Archive for December, 2016

Week 17

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Hello Everyone!

Upcoming Week:

With the two days before Holiday Break our upcoming Monday (tomorrow) will consist of visiting the Upper Elementary for their International Festival in the morning 9am-11am.  Students will come back and share some facts they learned and then get ready for recess and lunch.  In the afternoon, after lunch, I have signed our students up to visit three Junior High activities.  We will go to Ms. Shilo who is doing Germany from 1-1:30, Mr. Casey for Jingle Bell Toss from 1:30-2:00, and then to Mr. Rob for Art from 2:00-2:30.  Tuesday will be our turn to present for the International Festival in the afternoon.  Tuesday morning we will prep the room for the projects, have a group snack, add final touches to projects, then finished students will get to choose to make a paper Christmas tree or build a 3D snowflake using geometric shapes.  After recess and lunch, we will begin the Lower Elementary International Festival from 1:00-2:30.  Parents are welcome to attend both days.

This past Tuesday was not the Box Top store, so those who brought theirs should pack them again this week.  They might still have Box Top store, I’m not 100% sure.

If you need another pizza form for pizza Friday, the office should have some.  Pizza is $1.75 per slice and due to me by Wednesday morning as soon as they walk in.

January 11th will be a field trip to the Nature Center. More details to come!  This field trip will need parent drivers.  If you would like to come on this field trip, please let me know.

 

Past Week:

Thank you so much for everyone who came by or helped support  our Holiday feast, Holiday party, or both!  Both were a great success and a lot of fun!  We couldn’t have done it without your support, so thank you again!

In group lessons this week:

Level 1s: Penny, nickel, and dime lesson, point and lines on 2D and 3D shapes, soup making and learning how carrots are a taproot and celery is actually a special kind of leaf!  It is considered the petiole.

Level 2s: Graphing with pictographs and bar graphs, bread making and what is yeast?

Level 3s: Chocolate pie making and how measuring and equivalent fractions can show up in cooking/baking

 

In cultural this week: Geography

Level 1s: The compass rose and continent game with the compass dice

Level 2s: Earthquakes

Level 3s: 5 kinds of precipitation: sleet, rain, snow, freezing rain, hail

 

Have a great rest of your weekend and have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Next blog post in 2017!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Week 16

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Hi Everyone!

We had a nice productive week!  Our kids have come up with some great systems to help out our classroom management.  They have come up with 2 solutions, so far, to help everyone out.  Our first problem was a common step by step process for if someone isn’t going to listen to a direction from a teacher.  Here is what they came up with:

Problem 1: Some students won’t listen to a direction from a teacher.  What should happen?

Solution: Students came up with a 3 strike system.  If a teacher has to tell the direction the student then has 3 chances/steps to go through.

Strike/Step 1- You get a strike against your Friday afternoon earned free time.  If you collect 3 strikes by Friday.  You don’t get free time-you do work.  If you strike out early, you go to strike 2

Strike/Step 2- You stay in from recess and work if you are asked in the morning.  You stay after the bell for a few minutes and have a discussion with a teacher.  Your parent might need to pick you up too if you are asked in the afternoon

Strike/Step 3- You get a school behavior report

Problem 2: Tattling is an issue.  What can a STUDENT do first?

Solution: Students came up with another 3 step system to help them feel like they are a powerful person that can help them understand that they need to practice their social skills with someone.

Step 1- Set your boundary with that person.  Another person’s words or thoughts might not be like yours.  Have that discussion with your classmate.

Step 2- If it continues and you begin to get annoyed, irritated etc., but are still in control, count to 10 and take some needed deep breaths.

Step 3- If you are upset and are not able to have step 1 right away, you remove yourself to a safe space of your choice until you are able to be more in control and have step 1’s discussion.

These solutions may change as needed and might need tweaking.  However, this is what your child has come up with and feels comfortable implementing.  As teachers, we feel proud of them for coming up with great solutions and work on how to solve rather than how to blame or not learn to take responsibility for themselves.

Upcoming Week:

We have a busy upcoming week!

Monday- Music/PE.  Please make sure your child has sneakers to run around in.

