Exciting Week

     We've had the funnest week in school.  Students are CRAZY excited for Halloween every year.  This COULD make for a very long week with lots of frustration but this isn't my first rodeo and I've mastered how to channel that energy into learning FUN.

     To start off the week, our class was BOO'd.  Halloween pencils and erasers were left on our desks.  It was quite a mystery as to who left them and we had lots of suspects (stay tuned this story continues later in post).

     We've finished our unit on spiders.  The children had fun, learned a lot and most importantly, were MOTIVATED.  What's better than that?  Here is our spider bulletin board.

      Miss Kaitlyn, who is Mr. Peter's substitute, was very impressed and left us this note.

     Many children then thought that Miss Kaitlyn was our prime BOO suspect because she's in the school when we are gone and may have seen something.  I told her she was under suspicion and she left us this note the next day. 

     Then guess what?  We got BOO'd again, spider rings, and the class was counting on Miss Kaitlyn to help us solve the mystery.  Let me tell you, she didn't disappoint.  She created a list of hidden clues scattered around the classroom, each with one letter of the culprits name.  Each clue led to a new clue.  What FUN we had searching for clues to solve the mystery.

   These post-its were the clues and look who the BOOer was!  We thank Miss Kaitlyn for making each morning SOOOOOO FUN.

     We also finished reading the Haunted Library.  I picked up a set of these books from Scholastic because they were a dollar.  WHOOO WHEEEE, what a find.  The story was great.  The kids loved it and I did too.  When we finished, I asked the kids to write in their journals about the story.  They could write anything they wanted; favorite part, their opinion, whatever.  Some wanted to continue the story and write more chapters.  Great idea I thought.  It got even better when they were begging me to bring their journals home to write more and asking to write in their free time.  YIPPEE!!!!

     We "played" quite a few Halloween themed learning centers.  We created graphs, sorted spooky nouns, and created ghostly fact families.  

     Creepy Carrots was our book of the week.  I was lucky enough to even have "creepy carrots" for show and tell from Mrs. McEleiney's garden.  We did lots of great activities with this story.  We played with vocabulary, sequenced events and found important story elements.  

     In math, we are still working on those PESKY word problems!!!!  We made it fun this week by scooting around the room to find word problems scattered about on cards to solve.  

     November has started, where does the time go?  REMINDER- NO SCHOOL ON TUESDAY (Election Day).  NO SCHOOL ON NOV. 11 (Veteran's Day).  There will be Veteran's Day Program on Nov. 7th but only 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are performing.   Thanksgiving will be here before you know it.  

Halloween Week

     We have so much going on this week.  Our spider research projects are all most done.  We still have many spider activities planned this week.  I hope we can fit them all in.

Venn diagrams comparing two spiders

One of many spider games

     We are still reading Scaredy Squirrel.  We may have to push him into next week so we can focus on those creepy spiders.  We used describing words last week to make this guessing game.

mystery presents for Scaredy's birthday

     Today we had a super cool science storyteller visit us.  She did some REALLY cool things with dry ice and fire.  The kids LOVED it, be sure to ask them about it.

      Last Friday's PTO Halloween party was a huge success.  The children had a blast and I love seeing them in costumes.  We will have our K-2 Halloween parade/party this Friday.   Have your child pack an extra snack for our party.  Remember, food can not be passed out or shared.  Students should also pack their costumes for the parade.  Make sure they're labeled, we'd hate to loose any pieces.  Please leave the swords, guns, axes etc at home.

     The Wyman is also collecting can goods that will be donated to those in need.  If you have any non-perishable items, send them in.  

Spiders

     We started learning about spiders this week.

     Today we read spider fact cards about nine different types of spiders.  We then broke into small groups to make a Venn Diagram comparing two different types.  Some students started sorting fact and opinion cards about spiders.  We will be working on that all week.  By the middle of next week, each student will have completed a paragraph full of information they've gathered on a specific type of spider and "play" lots of different spider learning centers.  FUN!

     Junie B. had to be returned to the library but not before we finished one more story.  In it, Junie B. thought her brother was a REAL monkey!  We started reading a new spooky story this week. 

