Weekly Update 12.10.12

We continue to talk about creating visual images this week as our focus comprehension strategy.  We will be working on identifying text evidence that helps to support the creation of a visual image in the mind of the reader.  In small group guided reading, students have been working on creating a written response to reading based upon a short answer prompt.  Several groups have been working on citing text evidence to support their opinions when answering questions about literature.

In writing, we will be working on a short descriptive piece on a winter setting.  We will focus on writing to the five sense and creating a short piece including an entertaining beginning and elaborative detail.   Students will be given sentence starters to help develop a sense of sentence variety and we will create a model piece together in a shared writing experience. 

In math, we will continue to learn about geometry in Unit 5.  This week our lessons will focus on line segments, parallel lines, and lines of symmetry.  We will be exploring these subjects in small guided math groups.  Although our current unit is focused on geometry, we will still be practicing secure skills including coin combinations, time, word problems and addition of 2 and 3 digit numbers with regrouping in small groups as well.

In social studies we will be using the next two weeks to talk about winter holidays and traditions.  We will discuss Hanukkah and  Christmas this week and be sharing some of the traditions we use to celebrate the holidays.  We will be reading several different stories about winter holidays and traditions.

Next Friday, December 21, we will be having our owl pellet dissection.  We will be meeting in the Art Room from 12:20-1:00 for this exciting activity.  I would love to have as many volunteers as possible!  Everyone is welcome!

Weekly Update 12.3.12

This week we continue to model the comprehension strategy of creating visual images.  Readers will work on identifying the words in the text that helped them create an image in their minds while reading.  We will also discuss how theses visual images help us to understand what is going on in the story.  Our text connection this week will be Owl Moon. 

In writing, we continue to use our Writer's Workshop time to work on developing entertaining beginnings.  This is the first part of the writing diamond and is a secure skill for second grade.  Students will work on transforming "boring" beginnings into exciting ones through the use of dialogue, sound effects, thoughts or feelings and action.  We will also look back into our old personal narratives and edit the beginnings.  We will also talk about nouns and review synonyms and antonyms.

We wrap up Unit 4 this week in math.  The final lessons of Unit 4 will focus on addition of two and three digit numbers.  Students will learn two strategies to solve these type of problems.  One is the regrouping strategy and the other is partial sums.  Although students will be introduced to both of these strategies, they are free to choose either algorithm to solve equations.  We will assess Unit 4 on Wednesday.  We will use our small math groups on Tuesday to review and prepare for the assessment. Unit 5 will begin on Thursday and the focus will be on geometry.

In social studies, we conclude our mapping unit.  Students will have more practice reading a map key, reading a compass rose, and will create a map of their bedrooms. 

Have a great week!

Weekly Update 11.26..12

This week we will shift our focus to a new comprehension strategy called creating visual images.  In this comprehension strategy, readers use pieces of text to create a visual image in their mind.  When discussing this strategy, we often relate to it to "creating a movie in our minds" as we read text.  This week, our mentor text for practicing the strategy of creating visual images will be The Paperboy.

In Writer's Workshop, we shift gears from expository writing back to personal narrative writing.  The writing diamond will be our road map for personal narrative writing this year.  This week, we will introduce the diamond as well as the first piece, entertaining beginnings.  Entertaining beginnings allow the author to create an exciting start to the story and capture the reader's attention right away.  We have four strategies for entertaining beginnings.  They are dialogue, action, sound effect and thought or feeling. 

In math, we will continue to work on word problems.  We will also work on estimating and rounding to the nearest ten as well as introduce double digit addition with and without regrouping.  We will also be assessing the trimester one report card descriptors in math this week.

Mapping will be our last social studies topic for the trimester.  The essential concepts for trimester one are understanding a map key and the compass rose.  We will use the text connections Me on the Map and Mapping Penny's World as part of this unit.

We will be sharing and displaying our nocturnal animal projects this Thursday from 915-10 in the cafeteria.  This is an open format, so feel free to stop in anytime with our 45 minute window and check out our projects!  Hope to see you there! 

Weekly Update 11.19.12

We have a short week this week!  We will spend most of our literacy block finishing up Daily Five work and guided reading assignments from last week.  We will also use Monday and Tuesday to finish up the publications process for our nocturnal animal books. Tuesday afternoon, students will have a chance to share their books and projects with one another in the classroom.  Thursday morning, November 29, will be our presentations to families in the cafeteria!   We will have a math lesson on Monday which will focus on word problems.

