have learned.  We are still completing our research and it seems to going smooth.  They have checked out their books and even have been to the computers to find information on their topic.  We have started to explore multiplication and are bringing home CGI problems to support this.  Please take make sur to ask them all about their learning. 

April 25, 2013

Wishing we could clean up faster and get to specials sooner.  I know tomorrow we will, and then we could hear from our top banana.  I am sorry Carlos we could not hear from you.  We did our reading cafe and math cafe.  We started a new CGI problem and it is one that is a two step problem.  Please make sure to check them carefully.  I hope your evening goes well, and you have a fantastic day.

April 24, 2012

TESTING STILL one more grade 5th.  

Today we got throw all activities and we have been working on questions and improving them,  We have discussed how to create deep thoughtful questions because we want to make people think.  We are working on research and how to do research correctly.  We are discovering it is not just something we want to know it involves questions to unanswered problems.  We looked and graphs in math and discovered it takes questions to answer the data we collect.  In school we probably ask questions more than we just get to communicate?  

Field Day May 3 in the morning.

Top Banana

Carlos finally got to share his poster and we learned he loves Pokemon and skylanders. Not sure I spelled that game correctly.  We also learned he loves to go to Express Games and watch them [play because he had more than one picture from there.  We also discovered he loves to play the game because he shared a picture of him practicing hitting using a baseball tee.  I can't wait to hear more, thanks for sharing!!

April 22, 2013

BUILDING CLOSED due to testing going on in the building.  We had a great day yesterday and I forgot to let Sharlise share her show in tell.

Carlos is our next Top Banana, I can not wait to learn about him.

We will get a prize if you all do this, please go to the link and answer the PTA questions.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OVKh9u8sJMZgTiw28nFvqw_hOPMbe3QJGvy3u2OxzQc/viewform

We had a great day except CGI was giving them a hard time.  I have stepped it up due to the types of problems they will see next year.  I hope they do better when they come home.  We are reviewing strategies in reading to fine tune their learning to prepare them for third grade.  We are working on research and continuing to write small moments stories.  We ran out of time at the end of the day due to 15 minutes to clean the room.

April 18, 2013

Today was another testing day, just like they will be doing in third grade.  The students took a reading and writing test.  THEY DO NOT HAVE HOMEWORK, JUST SPELLING!!  I can not wait to be back in regular mode tomorrow.

April 17, 2013

COMPUTER PROBLEMS SORRY

I am having issues with this and I am sorry, I know no excuses.  There was problems with email today.  I figured it out on my own amazing.  YES NO READING, there was a long test for math today and I gave them a break.  THEY HAVE SPELLING ONLY.  Please have a great night and Sharlise we will get to your poster tomorrow PROMISE!!  We discussed science and math all day.

April 15,2013

Today we had a great time in reading cafe. We reviewed nonfiction and how to read all parts. We reviewed the parts of a text and what they do and how to help us with research. We also began our new research section in writing and how to begin looking for a topic. We continued with area in math. We also looked at what the basic needs are for living things. Then we heard from Sharlise our top banana.

April 11, 2013

We started our day in the cafe reading to practice and continue to build our reading level.  We are taking reading counts tests, buddy reading, writing about our reading, and working on components of communication with a text.  This is what is involved in our cafe time everyday.  We then headed to the computer lab and stayed there through recess.  There was only 4 or 5 who wanted to go, but the majority wanted to continue to work on our OREO projects.  We researched and typed up our Venn diagrams.  Mrs. Schultz even came to see if we were ready to eat them.  She did give us permission and after lunch we scarfed them down.  Then we moved in to Science and began our lesson  on living and nonliving, please ask us about what we discovered and learned?  Stay tuned for up coming experiment with the plants??

My wedding

April 10, 2013 OREO

We began our day with cafe reading and discussing questions one might need to ask when researching a topic.  We soon after took a trip to the computer lab and began our research on the Oreo cookie we want to eat.  The only way we will get to is if we prove to Mrs. Lucas we learned something from it.  Today we had a interesting time doing our Oreo research.  Please ask them how times we had to search for a correct site to find information on the Oreo?  We finally did get information and will continue this tomorrow, ask them what they are learning.    We did math in the computer lab and had fun doing our writing there too.  What wrote and read about the Oreo cookie, with interesting facts and details when discovered from our research. Then we finally saw Ms. Wolfean's wedding pictures and some videos of her special day.  This way the students could feel as if they were there.

