YMCA Tuesday!

Our class will go to the YMCA on Tuesday.  We will have lunch at school as usual, then load buses at 11:30.  Students need to bring athletic shoes, a swimming suit and a towel.  The cost for students is $5.00 and $3.00 for a parent chaperone.  Let me know if you'd like to come along!

Technology Blunders

I have been trying to update this blog from my school computer, but for some reason it is not allowing me to do so.  This is a test to see whether this post posts.  Hang in there while I try to figure this out:)

Friday Fun!

Our classroom won the August box tops contest!  We celebrated last Friday with an ice cream treat!

This Friday, we will have our first classroom auction.  The auction will take place from 2:00-2:45.  Students will have the opportunity to bid on and buy auction items.  We have so many great items that have been brought in!  The auction rewards students for making good choices in the classroom and also for being responsible in doing their classroom jobs.  It also teaches important math concepts such as counting and subtracting money amounts and how an economy works.  Students are learning about credits and debits and will understand inflation as time goes on and their money begins to lose value.  I would love to have parent volunteers to help count out money on Friday!  If you are available to help at our auction, please let me know!

Updates!

Last week we officially started all of our focus groups.  We only had a few kids get lost and none of the teachers lost any hair.  Woohoo!  Success!  The students will have reading and math with their homeroom teacher every day, but will have additional instruction in reading, math, and spelling to focus on their individual needs. 

This week in reading, we will be learning about Jackie Robinson.  The students will watch video excerpts, read quotes, and listen to a couple different stories about this great American hero.  We will be focusing on monitoring comprehension, asking probing questions, and learning new vocabulary as we dig into a difficult piece of nonfiction text.  The students will write a newspaper article and create a bio-cube to demonstrate their understanding of the topic.  I love how this unit captivates students and causes them engage in deep, meaningful conversations.

Write On!

Communicating through writing is an essential skill.  In our classroom, students will be writing daily in their writer's notebooks.  These notebooks will reflect lessons, learning, personal interests, and samples of writing from different TAPS (tasks, audiences, and purposes).  My goal every year is to foster a love of writing.  I love helping students discover their voice and watching as the storyteller within emerges.  Kids are so imaginative and their creativity shines through in their writing.  I can't wait to share these notebooks with you.  To make them very special, we spent an entire class period personalizing them with the stickers you so generously donated!  The students are so proud of their journals.

Welcome to my blog!

Here it is!  Our new classroom blog!  I will try to update this blog weekly so you can see what your student is learning in class.  If you subscribe to this blog, you can get email notifications when I post something new.  I'd love to have you as a "follower".