The Diener School is closed for winter vacation starting Monday, December 22nd. School will reopen, Monday, January 5th.
Happy Holidays!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Friday, December 19th 2008
The Magic Trains:
Today the Magic Trains…
1.) Completed a wonderful hands-on craft with Trevor’s mom, Ms. Carol. Each boy stenciled a t-shirt with his favorite animals, wet the shirt with water and helped apply the color to the shirt. Our students used their fine motor skills and listened with care to the instructions given. Ms. Debbie, Ms. Seena and Ms. Ginny want to extend a special thanks to Ms. Carol for her efforts, generosity and exuberance.
2.) Spent their morning in the company of our own Ms. Brook (O.T.). She brought a terrific board game called “Franklin Goes to School”, which allowed our students to skill-build in the areas of shape recognition, basic addition, turn taking, and use of prior knowledge. She also assisted the class in completion of holiday cards for their family.
3.) Sang their hearts out with Ms. Deanna, saluting every holiday song we could think of, including “Up On The Rooftop”, “The Dreidle Song”, “Jingle Bells” and “The Hanukah Song”. Please ask you children to give you a musical concert of their Diener School favorites. A warm and wonderful holiday season to all our students and family members from the Kindergarten staff!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a fantastic Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Read 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' and then watched the movie to see how it differed from the book!
2.) Played another game of snowflake bingo, this time using letters and sight words!
3.) Finished our fantastic gingerbread house! It's actually more of a town - it has 6 houses, a stream with a bridge, sleighs, people, and trees. Everyone worked so hard on it!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) Today we read the story of the Gingerbread Man and went on a hunt for our own lost Gingerbread Man!
2.) We made a Gingerbread Man glyph which tells all about us.
3.) In art we learned how to draw a pattern. We worked very hard on them. We also came up with a pattern for stringing FrootLoops. We only ate a few! Yummy, yummy!
See you in 2009!
The Golden Owls:
1.) Mrs Gilbertson came in with her son Justin and provided the kids with an awesome hands on ornament activity.
2.) We continued with the work on our sleds, holiday pictures, and finished watching the movie winn Dixie.
3.) Our trip to Benihana’s was a blast. The kids experienced the fine cuisine of the Japanese culture.
Upcoming Dates At A Glance:
Winter Holiday through January 2nd – See you in 2009!!
Today the Magic Trains…
1.) Completed a wonderful hands-on craft with Trevor’s mom, Ms. Carol. Each boy stenciled a t-shirt with his favorite animals, wet the shirt with water and helped apply the color to the shirt. Our students used their fine motor skills and listened with care to the instructions given. Ms. Debbie, Ms. Seena and Ms. Ginny want to extend a special thanks to Ms. Carol for her efforts, generosity and exuberance.
2.) Spent their morning in the company of our own Ms. Brook (O.T.). She brought a terrific board game called “Franklin Goes to School”, which allowed our students to skill-build in the areas of shape recognition, basic addition, turn taking, and use of prior knowledge. She also assisted the class in completion of holiday cards for their family.
3.) Sang their hearts out with Ms. Deanna, saluting every holiday song we could think of, including “Up On The Rooftop”, “The Dreidle Song”, “Jingle Bells” and “The Hanukah Song”. Please ask you children to give you a musical concert of their Diener School favorites. A warm and wonderful holiday season to all our students and family members from the Kindergarten staff!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a fantastic Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Read 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' and then watched the movie to see how it differed from the book!
2.) Played another game of snowflake bingo, this time using letters and sight words!
3.) Finished our fantastic gingerbread house! It's actually more of a town - it has 6 houses, a stream with a bridge, sleighs, people, and trees. Everyone worked so hard on it!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) Today we read the story of the Gingerbread Man and went on a hunt for our own lost Gingerbread Man!
2.) We made a Gingerbread Man glyph which tells all about us.
3.) In art we learned how to draw a pattern. We worked very hard on them. We also came up with a pattern for stringing FrootLoops. We only ate a few! Yummy, yummy!
See you in 2009!
The Golden Owls:
1.) Mrs Gilbertson came in with her son Justin and provided the kids with an awesome hands on ornament activity.
2.) We continued with the work on our sleds, holiday pictures, and finished watching the movie winn Dixie.
3.) Our trip to Benihana’s was a blast. The kids experienced the fine cuisine of the Japanese culture.
Upcoming Dates At A Glance:
Winter Holiday through January 2nd – See you in 2009!!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
The Magic Trains:
1.) Learned about dreamcatchers and made them using “gimp”, beads and a feather. It tied in nicely with theme of “Cultures” for December. We are sending home a story that is called “A Story of The Dreamcatcher”. If your child does not bring his home today, he will bring it home tomorrow.
2.) Learned about place value during Math using the base-ten blocks. Trevor did some addition and subtraction using a giant number line on the floor.
3.) Sang our holiday songs with Ms. Deanna. The songs we sang were “Jingle Bells”, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and two other songs (one related to Kwanzaa and the other related to Hanukah).
The Diener Dinosaurs:
We had a fantastic day with Ms. Lynn who was covering for Ms. Kate today.
1.) We had drama with Mr. Jim and played an awesome game of magic walk.
2.) During OT, our students had a wonderful time making snowmen and snowmen clothing!
3.) In Language Arts, we continued to study, Horton Hears a Who. We watched a video of the book and compared the new video to the original book and movie. It was a very busy day!
The Mighty Dieners:
What a thrilling Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a ‘The Gingerbread Man’ together and then made our very own gingerbread men!
2.) Cut out circles, rectangles, triangles, and squares to create snowman holiday cards!
3.) Sang holiday songs with Miss Deanna and played Red Light, Green Light, What time is it?, and Parachute in fitness with Mr. Dan.
The Golden Owls:
1.) With Ms Jen we discussed Hanukah and its origin. She read a book about its history and we also played a group dreidel game.
2.) Ms. Maisie modeled the art of the sled. Working on our fine motor skills we created a sled using popsicle sticks and other crafty material.
3.) In addition to reading Winn Dixie we began watching the movie, comparing and contrasting the two.
1.) Learned about dreamcatchers and made them using “gimp”, beads and a feather. It tied in nicely with theme of “Cultures” for December. We are sending home a story that is called “A Story of The Dreamcatcher”. If your child does not bring his home today, he will bring it home tomorrow.
2.) Learned about place value during Math using the base-ten blocks. Trevor did some addition and subtraction using a giant number line on the floor.
3.) Sang our holiday songs with Ms. Deanna. The songs we sang were “Jingle Bells”, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and two other songs (one related to Kwanzaa and the other related to Hanukah).
The Diener Dinosaurs:
We had a fantastic day with Ms. Lynn who was covering for Ms. Kate today.
1.) We had drama with Mr. Jim and played an awesome game of magic walk.
2.) During OT, our students had a wonderful time making snowmen and snowmen clothing!
3.) In Language Arts, we continued to study, Horton Hears a Who. We watched a video of the book and compared the new video to the original book and movie. It was a very busy day!
The Mighty Dieners:
What a thrilling Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a ‘The Gingerbread Man’ together and then made our very own gingerbread men!
2.) Cut out circles, rectangles, triangles, and squares to create snowman holiday cards!
3.) Sang holiday songs with Miss Deanna and played Red Light, Green Light, What time is it?, and Parachute in fitness with Mr. Dan.
The Golden Owls:
1.) With Ms Jen we discussed Hanukah and its origin. She read a book about its history and we also played a group dreidel game.
2.) Ms. Maisie modeled the art of the sled. Working on our fine motor skills we created a sled using popsicle sticks and other crafty material.
3.) In addition to reading Winn Dixie we began watching the movie, comparing and contrasting the two.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 17th 2008
The Magic Trains:
1.) Listened while Teddy’s mom read a book called, “The Night Before Christmas.”
2.) Worked with Ms. Jen and read a book about clothes that we wear for the cold weather.
3.) Went for a hike, were explorers, went in an elevator, and drove somewhere in a taxi – during drama with Md. Jim.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wacky Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a book together called ‘Nothing in the Mailbox’ and then played a game! We pretended we were mailmen and we delivered word family letters to each other! Then we sat together and read our letters to each other.
2.) Began building our gingerbread house!! We constructed the house, decorated the roof and walls, and made beautiful pine trees!
3.) Practiced story sequencing with Miss Kim! We read a story together, then we drew the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
The Mighty Dieners:
Today we had an awesome fiesta!! Our fiesta included a lot of fine motor and social activities! We also learned about 3 different holidays that are celebrated this month!
1.) Ms. Jen helped us to make Dreidels! We glued a piece of paper that has the Dreidel squares on it onto a piece of construction paper. Then, we colored in the different squares that are on the Dreidel. When we finished coloring, we cut out the Dreidel so that we could fold it and glue the sides together!
2.) Ms. Ginny told us about Kwanza. She read us a story as we colored in our Kwanza coloring books!
3.) We painted our own Christmas ornaments! We were each given a plain white Christmas ornament to decorate both sides with paint, glitter glue and stickers!
4.) We then got to make potato Latkes! Each student got a potato to shred using a grater. Once the potatoes were in shredded pieces, we mixed them in a bowl with onions, flour and eggs. Ms. Jen cooked them on a hot plate so we could eat them! You can eat them plain or dip them in applesauce or sour cream! They were so yummy!!
5.) After we ate lunch, we broke the piñata we made last week and got all the toys and chocolates that fell out!
6.) We finished our fiesta with Mexican Hot Chocolate and the Mexican Hat Dance!!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Math we are continuing adding in doubles, using manipulatives, and playing a few fun games.
2.) We worked on movement, rhythm, and crossing our midline in dance with Mr. Aaron.
3.) In Social Skills with Ms. Melissa we talked about feelings. We went through different magazines and matched pictures to the feelings. Some of the feelings we talked about were confused, happy, sad, excited, worried, and jealous. We will continue to talk about feelings and how to work out how we feel and use our words to describe our feelings when we return from winter break.
1.) Listened while Teddy’s mom read a book called, “The Night Before Christmas.”
2.) Worked with Ms. Jen and read a book about clothes that we wear for the cold weather.
3.) Went for a hike, were explorers, went in an elevator, and drove somewhere in a taxi – during drama with Md. Jim.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wacky Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a book together called ‘Nothing in the Mailbox’ and then played a game! We pretended we were mailmen and we delivered word family letters to each other! Then we sat together and read our letters to each other.
2.) Began building our gingerbread house!! We constructed the house, decorated the roof and walls, and made beautiful pine trees!
3.) Practiced story sequencing with Miss Kim! We read a story together, then we drew the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
The Mighty Dieners:
Today we had an awesome fiesta!! Our fiesta included a lot of fine motor and social activities! We also learned about 3 different holidays that are celebrated this month!
1.) Ms. Jen helped us to make Dreidels! We glued a piece of paper that has the Dreidel squares on it onto a piece of construction paper. Then, we colored in the different squares that are on the Dreidel. When we finished coloring, we cut out the Dreidel so that we could fold it and glue the sides together!
2.) Ms. Ginny told us about Kwanza. She read us a story as we colored in our Kwanza coloring books!
3.) We painted our own Christmas ornaments! We were each given a plain white Christmas ornament to decorate both sides with paint, glitter glue and stickers!
4.) We then got to make potato Latkes! Each student got a potato to shred using a grater. Once the potatoes were in shredded pieces, we mixed them in a bowl with onions, flour and eggs. Ms. Jen cooked them on a hot plate so we could eat them! You can eat them plain or dip them in applesauce or sour cream! They were so yummy!!
5.) After we ate lunch, we broke the piñata we made last week and got all the toys and chocolates that fell out!
6.) We finished our fiesta with Mexican Hot Chocolate and the Mexican Hat Dance!!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Math we are continuing adding in doubles, using manipulatives, and playing a few fun games.
2.) We worked on movement, rhythm, and crossing our midline in dance with Mr. Aaron.
3.) In Social Skills with Ms. Melissa we talked about feelings. We went through different magazines and matched pictures to the feelings. Some of the feelings we talked about were confused, happy, sad, excited, worried, and jealous. We will continue to talk about feelings and how to work out how we feel and use our words to describe our feelings when we return from winter break.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday, December 16th
From the Office:
There is a winter weather advisory in effect for Montgomery County tonight from 6PM until 11AM. Please make sure to watch the news in the event that there are school closures or delays tomorrow morning. The Diener School follows Montgomery County School District’s closure/delay schedule.
The Magic Trains:
1.) Learned about beginning, middle and end after reading the story “It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny”. Each student used pictures and put them in the correct order to tell the story over again.