April 9, 2013

Here is a link to the sign up genius for ways that you can help out this Friday.  We have asked for middle school & high school student volunteers, but your students really enjoy seeing you at these events.  If you volunteer on Friday, you can wear jeans ALL next week (April 15-19th). THOUGHT I WOULD GIVE YOU A LITTLE INCENTIVE!  It looks like an area of need is in Ticket sales.  But there are lots of slots open.

 PTA is supporting us this year by helping out with buying Scholastic News, help with field trips, summer reading, teacher appreciation luncheons, etc. 

Thank you in advance for your support.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C044CA5AA29A02-gattis

Jennifer Lucas

Principal - Gaitts Elementary

WELCOME BACK Mrs. Tavares

Yes, the new Ms. Wolfean is now back, and with a new last name!!  We will not do a top banana, to make it fair for Sharlise. She was chosen yesterday and will start next Monday.  We will also have no spelling again this week, we will next week.  We had our cafe reading and discussed how to ask questions of our self while reading.  Then we headed to the library and discovered we received the OREOs from Mrs. Lucas.  Therefore today was investigating all about Oreos.  We did a Venn Diagram comparing the Oreos to a Hexagon pattern block.  We also watched a video about milk because we thought the cookie would have milk as an ingredient, but we learned it didn't.  Tomorrow we will be doing some more investigating.  Stay tuned for our learning and updates.  Also pictures to come from the wedding, soon!!

April 2, 2013

There is no homework except math. I am out for my wedding and I should have updated yesterday, but I just got back in town late yesterday. I am busy and this was the last thing I thought of!!
Parents please forgive me? I will return but will keep you updated. The students are reading and writing. That are writing stories about small moments and reading nonfiction texts. I Auvergne them with loads to do. They are starting a measuring unit in math and continuing weather. I hope this helps, again no homework but math!! Happy wedding time is why I have it to them, only fair since I am only doing half mine??

CHRISTOPHER IS OUR NEW TOP BANANA

We learned a lot from him these past couple of days.  We learned he went to Galveston and Los Vegas and he stated, "I loved Galveston better because of all the rides."   We learned he loves to make instruments using rubber bands and boxes, even toilet paper rolls.  He stated he did this with his parents, but they did not play them.  I would have gotten in there and done it with you.  He loved his first birthday because he got cake covered all over his face.  "It was a blast when that happened."  We learned he loves Harry Potter because he loves magic and it is cool.  He was at a Halloween party at Dell, "Not the Dell Diamond where the computer are."  He has a brother and he loves to go on roller coasters.  I am sorry I have not posted here you go!!!!


Today we did cafe reading and math.  We are working on three dimensional shapes and comparing them to flat.  We are still using vertices's, sides, and faces to describe them.  We are learning about fiction using characters, plot, and setting to write and tell stories.  We are continuing to learn about weather and we made a water cycle.  Ask them about it??

March 25,2013

NEXT WEEK STARR TESTING on Tuesday and Wednesday, please do not plan on coming to the building.

Today we had a great day and we got through all items for the day.  We discussed in reading context clues and reading nonfiction books.  We are charting our words and making predictions about them.  We then are moving back to small moments and just remembering how to write again.  Also we began discussing how to use mentor writers to guide us in our writing.  In math we are learning the difference between three dimensional shapes and flat shapes.  We are also shopping for shapes and adding them up for the cost.  You will see the CGI come home tomorrow and this will make more sense.  Then we finished our day with spelling we discussed words which contain ship and how to use other words for laugh in our writing. 

March 22, 2013

COMPUTER WOULD NOT LET ME POST, forgot I  could post from my phone.  Thanks for understanding.  I really do love that you all are so supportive. 

We had a great day and Zoei finally got to share her poster.  She shared about her fantastic time at an Easter Hunt in Hutto.  She also shared about her family, she must love her sister a lot because she had a ton of pictures of her and with her.  She reported about her family taking a picture, but she was not born yet.  She had her face painted like a cat and her sister had hers like a bunny.  She had so many pictures of Easter because she loves it because you hunt for eggs and you get to eat a bunch of candy.  She had a great time being top banana and we had a wonderful time learning about her.

