Friday

We had a great day doing reading nonfiction texts and asking questions for research.  We reviewed our math skills before the test. Then we took our geometry test in the afternoon.  We made the counselors a cute vase with flowers.  They are watching us grow we felt it best to give them flowers of love messages. They loved them and I know they will enjoy reading the sweet notes your children made for them.   

We will have food, play games, and pass out valentines.  I want to report we will be taking a class donation for 5 dollars or more, due to peanut allergy.  We want to make sure the food is safe and peanut free.

Monday 100th day bag due.

Student Council

Valentine Kiss-a-grams

Buy one for a teacher, parent or friend for only 50¢!!!!!  All of our profits will go to charity.

When:  Monday, Feb. 9^th- Thursday, Feb. 12^th from 7:15-7:45 a.m. and 2:45-3:00 p.m.

(delivery on Friday, Feb. 13^th)

Where:  Main hallway next to the library

OOPS

Sorry I have not updated this week I am not on my game.  We had a quick easy relaxing day.  We are discussing area, and ask them the fun creative way we learned how to draw arrays in class.  We also had an exciting time starting our Native American Unit.  Ask them this week the different region and Native American people we are learning about.  We had a blast reading non-fiction books to discuss and write our research projects.  Make sure you discuss with them what topic they are researching. Take care and have a blast talking to your child about their learning.

There are some who may not be getting emails from me, this was what I sent out today.  I am looking forward to our Valentine's Party and I will be sending home a letter tomorrow.  If you could get it back by Friday it would be great? If not Monday will work too.  The children will be exchanging cards with the kids in the class. We will be eating food, playing a game, and making a craft at the party.  We are also doing a 100th day project which will also come home tomorrow, it is not due till Monday.  Monday is the 100th day of school. It will have directions and is easy for them to do.  This does not have to be your work, they just need to make sure they ask permission to use those items. I hope this email finds you well and know your little one is the light of my class. I enjoy your child everyday and they are growing up quickly in front of me.  I am amazed that the year is half way over.  Thinking about this makes me want to cry because I love each one for different reasons.  Also, without you parents my class would not be a success.   They are a blessing and I thank you for giving me the best gift, your child.

Thursday

I have to head to creative gators club I will add details in a little bit.  I wanted to post the homework problem, for math.

Jan. 27

Today was a busy day we are having blast learning to read nonfiction texts.  We are learning how to locate and use features to help guide our research.  We are then apply that knowledge to research our topic to write to our Big Idea.  Please ask them their Big Idea they are thinking of researching?  We are also starting to discuss how these features will help publish our All About Books.  We are continuing to practice subtraction in CAFE time, but today we moved on to classify 2D shapes and what attributes make up a polygon.  Please ask them what they discovered in math .  Tomorrow we finish up natural resources and will move on to understanding Bodies of water on our Earth.

Top Banana
Julie is our new Top Banana and we are learning that is loves collecting eggs at Easter and eating the candy.  She enjoys cuddling with her Grandpa and falling asleep in his arms.  She loved going to her father daughter dance she said, "I love spending time with my Dad.  It is my favorite thing to do."  She had a blast dancing and having fun with her dad.  We are looking forward to hearing more fun Julie.

Tuesday

Ms. Wolfean is back, and I hope you all had a fantastic MLK Day?

We had a great day , and we had a great time learning how summarize our story, during reading.  We reviewed how to ask our self and others questions while reading and after.  Then we revised our writing to begin publishing this week, so that we can move onto research.  Then math, this is a tough concept this week we are regrouping with two and three digit numbers and they are struggling.  Please give your child practice problems so they can remember to show the strategy.  I also taught them how to add to check subtraction, this also might need to explained.  They seem to not understand I can add my answer to the other part and check that I add to get the total given.  I hope you all have fun and let them teach you.  We are still working on natural resources in science and observing how objects go through changes and how those changes affect the outcome of what is made.