Tuesday- Level 2 bread making and Level 3 dessert making for our Holiday Luncheon on Wednesday. BOX TOPS MIGHT BE THIS DAY

2nd graders will be making homemade dinner rolls.  They will learn about yeast and measurement

3rd graders will make 2 chocolate pies.  They will learn about measurement in a no-bake pie.  Alicia Thomas will help oversee

Wednesday- Level 1 soup making, Holiday Luncheon 12-1pm

1st graders will make homemade chicken noodle soup.  They will learn simple vegetable cutting skills and measurement.  Alicia Thomas will help assist.

Friday- Christmas Party 12:45-2:30pm.  Alicia Thomas has sent out an email for signing up to help out.

International Festival is NEXT week!  Our lower el presentations will be Tuesday the 20th.  We have ours in the afternoon and will start around 12:30-1pm.  Parents and families are welcome to come and see the projects and tour the school to see what other classrooms did on the morning of the 19th and the afternoon of the 20th.  Please scroll down to Week 14 on International Festival Expectations.  We had a few girls this past week who worked on their project a little bit because they wanted to partner up with another classmate.  Again, your child is welcome to bring in their project and work on it at school if at home doesn’t permit much time.

 

Past Week:

In group lessons this past week:

Level 1s: Color the fraction according to the numerator

Level 2s: Vertical angles introduction and the 4 kinds of angles review

Level 3s: Equivalency in fractions and different kinds of triangles game called Detective Adjective

Tuesday we had our monthly Botany lesson with Ms. Rachel Bush on stems from kinds of trees

 

In cultural this past week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: All about our 2nd vertebrate class: Amphibians.  Students also learned the lifecycle of the frog

Level 2s: All about the ear (parts of the ear)

Level 3s: All about the invertebrate class: Annelids.  Our focus was on the earthworm for this class

 

I look forward to seeing a lot of you on Wednesday at our luncheon and our party on Friday!

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Week 15

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Hello Everyone!

I must say, from coming back from a week long break, our classroom really responded this week with getting works done and showing more of their best!  Ms. Anna and I are very proud of them for how they are exuding their actions and hard work.  As much as we told them this week, please ask your child how they did this week and discuss what did they do this week that they feel the most proud of?  What did the class do their best at this week?  Students and kids alike are prone to be informed more about the negative and what is wrong.  Have your child always talk about a few positives for every negative that they might speak of.  Let’s continue the positive vibes going!

December Holiday Feast- Our holiday luncheon will be held on December 14th at 12 noon.  Here is the sign up sheet to sign up to bring supplies or a dish: LUNCHEON FEAST SIGN UP

International Festival- I went over the International Festival with our students this week.  We had a discussion about topics and read them the expectations that were posted in green and red last week.  Please follow those expectations.  If you are unsure or need clarification, please email me or find me after school.  My parking lot duty is by the fence on the north side.  Projects are DUE December 20th.

Holiday Classroom Party- I would love to do a holiday party for our students on December 16th at 12:45pm.  I have told Alicia the date as well, so if you would like to contribute a craft/activity idea, please let Alicia know at tempygirl@gmail.com.  Alicia will also want to know who can bring supplies and who would like to come in and help out!  That Friday, the 16th, our students do not have studio, so they will be at recess first from 11:30am until 12 noon and then will eat from 12-12:30pm.  After their clean up, we will have them come to circle to hear what activities will occur.

Upcoming Week:

Monday- PE class is on Mondays and since the colder days have brought boots, please make sure your child has sneakers to run around the gym in.

Tuesday- We have our 4th monthly lesson with Ms. Rachael Bush from 1:50-2:50pm

Friday- Early Out!  Please make sure your child is picked up at 1pm.  Lunch still happens on early outs 🙂

 

Past Week:

In group lessons this week:

Level 1s: Pennies and nickels, 2D and 3D shapes, fraction’s numerator and denominator, Personal Narrative writing

Level 2s: Money tower with all coins, naming fractions, names of angles (acute, obtuse, right, and straight), Personal Narrative writing

Level 3s: Equivalent fractions, parts of a triangle (base, altitude, hypotenuse), Personal Narrative writing

 

In cultural lessons this week: History

Level 1s: Past, Present, Future review.  What is a decade, century, millennium?  Making a clock to prepare for how to tell time lessons

Level 2s: What is the sun and how far are the planets from the sun?

Level 3s: PreCambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian time periods

 

Snack for upcoming week: Tae’Lynn

 

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K