Frog and Toad

     It's been a bit of a fragmented week for me.  I attended a workshop on Fundations (our phonics program) on Wednesday and a math workshop today.  Both were great and I came away with strategies that will make me EVEN MORE dynamic than I already am....hard to believe I know.  But seriously, I got some great tips that I'm looking forward to implementing.  One thing that was STRESSED over and over was that the children NEED to be fluent in their addition and subtraction facts.  Xtramath will help with this.  Please be sure your child has some time to log on at home.  Remember, it is part of their homework.

     We have been meeting in small groups to read Frog and Toad chapters.  The students then discussed each chapter to find the beginning, middle and end.  We focused on looking for the main idea, not every little detail.

     In math, we worked with tens and ones and talked about place value as well as fact families.

     Our class is super excited because there will be no spelling test next week.  We reached our goal of 30 cans in only 4 days.  I'm sure many Woburn families are grateful for your generosity.

     We checked out SpellingCity in the computer room.  You can search for our class lists by my last name and the children can play games with their spelling words.  It helps if they have the list in front of them for some of the games.  You should check it out at home.

    Clemson/BC this weekend......can I get a Tiger Roar???  Also, look for me at the Sox game Sat. night if you watch the game.  I'll be the tiny fan waayyyyyyyyyy in the back cheering loudly.

     Here are a few pictures of our week in review.


MATH GAMES

    ANTONYM SORT

HAT DAY

COOL STUFF KIDS DID WITHOUT ME ASKING  <3

Full Swing

     We are in full swing.  I have so much to write about, that I just don't know where to begin.  This week is going to be crazy.  Tuesday is Election Day, because of this the students will have lunch in the classroom with a limited sandwich menu.  The students actually had to order their lunch this morning.  Wednesday is a half day.  Dismissal will be at 12:30 and lunch will be early.  Thursday from 6-8 is back to school night.  I hope to see everyone there.  Friday is pajama day.  For a $1 donation, students may wear their pj's to school (keep in mind that we will still be going out for recess).  The monies earned will be donated to help beat breast cancer.  We are collecting can goods until this Friday.  The cans will be used to make a fortress at the high school, then will be donated to Social Concern.  Two senior boys took on this inititive.  LOVE THAT!!!

     In the computer room today we first did xtramath, then visited this fun game-click here.  It was from the brainpop jr site (you do not need to log into the site).  We will check out some of their other games this week.  I have a link to that site on my sidebar.  Most of the children really enjoyed it.

     You'll notice that our homework was stepped up just a bit.  It still should be completed easily by your child independently (except maybe the bottom of the first page) let me know if you have problems.

     In writing we will be writing about our classmates using the 5W's to gather and organize our details.
 

   
     We will be reading Poppleton books all week.  In today's story, Poppleton ate grapefruit and his lips turned "outside in".  Some of the children have never tried grapefruit.  Consider picking some up for a taste next time you go shopping.

  I read My Brother Charlie to the class today.  Well............I attempted to read it.  I needed to have Miss Davis finish it for me.  It's a touching (not sad) story about Charlie who is autistic and how he relates to his family.  It's written beautifully and if you haven't heard by now I cried.  It won't be the last time.  I'm a softie, can't help it.  Happy endings-tears, sad stories-tears, sappy comercials-tears, Disney movies-tears, old-timers sitting at Fenway Park with scorecard and glove-tears (boy do I love seeing that).  I've ALWAYS been this way, it's just who I am.  The kids, of course, thought it was hysterical.  The good news is that they are super motivated to read the story again..........hmmmmm, I wonder why??

math soring game

I'm in LOVE

     It's true!  I am in LOVE with this class.  They are wonderful.  I am one happy teacher.

   

     Thankfully today was nice in cool inside the building.  It would have been a GREAT beach day.

     We have been practicing our math facts in our math notebooks.  Practice some math fact drills while driving around town.........say  "double 4". 

one game we played

     The students brainstormed "what writers write" and we read this book by Cynthia Rylant.  It inspired us to write about a time we had a visit with our relatives.

     

     In the computer room we visted ABCYA.com and xtramath.  The children enjoyed ABCYA.  The link is listed to the right if your child wants to check it out at home.

     Our high school helper, Miss (Courtney) Davis, started this week.  She's fantastic.  We are so lucky to have her this year.

2nd Grade Parents Rock

     The Wyman staff has been spoiled this month.  Parent's from each grade have fattened  us up with either a luncheon or breakfast twice a week.  Today was 2nd grade's turn and it ROCKED.  Hands down the best so far!!!  Thank you.  It is super appreciated.

     I  hope you've had a chance to check out the website set up to help the St. Martin Family. One of our own kindergarten mothers is battling breast cancer with three boys aged 8 months-six years of age.  Any support you can offer I'm sure will help her manage the road ahead.  Please click here to lend a helping hand or contact Mrs. Connors for more details.  If anyone wants to send in a cash donation, I will be sure to put it toward a dinner gift card for the family.  Just mark the envelope Helping Hand and send it in with your child.