Wednesday

Today was a busy day and we were somewhat successful in completing all tasks.  We had library and we did spend extra time on math.  Therefore, I know that some of it is due to me.  We started a new concept in math subtracting with regrouping.  We are trying to get the second graders to explain when they need to regroup for both addition and subtracting.  They need to explain what is happening to the ones and tens, and use the math vocabulary in their response. Please ask them to explain both ways to regroup and make sure they explain using math words?  We are still studying Jan Brett and we have been writing about each book.  Today they did a quick check response to the stories we have heard, ask them to describe the stories and discuss the books with them.  we will be starting Natural resources in Science tomorrow.  Stay tuned for another update!

         

Books we have read

                                        

Marvelous Monday

My students will come home reporting that we were not in class today, they are correct.  The teachers in Second Grade thought it would be interesting to collect data on their reading tests.  We wanted one day to pull as many as we could read to us.  I was able to test and have half my class read to me.  It was nice, we are thinking of doing it again. Having said that, we of course did not have a normal day.  Therefore, we did not get to Spelling this week.  I will be doing a different kind of spelling.  I will test their sight words.  I know they will all do great, but there is not a list to come home because I want to compare their progress from the beginning of the year.  I thank you for your understanding, and please feel free to email me with questions.

Fantastic Friday

Today was a great day, I am sorry for those who did not understand the math problem.  We did go over it again with your child they should be able to explain it to you.  Please keep in mind that I am trying to get them to be problem solvers.  They should be able to try it on their own and teach you.  I want them to show you what we are doing in class.  I will be having another problem like this next week.

Reading today was excellent we studied the book The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We made a sequencing activity to go along with the book.  They seemed to really enjoy the story.  Please ask them about their project.  In math we learned a new strategy called partial sums method, ask them to model it.Then in writing we continued to write small moments and study published authors and use their writing to guide ours. Finally at the end of the day we took a quick check on maps, for social studies.
Top Banana Kash
Kash shared his poster and completed his week by reporting he loves to hang out with his cousins Ray and Alyssa.  He went to a race track with his dad and got to race go-carts.  He thought it was cool.  He also shared that he was a chimney sweeper in last year's play well musical.  I loved the fact one student asked you cleaned out someone's chimney.  Kash and the whole class giggled.  He has been to Six Flags and his favorite thing were the roller coasters, I think?  I loved learning about Kash and can't wait to see his show-n-tell.

Math CGI

I know I sent home a strange looking math CGI problem the first part is a drawing of a students work he would draw to solve a problem.  I hope this will help on tonight's problem.

Parents are emailing saying this helped, I am glad.

Also one concern was the pictures at the top.

Your child, should be able to tell you the first set of numbers is the two numbers he adds from a problem given to him.  The next set is the way he regrouped to add the two numbers, and the third set is his answer to the two numbers at the beginning.  The arrows is to divide the steps he took to solve the problem given.  I hope this makes sense.

Here is what the problem stated Kash drew a picture of how he solved his story problem. 
Question A (use the first picture)

 States: Write an expression (number sentence) to go with Kash’s thinking.  Explain your thinking.

They are to write a number sentence to go with Kash's picture. (example: 47+ 34= 81), this is not the answer to their problem. I know I should write these numbers with an addition sign because he regrouped them, and made a trade.  We do this when we add.
Question B (use the first picture)
 Write a story situation to go with Kash’s picture and your number sentence.  Be sure to include a question.

They are to write the story that might have been given to Kash for him to solve.

 example: Kimberly had 47 marbles.  Clara has 34 marbles.  How many marbles do they both have altogether.  

Question C (use the third picture)

What would the number be if we rounded the answer to Kash's problem to the nearest 10? Explain

They are to round the answer to the nearest ten and give a reason why they feel they are correct.

Example:  I know the nearest ten is 80 because if you subtract one it is closer than adding nine more to get to 90.

