Fall Fun

What a fun, busy fall we have had!

We have outstanding character, and our jellybean jars show it! After filling our containers to the brim, we were rewarded with an afternoon at the movies along with delicious popcorn.

In Lena’s math class, we’ve been working on place value up through hundreds. We continue to work on addition and subtraction facts up through 18 and their inverse facts. We’ve enjoyed reviewing our facts using tile counters and dominoes, and last week we had an exciting bingo contest. This week we’ll learn about ordinal numbers and begin several fun days of graphing.

In Katie's math class, students have been working on addition facts. We have played addition bingo and used dominoes to make our own number sentences. We have also been working with geometry, measurement, fractions and spatial patterning by making intricate quilt square. After making bar graphs in class we met with Lelia last week and graphed how many jellybeans we had earned.

In Literacy, we’ve learned the Goldilocks technique for selecting books for independent reading. This is called the “just right” method.

In Lena's class, as we read our “just right” books, we record our thoughts in journals. Our book clubs have begun, and they’re known as the Dragons, Cats, and Wolves. We look forward to Wednesdays when we have Book Share. We are continuing to learn new dazzling words to add to our vocabulary word wall, and we have begun to analyze and sort words in word study. Our handwriting continues to improve as we practice 2 to 3 times a week.

In Katie's Literacy, we are learning how to work independently. Students are learning to conference with a partner about reading and writing. We also have been working on picking our just right books and completing reading response pages about what we have read. Students meet with Katie weekly to discuss various reading, writing and word study projects they are working on out of their literacy folders. We love our wondrous word wall and added deciduous to our list this week.

In science and social studies we have been working on character and leadership. Last week students created manners skits that showed poor manners first and then marvelous manners next.

We loved sampling our “new food of the month” which was pumpkin. We enjoyed delicious pumpkin muffins that Natalie’s mom made using all organic ingredients.

Last Tuesday our school celebrated Trash Free Lunch Day. Our middle school friends taught us about items that can be recycled, and afterward, we read the book, Perfect Pigs, which kept us smiling as we learned all about manners.

On the playground some students have been building tunnels in the sandbox. They built a tunnel with a hole in the center so they could see through end to end and watch things pass through. Students also discovered the tunnel would support their weight if they stood on it. As soon as students discovered they could stand on it they started to wonder what would happen if they poured water through the tunnel, would it strengthen the tunnel or weaken it? After much discussion and hypothesizing buckets were filled and water was poured through. It turns out that water strengthened the walls. The kids involved had a wonderful discussion about why water added strength to the tunnel. They continue to experiment with ways to make tunnels in the sandbox and have invited students from other classes to give input and help create.

In Lena's class for the past several Fridays, we have practiced how to be good sports by playing fun, exciting games led by middle schoolers, Tichelle and Meg.

Did you know that over ten of us have been published in the Roanoke Times News Fun section? Check your newspapers each Monday and read our creative responses.

Keep reading with us daily, parents! October will soon be over, and we’ll turn in our completed calendars for “Book It” Pizza Hut coupons.

We are looking forward to Friday when we’ll dress up and parade over to the middle school. Do you think they will recognize us?

Fall Festival

Check your child's folder daily for updates on Fall Festival. We are watching the weather closely.

Cool Classrooms

We continue to focus on character in our classrooms. There have been many conversations about how to problem solve and treat each other. We had an activity early in the week about the effect of saying mean things. To demonstrate the power of negative words we asked students to squeeze toothpaste out of a tube of toothpaste. We then asked students to try and put the toothpaste back in. We have some determined students, but no one could make the tubes look the same as they did when they were brand new. This demonstrated the fact that when mean things are said, they cannot be "unheard" by the person who said them.

In math, Katie's class has been reviewing skip counting, patterns, and playing Shut the Box (an addition and problem solving game). Lena's class has been working on patterns and addition Bingo.

In Literacy Katie's class created name acrostics. Please stop by and see them on our windows. We also did a character study of the characters in Miss Nelson is Missing and created skits about situations that could have happened to the characters. In Lena's class students have been working on story summaries in story frames. Students worked in pairs to pick a story, summarize the beginning, middle, and end using words and pictures. Lena's class has also worked on word ladders.

On Friday we were lucky to have middle schoolers from Linda's Babysitting Friday group teach our classes games.

Calendars have come home for our Book It Program. This is a wonderful program that encourages reading. If you have any questions please let us know.