This week we did a fantastic time discussing the weather and they are to keep track of the moon phases for three weeks.  I am trying to show them how the weather changes this is why I did not want them to track what the weather man was to say because it was not just sunny today it was sparkling this morning and sunny with clouds this afternoon.  They have been laughing about how the weather patterns can change.  We have just started plays yesterday and will continue them next week.  They will present them in class on Thursday.  We did take two tests today, reading and math.  They will probably come home and say it was boring, sorry I hate doing it too.

March 20, 2013

I AM SO SORRY I TOTALLY FORGOT TO UPDATE!

I know this is not an excuse, but I really did drop that one.  I have been busy planning cool activities for us to explore and forgot that I need to let you parents in on what is happening.  We started our day with reading cafe and how we communicate with a text with our friends.  During cafe we buddy read, went shopping for books, meet with Ms. Wolfean, or got in a group to discuss our national geographic articles.  We then had to complete our Spring Break writing assignment and our letters to Mrs. Lucas trying to persuade her to give us Oreos.  Soon after this we had to take a break and have recess and then came back for math. We have started our geometry unit and we are discussing the types of shapes, sides, and vertices's.  Please ask you child to explain these to you.  The last thing on our plate was to observe the clouds and see how the weather has been affected by the changes occurring outside.  Ask them what they are learning because they will surprise you?

This is my second job, Lilly Pulitzer in the Domain

March 7, 2013

Today was a fantastic day filled with lots of learning, sorry I did not update the blog yesterday.  It was a half day and we completed all task and even got to go to Kona Ice, those that had money.

We had a great time in CAFE reading discussing our thoughts we are making in our books.  In small group with Ms. Wolfean she is modeling and explaining the strategies she would take if she was taking a third grade STARR test.  The second graders are now working on test taking strategies to help them with their reading.  We are noticing they are doing better when they use their strategies.  Then in writing we worked on our rough draft to Mrs. Lucas and we will begin our final copy tomorrow.  After writing I gave out our CGI math problem and we solved and I taught them how to explain regrouping and how to add to check their work.  As soon as we completed this task Ana shard to the class her book she was reading written by Dr. Seuss.  She noticed it had his revisions and wanted the class to know we can't be better writer's than Dr. Seuss because even he revises.  I hope this will guide the students to try to revise their writing.

Roman shared his poster and we learned he wants two weenier dogs, but he can't get them till his Dad completes parametric school.  He reported that, 'I would name them Pancake and Waffle.  I would name them this because I just want to and I love pancakes and waffles."  He loves Skylanders and has both series.  His favorite is "Flashwing because I just do."  I can't wait to hear and see what he has for us tomorrow.

March 5, 2013

Roman is our new Top Banana and we say good bye to Kassidy.  Roman reported today about his family and they are special to him because they care for me.  He shared he loved dressing up as Luigi because his best friend was Mario for Halloween.  He told shared he thinks Snivy is his favorite Pokemon character because he likes how she changes. I thought it was interesting he has a girl Pokemon as his favorite because I think she is special too.  Thanks for sharing can't wait till tomorrow to hear more.

Today was filled with our independent reading using our tool kit.  Then we headed to the library and had our lesson.  We heard a book about an interesting giant, ask them to explain?  We came back to class to complete writing and publish our poems.  We soon had to head out for recess and then after a while we were right on task for math.  We discussed Dr. Seuss because his birthday was March 2, 2013.  Ms. Wolfean even made us solve a math problem to figure out his age.  Ask them how old he would be?

March 4, 2013

NO HOMEWORK YEAH MS. WOLFEAN ROCKS!!!!

We had a blast at the Austin Nature Center, but I think the end was the best.  I told them I would give anyone two movie dollars if they fell asleep and oh my you could hear a pin drop.  The bus drive says, "This is the best thing any teacher has ever done." I have to thank a fellow teacher Mrs. Hughes for the idea.  Today was amazing seeing the bats and learning from our guide Debbie.  We also played in the dinosaur dig and saw a road runner.  We never saw coyote, but we did see a bobcat.  Thanks to all who came and stayed with us on the trip.  Every year it is amazing what kids say and Hunter wins, " I think the bat has Rubies."  He wanted to say rabies.  He saw one slide and said this, and made me giggle.