Jan. 7

Here is a the link address to make an online donation for Pasta for Pennies.

http://sctx.sy.llsevent.org/GattisElementarySchool

Today a great day we had a shoe-less day, because of our behavior yesterday.  They were talkative, but we managed to complete all activities. We began our day off with reading the story Gingerbread Friends by, Jan Brett.  We thought it was excellent how she is taking a popular story and changing the elements to create a whole new story line.  We even discussed writing our own versions in our writing because we our study mentors as a writer.  We are looking at published authors and looking at the books in the eyes of a writer.  We are trying to write our stories and do as they did.  We have discovered many new elements in our writing.  During math we started regrouping with two and three digit numbers using the computation addition.  Please ask them to model what we are learning.  They will also bring home a CGI problem tomorrow.  Then finally we headed to the library to check out new books.

Top Banana is Kash

We learned he has a brother who is graduating High School this year and will be attending Texas Tech, YEEHAW!!  I am proud to announce I love this. His brother was in my first class when I came to Gattis nine years ago.  We also heard from Kash that he loves to play with his dog Lance.  His dog Lance is three in a half, "Which is about twenty-two in Dogie years,"Kash stated.  We discovered at Christmas he took a picture with his family and had a great time opening his presents and he wished the break could have lasted longer.  I have to agree with Kash it did go by quick.

Welcome Back

I am happy to report the class was excellent. I rewarded them all with NO SPELLING. We will start next week, this is a short week and I want them to be successful. I decided to not give them CGI, in math either.  I just want them to get back in routine, so only reading.We will have CGIon Thursday and next week I will add spelling.  We began our day off tired and not wanting to be back at school.  I felt they needed to clean up and change seats.  Some are sitting at their same table, but there are different students with them.  We started off in reading meeting Jan Brett, an author.  We read the Gingerbread Man, by a different author and tomorrow we will begin to study Jan Brett. She wrote many books and I look forward to hearing what the students have to say and write about her.  We then started writing and we are looking at how to use writers as a mentor.  We are studying authors to try to write like our authors, we have studied.  During math we started to discus addition with regrouping and why we need to regroup.  Then it was time to clean up the class for specials.

Dec. 17

The day before our Christmas party, sorry I have not posted.  I have just returned from being ill.  I run out of school to go to bed.  I thought I would update about our party tomorrow.  We made reindeer and elf ornaments for your trees, at home.  Then we traveled around the world to China.  Ask them what they have been learning about?

The students in second grade will have their party at 12 and we will wrap up by about 1:15-1:20.  I will read a story at the end before specials at 1:45.  The upper grades and younger usually have their parties at the end of the day.

Science Night

Dec. 2 Hope to see you all at Science Night!

Today was a fantastic day of learning we managed to get through all activities.  We discussed main idea and finding the supporting details in our reading.  We practiced locating them in our article about red ants today.  Ask your child what they discovered and learned.  Then we wrote procedural texts in writing; we learned how to plan out our text by drawing the steps. Then writing out the specific details to teach someone how to do something.  Please ask them what they feel they're an expert at.  We also measured in non-standard units of measure today and discussing how to use a paper clip.  We also received our goal sticks from the forms which we returned.


Top Banana Ragan
We learned she traveled to Hershey Peninsula to the candy factor, and was one lucky girl.  She made and got to eat a candy bar.  She showed us a family picture and she was not clear was her dad was, maybe getting ready for a conference?  We learned she has a sister in fifth grade Grace and another sister too.  she attended the color run and the Army was there handing out water bottles.  She also has been to Washington DC. and her picture looks like she is holding the Washington Monument.

