Holidays and the 100th Day of School

This week has been full of fun activities!!! We have talked about different holidays and then we celebrated our 100th day of school!!

We started the week discussing Independence Day

We talked about who celebrates, why we celebrate, and how we celebrate

And then we wrote about it...

The next holiday we discussed was Veterans Day

We used this chart to help describe a veteran

We discussed Cinco de Mayo on Wednesday

Again, we discussed who celebrates, why we celebrate, and how we celebrate Cinco de Mayo and then the students made maracas!!

Today was our 100th day of school!!

We counted 100 gum balls. Some got carried away and made huge finger prints! :)

The kids went on a hunt to find 100 starbursts!

And we ate pizza and breadsticks in the shape of the number 100!

Tomorrow we are celebrating Chinese New Year!

In writing this week, we discussed what good writers do. The students used this check list to make sure they included everything they need when they write. I wish I had taken pictures of their writing this week, but I forgot!

We reviewed shapes this week in math:

We sorted shapes

This smart board lesson helped me teach more about shapes!

We also continued working on word problems

Our read aloud this week was Yankee Doodle

I showed this video! This kids loved it!

Some of you may have seen your kids bring these bags home! My book bag order finally came in! In these bags are your child's reading group books, their reading sticks, and a reading log. If you would, please complete the log out each time you read with your child. Your children love reading to you!!

Parents, thanks for all you do!!

MLK Reflections

Today, the kiddos wrote something they learned about Martin Luther King in their journals. Here are some of their reflections:

"We are sorry for Martin Luther King. We are sorry that you got shot."

"Happy Birthday Martin Luther King. I learned that he had a dream."

"We learned that Martin Luther King had four kids. We learned people celebrate by going to hotels."

"Martin Luther King got shot. I am sad because he got shot."

"Martin Luther King got shot. Martin Luther King was very nice."

"We celebrate Martin Luther King by marching and screaming. And he has four kids."

"We celebrate Martin Luther King day by going to parades. Sometimes we go to museums."

LOVE their writings!!

MLK Week

This week, we have been discussing Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream. It has been fun listening to all of my students' dreams and why it is important to treat everyone equally. We started our week reading Happy Birthday Martin Luther King and On Martin Luther King Day. After reading the book and poem and discussing what his dream was, I had the students write about their dreams.

Here are some examples of their dreams:

"My dream is to be a doctor and a doctor of a horse."

"My dream is to be a vet."

We read the poem A Box of Crayons and the book The Crayon Box that Talked. The students really started to understand that diversity is a good thing! We wouldn't want to see things only in black and white, but in color.

After reading the book and poem, we created our class box of crayons

We used a Venn Diagram to show how our class was like MLK and ways that we are different.

We are learning the terms, great than, less than, and equal to in math this week.

Here is a poem we learned to help the students understand great than and less than.

We have continued learning how to answer math word problems. Today the students wore t-shirts with the minus and equal sign. I read the word problem, then the class had to place these students in the correct order.

I have a couple of new centers this week:

Mr. Gator: Each student draws a number then they have to figure out which number Mr. Gator wants to eat.

I found these cute mailboxes and Target! In the mailboxes are envelopes with cvc words in them. They have to take the letters out and spell the word correctly. Then they have to write the word and draw a picture of it.

Some of your kiddos may have mentioned our new behavior chart! If you are confused that your child says I was on blue today, here is why:

Hopefully this will motivate the students more than the red light did!

Parents, thank you so much for helping your child complete their penguin research project! They taught me many new things about penguins! They all did a great job!!

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Week of January 23rd Newsletter

Weekly News
Week of January 23rd

IMPORTANT DATES
Friday, January 20th – Book Orders Due
Monday, January 23rd – Field Trip $ Due
Thursday, January 26th – 100th Day of School
Friday, January 27th – Sugar Day/B-day Celebrations
Friday, February 3rd – Field Trip

HOMEWORK
Math – Comparing Numbers
(greater than, less than)
Due Monday, January 23rd

What are we learning about?
Literacy:
Holidays and Celebrations
Key Details in a Text
Writing Informative Text

Phonics:
Letter Oo
Distinguishing Middle Sounds
Rhyming

Math:
Shapes

Sight Words:
this
saw

FIELD TRIP!!!
WHEN: Friday, February 3rd
WHERE: AR Arts Center in Little Rock & 5th Avenue Park
WHAT: Goldilocks & Little Red Riding Hood, play & eat at the park (weather permitting)
COST: $10 per child (covers admission to play & lunch) – send to school by Monday, January 23rd

Penguins

In literacy this week, we have been talking about penguins. We read many fiction and non-fiction texts about penguins. The kids really got into this! We started out discussing what we already knew about penguins. We used this cute penguin chart to organize our thoughts.

Throughout the week we filled in what we learned about penguins and our misconceptions.

We spent a lot of time discussing I wonder questions. Throughout the week we answered three I wonder questions:

1. How do penguins stay warm?

2. What do penguins eat and how do they get their food?

3. What are their families like?

{Sorry I don't have a picture of our completed chart.}

They did a great job finding this information and writing about it.

"Penguins eat squid. Penguins swim in the water to get their prey."

"Penguins eat fish."

"Penguins like to eat fish. Baby penguins get food from momma's mouth."

"Penguins eat fish. They swim to get their food."

We had a great time reading non-fiction texts and discussing all types of penguins and the way they live!! We even watched some cool videos on penguins!

We spent a lot of time counting in math this week. We practiced counting objects to 20 in many different ways. We also spent some time on word problems. Here is an example:

The students had to show me how to work the problem using their math journal. I then chose two people to teach the class how they got their answer. I also let the students act out the problem. I gave students different pieces of paper with numbers and math symbols and they had to put themselves in the correct order to show how to work the math word problem.

I found these cute signs to help students learn their punctuation marks. They loved it and wanted to read it over and over again!

And lastly, I added a couple of new good behavior motivators in our classroom.

Bookworms for good readers!

Bravo Chart for healthy table competition!

I hope you have a great weekend!!