Happy Holidays

Today was our Holiday Party and the students had fun doing crafts and eating breakfast. Thank you to all the parents who helped with the party and to Mrs. Felli for organizing it for us. I hope you all have a wonderful Winter Break, and I will see you next year!

Snowflakes

Today we read the story of Snowflake Bentley and learned some interesting facts about snowflakes. We also made out own snowflake crystals.

Poinsettias

Today we learned about poinsettias and legend behind them. We read one of Tomie dePaola's books and made our own flowers. This was an exercise in listening and following directions. If one did not carefully make the flower as was directed, it would not turn out to look like one.

In math students learned how to play two new menu math money games: Race for a Quarter and Fill the Bank.

Pajama Day

Today we had Pajama Day as a reward for our first 10 Castle Coins. We read the book Ira Sleeps Over, a story about a little boy's first sleepover. Even though we were relxed in our pjs, we still spend the day learning.

What a Snowy Weekend

Well, fortunately we didn't get as much snow as they said we might. Several students will be out this week due to family vacations, so a lot of our work will be review. I am also continuing to meet with students regarding their reading levels.

Today we read another Jan Brett book, Daisy Comes Home. Students have been anxiously looking for Hedgie in Jan's books and are keeping track of where she is on large chart paper in the room. Hedgie is found in all but 3 of Jan's books, but sometimes is very difficult to find.

In math we practiced using money by learning some new games. These games give the children hands-on experience identifying and counting coins.

I'm Back!

Today was my first day back since my maternity leave. It was an emotional day for me. I was happy to see all of the children and they were so excited to see me too. I know they will miss Miss Dishon as well. I am impressed with how well they are reading now. I had individual conferences with about 1/3 of the students and we chose new books for their book bags. I will be working with the remaining children next week.

We took our second set of quarterly assessments today in math and language arts. I am anxious to get the results, as well as review the first set. Other activities we did today were minute math, journal writing about our favorite part of school, and what we want to learn about next. We also read one of my favorite Jan Brett books, The Umbrella. We will continue to read her beautifully illustrated books next week. I shared with the class that I met Jan Brett a couple years ago and spent the day with her when she visited Indianapolis on her book tour. This afternoon I read a non-fiction book about reindeer, and we created a chart listing lots of facts we learned about this animal. The students made some great connections between reindeer and other animals such as cows and penguins.

Hope you have a great weekend. We're supposed to get a lot of snow, so stay safe and warm.