First day back, from Thanksgiving

Today was a fantastic day we learned a lot.  We made it through our first day back.  I hope all of you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and enjoyed your time off.  I had a blast seeing family and cooking my meal with my best friend, Mrs. Schoss. We are learning about main idea and supporting details, in reading.  We are discussing and writing procedural texts these next few weeks, so please ask them what they are writing about.  Make sure they can explain to you the difference between a narrative and procedural text?  During math we are learning about measurement and today we measured using a non-standard unit of measure inch worm ruler. Please ask them about what they did and how they measured using their inch worm.  Last, we worked on Geography in Social Studies and we discussed how this is the study of places and regions in our community, state, nation, and world.


Top Banana this week is Ragan and we did not have time to share her poster.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's update.

Veterans Day

We had a lovely time singing in the assembly, it was emotional for me.  I love this day and who it Honors. I met my husband while he was in Iraq and having him be deployed, stirs up a lot of old feelings.  His best friend has been away, and it was a special treat to have my students write and create letters for soldiers.  We, well I will make sure all their cards and letters get mailed to soldiers, and I hope some will write back. My students asked and I told them this is how Mike and I found each other.  My class six years ago wrote to soldiers and he was one of many who wrote back.  We also read procedural texts and began discussing notes to write about, in Reading.  Then in Math we began our unit on Subtracting two and three digit numbers.  We are reviewing addition with two and three digit numbers in stations. During Science we discussed how sound and light can change matter and we had a blast in the Science lab.  Please ask them to explain?

Top Banana:

We had such a busy day I forgot to ask her to share please stay tuned for tomorrow's update.

Wacky Weather Wednesday

Parents - We need donations of McDonalds Happy Meal toys or any other small trinkets for an upcoming Family Night on November 18.

If you have any you're willing to spare, please send the items to your child's teacher no later than Monday, Nov. 17th.  It would be helpful if the bag was labeled "Family Math Night."

Thanks so much!

  

Kristal Shanahan

Counselor

Gattis Elementary

I am sorry I have not posted, I have been busy in personal life and here on campus.  Today I had to post because it was one of those days where the kids were different do to weather.  We had a social meeting group today about being polite. We discussed text features in class and had a scavenger hunt with text features. During writing we continued writing small moments in our life and had a blast with our quick write.  Math was interesting because we were adding to the tens place, by 10 more or ten less.  However, they were using 3 digit numbers.  Please review with them, some had trouble.  The bonus problems were four digit and still adding or subtracting ten or twenty.  We did have indoor recess and the kids were able to jog around my room to let off energy.  We then headed to the library where we listen to a book about energy from the sun.  Please ask them about their day and I hope all is well?

WOW, I posted!!

Tomorrow PJ's, Slippers Too!! Early Release

TOP BANANA is Ms. Wolfean forgot!!
Also no spelling this week, Happy Halloween

Please have them bring a change of shoes for playground, and PE.  Life around the school has been tough, we have had a lot to do.  We are having a great time with reading, learning about fiction and non-fiction texts.  We are discussing the difference between both types of texts, and we will be learning about text features. During writing we are focusing on small moments and how to describe our stories not tell them to the reader.  This is called show not tell, we want to make the reader get a visual in their head, make a movie. During math we are moving towards numbers to the 999, number sense and remembering still about our two digit numbers.  We are also discussing how objects are made and why they need to use the material to build that object.  They are seeing how the properties of matter help change an object.  

Wacky Wednesday

Today we had a fantastic time getting all work done.  We discussed how to be respectful to others and Ms. Wolfean.  We talked about how I am just like one of them and they should respect me as well.  They should remember that teachers have feelings too.  During reading we have been looking at four different genres folktale, fables, fairy tale, and legends. We are discussing the difference between the lesson of the story and the most important part the story has.  You could be reading these styles and reinforcing this skill at home.During writing we are working on small moments and leads to our story.  We are trying to make sure we show our story not tell.  We moved head in math to telling time to the minute and began discussing shapes.  We will be taking our math assessment this week.

