Hope For Better Days Ahead

I know a lot of you have been concerned about my health so this should bring everyone up to date. This past Friday, I had an appointment with the chief neurologist for Kelsey-Seybold regarding my chronic neck pain.  This has been going on for a while but has peaked in the last 4 weeks. We have had multiple tests done with no findings (..which is frustrating) and know that I am in good hands but regret having to miss days with your children.  I want to apologize for cancelling conferences, this past Friday, but it was due to the unplanned additional testing that the doctor wanted to do.  I will plan for rescheduling conferences for the coming weeks.  Thank you for your continued support, consideration and understanding.  If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to email me.

Field Trip Excursion

WOW! What a wonderful adventure! We all had sooo much fun! Not only was day filled with activity but we also had beautiful weather to enjoy.  Our first stop was playtime at 'The Hill' by the Miller Outdoor Theater.  The kids had a blast running up and down the hill.  Just watching them makes you want to find out where to get a dose of that youthfullness.  The kids had a blast! We had lunch 'picnic-style', had a quick restroom break, posed for photos, loaded back up onto the buses and headed to the Children's Museum.  Our guides did an excellent job touring us around the museum.  We learned about ecosystems, water concepts, problem solving, bloodsuckers, pulleys and more! We had so much fun that many of the kiddos fell asleep on the bus ride back.  THANK YOU VERY MUCH to my chaperone moms of Elizabeth, John, Angel, Meagan, Antonia and Ella!

What Do You Think?

This week we have been focusing on shadows and how they are made along with learning about natural light and artificial light...today we worked on sorting sources of light into these 2 groups after a long discussion. They got to use magazine cuts out to demonstrate what they had learned.
I few of the pictures we found we some of the following:
 sun, stars, fire, light bulbs, flashlights, and glow sticks.
Tonight sit down with your family and discuss all the different natural and artificial lights you have around the house. This is really interesting and really fun to listen to their thinking.

Getting All Caught Up

I just wanted to get everyone filled in on a few weeks of wonderful and exciting things that we have all been doing in our active classroom.

After investigating at a variety of different maps and where they can find them, they were able to take the information they collected then use it to create their own island.This was so much fun because we took this lesson and pretended they were in the game of survivor. They were able to take paper and play-doh  and include  a variety of different land forms and building structures that they believe would be important if they were to be on this island all alone. They brought these creations home and I hope you really enjoyed listening to how they created them and why they chose the things they placed onto their island.

With maps, they were also able to work with a friend and create a birds eye view of the classroom and then create a map key to add to this.

Now we have moved to learning about the United States map and practicing the ten states that are important for first graders to learn. They got to play a game with one another yesterday and really got lots of practice with learning the ten states.

There are just a few pictures of what we have done with maps.

Happy Birthday Day!

WOW!!!! What a day. First of all, thank you so very much for all the wonderful cards, beautiful flowers and fabulous gifts. I felt so appreciated and special yesterday.

Yesterday, we also got to listen to the wonderful author of Pete the Cat along with listening to music and watch the illustrator create a fabulous picture as the author was reading a few of his stories.

WHAT DID YOU THINK?

Jillian: "I thought he was really nice and funny".

Luke: "I like how the guy was talking funny in the cat voice and singing his songs".

Angie: "The man talking like cat was funny".

Cameron: "I like when the illustrator was painting the picture because he used lots of color".

Charlotte: "The funny part was when he was using his cat voice".

Well, as you see the kids loved this performance and we all hope he comes back again.

Just Another Fun Week

Good afternoon to all. I hope you had a great weekend and looking forward to a busy week.

I am continuing to assess each student on where they are at in reading and plan on putting them into reading groups next week so look for their reading bag to come home. I will send home complete instructions for what the students will be doing along with the wonderful books they will be working on with me in small group and also with individual books that are at their reading level for them to reinforce all the reading skills they have been taught.

This week we will be starting words their way (a spelling program fit to meet their developmental level). They will have homework every night and a test on Friday. This program is designed to teach spelling patterns and not just memorize words. I will move them to a new spelling pattern once they have mastered and shown application of the pattern in their daily writing. The first 2 lists are a whole class list and will seem very easy. We do this to teach the procedures (they have classwork everyday). In 2 weeks they will get their individual list and we will be ready to hit the field running because they will know what to do.

Monday's News:
Luke: I loved using ten frames in math.
Ivy: Working in Stations in groups was fun.
Elizabeth: Reading Magic Tree House is very exciting. I can't wait to listen everyday to what is going to happen next.
Debra: Learning about what kinds of things are on maps is really cool.
Cameron: Looking at different maps and seeing what is different on each one is neat.

Moving Forward

After the second week of school, we have moved very quickly. In reading we have been learning about different genres of books which has been really enjoyable for me. Just watching the kids faces and telling me about what they notice about the different books they get their hands on is wonderful. We are looking more closely at ABC books and creating our own.
We have completed two experiments in science on how we use our senses.

We started just a few centers this week before we get into full swing next. This has really been helpful in the sense of the kids having a great understanding of expectations.

As you see we have been really busy workers.

First Week of School

Well, our first week has completed and we are well on our way to lots more fun and discoveries. This week, we worked on establishing routines and expectations.  It was wonderful to see familiar faces from last year.  We were also excited about meeting new friends to Meadowwood but also was sad about two classmates having to leave after already being with us. The sad thing for me was having to miss a day on the first week due to this crazy unusual rash that appeared one morning.  I can say, though, that I have a great group of students because even though I was gone so early in the year, my husband, who substituted,  said they did a great job of remembering what I had already established in the room.
This week in reading, we used our writing lesson from a previous day to "put the pieces together". Everyone made a puzzle piece showing all the things about us. After the students found their match, they interviewed each other. After interviewing we came to the carpet to discuss what each other had alike or different. I really enjoyed this activity because it gave me a clearer view on each individual.
In math, we did a graphing activity of how we come to school. We discussed where we can locate numbers out in the world. We began having an understanding of greater than and less than through a variety of activities using only the numbers 1-20.
With Science, we discussed what a scientist was, the tools they use and what the tools were used for.
As you can see, we have an extremly busy week with all the learning going on. I contiune to look forward to seeing your children everyday along with looking at the smiles when they learn something for the first time.