2.) Got tested by Mr. Chris in Fitness. Each student tried really hard and did a great job listening and following directions.
3.) Went on an “s” hunt and found words that start with that letter around the school. Each students found stars as well and gave them to the teachers.
4.) Made ornaments out of cinnamon and apple sauce in Science and they smell delicious.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
It was a terrific Tuesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Had a great time with Miss Brook! We played beanbag games, did fine motor circuits, and worked on our handwriting skills!
2.) Colored and cut out ‘Gingerbread House’ books!
3.) Had science with Miss LLacey and art with Mrs. Feinberg! In science we made fantastic ornaments out of applesauce and cinnamon and in art we used Q-tips and our hands to make beautiful paintings!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we added a cloudy picture to our weather calendar. Then we worked in small groups using our Calvert Math books. Some worked on continuing patterns, while some worked on number formations and identifying the number of objects in a group.
2.) This morning we worked on our fine motor rotations. Some rotations included using rubber bands to make given shapes on a peg board, placing pegs in a foam peg board and lacing the pegs together, while some kids made Ms. Ginny spaghetti with Play-Doh!
3.) In Science, we made applesauce cinnamon ornaments!!! We took a cup of applesauce and a cup of cinnamon and mixed it into a dough. Then we made shapes with the dough. It has to dry for a day, but then we can take them home!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In writing we are finalizing our top secret writing projects. Our brainstorming, webbing, and drafting are becoming more fluent and efficient.
2.) In Social Studies we are continuing to increase our knowledge of cultures. We began a movie, which brought us back to the time of the Greeks. It is focusing on their civilization, their golden age, and their architectural empire.
3.) In L. A. we are continuing with our comprehension strategies, use of the dictionary, and fluency. Today we read books with the Kurzweil system!
There is a winter weather advisory in effect for Montgomery County tonight from 6PM until 11AM. Please make sure to watch the news in the event that there are school closures or delays tomorrow morning. The Diener School follows Montgomery County School District’s closure/delay schedule.
The Magic Trains:
1.) Learned about beginning, middle and end after reading the story “It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny”. Each student used pictures and put them in the correct order to tell the story over again.
2.) Got tested by Mr. Chris in Fitness. Each student tried really hard and did a great job listening and following directions.
3.) Went on an “s” hunt and found words that start with that letter around the school. Each students found stars as well and gave them to the teachers.
4.) Made ornaments out of cinnamon and apple sauce in Science and they smell delicious.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
It was a terrific Tuesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Had a great time with Miss Brook! We played beanbag games, did fine motor circuits, and worked on our handwriting skills!
2.) Colored and cut out ‘Gingerbread House’ books!
3.) Had science with Miss LLacey and art with Mrs. Feinberg! In science we made fantastic ornaments out of applesauce and cinnamon and in art we used Q-tips and our hands to make beautiful paintings!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we added a cloudy picture to our weather calendar. Then we worked in small groups using our Calvert Math books. Some worked on continuing patterns, while some worked on number formations and identifying the number of objects in a group.
2.) This morning we worked on our fine motor rotations. Some rotations included using rubber bands to make given shapes on a peg board, placing pegs in a foam peg board and lacing the pegs together, while some kids made Ms. Ginny spaghetti with Play-Doh!
3.) In Science, we made applesauce cinnamon ornaments!!! We took a cup of applesauce and a cup of cinnamon and mixed it into a dough. Then we made shapes with the dough. It has to dry for a day, but then we can take them home!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In writing we are finalizing our top secret writing projects. Our brainstorming, webbing, and drafting are becoming more fluent and efficient.
2.) In Social Studies we are continuing to increase our knowledge of cultures. We began a movie, which brought us back to the time of the Greeks. It is focusing on their civilization, their golden age, and their architectural empire.
3.) In L. A. we are continuing with our comprehension strategies, use of the dictionary, and fluency. Today we read books with the Kurzweil system!
Monday, December 15, 2008
The Magic Trains:
1.) Put a mini book together called “A Birthday Bash Hat” and read the book with the teachers. 2.) Reviewed feeling words with Ms. Melissa by looking through magazines to find pictures of people feeling happy, sad, excited or mad. Then the students glued the pictures on to their paper, making sure to match each picture with the correct word.
3.) During Math they played an academic game that dealt with counting skills and they learned about the words “over, under and on”.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a magnificent Monday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Played a very fun game with Miss Jen! It was called ‘Go Feelings’ – it was very similar to Go Fish, only we used feelings cards. We practiced taking turns, looking at our friends when we talk to them, and using full sentences.
2.) Worked on story sequencing! We colored, cut out, and sequenced pictures for a story and then told the story to our friends.
3.) Took our final trip around the world – today we went to China! We looked at pictures from Miss Courtney’s trip to China, talked about the food, language, and music there, talked about and smelled different Chinese teas, and each practiced using chopsticks! We had a great time touring the world in the Diener Airplane!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Language Arts groups, we worked on our Explode the Code books.
2.) In Math, we added the weekend and today’s weather pictures to our weather calendars and graphed our weather charts from last week.
3.) Ms. Ginny started reading, Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who. We will be finishing the book this week. Then, we will watch the movie this week and compare the book and the movie. We also have some fun word puzzles and handwriting activities to work on this week about Horton Hears a Who!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In math we are focusing on addition strategies, and adding in doubles using manipulatives.
2.) We had our fitness assessment which focused on dribbling, throwing, running, and leaping.
3.) In O.T. we worked on visual and fine motor skills cutting, pasting, and coloring with Mrs. Kathy.
1.) Put a mini book together called “A Birthday Bash Hat” and read the book with the teachers. 2.) Reviewed feeling words with Ms. Melissa by looking through magazines to find pictures of people feeling happy, sad, excited or mad. Then the students glued the pictures on to their paper, making sure to match each picture with the correct word.
3.) During Math they played an academic game that dealt with counting skills and they learned about the words “over, under and on”.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a magnificent Monday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Played a very fun game with Miss Jen! It was called ‘Go Feelings’ – it was very similar to Go Fish, only we used feelings cards. We practiced taking turns, looking at our friends when we talk to them, and using full sentences.
2.) Worked on story sequencing! We colored, cut out, and sequenced pictures for a story and then told the story to our friends.
3.) Took our final trip around the world – today we went to China! We looked at pictures from Miss Courtney’s trip to China, talked about the food, language, and music there, talked about and smelled different Chinese teas, and each practiced using chopsticks! We had a great time touring the world in the Diener Airplane!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Language Arts groups, we worked on our Explode the Code books.
2.) In Math, we added the weekend and today’s weather pictures to our weather calendars and graphed our weather charts from last week.
3.) Ms. Ginny started reading, Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who. We will be finishing the book this week. Then, we will watch the movie this week and compare the book and the movie. We also have some fun word puzzles and handwriting activities to work on this week about Horton Hears a Who!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In math we are focusing on addition strategies, and adding in doubles using manipulatives.
2.) We had our fitness assessment which focused on dribbling, throwing, running, and leaping.
3.) In O.T. we worked on visual and fine motor skills cutting, pasting, and coloring with Mrs. Kathy.
Friday, December 12th
The Magic Trains:
1.) Asked questions to Lieutenant John Branson such as “what made you want to be a soldier”? and “Do you have to get up early in the morning”?
2.) Put sentence strips in order based on their leveled readers. They also read picture words such as “nose”, “ear” and “eye”.
3.) Read a story called “Mrs. Greenberg’s Latkes”.
4.) Reviewed patterns and subtraction facts during Math.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a FANTASTIC Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Had an amazing time with our dads at our Diener Assembly and Dads Breakfast! We sang ‘God Bless America’ beautifully, asked John Branson our classroom questions, and then had bagels and donuts with the dads in our classroom! We showed our dads our ‘All About Me’ books, our favorite cars, and some of the things we’ve been working on in school. It was so much fun!
2.) Worked on adding new words to our word wall and made letter ‘F’ puzzles in Language Arts!3.) Colored maps of China in preparation for our trip on Monday!
Parents, thank you SO much for the delicious staff lunch – it was wonderful and VERY much appreciated!!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) This morning we had a great assembly and asked Ms. Kate’s brother John a lot of great questions and sang him the song, “God Bless America”. John was so happy to meet all of you!
2.) We had such a yummy breakfast with our dads! Then we made a piñata for our fiesta next week! Our dads helped us rip newspaper into long strips. Then we measured the flour and salt we needed and added it to water. Some of us mixed the paste with our hands, while others dipped the newspaper strips in the paste! Mr. Aaron blew up some balloons and we covered the balloons in newspaper strips, pink, yellow, green and blue colored tissue paper! It has to dry over the weekend and then we will decorate it on Monday!!
3.) In Art, we drew lines from a starting point, drew triangles and then drew pictures inside the triangles!
**Thank you all for coming to the assembly this morning for John. The whole family, especially John was so touched. It truly was an amazing gift to see everyone there and having the kids singing “God Bless America”. –The Bransons
The Golden Owls:
1.) We loved celebrating Lt. John Branson and having our Dads here. We made clementine snowmen with them, played the rope game and did centers with them.
2.) During our presentations of our projects, we worked on posture, practiced standing up straight, and speaking in a loud and clear voice as well as working on eye contact.
3.) We had our first experience of Kosher Chinese food and also perogies from Russia with love.
Happy weekend!
1.) Asked questions to Lieutenant John Branson such as “what made you want to be a soldier”? and “Do you have to get up early in the morning”?
2.) Put sentence strips in order based on their leveled readers. They also read picture words such as “nose”, “ear” and “eye”.
3.) Read a story called “Mrs. Greenberg’s Latkes”.
4.) Reviewed patterns and subtraction facts during Math.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a FANTASTIC Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Had an amazing time with our dads at our Diener Assembly and Dads Breakfast! We sang ‘God Bless America’ beautifully, asked John Branson our classroom questions, and then had bagels and donuts with the dads in our classroom! We showed our dads our ‘All About Me’ books, our favorite cars, and some of the things we’ve been working on in school. It was so much fun!
2.) Worked on adding new words to our word wall and made letter ‘F’ puzzles in Language Arts!3.) Colored maps of China in preparation for our trip on Monday!
Parents, thank you SO much for the delicious staff lunch – it was wonderful and VERY much appreciated!!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) This morning we had a great assembly and asked Ms. Kate’s brother John a lot of great questions and sang him the song, “God Bless America”. John was so happy to meet all of you!
2.) We had such a yummy breakfast with our dads! Then we made a piñata for our fiesta next week! Our dads helped us rip newspaper into long strips. Then we measured the flour and salt we needed and added it to water. Some of us mixed the paste with our hands, while others dipped the newspaper strips in the paste! Mr. Aaron blew up some balloons and we covered the balloons in newspaper strips, pink, yellow, green and blue colored tissue paper! It has to dry over the weekend and then we will decorate it on Monday!!
3.) In Art, we drew lines from a starting point, drew triangles and then drew pictures inside the triangles!
**Thank you all for coming to the assembly this morning for John. The whole family, especially John was so touched. It truly was an amazing gift to see everyone there and having the kids singing “God Bless America”. –The Bransons
The Golden Owls:
1.) We loved celebrating Lt. John Branson and having our Dads here. We made clementine snowmen with them, played the rope game and did centers with them.
2.) During our presentations of our projects, we worked on posture, practiced standing up straight, and speaking in a loud and clear voice as well as working on eye contact.
3.) We had our first experience of Kosher Chinese food and also perogies from Russia with love.
Happy weekend!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
The Magic Trains:
1.) Started the day by decorating Christmas trees and doing other sensory activities at the table before morning meeting.
2.) Participated in a relay race during Fitness. It was the yellow team versus the green team and each player tried to put different colored balls in the correct hoola-hoop.
3.) Sang songs sang such as “Jingle Bells” and other holiday songs in Music class with Ms. Deanna.
Homework: Please read “The Three Bears” with your child. Thanks and have a great night!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Worked on story sequencing, matching word family and sight words, and concepts of beginning, middle, and end in Language Arts!
2.) Played snowflake bingo in math – we matched the written words to the numbers on our snowflakes!
3.) Visited France and learned about the culture there ~ we talked about French foods, the French language, and the beautiful Eiffel Tower! Then we colored French flags and our passport stamps.
4.) Had music with Miss Deanna! We sang songs about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa and took turns playing different instruments!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) This morning we started our Fitness testing. Mr. Dan pulled us to see how we are progressing in Fitness and find out areas that we still need to have fun working on!