Top Banana highlight Daniel

Daniel finally shared his poster and we were excited to learn, he not only has a brother here at Gattis, named Lucas.  He also has a sister who we learned after him calling her sister, that she does have a name, Megan.  She was dressed up for a princess one Halloween and we learned he loves to trick or treat.  However, he not only loves that he enjoys going to monster races.  He had a dog or goat not sure which named Tricky, and his sister had one named S'mores.  Daniel was allowed to get goats and we thought it was funny and laughed he wanted them for a pet.  We were told it was only because he lost two dogs and his mother said he could, "I was just lucky I guess."  I giggled hearing his first report can't wait till tomorrow.

Events this week:

Tomorrow McNight out teachers will be at McDonalds from 4-9, I will be there from 6-7.

We are excited to have you come to our Trunk or Treat event this Friday! We will get started at 6:00 pm. 

Please bring:

• Costumes!
• Trick-or-treat bags for your own children
• Enough candy or treats for approx. 60 kids
• Decorated car (optional)

Here is a schedule of events:

6:00 - 6:45 - Sign-in, Dinner, hotdogs, snacks, craft table, Zumba 

(DO NOT pass out candy at this time)

6:45 - 7:00 - Campfire songs

(Snacks and Hotdogs between 6pm and 7pm)

7:00 - 7:20 - Trunk or Treat!

7:20 - 7:40 - Costume contest

7:40 - 8:00 - Campfire songs & S'mores

Volunteers - many of you indicated that you may be able to help before, during, or after the event. Here is the link for helping with our event, we appreciate all your help! 

CLICK HERE - http://goo.gl/YIeJE9 

Thanks!

Events for next week:

Tuesday is Kona Ice for parents and students after school.

Wednesday   early dismissal

Literacy Night Tomorrow

Literacy Night Tomorrow, 6:30!!

We had a nice day making it through all our subjects.  We are working on making inferences and using our reading tool kit.  Please ask them to explain their tool kit in reading.  Then in writing we went to the library to preview books for the book fair.  We will be going to the library to buy books on Wednesday.  After that we came back an d wrote you a letter about Literacy night tomorrow and you could start purchasing books then.  If we can not make it to the Literacy night, they will be able to buy books at 9:45 Wednesday.  We were introduced to a new spelling skill adding a /s/ to most words and adding /es/ to words ending in a /ch/, /sh/, /s/ , /x/, or /ss/.  They are learning to read a clock using the hour and minute hand, please practice with your child at home.  We are telling time to the minute, and writing the time correctly.  In science we are finishing up properties of matter.  We learned that matter is something which takes up space and three types of matter are liquids, gas, and solids.  We can change the shape of matter when we add heat.  Also that liquids do not have a shape.  They take the shape of the container. Hope you are having a great evening?

Our New Top Banana is Daniel, I look forward to seeing and him sharing his poster.

Thank you, FRIDAY

We had a busy week and this week will be busy as well.

Family Literacy Night & Book Fair- Tuesday, October 21st @ 6:30.

Students can come in their PJ’s or dress as their favorite book character. Please join us for a fun night of learning. Parents will have the opportunity to learn how to support their children in reading and writing at home. Students will have fun in the cafeteria listening to stories, interacting with teachers, playing reading games, and posing for funny pictures.

McTeacher Night - Come see the Gattis Elementary teachers at work at McDonald’s

(I-35 & 45 - by WalMart), October 23rd, from 5pm-8pm. McDonald’s will donating a portion of the sales back to Gattis.

SchoolStore.Com - Thank you for participating in this opportunity. Please continue to utilize schoolstore.com for your on-line shopping.  Our school ID is #274063.  

Gattis Trunk or Treat!

6:00 pm, Friday, October 24th

*Costume Contest *Campfire songs *S'mores *Trunk or Treat with Gattis Families in the front parking lot

FREE for PTA members, $8.00 fee per family otherwise.

Each person receives 1 hot dog and 1 S'more.

Sign up: http://goo.gl/bdXJLb