We enjoyed a great presentation from the WingMasters group on Monday morning.  We were fortunate to have our guest share a wealth of knowledge on owls and even had the chance to look at some real live owls!

We also have a new student joining our classroom after Thanksgiving.  Please join me in welcoming Gustavo to our classroom!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!  Please enjoy a happy and healthy Thanksgiving with your families!  Go Pats!

Weekly Update 11.13.12

In literacy this week we continue working on the comprehension strategy of making predictions.  This is a inferential skill where students need to combine information from the text and pictures with their schema to create new thinking.  Our text connection this week will be The Best Place .  Guided Reading groups will be working on wrapping up their chapter books or working on short non-fiction passages in preparation for the Thanksgiving break.  We will extend that strategy of making predictions into our small group work.  All of our Daily Five work this week will extend through to the Thanksgiving break.

Writer's Workshop will focus on the rough drafts and final copies of the nocturnal animal expository writing unit.  Within the final copies, students will be required to have bold face words and a glossary page.  Their illustrations will include diagrams, labels and captions.  This project will be featured in our writing block until the Thanksgiving break.  We will also discuss synonyms.

In math, we will begin Unit 4 this week.  Unit 4 will cover addition and subtraction.  This week, we will work on number stories using both operations.  In addition to all of the math group done at school in small group, we are also adding another component to our Math Daily Five program.  This is the online computer program called Xtra Math.  Many of you are already familiar with this online program designed to improve the speed and accuracy of math facts. 

In order to log on at home to xtra math, please go to www.xtramath.org  From there, please ensure that you are on the student log in page, rather than the parent or teacher log in.  Next, please enter my email (lfraher@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us).  Then enter your child's user name and PIN.  This information is now stapled to the inside of the yellow homework folder.  As of today, the site is active so feel free to log on anytime!

This Friday, we are on a field trip to Drumlin Farm.  Thank you to all who volunteered to chaperone.  Unfortunately, we are only allowed four chaperones.  There will be another field trip later in the year, so please consider volunteering again!  The bus will leave promptly at 9:00.  Please make sure your child is here no later than 8:50.  This is an outdoor field trip.  Right now, the forecast is partly cloudy and in the upper 40's/low 50's.  Please make sure that your child is dressed appropriately for this trip.  Sneakers or boots are recommended!

Weekly Update 11.5.12

This week in literacy, we will be working on the strategy of making predictions.  In addition to sharing our predictions orally, we will also be working on writing our predictions and identifying a picture, information from schema, or part of the text that helped formulate the prediction.  Our text connection for the week is the book Baghead.  In guided reading groups this week, all groups will be exploring non-fiction text related to nocturnal animals or animal adaptations. 

During our writing block, we will continue working on our expository texts.  This week, students will take their notes gathered from research and begin to transform them into sentences for their rough draft.  We will discuss the sue of sentence variety as well as the use of bold face words and glossaries.  By the end of this week, students will be finished with the rough drafts of their nocturnal animal expository books.

In math, we will conclude Unit 3 on Monday.  The Unit 3 assessment will be given Wednesday.  Thursday we will begin Unit 4.  Unit 4 will focus on addition and subtraction algorithms.  Our first lesson for Unit 4 will focus on "change to more" word problems. 

In science, we will conclude our small unit on bats.  We will further discuss the adaptations of the bat and how these adaptations help it survive.  Some of the adaptations discussed include echolocation, hearing, size and shape of eyes, camouflage.  We will use these lessons in order for students to understand how to identify adaptations in their own animals for the project.

Below is the timeline for the nocturnal animal project:

Nocturnal Animal Project Timeline

Week of October 29: Note Taking and Research

Week of November 5: Rough Draft of Research: Expository Writing

Week of November 12: Final Copies of Expository Writing

Week of November 19: Final Copies Cont.

HOME PROJECT DUE IN SCHOOL TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20!!!

We will share our projects with families after Thanksgiving on Thursday November 29 in the cafeteria from 9:15-10:00.

Reminder: There is no school on November 6 for Parent Conference Day.  If you need a reminder on your appointment time, please feel free to email me!

 

Field Trip Update/Conference Day

We have finally confirmed our field trip to Drumlin Farm on November 16!  The permission slip came home yesterday in your child's backpack.  If you could return the permission slip with the student payment of 8.00 in check format made out to Spring Street School, that would be fantastic!  I am hoping to collect all the payments by next Friday November 9.