2.) We learned the Mexican Hat dance! We watched a couple videos showing us the upbeat music, beautiful costumes and how they danced around a hat! After we learned to do it ourselves, we watched other dances from other cultures: China, Africa and Native Americans. At the end we compared the similarities in the dances. It was so neat when we all told which dancing we liked the most and we all liked a different dance! That is why cultures are so interesting to learn about! We decided we wanted to create our own Mighty Dieners “cultural” dance! We will work on it and let you know when we are ready to publicly perform it!!
3.) In Music, we practiced “God Bless America” for our assembly tomorrow. In Drama, we learned to march like Marines for our assembly tomorrow!
4.) Due to the rain, the girls had a fashion show during Recess and the boys loved finding Waldo in the “Where’s Waldo?” books.
The Golden Owls:
1.) In writing we are beginning revisions. We are reading our drafts while making necessary corrections and edits.
2.) For Multi-sensory we took breaks such as yoga, brain gym, and also teambuilding activities. 3.) We worked on sequencing using the book How to Make Sock Puppets. Students then followed the steps to create their very own unique Bag Puppet. We were lacking socks so brown paper bags were used as substitutes :)
Upcoming Dates At A Glance:
Friday, December 12th: School Assembly @ 9AM • Dad’s Breakfast immediately following Monday, December 15th: Karate w/Master Moon until 3:45PM • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Thursday, December 18th: Ms. Kathy’s Birthday! • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Friday, December 19th: Mr. Paul’s class trip to Benihana
Monday, December 22nd: Winter Holiday through January 2nd – See you in 2009!!
1.) Started the day by decorating Christmas trees and doing other sensory activities at the table before morning meeting.
2.) Participated in a relay race during Fitness. It was the yellow team versus the green team and each player tried to put different colored balls in the correct hoola-hoop.
3.) Sang songs sang such as “Jingle Bells” and other holiday songs in Music class with Ms. Deanna.
Homework: Please read “The Three Bears” with your child. Thanks and have a great night!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Worked on story sequencing, matching word family and sight words, and concepts of beginning, middle, and end in Language Arts!
2.) Played snowflake bingo in math – we matched the written words to the numbers on our snowflakes!
3.) Visited France and learned about the culture there ~ we talked about French foods, the French language, and the beautiful Eiffel Tower! Then we colored French flags and our passport stamps.
4.) Had music with Miss Deanna! We sang songs about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa and took turns playing different instruments!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) This morning we started our Fitness testing. Mr. Dan pulled us to see how we are progressing in Fitness and find out areas that we still need to have fun working on!
2.) We learned the Mexican Hat dance! We watched a couple videos showing us the upbeat music, beautiful costumes and how they danced around a hat! After we learned to do it ourselves, we watched other dances from other cultures: China, Africa and Native Americans. At the end we compared the similarities in the dances. It was so neat when we all told which dancing we liked the most and we all liked a different dance! That is why cultures are so interesting to learn about! We decided we wanted to create our own Mighty Dieners “cultural” dance! We will work on it and let you know when we are ready to publicly perform it!!
3.) In Music, we practiced “God Bless America” for our assembly tomorrow. In Drama, we learned to march like Marines for our assembly tomorrow!
4.) Due to the rain, the girls had a fashion show during Recess and the boys loved finding Waldo in the “Where’s Waldo?” books.
The Golden Owls:
1.) In writing we are beginning revisions. We are reading our drafts while making necessary corrections and edits.
2.) For Multi-sensory we took breaks such as yoga, brain gym, and also teambuilding activities. 3.) We worked on sequencing using the book How to Make Sock Puppets. Students then followed the steps to create their very own unique Bag Puppet. We were lacking socks so brown paper bags were used as substitutes :)
Upcoming Dates At A Glance:
Friday, December 12th: School Assembly @ 9AM • Dad’s Breakfast immediately following Monday, December 15th: Karate w/Master Moon until 3:45PM • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Thursday, December 18th: Ms. Kathy’s Birthday! • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Friday, December 19th: Mr. Paul’s class trip to Benihana
Monday, December 22nd: Winter Holiday through January 2nd – See you in 2009!!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Tuesday, December 9th
The Magic Trains:
1.) Read our leveled readers “Dan” and “The Picnic” one last time to demonstrate comprehension and short term memory. We had to make lists of things that were mentioned in the story and drew a picture of it if we chose to. Then we reviewed the letter “M”. Some of us cut out pictures of mice with mittens and placed them in our magic mansion (A three-dimensional standing village). Other students cut and glued “M” words to a giant letter M.
2.) Learned more about the 7 continents in a fabulous game with multi-step instructions during Fitness Class with Mr. Chris and Ms. Julie. The boys took glow-in-the-dark animals, lights were turned off, and they had to place their animal in the correct continent ring once Mr. Chris called out the continent.
3.) Had a wonderful sensory break where we went down the hall and bowled with Ms. Seena and Ms. Debbie.
4.) Explored volcano action, water pressure and cultural facts during a hands-on Science class with Ms. Llacey. The volcano was made in a glass filled 1/3 of the way with ordinary tap water and 2/3 of the way with vegetable oil. Red food coloring was added and then salt was dropped in. The oil weighed more as the salt was added and sunk to the bottom and floated up again. We learned that Hawaiians sing songs to the volcanoes in Hawaii, to keep them from erupting. Ms. Llacey performed two other cool experiments. Tell your parents about the pencil in the plastic bag- water experiment and the magic spinning balloon!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Tuesday! We:
1.) Built snowmen with funny faces, did the Hokey Pokey, and worked on our handwriting with Miss Brook!
2.) Played very cool games in Fitness – we helped glow in the dark animals and stuffed animals find their home continents! We also chased Mr. Chris and his scary dragon tail around the room!3.) Got on our plane and flew around the globe to visit the continent of Africa! We watched videos of African animals, saw examples of African art and masks, and watched really cool African dancing! Then we each made an African flag and a stamp for our Diener Passports.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In our Fine Motor rotations, we worked at different stations including sticking pegs into a foam board in patterns and lacing a shoe string through the pegs, creating patterns out of different shaped/colored blocks, and finding small gems in a ball of Thera Putty.
2.) In Science we made volcanoes using oil, water and salt!
3.) In our Large Motor Class, we went outside and learned how to play tag. We then played a game of follow the leader where we had to pay attention to what the leader was doing whether they were skipping, hopping, climbing up a slide or walking backwards!
4.) In Math, we added today’s weather picture to our weather graph. Then, we finished working on our Thanksgiving Food graphs and compared the results.
The Golden Owls:
1.) Collected different objects around the room and then converted our picture graphs into a bar graph independently.
2.) Drafted and revised our stories during our writing block making sure we include lots of detail.
3.) Continued to work on connecting, predicting and introduced the main idea during our reading time
1.) Read our leveled readers “Dan” and “The Picnic” one last time to demonstrate comprehension and short term memory. We had to make lists of things that were mentioned in the story and drew a picture of it if we chose to. Then we reviewed the letter “M”. Some of us cut out pictures of mice with mittens and placed them in our magic mansion (A three-dimensional standing village). Other students cut and glued “M” words to a giant letter M.
2.) Learned more about the 7 continents in a fabulous game with multi-step instructions during Fitness Class with Mr. Chris and Ms. Julie. The boys took glow-in-the-dark animals, lights were turned off, and they had to place their animal in the correct continent ring once Mr. Chris called out the continent.
3.) Had a wonderful sensory break where we went down the hall and bowled with Ms. Seena and Ms. Debbie.
4.) Explored volcano action, water pressure and cultural facts during a hands-on Science class with Ms. Llacey. The volcano was made in a glass filled 1/3 of the way with ordinary tap water and 2/3 of the way with vegetable oil. Red food coloring was added and then salt was dropped in. The oil weighed more as the salt was added and sunk to the bottom and floated up again. We learned that Hawaiians sing songs to the volcanoes in Hawaii, to keep them from erupting. Ms. Llacey performed two other cool experiments. Tell your parents about the pencil in the plastic bag- water experiment and the magic spinning balloon!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Tuesday! We:
1.) Built snowmen with funny faces, did the Hokey Pokey, and worked on our handwriting with Miss Brook!
2.) Played very cool games in Fitness – we helped glow in the dark animals and stuffed animals find their home continents! We also chased Mr. Chris and his scary dragon tail around the room!3.) Got on our plane and flew around the globe to visit the continent of Africa! We watched videos of African animals, saw examples of African art and masks, and watched really cool African dancing! Then we each made an African flag and a stamp for our Diener Passports.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In our Fine Motor rotations, we worked at different stations including sticking pegs into a foam board in patterns and lacing a shoe string through the pegs, creating patterns out of different shaped/colored blocks, and finding small gems in a ball of Thera Putty.
2.) In Science we made volcanoes using oil, water and salt!
3.) In our Large Motor Class, we went outside and learned how to play tag. We then played a game of follow the leader where we had to pay attention to what the leader was doing whether they were skipping, hopping, climbing up a slide or walking backwards!
4.) In Math, we added today’s weather picture to our weather graph. Then, we finished working on our Thanksgiving Food graphs and compared the results.
The Golden Owls:
1.) Collected different objects around the room and then converted our picture graphs into a bar graph independently.
2.) Drafted and revised our stories during our writing block making sure we include lots of detail.
3.) Continued to work on connecting, predicting and introduced the main idea during our reading time
Monday, December 8th 2008
The Magic Trains:
1.) Played two awesome games with Ms. Kathy (Speech Pathologist). We rotated two-by-two through Alphabet Lotto, which helps with letter recognition, letter sounds, and word retrieval and played Uno which requires good listening skills, multiple-step directions, color recognition and number recognition.
2.) Began work with the letter “M”. We opened our tool box and pulled out a variety of items and matched them to picture/word cards and spelled each new word. We used some of our “m” word objects throughout the day, carrying them around and incorporating them into imaginary play.
3.) Explored the concepts of inside-outside and object recognition (square, circle, and triangle) in Math class. Example: Is the blue square inside the circle or outside the circle? Is Ms. Debbie inside the school building or outside the school building? Then a “follow the directions” game was introduced to help cement the newly introduced concepts with one and two-step directions applied.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a marvelous Monday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a book called ‘I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today’. Then we went on a scavenger hunt for ‘F’ words and started Letter F books!
2.) Did a project with Miss Jen about cultures. We drew a picture using one color of crayon, then we drew the same picture using many beautiful colors. We talked about how the pictures with different colors were much more interesting to look at and then talked about how other cultures are different and interesting, too!
3.) Made Diener School Passports! We are going to use these passports to ‘visit’ and learn about different cultures throughout the week.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Fitness, after our warm-ups we crab-crawled around the room, did a pattern where we had to skip than hop around the room and finally we got to go through a really fun maze Mr. Dan made! We jumped off the mini-trampoline onto a mat, crawled through the tunnel, two-feet hopped through 5 hula-hoops, sat on a scooter and slid to the next tunnel, crawled through the tunnel and ended by kicking a ball into a goal!
2.) In Math, we began our weather calendars and worked on our regular Monday Calendar Math. Our weather calendars are when each student decides what they think the weather is for the day. They cut out the weather picture and glue it to the correct day on the blank weather calendar. They will do this during the beginning of every math period. At the end of the week, we will graph the weekly weather. At the end of the month, we will graph the month’s weather.
3.) In Language Arts (full class hand-on) we finished working on our Goldilocks sequencing story!! We are almost done!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In L.A. we have begun two new books called Puppets and The Shepard and the Ferry. We are building comprehension and our use of the dictionary.
2.) In Math we cut up magazines with partners and created picture graphs. We then transformed the picture graphs into bar graphs.
3.) In Social Studies we have started learning about cultures. We have been watching a few movies on the Egyptian empire and life in Tibet.
Upcoming Dates At A Glance:
Thursday, December 11th: Ms. Kim’s Birthday! • Fitness Testing for Mr. Paul & Ms. Kate’s classes • Open House @ 10AM • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Friday, December 12th: School Assembly @ 9AM • Dad’s Breakfast immediately following Monday, December 15th: Karate w/Master Moon until 3:45PM • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Thursday, December 18th: Ms. Kathy’s Birthday! • Afterschool Social Club until 4PMMonday, December 22nd: Winter Holiday through January 2nd – See you in 2009!!
1.) Played two awesome games with Ms. Kathy (Speech Pathologist). We rotated two-by-two through Alphabet Lotto, which helps with letter recognition, letter sounds, and word retrieval and played Uno which requires good listening skills, multiple-step directions, color recognition and number recognition.
2.) Began work with the letter “M”. We opened our tool box and pulled out a variety of items and matched them to picture/word cards and spelled each new word. We used some of our “m” word objects throughout the day, carrying them around and incorporating them into imaginary play.
