ePals- More Than Just A Pal!

What a beautiful fall Sunday!  What is the color report by you!  I did not get to Door County today, but almost as close, ran through neighborhoods that were ablaze in copper, gold, hot pink, and deep cherry!  I tried to take a mental image of each tree-hopefully I can retrieve these images this winter when it is bare and 10 below!

Besides the fantastic feeling that fall stirs inside of me, I am also a smiling teacher because on Friday I found out my classroom will be ePals with a classroom in Florida!  HOORAY!!!  I so excited, and tomorrow I will show my students our ePals' website and discuss potential projects, writing ideas, and the best ways to make our new friends know all about us!  I can't wait to Skype with them, share photos of our endeavors and explorations, and develop our literacy strategies and skills and we converse back and forth!!!

Here is the website if you are interested in finding a classroom to become ePals with:  Click Here

Hopefully, I will be on this road next weekend-Door County!

                                                     

Scavenger Hunt at Open House

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday!!!  On top of that, it is a SUN SHINY SATURDAY!!!

I hope your school week went well!  Mine-I think it was a blur!  Does it ever go by so fast, you have a hard time remember how you stayed on top of everything??

On Thursday night we had Open House!  ALL are welcome to our Open House and our school doors are open from 6:00-8:00 pm!  Plus, we offer a carb dinner- Spaghetti :-)

Our classroom prepared for the Open House by creating a Scavenger Hunt for our student families to complete.  Of course, students were not able to help their parents/family members find the items on the hunt!  As the families entered and my students gave their parents the Scavenger Hunt form and instructed their parents what to do, I knew they were so excited and anxious to see how their parents would do!  Many parents asked for clues and hints-I even heard- "Can you tell me if I am hot or cold?"  LOVE IT!!!

As the parents searched the classroom I heard giggles, saw many smiles, and felt bonding waves floating through the classroom!  Both moms and dads completed the search which was a pleasure to see!

WAY TO GO Multi-age families!               
Link to my Scavenger Hunt:  Click Here

A grandparent took this-this was at the start of Open House!

Door County, WI!  BEAUTIFUL!!!  Hopefully, I will get to see this tomorrow-road trip!

Smiles,                                                       

 

Corn Stalk

Happy Tuesday!
We have dug into our soil and plant unit.  One of our students lives on a MASSIVE dairy farm and her dad brought in a corn stalk for us to examine!
I had the students draw the stalk in their journal and then label the following parts:  roots, stem, seed, flower, and leaf.  I put the terms on the white board for them to copy (as you can see in the picture these students were looking for the words to copy).
THEY DID EXTREMELY WELL understanding the parts of the stalk.  I then threw in a challenge question- what part of the plant is the most important part?  Two got it right!  HOORAY Multi-agers!!! 
Smiles!

Guess the Baby!

Hooray Sat. made it!!!!  It's very windy in our village, but the sun is beaming!!! 

Yesterday my Multi-agers needed to use their inferencing and connection skills to try to guess who the babies were that they each brought in.  My Multi-agers were asked to secretly bring a picture of themselves when they were a baby.  I took the pictures and displayed them in the hallway for the whole school to see!  I gave the pictures each a number.  It was such a hoot to overhear the conversation all the grades were having to try to guess the babies.  Some of my students did not even know who they were!!!  Well at 8:45 we took a clipboard, a class roster, and recording sheet and went down the 17 pictures!  "That has got to be a boy because the baby has blue on.  That baby has brown hair so that is a girl," were comments I heard as we tried to guess who the babies were!  After each picture I revealed the answer- SURPRISE IT's...label with a SURPRISE face picture that I took of them on Tuesday, was held up and then put under their baby photo.  Now, that was a cooing good time!!!

SMILES!!!       

Double A's-ABCYA and Adventures to Fitness!

Today we used the Smart Board for a variety of purposes and activities.  (we don't have one in our classroom :-( so when we use it, it's a special treat).  First, we went on one of our FAVORITE sites-  Abcya  !  We  practiced our math skills and used our math strategies on the Smart Board.  We used a blank hundred's chart to try to place numbers on it correctly (using our understanding on place value, ordering of numbers, and sequencing-trying to meet a few Common Core Math Standards. 

 We also practiced our sight words by playing a came where we raced 3 other kittens to get to the finish line before they did! 

WE TRIED OUR BEST and earned a trophy.  The support and encouragement on this game shook the walls!!!  I think I can put this under Favorites!  Again, this game supports the Common Core Standard on fluently reading grade level sight words!

Finally, we went to Adventurestofitness  to learn about the Himalaya Mountains.  First, of all, if you have never used Adventures to Fitness, it is almost like you whole curriculum on one sight-standards from all curricular areas are woven into physical fitness adventures!            

 Kitten Hop

100 Number Grid

 

Two Dice, Add, and Smiles!

Happy Terrific Tuesday (is it terrific for you, if not, I'm sending you terrific well wishes).

Yesterday my Youngers (my 1st grade students) used dice to practice their math facts.  It is ponderous how two cubes can reveal a great depth of information on the math understandings and levels of a child.  When he/she rolls a die, does he/she have count each dot?  Does he/she start with the bigger number and count on?  Does he/she use facts he/she knows to help him/her add the two dice? Can he/she print the number correctly?  What facts does he/she know?

Rolling fun!

I can print my numbers correctly.

So happy and proud!

More games yet to come- Dice War, Addition Sentences, Subtraction Sentences, Highest Number, Lowest Number, Doubles, Race to 100, and many more.  What games do you play?
Smiles,

GERMS!!!!

Ughhh this morning I woke up stuffy!  Shouldn't I have predicted this?  Two weeks in-perfect time for the bugs to move in-guess it's time for the GERM talk with my Multi-agers!

New this year in my classroom is hand sanitizer by my computer and in the Tech Lab!  All my students must sanitize before and after-two proactive and preventive measure.  I also have them put the hand sanitizer on their desk (with the bathroom pass) and they must sanitize before they hang up the pass and put the sanitizer away (this way those who sneaked out of the bathroom at least get sanitizer).

I will be emailing our volunteer parent nurse today too!  She does a fantastic job on showing students how to properly wash!  Most students (even catch myself sometime) will squirt the soap and before wetting their hands.  She firmly and nicely reminds us to wet our hands first, then lather!  She has each one of us wash in front of her and dry appropriately!  Did you know if you use hand sanitizer you are supposed to rub your hands together till it dries?  When washing your hands you should be able to sing the ABC song if you have scrubbed them long enough.  She shares facts like these and more...this is a wonderful learning experience for all (BYE, BUGS and GERMS)!

Preventing Mr. Germ!

Here is a cute and catchy music video that hopefully many will find repeating: Pump the Pump

SMILES AND WISHING YOU ALL A HEALTHY REST OF THE YEAR!!!!