As stated on the permission slip, chaperones will be notified by November 7.  If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, please indicate your interest on the bottom portion of the permission slip.  If you could hold off on sending in your chaperone payment of 14.00 until you are notified you have been selected, that would be appreciated! 

Thank you all to who returned their pre-conference form so quickly!  Please email me if you need a reminder on the time of your appointment for November 6 and I will be happy to get back to you! 

Weekly Update 10.29.12: Hurricane Edition!

I hope everyone made it through Hurricane Sandy safely! I wanted to send this out yesterday, but we lost Internet connection!  This week, we will shift gears and being talking about the comprehension strategy of making predictions.  Students use information from text, pictures, and their schema to make predictions before, during and after reading.  This week, our text connection will be Zachary's Ball.  Students will work on making predictions as well as identifying clues used to make the prediction.  Guided reading groups have been working on fiction, non-fiction, and short comprehension passages and will incorporate the strategy of predictions into this area as well.

Our writing blocks will be combined with science this week.  Our nocturnal animal project topics have been chosen and we are ready to begin our research.  This week we will learn about taking notes from research sources.  We will be using both Internet and literature sources to get information about our nocturnal animals.  Students will use a graphic organizer as a format for note taking.  The four main areas for research will be body features, habitat, predators and prey, and adaptations.  

In math, we continue on with Unit Three.  This week our lessons will focus on double frames and arrows and making change.  Now that our Daily Five Math is in full swing, we have really shifted focus from daily whole group instruction to small group instruction math as well as reading!

Our science lessons will focus on bats this week.  We will discuss the habitat and body features of bats this week.  In regards to the nocturnal animal project, students will be coming home with a detailed description of this assignment.  There is a home component to the project, which is to make a 3D model/diorama of the animal in its natural habitat.  Please look for the detailed instructions in this week's Monday Folder.

Please remember that parent conference day is Tuesday, November 6.  I will be sending home a friendly reminder of your scheduled time.  Please also look for the pre-conference form in the Monday Folder as well.  Conference day runs on a tight schedule and we only have 15 minutes to discuss your child's progress.  I will use the pre-conference form to help set the agenda for our meeting and make the best use of our time together.

We will be having our Fall party this Wednesday October 31.  A big thank you to our room mother, Laurie Canavan for organizing everything!  Please be sure to send in a snack for the party for your child as we will not be serving food!

Weekly Update 10.22.12

This week in literacy, we will continue to work on making text to text connections.  We will also tie in conversations about the author's message, or theme, of text.  Our literature connections this week will include Now One Foot, Now the Other and The Two of Them.  We will use these two stories as models for making text to text connections.

In writing, we continue talking about the descriptive setting aspect of personal narratives.  We will work on word choice and expanding ideas using descriptive language.  We will also review the use of the capital letter I in writing.

Unit Three continues on in math this week.  Our daily lessons will cover coin combinations, telling time to the 15 minutes interval, place value and collecting and graphing data.  We will begin using Math Daily Five this week as well.  This will allow for more small group and differentiated instruction during the math block, rather than whole group.  When students are not doing "Math with a Group", they will be engaged in math activities in the following categories: Math by Myself, Math in My Journal, Math with a Partner and Math with Tools.  We will be using a weekly checklist to help develop time management and the monitoring of independent work.

In social studies, we will conclude our unit on economics.  We will finish up this week by talking about saving and spending.  We will have our assessment on goods and services on Friday.  Students will be required to sort different items into the categories of goods and services.  In order to exceed the expectation and receive a grade of a 4, students will need to correctly sort all 15 items correctly and add two additional items to each category.

In science, we will launch our study of nocturnal animals.  We will begin by studying the bat.  We will select our topics for the nocturnal animal research project on Friday.  Additional information on this project will come home next week!

Weekly Update 10.15.12

This week, we will focus our comprehension strategy of making connections on text to text connections.  The skill of making text to text connections requires the reader to link two different texts and describe how they connect to each other.   This week we will model this strategy using the texts Amazing Grace and Oliver Button is a Sissy.  Students will be asked in orally discuss how the texts are alike as well as put their ideas in writing.

In Writer's Workshop, we will continue working on describing the setting.  This week, we will practice this skill by writing a descriptive setting about the beach.  Students will also be asked to independently transfer and apply this skill over to their Writer's Workshop personal narratives.  We will also look at periods, exclamation marks, and question marks.

We will finish up with Unit Two this week in math.  We will have our assessment on Wednesday.  Our last lessons of Unit 2 will be Tuesday and we will also review the unit content in preparation for the assessment at that time.  Unit 3 will begin on Thursday.  Unit Three will focus on place value, money and time.  This week, our lessons will focus on place value in two and three digit numbers.