3.) Explored the concepts of inside-outside and object recognition (square, circle, and triangle) in Math class. Example: Is the blue square inside the circle or outside the circle? Is Ms. Debbie inside the school building or outside the school building? Then a “follow the directions” game was introduced to help cement the newly introduced concepts with one and two-step directions applied.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a marvelous Monday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a book called ‘I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today’. Then we went on a scavenger hunt for ‘F’ words and started Letter F books!
2.) Did a project with Miss Jen about cultures. We drew a picture using one color of crayon, then we drew the same picture using many beautiful colors. We talked about how the pictures with different colors were much more interesting to look at and then talked about how other cultures are different and interesting, too!
3.) Made Diener School Passports! We are going to use these passports to ‘visit’ and learn about different cultures throughout the week.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Fitness, after our warm-ups we crab-crawled around the room, did a pattern where we had to skip than hop around the room and finally we got to go through a really fun maze Mr. Dan made! We jumped off the mini-trampoline onto a mat, crawled through the tunnel, two-feet hopped through 5 hula-hoops, sat on a scooter and slid to the next tunnel, crawled through the tunnel and ended by kicking a ball into a goal!
2.) In Math, we began our weather calendars and worked on our regular Monday Calendar Math. Our weather calendars are when each student decides what they think the weather is for the day. They cut out the weather picture and glue it to the correct day on the blank weather calendar. They will do this during the beginning of every math period. At the end of the week, we will graph the weekly weather. At the end of the month, we will graph the month’s weather.
3.) In Language Arts (full class hand-on) we finished working on our Goldilocks sequencing story!! We are almost done!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In L.A. we have begun two new books called Puppets and The Shepard and the Ferry. We are building comprehension and our use of the dictionary.
2.) In Math we cut up magazines with partners and created picture graphs. We then transformed the picture graphs into bar graphs.
3.) In Social Studies we have started learning about cultures. We have been watching a few movies on the Egyptian empire and life in Tibet.
Upcoming Dates At A Glance:
Thursday, December 11th: Ms. Kim’s Birthday! • Fitness Testing for Mr. Paul & Ms. Kate’s classes • Open House @ 10AM • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Friday, December 12th: School Assembly @ 9AM • Dad’s Breakfast immediately following Monday, December 15th: Karate w/Master Moon until 3:45PM • Afterschool Social Club until 4PM
Thursday, December 18th: Ms. Kathy’s Birthday! • Afterschool Social Club until 4PMMonday, December 22nd: Winter Holiday through January 2nd – See you in 2009!!
Friday, December 5, 2008
Another great week at Diener!! Friday, December 5th
The Magic Trains:
1.) Worked individually with Ms. Brook (O.T.), in the sensory room. Our students also spent time in a group motor activity involving a musical recording that sang out funny directions. Ms. Brook assisted the boys with listening skills and movement during the activity with staff joining in to increase the fun and support.
2.) Used their math skills while playing a rousing group game of Uno. Everyone learned to respond to 2- step questions, i.e. “do you have either a 2 or a green card?” All our students loved the game and used their understanding of “patience” while waiting for others to take a turn. Three students did this. Teddy worked on patterns with Ms. Debbie and did a great job naming them.
3.) Opened up the tool box, during language arts. There they found many interesting objects which began with the letter of the week, “h”. They had a great time talking about the objects, playing with them, and telling staff other words they know of that begin with “h”. The boys searched the room looking for other objects and practiced writing the letter “h”.
Have a great weekend!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a fantastic Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read our word family and leveled reader books in Language Arts and worked together to move and update our word wall!
2.) Created beautiful holiday patterns out of cool penguin and snowflake stickers!
3.) Built marshmallow igloos and created an Arctic tundra out of posterboard and coconut flakes. We made a lovely snowy scene!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Language Arts groups we worked on our Explode the Code workbooks. We also brainstormed words that described yesterdays field trip, such as: trees, Christmas, White House, nutcracker, etc.
2.) In Math, we counted the tally marks from when we interviewed our friends about their favorite foods. Then we graphed our results using a different color for each food. At the end we discussed what our graph looked like. We discovered that two foods had the same results. We highlighted those two food words.
3.) In our Friday afternoon, hands-on Language Arts activity, Ms. Kate read a story about Goldilocks. We had to find a picture that represented what she just read. Then, we colored the picture, cut it out and glued it on a piece of paper in sequential order.
4.) We surprised Ms. Maisie with birthday cards! WE HOPE MS. MAISIE HAS A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY!
Have a great weekend!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In math we took a trip outside working in partners. We tallied the amount of cars, vans, suv's which were in the parking lot. We then came back in and as a class created a bar graph.
2.) In language arts we began with explode the code. We are also continuing to utilize and master comprehension strategies.
3.) In the afternoon we Celebrated the Blessed birth of Mrs. Maisie with cake, cards, singing, and good times.
1.) Worked individually with Ms. Brook (O.T.), in the sensory room. Our students also spent time in a group motor activity involving a musical recording that sang out funny directions. Ms. Brook assisted the boys with listening skills and movement during the activity with staff joining in to increase the fun and support.
2.) Used their math skills while playing a rousing group game of Uno. Everyone learned to respond to 2- step questions, i.e. “do you have either a 2 or a green card?” All our students loved the game and used their understanding of “patience” while waiting for others to take a turn. Three students did this. Teddy worked on patterns with Ms. Debbie and did a great job naming them.
3.) Opened up the tool box, during language arts. There they found many interesting objects which began with the letter of the week, “h”. They had a great time talking about the objects, playing with them, and telling staff other words they know of that begin with “h”. The boys searched the room looking for other objects and practiced writing the letter “h”.
Have a great weekend!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a fantastic Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read our word family and leveled reader books in Language Arts and worked together to move and update our word wall!
2.) Created beautiful holiday patterns out of cool penguin and snowflake stickers!
3.) Built marshmallow igloos and created an Arctic tundra out of posterboard and coconut flakes. We made a lovely snowy scene!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Language Arts groups we worked on our Explode the Code workbooks. We also brainstormed words that described yesterdays field trip, such as: trees, Christmas, White House, nutcracker, etc.
2.) In Math, we counted the tally marks from when we interviewed our friends about their favorite foods. Then we graphed our results using a different color for each food. At the end we discussed what our graph looked like. We discovered that two foods had the same results. We highlighted those two food words.
3.) In our Friday afternoon, hands-on Language Arts activity, Ms. Kate read a story about Goldilocks. We had to find a picture that represented what she just read. Then, we colored the picture, cut it out and glued it on a piece of paper in sequential order.
4.) We surprised Ms. Maisie with birthday cards! WE HOPE MS. MAISIE HAS A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY!
Have a great weekend!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In math we took a trip outside working in partners. We tallied the amount of cars, vans, suv's which were in the parking lot. We then came back in and as a class created a bar graph.
2.) In language arts we began with explode the code. We are also continuing to utilize and master comprehension strategies.
3.) In the afternoon we Celebrated the Blessed birth of Mrs. Maisie with cake, cards, singing, and good times.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Thursday, December 4th
The Magic Trains:
1.) Worked more on our box project of the desert habitat. We molded animals and plants out of clay and painted the sky blue.
2.) Used the scooters again in Fitness and followed directions such as “put the red ball in the same colored hoola hoop”.
3.) Used manipulatives during Math to work more on subtraction skills. Some students did coin rubbings of a penny and had to describe the penny.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read ‘Big Bear, Little Bear’ during Language Arts. Then we worked in our ‘Explode the Code’ workbooks, played word family memory, and practiced sequencing and retelling stories.
2.) Finished our holiday pattern pictures and built AAB and ABC patterns out of unifix cubes in Math.
3.) Made a numbers book about arctic animals!
4.) Had music class with Miss Deanna – we sang ‘Jingle Bells’ and other winter songs!
The Mighty Dieners:
We had such a great day! A Secret Service agent met us outside the White House! His name was Terence and he gave us a GREAT tour! We entered the White House right outside the First Lady’s office, so we had to be a little quiet. We learned that the photographs in the hallway are changed every couple of weeks as the president travels around to new events. We learned the White House burned down during the War of 1812, but they were able to save the portrait of President George Washington, and we saw it hanging in the East Room. We were so lucky, as today was the first day they were displaying the holiday decorations. This year the theme is “A Red, White and Blue Christmas”. We learned so many things about the White House: it has 132 rooms, 3 elevators, a pool, tennis courts, a movie theatre (where the president watches movies and also practices his speeches), a bowling alley and the president’s helicopter lands on his front yard! Outside, we saw them building the stage for the Innaguration of President-elect Obama and saw the house he will be staying in before he is president. It is called the Blair House. We were given really neat books to take home that tell you all about the holiday decorations!
After such a fun morning, we had Music and Drama in the afternoon! In Drama we got to relive our trip to the White House! We acted out the different things we saw and even pretending to have an election!
The Golden Owls:
1.) The White house trip was memorable and historical. Every room is decorated with ornaments, wreathes, and President paintings. One of our favorite rooms was the blue room, which had a tree connected to the ceiling.
2.) As a class, we wanted to thank our secret service agent Terence and Ms Kate for giving us such an unforgettable Field Trip.
3.) In the afternoon we continued to build teamwork and communication in Drama with Mr. Jim.
From the Office:
1.) Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by TOMORROW, Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th
2.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16 - Please RSVP with Leah and indicate whether you will attend or not.
3.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
1.) Worked more on our box project of the desert habitat. We molded animals and plants out of clay and painted the sky blue.
2.) Used the scooters again in Fitness and followed directions such as “put the red ball in the same colored hoola hoop”.
3.) Used manipulatives during Math to work more on subtraction skills. Some students did coin rubbings of a penny and had to describe the penny.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read ‘Big Bear, Little Bear’ during Language Arts. Then we worked in our ‘Explode the Code’ workbooks, played word family memory, and practiced sequencing and retelling stories.
2.) Finished our holiday pattern pictures and built AAB and ABC patterns out of unifix cubes in Math.
3.) Made a numbers book about arctic animals!
4.) Had music class with Miss Deanna – we sang ‘Jingle Bells’ and other winter songs!
The Mighty Dieners:
We had such a great day! A Secret Service agent met us outside the White House! His name was Terence and he gave us a GREAT tour! We entered the White House right outside the First Lady’s office, so we had to be a little quiet. We learned that the photographs in the hallway are changed every couple of weeks as the president travels around to new events. We learned the White House burned down during the War of 1812, but they were able to save the portrait of President George Washington, and we saw it hanging in the East Room. We were so lucky, as today was the first day they were displaying the holiday decorations. This year the theme is “A Red, White and Blue Christmas”. We learned so many things about the White House: it has 132 rooms, 3 elevators, a pool, tennis courts, a movie theatre (where the president watches movies and also practices his speeches), a bowling alley and the president’s helicopter lands on his front yard! Outside, we saw them building the stage for the Innaguration of President-elect Obama and saw the house he will be staying in before he is president. It is called the Blair House. We were given really neat books to take home that tell you all about the holiday decorations!
After such a fun morning, we had Music and Drama in the afternoon! In Drama we got to relive our trip to the White House! We acted out the different things we saw and even pretending to have an election!
The Golden Owls:
1.) The White house trip was memorable and historical. Every room is decorated with ornaments, wreathes, and President paintings. One of our favorite rooms was the blue room, which had a tree connected to the ceiling.
2.) As a class, we wanted to thank our secret service agent Terence and Ms Kate for giving us such an unforgettable Field Trip.
3.) In the afternoon we continued to build teamwork and communication in Drama with Mr. Jim.
From the Office:
1.) Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by TOMORROW, Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th
2.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16 - Please RSVP with Leah and indicate whether you will attend or not.
3.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Wednesday, December 3rd 2008
The Magic Trains:
1.) Read the book “Froggy Gets Dressed for Winter” and helped dress a cute frog made out of felt as we spoke about the story.
2.) Met a snake named “Smelly” who belongs to Ms. Deanna. The boys asked her some good questions about his habitat and diet.
3.) Two students learned about pennies and nickels while the other two students worked on addition, subtraction and even some basic multiplication!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wacky Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Worked on our handwriting in Language Arts and had a great time playing fun letter games with Miss Kim!
2.) Completed and cut out holiday patterns in Math and worked on our Fine Motor Circuits during motor time!
3.) Had a special visitor – a real live snake!!! Miss Deanna brought her friend, Smelly the Snake, into our classroom for a visit. We talked all about snakes and their habitats and everyone took a turn petting him – he was SO friendly! It was a great way to finish our unit on rainforests.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Speech, we talked about pronouns (boy-he, him; girl-she, her)and when you use them.