February 27, 2013

Yeah, we had another great day filled with loads of learning.  We started off with CAFE reading and meeting in groups.  We discussed how to read with expression, to build our comprehension and accuracy.  Then we practiced on our own and read with buddies.  We began our writing by drafting our letters to Mrs. Lucas, we are trying to persuade her to give us OREOs to use in the classroom.  They have to come up reasons and opinions to convince her.  These reasons can not be ones to just to benefit us they need to benefit us as a learner.  We discussed time and subtraction of two digit numbers.  Then we took a quick check and began our lesson on past and present of history in our community.  We also read about sharks, ask them what they learned?

February 26, 2013

Okay I just figured out how to do this from my phone, go me!! I know this is late, but it is here. We had a great day busy with library and a visit from Mrs. Ladybug, talking about perseverance. The students loved both lessons. Mrs. Wallingford discussed persuasive writing, which is our new writing lesson. She has my class excited about writing to Mrs. Lucas convincing her to give us Oreos. Please ask your child about the OREO method to remember how to write a persuasive paper. We did our math CGI and had fun in cafe for both reading and math. Then we ended our day discussing what a primary sources was for researching history. Please ask them what they learned. Then we heard from our TOP banana Kassidy. We learned she loves her bike and has had it since she was four. She loves lives chocolate ice cream and enjoys it all time. She loves being a Girl Scout because she enjoys spending time with friends. She also loved her birthday invitations because she got to make them and didn't think it was fair they she did get to crack one open. They were made from paper mâché. I would have loved one too.

February 22, 2013

I am so sorry for not having the posting updated, however I did do it something just does not seem to be working right.I figured out the bug and now it is corrected, YEAH!!!! 

Kamryn, has been a great Top Banana and now we pass it over to Kassidy.  Before Kassidy joined our club we need to let you in on a few things about Kamryn.  She has been to California with her Nana and loved spending time there with her sisters.  They loved being outside and playing.  She loves fashion and wants to paint her nails all the time.  She thinks her family is funny, "They do crazy things, I love them, and they are sweet."  She has a sister named Danni and Sydney, "They are fun to play with."  Overall we learned a lot from Kamryn and I know she loves to giggle because we laughed a lot with her this week.

We have done cafe all week working on summary and main idea.  We are using our inference skills to infer what the author might mean in a text to come up with the best outcome.  We are continuing to build on our two digit addition and subtraction and now have to be able to tell when we need to regroup or not to regroup.  We are learning about our past and present and how it has shaped and changed our community.

February 14, 2013

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

YEAH!!!!  NO HOMEWORK, NO NEED TO STUDY SPELLING NO TEST!!  This was my Valentine's Day gift to them.  We had a great day writing stories from candy hearts and making our boxes.  Then we had math with hearts and watched a video about the history of this special day.  Ask them what they learned?  We finally ended our day with a party and specials.

February 13, 2013

Thank you to all parents who signed up on the party items link.  If you did not get to it here it is.

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0949A9AB28AB9-valentines

We really need more fruit, I will also send an email to you all about this.  The children will need, if you want a box to decorate for their valentines.  We will be creating this in class, I like to have a valentine's day theme going on in class.  I will be doing reading and writing and math with all sorts of activities. 

Noah went over his poster and we learned he loves baseball and soccer.  He started playing baseball when he was four and this year he played on the Texas Rangers team.  He reported,"I like to play middle field in soccer because they pass the ball and you get to kick it the most."  He also went to Lego Discovery to visit on vacation when he was seven and had a got time seeing all the creations. I can not wait to learn more.

Today was a okay day we were able to get through most of our activities.  We started in Cafe reading and discussed how we use our reading strategies to help figure out math problems.  Then we moved in to writing and we learned how to use our mentor texts to help support my writing, but not copy them.  We headed next in to math and we are working with subtraction with two digit numbers with regrouping.  We are struggling with this, but I am positive they will get it.  Some are ready and I am giving them three digits.  We finally closed our day with race to 50.  Have them show you?  Those who were absent a friend will teach you.

February 12, 2013

NOAH, is our top banana and we were testing this afternoon I forgot to let him discuss his poster.  I promise to allow him three times to morrow to make up for time being out of my control.  I can not wait to hear all about him.

All was wonderful and yes they are right NO MATH!!  They had a math test on two digit addition and subtraction without regrouping.  We have started our regrouping addition and subtraction.  We did have our reading groups and cafe time discussing our books and they are getting better at how to communicate about a text.  I can not wait till they can express to you some of their connections, wow moments, and questions they make while reading at home.  Please let them model some of their thoughts?  We went to the library and Mrs. Wallingford modeled a great questioning strategy for research, I can not wait to get the students involved in this activity.