Fairy Tales

     Today we started our fairy tale unit.  I LOVE this unit.  We will be reading all sorts of fairy tales and fractured fairy tales.  The best part is reading Cinderellas from all over the world.  We started today by brainstorming a list of fairy tales we already know, reading Rumpelstiltskin and listing some of the elements of a fairy tale. We will dive into that more tomorrow.  I found this website that teaches all about fairy tale elements while reading Cinderella to you.  Click here to check it out.

     A happy belated Mother's Day to all you mom's out there.  I hope your day was wonderful and you were pampered by your family.  I had a great day.  I spent the day with my husband and sons and I spent the evening with my daughter and mom.  We had a fantastic night.  Kaycie, my daughter, booked a paint night for Mom and me.  We had a nice dinner then a paint lesson right in the restaurant.  Trust me when I say I have NO artistic ability but I thought my painting came out GREAT.  They all did. Click here for the company website.

          We will be performing in the Memorial Day Program, which will be Friday, May 24th at 1:30.

      Last chance to share your home address with your child's pen pal.  Send in a note with your address (if you haven't already) if you want me to share your address with them.

     Did you hear all about the circus?  It really was fantastic and I think everyone had a good time.

Field Trip

     Exciting news!  The second grade is going to the BIG APPLE CIRCUS in May.  Permission slips with all the information will be coming home soon so keep your eye out for it.

     We are reading ANOTHER Junie B. book.  They children were begging me to.  Some children even begged to bring ANOTHER one home to read.  I LOVE TEACHING.  I'm telling you, it doesn't get any more exciting than motivated children.

     We are anxiously awaiting our pen pal letters.  Hopefully they will come soon.  We are also studying fractions.

     April is poetry month.  We have started presenting poems in class.  This week we each found a poem, practiced reading it to six different listeners, and are presenting them to the class.  Each child must present at least one a week for the entire month of April. They can do more if time allows.  Next week, they will be responsible for finding their own poems.  A notice will be coming home with directions and helpful websites for finding poems.  We also have TONS of poetry resources in class.  Try one of these three for starters poetry4kids, giggle poetry, or pbskids.

   

Junie B. Jones

     We finished listening to Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.  As predicted, the children LOVED it.  The narrator's voice is just adorable.  We are now working with partners in reading Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in her Pocket  and summarizing each chapter.  Ask you child why Junie was afraid of the farm.  It made me laugh out loud.  I was excited to let the children explore the Junie B. Jones website, click here, but it was blocked at school.  Let your child check it out.  I think they will like it.

     Remember, Friday is a holiday.  No school, ENJOY!

SPRING

     Well not exactly spring but this warm weather sure does seem spring like.  Nothing at all like last Friday's storm, which took me by surprise.  I know they predicted some snow but when I went to bed and no snow was sticking I assumed the weathermen were wrong AGAIN.  I was shocked when I woke up.  It was a good thing school was cancelled BUT I really don't want to go until the last week in JUNE (whine, whine, whine).

     We had the BEST enrichment program at school today.  An artist came and he was UNBELIEVABLE.  His name was Rob Surette.  He's been on TV quite a bit.  He painted giant portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa and Albert Einstein in minutes.  It was really quite remarkable.  He was also encouraging the children to DREAM BIG.  I just love that and I loved him.  Super enjoyable. Click here to visit his website.

     We visited this website in the computer lab today.  Keep on practicing your money counting.

     Our pen pal letters are finished and ready to be sent.  I hope they write back soon.

MONEY MONEY MONEY

     We started a new chapter book this week.  It's a Jigsaw Jones mystery The Case of the Snowboarding Superstar.  We haven't got to the mystery yet, but are on our way.

     Wednesday is WALKING WEDNESDAY and gym.  We should have gym this Friday but would have missed it due to our field trip.  We did some schedule shifting so that didn't happen.  Gym is a highlight of the week.

     We read How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long.  It is the title of the play we are seeing on Friday.  I can't wait for our trip.  We will be back to school in time for lunch.

     Please practice money at home.  The children should be able to identify and tell the amount of each coin.  We are starting to count it up.  We started today and most children clearly have experience with this already which is FANTASTIC.  If your child doesn't, PLEASE work on this at home.  Count all the coins in the bottom of your handbag, under your couch cushions or on the floor of the car.  Click here for a website that may help  You child should also be able to name the months in order.  I was very surprised to learn that not everyone could.   

Animal Habitat Projects

     Tuesday we will start our animal habitat projects.  The details will be coming home tomorrow so I won't go into them here.  Your child should come to school tomorrow with a few different animals he/she's interested in.  Keep in mind that your child should pick a specific animal.  So instead of "snakes", he/she should pick "cobras".  Hopefully we will have 14 different animals.  When researching your animal, please have your child write facts in complete sentences that are kid friendly.   For example, Cobra is the common name for members of the family of venomous snakes, Elapidae, known for their intimidating looks and deadly bite  isn't very friendly but could be rewritten in language the class would understand.  Also, we will be taking our fact sheet and turning it into paragraphs in class.  So keep it simple, and stick with the important/exciting facts.