2.) In Social Skills, Ms. Melissa talked to us about feelings. We each drew pictures of what feelings (happy, sad, angry, etc) looked like.
3.) In Yoga, we practiced the tree pose and played the freeze game!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Science we have been studying about different cultures and where certain foods come from. For example, we learned that chickens originally came from China, milk from India and taco sauce from Mexico.
2.) In Math we are continuing to work on our bar and picture graphs. For homework we are going to reinforce what we are learning in school by graphing candy and fruit on both graphs!
3.) In writing we have been brainstorming and using our webs while drafting about Chanukah, Christmas and the winter time!
From the Office:
PLEASE make sure to read your emails as pertinent, time sensitive information is often sent this way – Thank you!
1.) Please make sure to return the Family & Friends Contact Information form that was sent home a few weeks ago. This form will be used for communication regarding special events such as Grandparent’s Day, the Auction, and other informative mailings and programs throughout the year.
2.) Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th
3.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16 - Please RSVP with Leah and indicate whether you will attend or not.
4.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
1.) Read the book “Froggy Gets Dressed for Winter” and helped dress a cute frog made out of felt as we spoke about the story.
2.) Met a snake named “Smelly” who belongs to Ms. Deanna. The boys asked her some good questions about his habitat and diet.
3.) Two students learned about pennies and nickels while the other two students worked on addition, subtraction and even some basic multiplication!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wacky Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Worked on our handwriting in Language Arts and had a great time playing fun letter games with Miss Kim!
2.) Completed and cut out holiday patterns in Math and worked on our Fine Motor Circuits during motor time!
3.) Had a special visitor – a real live snake!!! Miss Deanna brought her friend, Smelly the Snake, into our classroom for a visit. We talked all about snakes and their habitats and everyone took a turn petting him – he was SO friendly! It was a great way to finish our unit on rainforests.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Speech, we talked about pronouns (boy-he, him; girl-she, her)and when you use them.
2.) In Social Skills, Ms. Melissa talked to us about feelings. We each drew pictures of what feelings (happy, sad, angry, etc) looked like.
3.) In Yoga, we practiced the tree pose and played the freeze game!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Science we have been studying about different cultures and where certain foods come from. For example, we learned that chickens originally came from China, milk from India and taco sauce from Mexico.
2.) In Math we are continuing to work on our bar and picture graphs. For homework we are going to reinforce what we are learning in school by graphing candy and fruit on both graphs!
3.) In writing we have been brainstorming and using our webs while drafting about Chanukah, Christmas and the winter time!
From the Office:
PLEASE make sure to read your emails as pertinent, time sensitive information is often sent this way – Thank you!
1.) Please make sure to return the Family & Friends Contact Information form that was sent home a few weeks ago. This form will be used for communication regarding special events such as Grandparent’s Day, the Auction, and other informative mailings and programs throughout the year.
2.) Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th
3.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16 - Please RSVP with Leah and indicate whether you will attend or not.
4.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tuesday, December 2nd
The Magic Trains:
Today we:
1.) Read a book called “Playful Puppy” and answered questions about what the puppy in the story saw. The other book that some students read was called “Dan”. Students practiced several “an” words.
2.) Rode scooters in Fitness in order to put together a map of the USA.
3.) Did two experiments in Science. We used the acid from taco sauce to clean a penny and we poured milk and some soap in a dish and dropped food coloring in the dish using a q-tip. The soap made the molecules in the milk separate and the colors began to spin!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
The Diener Dinosaurs had a terrific Tuesday! Today we…
1.) Used a clothesline and clothespins to make our word family words! We also broke into our reading groups and read our word family books and leveled readers.
2.) Finished our number books! We drew different shapes and wrote out the numbers from one to ten.
3.) Had science with Miss Llacey! We made eggs float using salt, created swirls of colors in milk, and cleaned a copper penny with taco sauce – it was so fun!
4.) Read a book called ‘”Slowly, Slowly, Slowly”, said the Sloth’ and then created the trees for our rainforest!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) Today we read a book about the White House and discussed who lives and works in the White House. We also discovered who the first president to live in the White House was, and that it was once burned down!!
2.) We had a special treat and got to watch a movie for doing such a great job this morning!
3.) In Science, we learned three experiments that showed us how we can find differences in cultures!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Math we traveled far and wide outside collecting different objects. With those objects we first created a picture graph then transformed it into a bar graph.
2.) In Social Studies we are finishing up mapping. Also we are beginning to learn about The White House in preparation for our Thursday Field Trip.
3.) In Language Arts we are continuing to work on our comprehension strategies (picturing, predicting, connecting, think aloud.). We also are learning to utilize the dictionary for words we are unfamiliar with.
From the Office:
PLEASE make sure to read your emails as pertinent, time sensitive information is often sent this way – Thank you!
1.) Please make sure to check your child’s hair for nits and lice as we have had a couple of cases appear here at school. Jillian has sent an informative email regarding the process, and additional resources for lice prevention and elimination. Please stop by the office should you have any questions or concerns. Thanks for your help & cooperation! 2.) Please make sure to return the Family & Friends Contact Information form that was sent home a few weeks ago. This form will be used for communication regarding special events such as Grandparent’s Day, the Auction, and other informative mailings and programs throughout the year.3.) A week ago Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th 4.) Please let Leah know if you will be available for helping with stuffing and stamping for a mass mailing, Thursday, December 4th @ 1:15PM5.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16 - Please RSVP with Leah and indicate whether you will attend or not. 6.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
Today we:
1.) Read a book called “Playful Puppy” and answered questions about what the puppy in the story saw. The other book that some students read was called “Dan”. Students practiced several “an” words.
2.) Rode scooters in Fitness in order to put together a map of the USA.
3.) Did two experiments in Science. We used the acid from taco sauce to clean a penny and we poured milk and some soap in a dish and dropped food coloring in the dish using a q-tip. The soap made the molecules in the milk separate and the colors began to spin!
The Diener Dinosaurs:
The Diener Dinosaurs had a terrific Tuesday! Today we…
1.) Used a clothesline and clothespins to make our word family words! We also broke into our reading groups and read our word family books and leveled readers.
2.) Finished our number books! We drew different shapes and wrote out the numbers from one to ten.
3.) Had science with Miss Llacey! We made eggs float using salt, created swirls of colors in milk, and cleaned a copper penny with taco sauce – it was so fun!
4.) Read a book called ‘”Slowly, Slowly, Slowly”, said the Sloth’ and then created the trees for our rainforest!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) Today we read a book about the White House and discussed who lives and works in the White House. We also discovered who the first president to live in the White House was, and that it was once burned down!!
2.) We had a special treat and got to watch a movie for doing such a great job this morning!
3.) In Science, we learned three experiments that showed us how we can find differences in cultures!
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Math we traveled far and wide outside collecting different objects. With those objects we first created a picture graph then transformed it into a bar graph.
2.) In Social Studies we are finishing up mapping. Also we are beginning to learn about The White House in preparation for our Thursday Field Trip.
3.) In Language Arts we are continuing to work on our comprehension strategies (picturing, predicting, connecting, think aloud.). We also are learning to utilize the dictionary for words we are unfamiliar with.
From the Office:
PLEASE make sure to read your emails as pertinent, time sensitive information is often sent this way – Thank you!
1.) Please make sure to check your child’s hair for nits and lice as we have had a couple of cases appear here at school. Jillian has sent an informative email regarding the process, and additional resources for lice prevention and elimination. Please stop by the office should you have any questions or concerns. Thanks for your help & cooperation! 2.) Please make sure to return the Family & Friends Contact Information form that was sent home a few weeks ago. This form will be used for communication regarding special events such as Grandparent’s Day, the Auction, and other informative mailings and programs throughout the year.3.) A week ago Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th 4.) Please let Leah know if you will be available for helping with stuffing and stamping for a mass mailing, Thursday, December 4th @ 1:15PM5.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16 - Please RSVP with Leah and indicate whether you will attend or not. 6.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
Monday, December 1st Update
The Magic Trains:
1.) Played “Go Fish” in language arts as they learned new blend sounds. They were introduced to the letter “h”, which they will study all this week.
2.) Worked hard in Math class. Our students completed several pages, reviewing the concepts of thick-thin and near-far. Then they began work on left-right by playing with a left-hand, right-hand puzzle, and a follow-up workbook activity.
3.) Worked on a box project of a desert habitat. Students made different 3-D animals (camel and salamander) out of clay.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
1.) Went on a scavenger hunt for words containing the digraph ‘th’! Tomorrow we will graph the results of our search.
2.) Read ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ and then worked in our new ‘Explode the Code’ workbooks! We also created miniature letter books to take home.
3.) Did fine motor circuits – we screwed nuts and bolts together, played with Play-Doh, used tweezers to make piles of pom poms, created letters out of rubber bands, and had a treasure hunt in Theraputty!
4.) Practiced taking turns and sharing materials while we played a game of Kerplunk!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we started our December calendar math! We discussed that December started on a Monday and that it had 31 days! We filled in the dates on our December calendars and colored our December picture!
2.) At Recess, we started structured game time! After 15 minutes of free play, we learned to play outdoor games with the other classes!
3.) In Social Studies, we talked about the White House! We discussed who lived there and where it was! We found it on a map!
The Golden Owls:
Today in the Golden Owls we had a great day!
1.) During our Social Studies time, we are completing our map unit and finishing our illustrations about different countries.
2.) In math we are wrapping up our word problem and number sentences units, and beginning our graphing and time units.
3.) In LA we are beginning a new book and learning about our feelings while mastering the comprehension strategies!
4.) We are wishing Ava a very Happy Birthday today too!
From the Office:
1.) Please make sure to return the Family & Friends Contact Information form that was sent home a few weeks ago. This form will be used for communication regarding special events such as Grandparent’s Day, the Auction, and other informative mailings and programs throughout the year.
2.) A week ago Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th
3.) Please let us know if you will be available for helping with stuffing and stamping for a mass mailing, Thursday, December 4th @ 1:15PM
4.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16
5.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
1.) Played “Go Fish” in language arts as they learned new blend sounds. They were introduced to the letter “h”, which they will study all this week.
2.) Worked hard in Math class. Our students completed several pages, reviewing the concepts of thick-thin and near-far. Then they began work on left-right by playing with a left-hand, right-hand puzzle, and a follow-up workbook activity.
3.) Worked on a box project of a desert habitat. Students made different 3-D animals (camel and salamander) out of clay.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
1.) Went on a scavenger hunt for words containing the digraph ‘th’! Tomorrow we will graph the results of our search.
2.) Read ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ and then worked in our new ‘Explode the Code’ workbooks! We also created miniature letter books to take home.
3.) Did fine motor circuits – we screwed nuts and bolts together, played with Play-Doh, used tweezers to make piles of pom poms, created letters out of rubber bands, and had a treasure hunt in Theraputty!
4.) Practiced taking turns and sharing materials while we played a game of Kerplunk!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we started our December calendar math! We discussed that December started on a Monday and that it had 31 days! We filled in the dates on our December calendars and colored our December picture!
2.) At Recess, we started structured game time! After 15 minutes of free play, we learned to play outdoor games with the other classes!
3.) In Social Studies, we talked about the White House! We discussed who lived there and where it was! We found it on a map!
The Golden Owls:
Today in the Golden Owls we had a great day!
1.) During our Social Studies time, we are completing our map unit and finishing our illustrations about different countries.
2.) In math we are wrapping up our word problem and number sentences units, and beginning our graphing and time units.
3.) In LA we are beginning a new book and learning about our feelings while mastering the comprehension strategies!
4.) We are wishing Ava a very Happy Birthday today too!
From the Office:
1.) Please make sure to return the Family & Friends Contact Information form that was sent home a few weeks ago. This form will be used for communication regarding special events such as Grandparent’s Day, the Auction, and other informative mailings and programs throughout the year.
2.) A week ago Scholastic Book order forms were sent home in your child’s folder. If you are interested in ordering, please make sure to return the order, and payment by Friday, December 5th to ensure delivery by December 19th
3.) Please let us know if you will be available for helping with stuffing and stamping for a mass mailing, Thursday, December 4th @ 1:15PM
4.) Mark your calendars: Math & Language Arts training on Monday, December 8th @ 10AM in Room 16
5.) There are only a few days left for the 10% discount and donation shopping promotion at Tree Top Kids! Mention The Diener School now through the 7th.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
The Magic Trains:
Today we:
1.) Played a fun and visual Thanksgiving game where we had to sort different types of food and talk about what we eat during Thanksgiving.