In social studies we will discuss goods and services.  Students will be asked to create a service and an advertisement to promote their service. 

Today, the RazKids login information will be stapled inside the yellow homework folders.  At this point, the account is live and running.  You may sign in and use the account starting today.  RazKids can be used as the nightly reading requirement and can be recorded on the reading log.  Of course, RazKids does not have to substitute for reading literature at home.  Either type of reading may be used for the weekly reading log.  Please see the previous blog post for additional information about RazKids.

We have started using our IPAD as a component for Daily Five in the Listen to Reading/Read to Self category.  Scholastic has a great new app called Storia that we have been using the classroom.  If you would like, you may send in a set of personal headphones for your child for to keep in his or her cubby and use when he or she is using the IPAD or computer programs in the classroom.

Raz Kids Update

Our class RazKids subscription is in!  On Monday, your child will come home with their login and password information.  The information card will be stapled to the inside of their yellow homework folders.  RazKids is an online reading program that works on the accuracy, fluency and comprehension of the reader.  I have designated a book level for each student.  This level has been selected so that students can read at their independent level, rather than instructional level.  Students should be able to read the text and take the comprehension quiz independently with little or no assistance.  There are three reading activities for each title.  Students listen to the story, read the story on their own and then take the comprehension quiz.  I advise students to do all three options for each title.

Please keep in mind that RazKids levels their online books with a different system than the guided reading levels we use at school.  Therefore, the letter assigned to your child on RazKids does not correspond to the letter level of books read in school.

RazKids does come with an online incentive program called the Raz Rocket.  Students earn stars for the books they read and the comprehension quizzes they take online.

RazKids can be used as the nightly reading for the reading log.  However, it is not required to be done every night.  Of course, students are welcome to be reading literature at home for their nightly reading.

We will also be using RazKids at school during our Daily Five listen to reading block.

There is now an app for the IPAD available for RazKids!  This is brand new and, even better, it's free!  If you enter RazKids into your search box in your app store, you should find it.  It will say Learning A to Z.  You will need the login information that will come home on Monday in order to access the student page.

Weekly Update 10.9.12

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend!  This week, in literacy we will be looking at the comprehension strategy of making connections.  Students will be working on identifying their connection both orally and in writing as well as citing the part of the text that allowed them to make the connection.  Our whole group text connection this week will be Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  Students will also be working on this strategy in their guided reading groups.

In to deliver effective instruction, students will also be meeting in word work groups to work on different sound and spelling patterns.  Students also have individual sight words to work for spelling practice as well.

In writer's workshop, we will begin to focus on the craft of personal narratives.  We will introduce the description of the setting.  Students will be encouraged to describe their story settings using the five senses.  This week, we will work on a small writing piece and work on describing an autumn day.  We will also look at complete sentences, fragments and run-on sentences.

We continue on with Unit Two this week in math.  Our lessons will focus on name collection boxes, frames and arrows, and in and out boxes.  We will have our Unit Two assessment next week.  We will have our Unit Three pre-assessment on Friday.  We have started to introduce some of the components for our Math Daily Five program.  This is a similar format to Reading Daily Five and allows small group differentiated math instruction as well as opportunities for review, preview and extension.  The five components for Math Daily Five are Math with a Group, Math Journal, Math by Myself, Math with Tools and Math with a Partner. 

In social studies, we continue talking about basic economic needs of a community.  We will revisit needs and wants and move our discussion into consumers and producers/buyers and sellers. 

New October book orders will come home today in the Monday Folders.  You can order online or simply send back the paper order form with check payment.  Please return/submit online  by Monday October 15.

Weekly Update 10.1.12

This week, our guided reading program is in full swing!  Small group instruction and our full daily five program are both up and running smoothly.  Small reading groups and small word work groups will now be occurring daily during our morning literacy block.  In whole group reading we will be focusing on making connections.  When readers interact with text, they activate their schema in order to connect the text with something in their own lives.  This is called a text to self connection.  Our literature links for the week include Lily's Purple Plastic Purse and Jamaica Tag Along. 

In writer's workshop, we will have some mini-lessons on conventions and the differences between an asking sentence and a telling sentence.  We will continue working on our personal narratives and receive feedback in both small writing groups as well as individual conferences. 

In math, we continue on in Unit Two. This week, our lessons will focus on fact families, weights and scales and name collection boxes.  We will continue to work on the speed and accuracy of our math fact recall during our "mad minute' exercises. 