February 11, 2013

We had a great day, we are trying to work on our talking in class and cleaning up faster.  I hope everyone had a fantastic restful weekend?  I was excited to get back in to reading groups and communication with the text.  We are working on main idea of a story and short passage.  We are also trying to figure out the difference between a main idea and summary.  We began discussing this today while they are reading at home you could help them.  In writing we are continuing to discuss poems, we reviewed the couplet and all poems thus far.  Have them explain some?  Then we moved into math and reviewed addition and subtraction without regrouping.  We will begin our two digit addition and subtraction with regrouping tomorrow.  In spelling we worked on words which have the friend in them and /ight/ words.  Have fun studying.

February 9, 2013

We continued our note taking discussion in reading groups and we are fine tuning how we do this.  We are looking at what our brain is thinking about while we read, and recording those thoughts.  We are writing our connections, questions, and wow moments we have during reading.We are continuing to work on two digit numbers with addition and subtraction.  We are deciding when to regroup or not to. We have been discussing Native Americans and we saw our last video on the Woodland people, ask them what they know?

February 8,2013

I have had to run out of here everyday, I feel like I can not keep up.  We had a great day learning about the Native Americans the Plains.  We are starting regrouping with math and they are getting it but some may need more help.  We discussed in reading the ways to take notes and are beginning to use them in our discussion.  Funny and true our high school helper says she does them, but geared to her grade.  I feel like I am getting them ready.  I hope all is well with you all and you and your family are enjoying themselves.  Christopher I hope you had a fabulous day?

February 4, 2013

PLEASE REMEMBER, to have your child wear a solid red shirt to the program tomorrow night.  We had a great day and completed all lessons.  Please make sure your child is stopping while reading to think about what they read.  They should be asking questions, making connections, or wow moments.  They could also be creating a mental image.  Have them explain what is going on in their heads?  Then in writing we are continuing to write poems.  Today we learned about the acrostic and limerick we reviewed.  I hope they are liking their new writing genre?

February 6, 2013

No math last night and no math tonight, They just have spelling and reading.  I will update more later have to go to school myself.  I had a fantastic time learning about how to teach writing in Science.  I look forward to helping them out more with writing.  We had a busy day getting all activities done and discussing Native Americans.  Please ask them what they are learning.  We also continued to talk about our connections, questions, and wow moments  we have when we read.  During math we are learning to regroup and when not to with our two digit numbers, for addition and subtraction.

Feburary 1, 2013

Cydney brought her favorite book in for show-in-tell, Boss of Lunch.  She brought in a paper doll she made with her Mom in first grade.  She made it to represent her ancestors.  "My ancestors are from Africa," she said.  She brought her teddy she got when she was in the hospital.  She told us, "I got my appendix out! This is why I brought him."She named it Cydney because I thought it was a great name."

We had a great day and the kids were focused we did a sensory detail activity using popcorn and let them smell, see, taste, hear, and touch. Then they wrote a poem using their senses on popcorn. Then we did our math two digit addition and subtraction.

January 30, 2013

Cydney shared her poster and had thirty people in her house for Thanksgiving. She stated, "They were sleeping all our the house."  Her dog died of being in the sun too long.  She told us she was born on February 2, 2005.  WOW! her birthday is about to be here, can't wait to hear all about it.  Also she said, "This happened before I was born."  She demonstrated some dance moves and she looked cool modeling it for us. Her favorite singer is China Ann McClain.  Her favorite animal of all time is the monkey.  She went to Sea World at the water park she told us, "I had to wear a life jacket because the water was too deep." 
I am sorry about CGI math, it was funny to hear them tell me about my crazy mistake.  Thanks for letting me know, you all keep me on my toes.

Reading still poetry and creating mental images in our head. 
Math 2 digit addition and why we should try other strategies besides draw circles. We should show models of groups of tens not ones.  they seemed to love trying to write haiku's ask them to explain?  Then we completed our day with our Native American unit and discussing how Christopher Columbus made a mistake and discovered the wrong place and how the Indians are now called Native Americas, interesting how their minds light up when they hear something about history.