2.) Did an experiment involving carbonated water and raisins and watched the raisins sink to the bottom and then rise to the top! This experiment has to do with buoyancy.
3.) Made an art project with different materials such as cotton balls while learning about texture.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Tuesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a book called ‘The Perfect Thanksgiving’. Then we broke into our leveled reading groups and played a beanbag-toss word family game!
2.) Had science with Ms. Llacey! Today we built towers out of gumballs and toothpicks and created liquids and solids out of cornstarch and water! We also played turkey and football games in Fitness.
3.) Had a visit from Miss Melissa – we made a delicious trail mix and tomorrow we are going to make and fill cornucopias for Thanksgiving!
4.) Colored a turkey made from different shapes in math – we are going to make Thanksgiving placemats with them!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) We did a lot of crafts for Thanksgiving! First, we colored in Thanksgiving pictures that will be hung up tomorrow during our feast! Then, Ms. Melissa came and we made Oreo Turkeys! We took Mint Oreos, split them in half and stood one half of the Oreo in the icing of the other side of the Oreo. Next, we took round Malt balls in the icing for the turkey’s head! We finished by eating our turkeys!! We also colored in pictures of feathers and a turkey head. Tomorrow, we will cut out the feathers and turkey head and glue them to a strip of construction paper to make turkey hats to wear during our feast!
2.) In Math, we worked on patterns and forming uppercase and lowercase letters. On sentence strips, we copied the pattern Aa Aa Aa Aa, BbBbBbBb, CcCcCcCc, and DdDdDdDdDd. We then stamped out the same patterns and traced over the letters with a pencil.
3.) We read a story about the history of Thanksgiving. We learned that the pilgrims left England on a ship called the Mayflower. They landed in America. The pilgrims invited the Native Americans to come have a dinner called Thanksgiving. We all told our plans for Thanksgiving and who we invite to our houses or who invited our families to their houses. We discussed the similarities and differences in what they ate at Thanksgiving and what we eat with our families. 4.) In Science with Ms Lacey, we did several hands on experiments. We put together DNA strands using gumdrops, watched the effect of putting raisins in club soda, and experimented with the feel of corn starch.
**Don’t forget tomorrow is our Thanksgiving Feast! Please send in a snack, but we will have plenty to eat for lunch! Dismissal is at 1:00
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Social Skills with Ms. Melissa we talked about teamwork and leadership while also creating a Turkey using oreos, icing, whoppers, and Mike and Ikes.
2.) In Math we are continuing with word problems using the RPSC method: Read, Plan, Solve, and Check.
3.) In Science with Ms. Lacey we did several hands on experiments. We put together DNA strands using gumdrops, watched the effect of putting raisins in club soda, and experimented with the feel of corn starch.
4.) In writing we are continuing to build our writing process. Our topic was Family and Thanksgiving, we first Brainstormed using a web and then drafted.
Today we:
1.) Played a fun and visual Thanksgiving game where we had to sort different types of food and talk about what we eat during Thanksgiving.
2.) Did an experiment involving carbonated water and raisins and watched the raisins sink to the bottom and then rise to the top! This experiment has to do with buoyancy.
3.) Made an art project with different materials such as cotton balls while learning about texture.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a terrific Tuesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a book called ‘The Perfect Thanksgiving’. Then we broke into our leveled reading groups and played a beanbag-toss word family game!
2.) Had science with Ms. Llacey! Today we built towers out of gumballs and toothpicks and created liquids and solids out of cornstarch and water! We also played turkey and football games in Fitness.
3.) Had a visit from Miss Melissa – we made a delicious trail mix and tomorrow we are going to make and fill cornucopias for Thanksgiving!
4.) Colored a turkey made from different shapes in math – we are going to make Thanksgiving placemats with them!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) We did a lot of crafts for Thanksgiving! First, we colored in Thanksgiving pictures that will be hung up tomorrow during our feast! Then, Ms. Melissa came and we made Oreo Turkeys! We took Mint Oreos, split them in half and stood one half of the Oreo in the icing of the other side of the Oreo. Next, we took round Malt balls in the icing for the turkey’s head! We finished by eating our turkeys!! We also colored in pictures of feathers and a turkey head. Tomorrow, we will cut out the feathers and turkey head and glue them to a strip of construction paper to make turkey hats to wear during our feast!
2.) In Math, we worked on patterns and forming uppercase and lowercase letters. On sentence strips, we copied the pattern Aa Aa Aa Aa, BbBbBbBb, CcCcCcCc, and DdDdDdDdDd. We then stamped out the same patterns and traced over the letters with a pencil.
3.) We read a story about the history of Thanksgiving. We learned that the pilgrims left England on a ship called the Mayflower. They landed in America. The pilgrims invited the Native Americans to come have a dinner called Thanksgiving. We all told our plans for Thanksgiving and who we invite to our houses or who invited our families to their houses. We discussed the similarities and differences in what they ate at Thanksgiving and what we eat with our families. 4.) In Science with Ms Lacey, we did several hands on experiments. We put together DNA strands using gumdrops, watched the effect of putting raisins in club soda, and experimented with the feel of corn starch.
**Don’t forget tomorrow is our Thanksgiving Feast! Please send in a snack, but we will have plenty to eat for lunch! Dismissal is at 1:00
The Golden Owls:
1.) In Social Skills with Ms. Melissa we talked about teamwork and leadership while also creating a Turkey using oreos, icing, whoppers, and Mike and Ikes.
2.) In Math we are continuing with word problems using the RPSC method: Read, Plan, Solve, and Check.
3.) In Science with Ms. Lacey we did several hands on experiments. We put together DNA strands using gumdrops, watched the effect of putting raisins in club soda, and experimented with the feel of corn starch.
4.) In writing we are continuing to build our writing process. Our topic was Family and Thanksgiving, we first Brainstormed using a web and then drafted.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday, November 24th
The Magic Trains…
Today we:
1.) Worked very hard with Ms. Melissa to construct a collage of Thanksgiving items. The boys searched magazines, and cut out favorite things they were thankful for. Then they pasted their items on construction paper and discussed the whole project using Thanksgiving words they have learned (turkey, stuffing, pie, corn, family).
2.) Used their language arts skills to complete pages of Explode the Code (short a sound). Then they cut out a small book entitled There’s a Turkey in My Hand and put it together (sequence strengthening). Afterward, they read the pages out loud to the teacher.
3.) Played a game of Topple with Ms. Kathy during O.T. time. Our students used their listening skills, worked on their ability to play by the rules and learned to control and speak about their emotions in a calm manner.
4.) Completed an art project (each student made a turkey by using a pinecone, feathers and a cotton ball). Enjoy this mini turkey on Thansgiving.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a magnificent Monday! Today we:
1.) Did a great activity called ‘Give me 5’ with Miss Jen! We learned about how to listen with our whole bodies and made really cool pictures of the 5 things we need to do to be ready to learn.
2.) Went on a scavenger hunt for things that start with the letter B and then created graphs of our data using shapes!
3.) Started learning about rainforests – we each made our own rainforest coloring books!*Our homework tonight is to complete the sheet that Miss Jen made about our new ‘Give me 5’ strategy!*
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we worked on the concept of more than and less than. Each student picked a number from a bag and built the number with blocks. We then figured out whether the number was more or less than other numbers that students had picked!
2.) In Social Studies, we talked about where the Pilgrims came from and used a map to figure out where they traveled from and where they landed. We also colored in the ocean on a map that they sailed over!
3.) In Fitness, we played “step-in-throw” or otherwise known as, a live version of Tic-Tac-Toe. We also played a game where we threw a ball into a hoop!
4.) In full-group language arts we talked more about nouns, particularly those that are Thanksgiving words!
The Golden Owls:
1.) Today we continued working on our comprehension strategies when reading; predicting, thinking aloud, making connections, and picturing.
2.) In math we introduced the four step process we will use when solving word problems; read, plan, solve and check.
3.) We also worked on teamwork while brainstorming words that we will add to our word wall.
4.) We had OT with Ms. Kathy where we worked in movement based groups which focused on body awareness and motor planning skills. Individually, the children focused on both fine motor and visual motor skills.
From the Office:
This is a short week, and we are planning to have a few days of special arts and crafts for Thanksgiving. We will have a feast in the classrooms on Wednesday at noon with dismissal at 1PM. The Diener School will be closed Thursday, and Friday.
Today we:
1.) Worked very hard with Ms. Melissa to construct a collage of Thanksgiving items. The boys searched magazines, and cut out favorite things they were thankful for. Then they pasted their items on construction paper and discussed the whole project using Thanksgiving words they have learned (turkey, stuffing, pie, corn, family).
2.) Used their language arts skills to complete pages of Explode the Code (short a sound). Then they cut out a small book entitled There’s a Turkey in My Hand and put it together (sequence strengthening). Afterward, they read the pages out loud to the teacher.
3.) Played a game of Topple with Ms. Kathy during O.T. time. Our students used their listening skills, worked on their ability to play by the rules and learned to control and speak about their emotions in a calm manner.
4.) Completed an art project (each student made a turkey by using a pinecone, feathers and a cotton ball). Enjoy this mini turkey on Thansgiving.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a magnificent Monday! Today we:
1.) Did a great activity called ‘Give me 5’ with Miss Jen! We learned about how to listen with our whole bodies and made really cool pictures of the 5 things we need to do to be ready to learn.
2.) Went on a scavenger hunt for things that start with the letter B and then created graphs of our data using shapes!
3.) Started learning about rainforests – we each made our own rainforest coloring books!*Our homework tonight is to complete the sheet that Miss Jen made about our new ‘Give me 5’ strategy!*
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we worked on the concept of more than and less than. Each student picked a number from a bag and built the number with blocks. We then figured out whether the number was more or less than other numbers that students had picked!
2.) In Social Studies, we talked about where the Pilgrims came from and used a map to figure out where they traveled from and where they landed. We also colored in the ocean on a map that they sailed over!
3.) In Fitness, we played “step-in-throw” or otherwise known as, a live version of Tic-Tac-Toe. We also played a game where we threw a ball into a hoop!
4.) In full-group language arts we talked more about nouns, particularly those that are Thanksgiving words!
The Golden Owls:
1.) Today we continued working on our comprehension strategies when reading; predicting, thinking aloud, making connections, and picturing.
2.) In math we introduced the four step process we will use when solving word problems; read, plan, solve and check.
3.) We also worked on teamwork while brainstorming words that we will add to our word wall.
4.) We had OT with Ms. Kathy where we worked in movement based groups which focused on body awareness and motor planning skills. Individually, the children focused on both fine motor and visual motor skills.
From the Office:
This is a short week, and we are planning to have a few days of special arts and crafts for Thanksgiving. We will have a feast in the classrooms on Wednesday at noon with dismissal at 1PM. The Diener School will be closed Thursday, and Friday.
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Magic Trains:
Today we…
1.) Played a fun high-five game with Ms. Brooke in the sensory room.
2.) Took a ride in our wonderful yellow Diener van to the Meadowside Nature Center. We were joined by the Diener Dinosaurs and together we explored a cave with our flashlights and played in colonial house, and a woodland habitat. We saw snakes, a bald eagle, several hawks, and even a snowy owl! We sat in a Native American canoe inside a Native American teepee. Then we listened as two wildlife naturalists discussed animal hibernation, and the boys were able to touch animal pelts and ask questions.
3.) We completed our day with a warm, vibrant music class with Ms. Deanna. She had the boys belting out, “Going on a Bear Hunt”, “Do Re Mi”, and their favorite, “Five Green and Speckled Frogs.” They finished music class with clapping and singing, “Bingo.”
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a fabulous Friday!
1.) We went on a field trip with the K class to Meadowside Nature Center! We saw amazing things – live owls and hawks, a bald eagle, snakes and frogs, a canoe, and a cave with a hidden slide! We also saw a presentation on how animals in nature prepare for different seasons. We had SO much fun!!
2.) When we got back, we talked about our favorite parts of the field trip and then drew and labeled pictures of our favorites.
3.) In the afternoon, we had music class with Miss Deanna and played our beanbag game, and we went to the Diener Store to spend our hard earned Diener Dollars!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math we read the book More or Less which helped explain the concepts of more than and less than. In the book, the main character Eddie was at a carnival. He was at the “Age Guessing Booth”. We decided to play the game in class and guess everyone’s ages! One student was in the “hot seat”, while the other students asked questions to guess their age. After an age was guessed, the student in the “hot seat” would have to say whether they were more than that age or less than that age! We did a great job!
2.) In Social Studies, we colored in a map, by coloring the land green and the water & sky blue!
