Learning About Martin Luther King, Jr.!

This week we spent a lot of time learning about the life of Dr. King! The students were very engaged and I think they should be able to tell you all about why he is so important to our country and whole world. Here are pictures of some MLK activities from this week.

So now for a challenge question! Please email me your child's answers. 2/3 correct earn a little prize.

1. What was it called when black people refused to ride the bus until they were able to sit where they wanted?

2. What words were carved into his gravestone?

3. When others said "hate", Martin said _____________.

Thank you! Have a wonderful long weekend! 

Zones of Regulation

Mrs. Murphy, our school psychologist, has been coming to visit our classrooms to teach us about the zones of regulation. These four different zones are color coded and each go with different descriptors for how our brain and body might be feeling. The green zone is similar to "ready to learn" on our clip chart. We are learning how to identify the zones and then will learn what we can do when we want to move out of a particular zone and move into another. Students will also learn strategies for handling situations in which someone near us is demonstrating that they are in a different zone. Here are a few pictures from today's lesson.

Fiction VS. Nonfiction?

Welcome Back!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to 2014! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and break with your families. I just wanted to give info regarding the homework pass.  Please attach the pass to the homework that your child wishes to not do and send in the day it is due. If your child wishes to use this it can only be for one assignment, not multiple a night. For example, if I assign a Math homework and they also have their sight word packet, they can only choose one. If the homework that your child wishes to not do is a night of the sight word packet, just attach the homework pass to the whole packet, leaving that one part blank. I encouraged the students to think about saving it for a busy night or warmer weather when they might want to just get outside and play. Thank you! Any questions please email me! 

Updates/Challenge

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to update on what we are learning about this week in school! In Math we are working hard at learning fact families as well as odd/even numbers. The students are really getting the hang of fact families and understanding the relationship between three numbers in a family. We are working with many manipulatives such as dominoes and also fact triangles. You may see fact triangles come home soon! You can ask your child to explain how to use them. Next week we learn about adding three numbers. Exciting!

In Reading Workshop we continue to study characters. This week we are working on learning how to be a detective to gather clues about the characters we read about and think "What kind of a person is my character?" We are learning what "traits" are and how to come up with traits to describe a character. You can reinforce this at home by discussing characters that your child is reading about. Next week we will talk about how characters' feelings can change throughout a story. The kids are absolutely loving the Poppleton book series that we are reading. Poppleton is a funny character and the children love seeing what he is up to in each short story we read. These books would make great Christmas presents for your child!

In Writing Workshop we have started a new unit called "Authors as Mentors". The students are learning how we can look at real authors as mentors to help us learn new techniques to improve our own writing. We have started a "craft" chart and are reading books by Angela Johnson. So far we have learned that authors might use ellipses or effects in their writing. Students are encouraged to try these crafts in their own writing after we learn about them! Students are encouraged to jot down any "tiny moment" that happens outside of school in their "tiny topics notebook". These are great for the children to refer to when they are stuck on ideas. Tiny moments happen all throughout a day and it would be great if students say "Hey! That would make a great small moment story!" and then jot that topic down in their book. Please keep these notebooks in their binders as we may refer to them during Writing Workshop.

We are also learning facts about reindeer in the wild and creating a reindeer fact book. 

We will begin a unit "Holidays Around the World" next week and study various countries and how they celebrate!

Here are some pictures from our fun hour with Ms. Chickie from Clay Chick! 

 

Challenge!

Please email me your child's answers! 2/3 correct earn a little prize. :)

1.  How many facts are in a fact family?

2. What do reindeer eat?

3. What are ellipses and why would an author use this craft in their writing?

Supplies Needed!

Hi Families!
We are in constant need of tissues and seem to go through at least a box a week. I have been getting several for the classroom but if anyone has any boxes to donate, that would be so great! Also, we will be doing some "Holidays Around the World" activities the next two weeks and will need toilet paper rolls (or paper towel rolls cut in half) for one of the craft activities. Thank you so much!

NMES Float and Pilgrims and Clay Chick!

Hi everyone,
First I want to say thank you so much for the kind words, emails, and notes regarding the passing of my Grandmother. I really appreciated them! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow, enjoying time with your family. Here are some pictures from our field trip to see the NMES float (which I am late to upload) and a few cute pictures of some pilgrims that we worked on last week!

 

 

And a reminder...Clay Chick is coming to our classroom on Monday afternoon! Yay! We can't wait to paint some ornaments! Enjoy the long weekend! Book Bags can be returned on Monday if you  haven't yet, and they will not be sent home until 12/6.  Thank you!