Music teachers wanted me to share

Dear parents and friends,

      

 The second grade class would like to invite you to A journey around

the world in song.  Our musical journey will take place on Tuesday,

February  5, 2013 at 6:30.    Please have your child arrive at 6:15 and

Meet  in the music room. (Mrs. Barker’s RM).     

        They should dress in a solid colored tee shirt of the Class

Country and blue jeans.    

Carlson:  S. Africa - Yellow

Duckworth: Mexico - Green

Marcano: Brazil- Green

Thomas: Sweden - Red

Wolfean: Japan-Red

Zahm: Laos- Blue

We look forward to seeing you on February 5^th.

Musically Yours,

Mrs. Barker and Mrs. Koenig

January 29, 2013

Today was another day filled with loads of learning.  We continued look and analyzing poems as a reader and writer.  We also continued exploring using models to help build our strategies for addition in math. I am trying to use the vocabulary to build understanding for math and reading, so they should be coming home trying to explain some difficult words.  Today we were using algorithm, stanzas, haiku, and line breaks.  These might be some new to you or you heard them.  Please see if they can explain tonight and even later this week.  During math we had a blast with our class visitor Mrs. Schultze came to explore two digit addition with us.  We had a blast modeling using base ten blocks, unfix cubes, and drawing a picture.  Then we closed our day with starting our Native American unit in Social Studies.
My Top Banana is Cydney, Nicholas had a great regin as a Top Banana, but it is time for a new head monkey.  They love this and I do too.  We learned that Cydney loves pizza and thinks it is yummy, I do too.  We found out she loves to dance and watches the show Jessie.  When asked why she enjoys the show she stated, "It is fun." 

January 28, 2013

I was here late last night and forgot to post this.  I came in this morning and noticed the computer still on, guess I was tried.  we had a fantastic day got through all the lessons, but was too busy at the end of the day.  We had Cafe reading and we got to meet in groups to discuss our book and we had a blast learning how to read poetry.  We learned the use of a line break helps us by giving the reader time to think about the poem.  Then we read poems with our buddies and even discussed mental pictures poems help create.  Then we began our new writing unit poetry.  We are looking at poems through the eyes of a poet.  We discussed how we as a writer need to use our mentor writers, published authors to help guide our writing.  The first topic of discussion was to explore how to come up with a big idea.  We need to look at the big idea through the eyes of a poet and come up a new look on it.  Then we began our unit on 2 digit addition and explore the algorithm or rules to follow for solving addition problems.  We got out our Base ten blocks to model our strategies.  Then we closed our day with spelling, we are studying plurals.  We will look at them deeper next week.

January 24, 2013

Today was a crazy kind of day. However, we did get to all lessons.  We began off with cafe time for reading and went right into our writing subject books.  We are working on how to read and understand poems.  We are learning how to take notes while reading, and using them to communicate with our reading buddy.  Then we did math with addition and mental math.  We also tried to get a math test complete, which they could not study for.  We will be completing our fraction unit in math tomorrow.  Then we are moving to mental math with addition and subtraction using two digit numbers. We visited and walked the lunch room to see the science fair projects.  Ask them which ones they thought were excellent? 

January 23, 2013

"WOW!" she remembered I know you are thinking this.  I did I did remember to post about our day.  The students had a great day we made it through all activities.  Also please make sure to take care of yourself, kids and parents.  There must be something going around, because many are not feeling well.  I am loving my new behavior system, ask the students about their new "Greatness" we are keeping track of?  We are starting our new genre study on poetry we learned about breaks and why it is important to focus on punctuation marks.  Ask them why they should use these and how do they help us as a reader?  They should say because it helps us to understand what the author means when we stop and think about what they have written.  We have two more days on our all about subject books to get them published.  We worked on fractions and how to measure if they are closer to zero, half, or one.  Please review with them and have them give you some math problems.  Then we learned about natural resources, we wrote what we think and we will write what we learned from our video.  You could ask them to describe the video to you.  

Then to close our day we heard form Nicholas our Top Banana.  He described his four animals, oh my yes four.  He has a bird, hamster, dog, and a hermit crab.  He He was six years old when he got his hermit crab.  Also he told us,"I think it is really cool because they have purple pincher's."  he reported that, "We do not collect the shell we buy new ones when he gets too big." His hamster was named after the lion in the Lion King, Samba.  I thought that was special because this is one of Ms. Wolfean's favorite movie.