3.) In Art, we made our own colors! We made “cold” colors purple and green by mixing primary colors together. Today, we mixed red and blue to make purple. We also mixed yellow and blue to make green! Then we got to paint a picture with our colors! Ms. Feinberg gave us white paint to help make snow in our pictures because snow is cold! We learned that if some of the white paint mixed with another colors it was called tinting!
The Golden Owls:
Today we had a wonderful Friday in the Golden Owls:
1.) We shared our first drafts of our Thanksgiving stories which included lots of descriptive words and details.
2.) During our center time we worked on teamwork, communication and treating others how we want to be treated while working as a group.
3.) In math we began our graphing unit while also working on word problems and reviewing rounding.
Happy weekend!!!
From the Office:
Next week is a short week, and we are planning to have a week of special arts and crafts for Thanksgiving. We will have a feast on Wednesday at noon with dismissal at 1PM.
Today we…
1.) Played a fun high-five game with Ms. Brooke in the sensory room.
2.) Took a ride in our wonderful yellow Diener van to the Meadowside Nature Center. We were joined by the Diener Dinosaurs and together we explored a cave with our flashlights and played in colonial house, and a woodland habitat. We saw snakes, a bald eagle, several hawks, and even a snowy owl! We sat in a Native American canoe inside a Native American teepee. Then we listened as two wildlife naturalists discussed animal hibernation, and the boys were able to touch animal pelts and ask questions.
3.) We completed our day with a warm, vibrant music class with Ms. Deanna. She had the boys belting out, “Going on a Bear Hunt”, “Do Re Mi”, and their favorite, “Five Green and Speckled Frogs.” They finished music class with clapping and singing, “Bingo.”
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a fabulous Friday!
1.) We went on a field trip with the K class to Meadowside Nature Center! We saw amazing things – live owls and hawks, a bald eagle, snakes and frogs, a canoe, and a cave with a hidden slide! We also saw a presentation on how animals in nature prepare for different seasons. We had SO much fun!!
2.) When we got back, we talked about our favorite parts of the field trip and then drew and labeled pictures of our favorites.
3.) In the afternoon, we had music class with Miss Deanna and played our beanbag game, and we went to the Diener Store to spend our hard earned Diener Dollars!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math we read the book More or Less which helped explain the concepts of more than and less than. In the book, the main character Eddie was at a carnival. He was at the “Age Guessing Booth”. We decided to play the game in class and guess everyone’s ages! One student was in the “hot seat”, while the other students asked questions to guess their age. After an age was guessed, the student in the “hot seat” would have to say whether they were more than that age or less than that age! We did a great job!
2.) In Social Studies, we colored in a map, by coloring the land green and the water & sky blue!
3.) In Art, we made our own colors! We made “cold” colors purple and green by mixing primary colors together. Today, we mixed red and blue to make purple. We also mixed yellow and blue to make green! Then we got to paint a picture with our colors! Ms. Feinberg gave us white paint to help make snow in our pictures because snow is cold! We learned that if some of the white paint mixed with another colors it was called tinting!
The Golden Owls:
Today we had a wonderful Friday in the Golden Owls:
1.) We shared our first drafts of our Thanksgiving stories which included lots of descriptive words and details.
2.) During our center time we worked on teamwork, communication and treating others how we want to be treated while working as a group.
3.) In math we began our graphing unit while also working on word problems and reviewing rounding.
Happy weekend!!!
From the Office:
Next week is a short week, and we are planning to have a week of special arts and crafts for Thanksgiving. We will have a feast on Wednesday at noon with dismissal at 1PM.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Magic Trains…
Today was a busy day and the Magic Trains:
1.) Read a book with Ms. Jen called “We Are All Alike . . .We Are All Different” and we discussed are similarities and differences between ourselves and various objects.
2.) Participated in a wonderful Language Arts lesson called “Ginny Goes to the Beach” where we discussed how it feels at the beach and what to wear at the beach. Some of the kids even changed into shorts and a T-shirt.
3.) Practiced for our fieldtrip to the Hebrew Home by singing the three songs that we are working on. The boys used instruments while they sang.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wonderful Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Worked on number writing with Miss Kim! She also gave us beautiful new language arts workbooks and showed us how to use them!
2.) Read the poem ‘Jack and Jill’ and then drew different parts of the poem using our math words (above, below, bigger, smaller, tall, short, etc.)
3.) Practiced our Hebrew Home songs for our sing-a-long tomorrow! We are so excited to put on a great show for everyone.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Speech, Ms. Jen taught us "Give me 5!" Give Me 5 is a whole body, active listening strategy.
The 5 parts are:
1. ears listening
2. body still
3. hands free
4. mouth quiet
5. eyes on the speaker
Each of us made our own by: tracing our hands, writing the 5 strategies on the fingers and drawing a picture to help us remember!
2.) In Social Skills we talked about the importance of thanking others when they do something nice for you. We each wrote a thank you letter to the staff members of Sen. Thune's office for giving us such wonderful tours of the Capitol yesterday! After, we finished writing our letters, on the back we each drew a picture of our favorite thing we saw yesterday!
3.) Today we also had Yoga, where we warmed up by running around the room and freezing when the music stopped. Ms. Melinda would then call on us and we had to show her a yoga pose of our choice!
4.) We also went to meet our buddies at Green Acres today!
The Golden Owls:
Today in the Golden Owls:
1.) We reviewed antonyms and played antonym bingo; continued to look up vocabulary words in the dictionary; reviewed setting, characters and summary as well as learned about compound words!
2.) In Social Skills we wrote thank you notes to our wonderful tour guides Jessi and Dakota, from our field trip to the Capital with Miss Melissa. We also talked about teamwork and not giving up. 3.) In dance with Mr. Aaron, we worked on interactions and communicating appropriately.
4.) We cannot wait for tomorrow's field trip to the Hebrew Home and sing!
From the Office:
For the performance at the Hebrew Home TOMORROW, Ms. Marilyn has requested that your child come dressed in their Diener T-Shirt and jeans.
Today was a busy day and the Magic Trains:
1.) Read a book with Ms. Jen called “We Are All Alike . . .We Are All Different” and we discussed are similarities and differences between ourselves and various objects.
2.) Participated in a wonderful Language Arts lesson called “Ginny Goes to the Beach” where we discussed how it feels at the beach and what to wear at the beach. Some of the kids even changed into shorts and a T-shirt.
3.) Practiced for our fieldtrip to the Hebrew Home by singing the three songs that we are working on. The boys used instruments while they sang.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wonderful Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Worked on number writing with Miss Kim! She also gave us beautiful new language arts workbooks and showed us how to use them!
2.) Read the poem ‘Jack and Jill’ and then drew different parts of the poem using our math words (above, below, bigger, smaller, tall, short, etc.)
3.) Practiced our Hebrew Home songs for our sing-a-long tomorrow! We are so excited to put on a great show for everyone.
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Speech, Ms. Jen taught us "Give me 5!" Give Me 5 is a whole body, active listening strategy.
The 5 parts are:
1. ears listening
2. body still
3. hands free
4. mouth quiet
5. eyes on the speaker
Each of us made our own by: tracing our hands, writing the 5 strategies on the fingers and drawing a picture to help us remember!
2.) In Social Skills we talked about the importance of thanking others when they do something nice for you. We each wrote a thank you letter to the staff members of Sen. Thune's office for giving us such wonderful tours of the Capitol yesterday! After, we finished writing our letters, on the back we each drew a picture of our favorite thing we saw yesterday!
3.) Today we also had Yoga, where we warmed up by running around the room and freezing when the music stopped. Ms. Melinda would then call on us and we had to show her a yoga pose of our choice!
4.) We also went to meet our buddies at Green Acres today!
The Golden Owls:
Today in the Golden Owls:
1.) We reviewed antonyms and played antonym bingo; continued to look up vocabulary words in the dictionary; reviewed setting, characters and summary as well as learned about compound words!
2.) In Social Skills we wrote thank you notes to our wonderful tour guides Jessi and Dakota, from our field trip to the Capital with Miss Melissa. We also talked about teamwork and not giving up. 3.) In dance with Mr. Aaron, we worked on interactions and communicating appropriately.
4.) We cannot wait for tomorrow's field trip to the Hebrew Home and sing!
From the Office:
For the performance at the Hebrew Home TOMORROW, Ms. Marilyn has requested that your child come dressed in their Diener T-Shirt and jeans.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
November 18, 2008
November 18, 2008
Today the Magic Trains…
1) shared their ideas about what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Shayan was thankful for his family. Jack was thankful for his friends in the class and for playtime. Trevor was thankful for his friends in the class as well. Teddy was thankful for turkey on Thanksgiving. Ms. Seena was thankful to be healthy. Ms. Ginny was thankful to have a wonderful husband and daughter. Ms. Debbie was thankful for her home. We wrote down our ideas and made a gorgeous turkey to put on our front door.
2) played four separate games in Fitness. For one game we used the scooters and pretended like it was summer. The boys pretended to go fishing by putting plastic balls into a bucket
3) learned more about deserts and learned that a “habitat” is where a plant or animal lives.
What a terrific Tuesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
Had a visit from Miss Brook! She showed us some great Brain Gym exercises, played a handwriting game with us, and helped us make Thanksgiving turkeys out of our hands!
Continued to work on our desert – we used paint and sand to make our desert floor. Tomorrow we will make cacti and add our animals and dunes!
Played the game ‘Hisssss’ in math and used our new giant rhyming flipbook in Language Arts!
The Mighty Dieners!
What a day!! We went and visited Senator Thune's office. Senator Thune is from South Dakota and his office was nice enough to give us a wonderful tour of the Capitol! We went through an underground tunnel and then took a train from the Russell Senate building to the Capitol! The train was the big highlight! In the Capitol we saw statues of presidents and beautiful paintings all over the walls! We even saw a room that Senators have meetings in! We had such a fun trip!
The Golden Owls:
We learned that the Capitol had its own famous artist who worked and painted there for 25 years.
We also stood on a marble star which marked the exact center of Washington D.C.
Traveling in an underground metro we toured the statue hall, the old supreme court chamber, and a huge art gallery which is called the dome.
We finished our day continuing with maps of the diener school.
Today the Magic Trains…
1) shared their ideas about what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Shayan was thankful for his family. Jack was thankful for his friends in the class and for playtime. Trevor was thankful for his friends in the class as well. Teddy was thankful for turkey on Thanksgiving. Ms. Seena was thankful to be healthy. Ms. Ginny was thankful to have a wonderful husband and daughter. Ms. Debbie was thankful for her home. We wrote down our ideas and made a gorgeous turkey to put on our front door.
2) played four separate games in Fitness. For one game we used the scooters and pretended like it was summer. The boys pretended to go fishing by putting plastic balls into a bucket
3) learned more about deserts and learned that a “habitat” is where a plant or animal lives.
What a terrific Tuesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
Had a visit from Miss Brook! She showed us some great Brain Gym exercises, played a handwriting game with us, and helped us make Thanksgiving turkeys out of our hands!
Continued to work on our desert – we used paint and sand to make our desert floor. Tomorrow we will make cacti and add our animals and dunes!
Played the game ‘Hisssss’ in math and used our new giant rhyming flipbook in Language Arts!
The Mighty Dieners!
What a day!! We went and visited Senator Thune's office. Senator Thune is from South Dakota and his office was nice enough to give us a wonderful tour of the Capitol! We went through an underground tunnel and then took a train from the Russell Senate building to the Capitol! The train was the big highlight! In the Capitol we saw statues of presidents and beautiful paintings all over the walls! We even saw a room that Senators have meetings in! We had such a fun trip!
The Golden Owls:
We learned that the Capitol had its own famous artist who worked and painted there for 25 years.
We also stood on a marble star which marked the exact center of Washington D.C.
Traveling in an underground metro we toured the statue hall, the old supreme court chamber, and a huge art gallery which is called the dome.
We finished our day continuing with maps of the diener school.
Monday, November 17, 2008
November 17th, 2008
Today the Magic Trains…
1. worked very hard completing math pages in Calvert Math. They reviewed the concepts of thick- thin, near-far, and big-bigger.
2. The class also began the concept of left-right.
were introduced to some wonderful games by Ms. Kathy,
our O.T.
3. The boys played Zingo with Ms. Kathy (following directions) and put puzzles together with Ms. Melissa and completed a Thanksgiving-related art project.
4. continued their study of letters, in Language Arts, learning about “r” and words such as “railroad” and “radio”
What a marvelous Monday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1. Read a book called ‘The Scrambled States of America’ and then worked on a scrambled states puzzle together!