We've finished two chapters and I'm excited to see what happens next.  

     Here are some other pictures I have to share. 

place value

syllable sort

even/odd

more place value

synonym matching

creepy spider spotted on board

Photos

     Ever feel like a hamster running on the wheel?  That's how I've been feeling lately.  I'm finally posting some pictures I've been promising.  I apologize for the wait.  Be sure to check out our edline site for some more pictures.

All the students took this pledge

find the missing addends

Is the answer even or odd?

adding three numbers

Our super cool Walking Wednesday trophy

witches fingers to follow along

more missing addends

cool place value dice

Walking Wednesday

     This Wednesday is walking Wednesday.  Children are encouraged to walk or carpool to school.  The class with the highest percentage of walkers get a super cool trophy.  My class didn't win the trophy once last year BOO HOO.  I hope we do this year.

     We have so many things going on in class.  We've been reading lots of stories.  We are currently reading a book titled Second Grade Rules.  Freddy made a new friend and they plan on trick or treating together.  They even thought of cool costumes.  I wonder what will happen next?

     We are also listening to a Junie B Jones story on CD.  Her books are a bit tricky to read because Junie uses baby talk but they are super fun to listen to.  I love Junie's voice.  She is currently hiding so she doesn't have to get on the stupid, smelly bus.

     We've been learning and reading about Christopher Columbus too.  Remember, no school on Monday.  I'm not sure if I'll ever use my pull down map again.  Ask your child to tell that story.  It's funny.

     We finished up our science unit on matter.  We did a few experiments along with it.  Today we placed rocks in water and watched the water rise.  It did this because each form of matter takes up space.  We also had a lot of fun last week trying to see which group could melt an ice cube faster.

     By now we should be experts on using proper punctuation at the end of sentences.  This week we will be writing about a friend.  Let's hope the students punctuate properly.

     If you aren't following the Wyman School on twitter you may be missing out.  Check out @wymanwoburn for the latest happenings.

   

Reading Challenge

     Monday kicked off our Reading Challenge fundraiser.  Mrs. Maloney had an assembly and read the whole school a wonderful story about characters in a book that come to life.  It was called Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook.  Children are asked to read every night and collect sponsor $ to donate to the school.  There are all sorts of activities this week to keep us motivated.  Today was READ ME DAY and students were encouraged to wear words on their clothing.  Wednesday is BRING IN A BOOK FOR SOCIAL CONCERN DAY.  Thursday is PJ DAY and Friday is PATRIOT or RED, WHITE AND BLUE DAY.

     Students have been loving science.  We are experts on solid, liquids and gasses.  We used a balance scale because all matter has mass.  We did an experiment where we put a paper towel into a bucket of water but it didn't get wet.  You can ask your child more about that.

     We did a little Horrible Harry writing.  I forgot the pictures so stay tuned.  We are also going to write a little Horrible Harry adventure of our own this week.

      You child need to know their addition and subtraction facts up to twenty off the top of their head. So while driving in their car ask what's 9+7.  Be sure they are doing extramath as well.  Math will be so much easier if they master those facts.

Horrible Harry

     This week we've been reading Horrible Harry in 2B by Suzy Kline.  We finished it today.  The children really seemed to enjoy it and were begging me to read each day.  Harry does some pretty horrible things but he does one or two good things as well.  Ask your child to tell you all about him.  We have other Horrible Harry books in our classroom library and I was pleased to see some students check them out of the school library today.  We are working on a little Harry writing project now so stay tuned.
     We've also been reading Poppleton stories.  I thought two of them were especially funny.  I liked the one when he was buying a new bed and the grapefruit story.  Poppleton has a funny problem when he eats grapefruit.  Has your child ever tried grapefruit before?  If not consider picking one up.  A taste would certainly explain what happened to Poppleton's lips.  
     We had an official fire drill this week.  The children executed it perfectly.  We were so very quiet, which is important because we need to be able to hear the firemen in case they have special instruction for us.
  On Monday, to kick off of our school reading fundraiser, the Wyman School will be having hat day.  Remind your child to wear his favorite hat to school.