We will start out first unit in social studies this week.  We will discuss the differences between needs and wants.  We define needs as things that we need in order to live such as food, water, shelter and clothing.  Our social studies text connection is a book called Is it a Need? Is it a Want?

This week, I will not be in school Tuesday.  I will be attending a conference at Regis College about project based learning.  Please send any emails regarding dismissal to Judith. 

There is no school Friday October 5 and Monday October 8. 

Thank you to everyone who attended Curriculum Night!  If you were unable to attend or unable to sign up for a conference, please let me know so we can schedule.  Thank you as well to all who signed up to be a regular classroom volunteer.  We will be starting the volunteer schedule in November.  Stay tuned!

Weekly Update 9.24.12

This week we will continue to put the finishing touches on our Daily Five routines.  We also introduce Work on Writing and Listen to Reading.  We will be ready ready to launch our full Daily Five implementation and guided reading next week!  Some of our Work on Writing activities include Journal Prompts, Vocabulary Journal, Poetry Journal, and Whole Class Journals. 

Our whole class reading lessons will focus on activation of schema and retelling.  Our text connections for the week include A Chair for My Mother, The Art Lesson and Scholastic News magazine. 

In writing, we will work on learning the friendly letter format including greeting, date, body, and closing.  We will prepare our family letters for curriculum night.  These letter will move through the writing phases of planning, rough draft, conference and final copy.  We will also learn the word endings -ll, -ff, -ss, and -zz.

In math, we will continue on with Unit Two.  We gave our Unit Two pre-assessment last week in order to develop small guided math groups to help students become proficient in all content covered in Unit Two.  Our whole group lessons this week will focus on addition facts, doubles facts, turn around facts, and addition strategies.  We will also continue working on the speed and accuracy of our addition and subtraction math facts by doing "Mad Minutes".  Mad Minutes are a series of timed quizzes in order to improve the speed recall of basic facts through 20.

In science, we will conclude out unit on frogs.  We will have our assessment on Friday.  Students will be asked to put the four stages of the life cycle in order and describe each stage using at least two accurate facts.  Please encourage your child to review their study cards at home this week!  We will also begin to introduce our first social studies unit on goods and services.

A new homework component will be coming home today.  Students will come home with their weekly reading logs.  The Shrewsbury Public Schools policy is that students in grade two will have 20 minutes of homework per night Monday-Thursday.  In addition to the math homework that comes home each night, students are expected to read nightly as well.  The reading log asks for the book title and a parent initial.  Please see this new form in your child's homework folder tonight!

Important Date: Curriculum Night is Thursday September 27 at 6:30.  If you are unable to attend, please let me know and I can send home my handouts for your review!  Looking forward to meeting you all soon!

Weekly Update 9.17.12

This week in literacy we will begin working on our Daily Five routines.  Students will be doing independent sessions of Read to Self and Word Work activities.  Small group reading and word work sessions will also begin this week.  We will introduce the reading strategy of activating schema.  Schema is a reader’s prior knowledge.  Activating schema helps readers relate to the text and make connections to literature.  Our text connections for the week include My Great Aunt Arizona and Patches Lost and Found.  We will also learn about compound words.

In writing, we will be looking at complete sentences vs. fragments.  We will begin writing out first personal narrative and work on topic development.   Students are encouraged to find the “seed story” or “small moment” as they chose topics. 

Unit One in math concludes this week.  We will have our assessment on Wednesday afternoon.  Our lessons this week will focus on greater than and less than, temperature and addition number stories.  We will have a pre-test for Unit 2 on Friday.

In science, we will be making our study cards for the life cycle of the frog.  We will create a card with a picture and facts for each one of the four stages (egg, tadpole, froglet and frog).  Students will bring home the study cards on Friday and will be able to review them at home for the assessment next week.  We will also continue to read about the life cycle of the frog and complete our frog scavenger hunt.

We will speak about Constitution Day this week by reading an article in Scholastic News. 

Homework starts this week!  Students will come home with their homework folder starting Monday afternoon.  They are expected to complete the nightly math assignment and return to school the next day.  On days that we have an assessment (Wednesday this week), we will not have a homework assignment.  There is no homework given over the weekend. 

Scholastic Book Orders

Today our first Scholastic Book orders will be coming home in the Monday Folder.  If you would like to order, there are two ways to do so!

1. Paper Order Form: Simply complete the order form on the back of the Book order catalog that comes home in the Monday Folder.  Please attach a check (no cash!) and I will take care of the rest!  Please return paper order forms by Sept. 21.