     I have to admit, I have an addiction.  I am addicted to reading teacher blogs on the internet. I read one, which leads me to another, then another and it's interfering with my everyday life.  Laundry is piling up and I'm falling behind on my sleep (which for me is NEVER a good thing).  Here is one that I've shared before and I have to share again, technology rocks. seriously.  Click here to find TONS of links to online valentine fun.

     Tough loss for the Patriots.  I would have loved to cheer them on in the Superbowl but a brother/brother coach match up is pretty exciting.  I wonder what team their mom will be cheering on?  We are still Souper Bowling in class so keep those can goods coming.  It feels good to help those in need.

PS  I think 3 day weekends are perfect!

Home Stretch

     We are coming to the home stretch.  A few more days until Christmas break and excitement is mounting.  I hope everyone feels relaxed, ready and peacefully enjoying the season.

     We have an exciting week planned with all sorts of fun crafts and activities.  Tomorrow is our day to shop at the Holiday Workshop.  Gifts (for immediate family members only) will be on sale for a dollar each.  Wednesday we have some parent volunteers leading us in a craft or two.  Friday morning we will be joining Ms. Cotter's class for our party and sing/dance along, which is great fun.  The children will have to bring in their own treats and drinks.  Dismissal is at 12:30 and our party starts at 9AM so keep that in consideration when you are packing a party snack.  I suggest a donut or muffin, but it's your call.

     We went to the computer room today and played a telling time game.   I hope the children learned something new.  I did-I learned very few of them can tell time.  Please practice at home.  Click here and here for the games we played today.

     Be sure your child keeps plugging away at xtramath and finishes all his/her homework this week (wink wink).  I thought you'd appreciate the room cleaning and household help.  That's my little holiday gift to you.

   

Best Day Ever

     Yesterday was my birthday.  I know what you are thinking.  Aren't you at an age when you stay in bed all day and hope no one notices you are a year older?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  I love my birthday.  Let me tell you why.  I received a stack of love notes, hearts, pictures, and cards from students who worked on them all day by "sneaking" their creativity as soon as they had a free second.  I was visited and sung to by THREE classrooms.  I was surrounded by children who appreciate the fact that you should feel special all day on your birthday.  Best of all, when I told them I turned 22 MOST of them believed me.  One students who questioned it said he knew for a fact I was 32.  Everybody was ON BOARD with that.  It gets even better.  When I admitted to 32 and proclaimed that "I look WAYYYY younger than that."  Thirteen little heads nodded in absolute sincere agreement.  What's not to love about THAT?

     We had a gingerbread kind of day yesterday.  We sorted gingerbread sentences.  We grouped gingerbread synonyms and we colored by reading our ordinal numbers.  Some students got to create gingerbread cookies on the computer.  We ran out of time so click here for the link so your child can play at home.  Our computer room got new lap tops this week-YIPPEE.  I promise the children we'd hit the gingerbread site on Monday in the computer lab as well.

   Our elf, Dasher has been a bit mischievous.  He made a mess-TWICE.  Thank goodness for my birthday he was VERY WELL behaved.

     We're still reading Anansi stories and started Stink.  Ask your child to tell you all about them.  We have also been practicing for the Holiday Show which is next Friday at 1:30.  I'll send the songs home next week so your child can practice some more.

7 Continents

     Tuesday is our continent test.  Click here for a website to practice.  Our test will be set up exactly the same way.

Busy Busy

  The Woburn school community raised over $5,000.00 for the Fisher family.  Our class alone raised $69.  I think that's pretty remarkable and thank you all.

      We're in full swing and ready for Halloween.  Wicked witches were made last week in art and we've been reading some Halloween books.  Today we made a chart of facts we know about bats and read Stellaluna.  Ask your student to tell you all about it.  We then created a venn diagram comparing bats and birds.  We watched a short video with a little (tricky) quiz at the end on the phases of the moon.  Click here to check it out.  We watched a school house rock video on nouns.  I remember them all so well which is surprising because they were on TV wayyyyyy before my time.  Check it out here and a fun Halloween song that you can see here.  The children really liked the song.

     Did you notice our spelling list is up to 14 words?  They are getting tricky.  I went easy on the homework this week to give your child more time to practice them.  Please don't forget to do your xtramath and check out spelling city if you haven't.  We visited that site today in the computer lab and the children were really enjoying it.

Loving Compliments

     WOW.  I heard a few things that got me super excited this past week.  First, not one, but TWO parents commented to me on how much their child is enjoying READING.  WHOOP WHOOP.  That is music to a teacher's ears.  The second thing was that someone told me they LIKED MY BLOG~~YIPPEE.  I was tickled pink to hear that.  I'm just glad someone is reading it.
   We started reading Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots.  As I predicted, the children love it. The students at the Baily City Elementary School have reason to believe that their teacher is a vampire although she's been very nice. We are still hopping along with Frog and Toad.  Our planet homework has been turned into paragraphs and posted on the bulletin board (I'll post a picture of it later this week)
     Here is one of the websites we visited in the computer lab this week http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/clubhouse/index_pre.html .  It's about identifying different sentence types.  Not everyone got a chance to check it out so if you can, let your child give it a go.