2. Online Ordering: Here is our class link to order books online:

https://orders.scholastic.com/FXGYK

The class activation code is FXGYK.  You can also simply go to scholastic.com and follow the links to book orders.  You will need the activation code.  Complete your online order from your home computer.  Please have online order submitted by Sunday Sept. 23!

I PICK Poster...Tips for Choosing a Just Right Book

Here is a picture of our I PICK Anchor Chart displayed in our classroom library!

Weekly Update 9.10.12

This week during our literacy block, we will continue to create a classroom community of readers.  We will talk about the importance of schema.  Schema is a reader’s prior knowledge.  We will discuss the difference between fiction and non-fiction genre and will sort books into their genre category.  Some of our text connections this week include Sheila Rae the Brave and a Time for Kids article called Fly with a Butterfly.

We will also introduce another component of Daily Five called Word Work.  We will establish our word work expectations and practice the routines and different word work activities.  We will also introduce our vocabulary journals as well.  Please look for a detailed explanation of the Daily Five coming this week on the blog!  Last week, we introduced the Read to Self component of Daily Five and will continue to practice and perfect the Read to Self procedures and expectations, and build our reading stamina to 20 minutes.

In writing, we will begin writer’s workshop by establishing routines and introducing our booklets for personal narrative writing.  We will also discuss the different genres of writing including personal narrative, expository and fiction.  We will begin to discuss topic selection for our first personal narratives. 

In math, we will continue on in Unit One.  This week our lessons will focus on patterns on the hundreds chart, number grids, equivalent names for numbers and counting patterns.  We will also have some baseline assessments on telling time and counting coin combinations. 

In science, we will focus on the animal group of amphibians. After a general overview of the amphibian group, we will focus our study on frogs.  The main teaching point for this unit will be the life cycle of the frog.  This week we will look at characteristics of frogs and begin to look at the frog life cycle.   We will have a frog scavenger hunt on Friday in order to learn more fun facts about frogs!

Weekly Update 9.4.12

This week, we will continue building out classroom community of readers.  We will learn and practice routines and active listening.  Our first component of Daily Five, Read to Self, will be introduced.  Read to Self is a time when students read, and sometimes respond, independently.  In order to help students make the most of their Read to Self time, we will discuss how to select a "just right book".  We will learn the acronym I PICK.  Please see our I PICK anchor chart photo later this week on the blog!  During the week, students will also work on building their reading stamina, as we work on reading independently for an increased amount of time.

Some of our text connections this week include McDuff Moves In, Goldisocks and the Three Libearians (great story for choosing books), and The Kissing Hand.  We are also reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as our read aloud book!

In writing, we will introduce our writer's notebooks and our writing folders.  Students will complete heart maps in order to develop a sense of what is important to them.  This heart map will help with topic selection as students prepare to write personal narratives and will be kept in the reference portion of our writing folders.  We will have the school wide baseline writing assessment this week as well.

Unit One in math is underway.  Unit One covers topics from first grade, and serves as a review and a way to practice math routines.  This week our lessons will cover basic addition facts, grouping by tens, and number patterns. 

In science, we are learning about different animal groups.  Each day we will learn about one of the following groups: fish, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians.  This will lead us into next week when we will begin our unit on frogs. 

First Day of School!

Out first day was a great success!  It was great to meet all of the kids and see them settle back into their school routine.  Today we spent some time getting to know one another.  Each student created an All About Me poster that gave them the opportunity to showcase some of their favorite things!  We also read a fun story called First Day Jitters with a surprise twist ending!  We graphed the way we felt about coming back to school for the first day in a new classroom.  The most popular first day feeling was excited! At the end of the day, we talked about our first day reflections.

Thank you to everyone for sending in all of the school supplies!  It looks like I have a life time supply of Post-It notes on my hands!  An extra big thank you to everyone who sent in extra supplies for the class stock.  Tissues, paper towels and wipes do go fast!

Please keep an eye out for the parent feedback form coming home in the Monday Folders today.  As soon as though forms are complete, I can put the group email list together!  Thank you for your prompt response.  In the meantime, feel free to check in with our class blog.  You can subscribe to the blog via email if you would like to officially follow.  Look for the sign up on the right toolbar.  If not, you can bookmark the site and check it at your leisure. 

Countdown to the First Day!

The first day of school is right around the corner!  Check out some pictures of how our classroom is shaping up!  I can't wait for a great first day!