2. Had Social Skills with Miss Melissa! We read a book about manners, talked about how manners are important both at home and at school, and drew pictures of our family members!
3. Started to build our real-life desert. We talked about what lives in the desert and then made animals out of clay!
The Mighty Dieners!!
1. In math, we continued to work on our November calendar math questions (What month comes after this month?, How many days are in this month?, etc).
2. In Fitness, we learned how to play soccer and then we played color tag!
3. This afternoon we worked with Mr. Paul’s class to make a large American Flag! We rolled pieces of white construction paper and glued them on a large red poster board. Our American Flag will be 3-D!!!
Today in the Golden Owls:
1. We began new books in language arts working on definitions and new vocabulary, reviewed what a verb, noun, and adjective are and played antonym bingo after learning what an antonym is!
2. We practiced our songs for our concert at the Hebrew Home coming up this Thursday! We shaked, rattled and rolled!
3. Worked on our OT skills with Ms. Kathy! We are so so happy she is back with us.
1. worked very hard completing math pages in Calvert Math. They reviewed the concepts of thick- thin, near-far, and big-bigger.
2. The class also began the concept of left-right.
were introduced to some wonderful games by Ms. Kathy,
our O.T.
3. The boys played Zingo with Ms. Kathy (following directions) and put puzzles together with Ms. Melissa and completed a Thanksgiving-related art project.
4. continued their study of letters, in Language Arts, learning about “r” and words such as “railroad” and “radio”
What a marvelous Monday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1. Read a book called ‘The Scrambled States of America’ and then worked on a scrambled states puzzle together!
2. Had Social Skills with Miss Melissa! We read a book about manners, talked about how manners are important both at home and at school, and drew pictures of our family members!
3. Started to build our real-life desert. We talked about what lives in the desert and then made animals out of clay!
The Mighty Dieners!!
1. In math, we continued to work on our November calendar math questions (What month comes after this month?, How many days are in this month?, etc).
2. In Fitness, we learned how to play soccer and then we played color tag!
3. This afternoon we worked with Mr. Paul’s class to make a large American Flag! We rolled pieces of white construction paper and glued them on a large red poster board. Our American Flag will be 3-D!!!
Today in the Golden Owls:
1. We began new books in language arts working on definitions and new vocabulary, reviewed what a verb, noun, and adjective are and played antonym bingo after learning what an antonym is!
2. We practiced our songs for our concert at the Hebrew Home coming up this Thursday! We shaked, rattled and rolled!
3. Worked on our OT skills with Ms. Kathy! We are so so happy she is back with us.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
The Magic Trains:
1.) Worked very hard on their reading skills with one-on-one assistance, while sounding out word beginnings and endings.
2.) Read an awesome book entitled A Fish Out Of Water, and made predictions about what would happen next.
3.) Played a fast-paced game of “What Animal Am I” with Mr. Dan, during fitness, followed by a version of hide-and-seek, using bean bags. Mr. Dan commented on how well our students participated, which made the teachers proud.
4.) Concentrated on a math game entitled “number bingo” and played “go fish”.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a thrilling Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a story called ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ and contined to work on story sequencing!
2.) Talked about the desert and colored pictures of different desert animals!
3.) Had fitness with Mr. Dan and music with Miss Deanna! We played some fun beanbag games in fitness and practiced our Hebrew Home songs in music!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Music, we practiced for our Hebrew Home performance with Mr. Paul's class!
2.) Ms. Kathy helped us work on our letters! We used our Handwriting Without Tears books to practice letter formation, and Ms. Kathy would describe a letter and we had to guess which letter!
3.) In Math, we read a story about High School Musical and graphed how many times we saw the word 'movie' on a page!
The Golden Owls:
1.) Ms. Jenn joined us today for speech and had the kids play a game called apple to apple. They differentiate between nouns and adjectives, formulating word associations.
2.) In writing we had the students use the brainstorming webs and then continue with drafting. The boys drafted about construction workers, while the girls drafted about Thanksgiving using lots of details and examples.
3.) This afternoon we prepared for The Hebrew Home with “The Mighty Dieners” class and Ms Marilyn.
1.) Worked very hard on their reading skills with one-on-one assistance, while sounding out word beginnings and endings.
2.) Read an awesome book entitled A Fish Out Of Water, and made predictions about what would happen next.
3.) Played a fast-paced game of “What Animal Am I” with Mr. Dan, during fitness, followed by a version of hide-and-seek, using bean bags. Mr. Dan commented on how well our students participated, which made the teachers proud.
4.) Concentrated on a math game entitled “number bingo” and played “go fish”.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a thrilling Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs…
1.) Read a story called ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ and contined to work on story sequencing!
2.) Talked about the desert and colored pictures of different desert animals!
3.) Had fitness with Mr. Dan and music with Miss Deanna! We played some fun beanbag games in fitness and practiced our Hebrew Home songs in music!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Music, we practiced for our Hebrew Home performance with Mr. Paul's class!
2.) Ms. Kathy helped us work on our letters! We used our Handwriting Without Tears books to practice letter formation, and Ms. Kathy would describe a letter and we had to guess which letter!
3.) In Math, we read a story about High School Musical and graphed how many times we saw the word 'movie' on a page!
The Golden Owls:
1.) Ms. Jenn joined us today for speech and had the kids play a game called apple to apple. They differentiate between nouns and adjectives, formulating word associations.
2.) In writing we had the students use the brainstorming webs and then continue with drafting. The boys drafted about construction workers, while the girls drafted about Thanksgiving using lots of details and examples.
3.) This afternoon we prepared for The Hebrew Home with “The Mighty Dieners” class and Ms Marilyn.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A Wonderful Wednesday at Diener!!
The Magic Trains…
1.) Practiced writing letters using “wicki” sticks. We also read in our chapter books.2.) We read a book called “Paint It Purple” and made of list of all the things the little girl painted purple. This continues our study of “P” words. We also had a “grab bag” picking more “P” objects out of our special bag.3.) Ms. Seena did a special art project with the students and everyone made beautiful snowflakes.4.) Ms. Jen, our Speech Pathologist, worked with each student individually and got to know the students even better this week.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wacky Wednesday! 1.) We played word family memory, read a book together called ‘The Opposite’, and worked on word puzzles!2.) We finished creating beautiful house pictures out of different shapes!3.) We had drama with Mr. Jim – we played ‘Magic Suitcase’ and ‘Party Corks’!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) Speech – we worked on matching weather pictures to the corresponding season. In addition, we drew pictures of weather under the correct month.2.) Social Skills – We went outside and collected leaves for each thing we are thankful for, then pasted them onto a paper plate
3.) During yoga, we practiced our yoga poses: tree, snake, downward dog, and others. We played a new game where we worked on breathing techniques like blowing bubbles, and holding our poses.
The Golden Owls:
1.) We officially are declaring war on our emotions. Weekly we will be battling our whining, complaining, negativity, how we speak, and our words. As of this afternoon our emotions are winning 7 to 3.2.) During writing we continued to master Drafting. The boys were drafting about important people and today it was Dentists. The girls continued drafting about The Monster Eating Candy.3.) This afternoon we had Wonderful Visits from Ms. Melissa with social skills, Mr. Aaron for Dance, and Ms. Melinda with Yoga.
1.) Practiced writing letters using “wicki” sticks. We also read in our chapter books.2.) We read a book called “Paint It Purple” and made of list of all the things the little girl painted purple. This continues our study of “P” words. We also had a “grab bag” picking more “P” objects out of our special bag.3.) Ms. Seena did a special art project with the students and everyone made beautiful snowflakes.4.) Ms. Jen, our Speech Pathologist, worked with each student individually and got to know the students even better this week.
The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a wacky Wednesday! 1.) We played word family memory, read a book together called ‘The Opposite’, and worked on word puzzles!2.) We finished creating beautiful house pictures out of different shapes!3.) We had drama with Mr. Jim – we played ‘Magic Suitcase’ and ‘Party Corks’!
The Mighty Dieners:
1.) Speech – we worked on matching weather pictures to the corresponding season. In addition, we drew pictures of weather under the correct month.2.) Social Skills – We went outside and collected leaves for each thing we are thankful for, then pasted them onto a paper plate
3.) During yoga, we practiced our yoga poses: tree, snake, downward dog, and others. We played a new game where we worked on breathing techniques like blowing bubbles, and holding our poses.
The Golden Owls:
1.) We officially are declaring war on our emotions. Weekly we will be battling our whining, complaining, negativity, how we speak, and our words. As of this afternoon our emotions are winning 7 to 3.2.) During writing we continued to master Drafting. The boys were drafting about important people and today it was Dentists. The girls continued drafting about The Monster Eating Candy.3.) This afternoon we had Wonderful Visits from Ms. Melissa with social skills, Mr. Aaron for Dance, and Ms. Melinda with Yoga.
Friday, November 7, 2008
A Fabulous Friday!
November 7, 2008
Ms. Debbie’s Class : Today we:
1. Ms. Brooke, our occupational therapist, led us in a terrific exercise. We went fishing, and incorporated mathematics into our fishing expedition. Both large and small motor activity as well as some fine motor skills were utilized as well.
2. During math, the boys used our large foam dice blocks and our wooden beads to develop basic addition and subtraction sentences .
3. Ms. Seena organized a wonderful art project which continues the monthly theme of weather . We folded our paper into four equal parts and used a multi-medium/texture process to describe sunny, cloudy, and rainy weather, complete with lightning.
4. Language arts included a reading of a book about bugs, and a complimentary project which included the use of insect stencils, and we sang a song which taught us about the parts of the insect body.
5. Kindergarten ended their day with a lively music class led by Ms. Deanna.
What a fabulous Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1. continued to work on story sequencing. We used a flipbook to create stories with a beginning, middle, and end and then we colored and created our own stories!
2. talked about ways to make patterns using words! Then we made patterns with our word family words and added clapping and tapping as we 'read' our patterns.
3. read the poem 'Jack be Nimble' and took turns drawing Jack and the candlestick in different ways (i.e. Jack under, over, or next to the candlestick, short/tall/wide/thin candlesticks, etc.)
4. had pizza and watched a movie during lunch! We had so much fun sharing time with all of our Diener School friends.
The Mighty Dieners!
1. In Math, we rotated through different hands-on math stations that helped us build math skills in number sequencing, writing our numbers neatly, and adding on.
2. In Art, we drew pictures and cut out the pictures as a whole and then cut another picture in pieces and glued them on construction paper.
3. We had our Diener School Pizza Lunch and watched the movie Cars!
The Golden Owls:
1. We continued with positivity today. We had each student sit in the middle of our circle while the other students said something positive and nice about them.
2. During writing we are continuing with Drafting. We are using our previous webs to build a story. Each student is learning to use specific details and examples which support their ideas.
3. In art Mrs. Feinburg was absent due to her daughter's wedding. As a class we traveled far and wide outside, drawing and coloring.
Ms. Debbie’s Class : Today we:
1. Ms. Brooke, our occupational therapist, led us in a terrific exercise. We went fishing, and incorporated mathematics into our fishing expedition. Both large and small motor activity as well as some fine motor skills were utilized as well.
2. During math, the boys used our large foam dice blocks and our wooden beads to develop basic addition and subtraction sentences .
3. Ms. Seena organized a wonderful art project which continues the monthly theme of weather . We folded our paper into four equal parts and used a multi-medium/texture process to describe sunny, cloudy, and rainy weather, complete with lightning.
4. Language arts included a reading of a book about bugs, and a complimentary project which included the use of insect stencils, and we sang a song which taught us about the parts of the insect body.
5. Kindergarten ended their day with a lively music class led by Ms. Deanna.
What a fabulous Friday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1. continued to work on story sequencing. We used a flipbook to create stories with a beginning, middle, and end and then we colored and created our own stories!
2. talked about ways to make patterns using words! Then we made patterns with our word family words and added clapping and tapping as we 'read' our patterns.
3. read the poem 'Jack be Nimble' and took turns drawing Jack and the candlestick in different ways (i.e. Jack under, over, or next to the candlestick, short/tall/wide/thin candlesticks, etc.)
4. had pizza and watched a movie during lunch! We had so much fun sharing time with all of our Diener School friends.
The Mighty Dieners!
1. In Math, we rotated through different hands-on math stations that helped us build math skills in number sequencing, writing our numbers neatly, and adding on.
2. In Art, we drew pictures and cut out the pictures as a whole and then cut another picture in pieces and glued them on construction paper.
3. We had our Diener School Pizza Lunch and watched the movie Cars!
The Golden Owls:
1. We continued with positivity today. We had each student sit in the middle of our circle while the other students said something positive and nice about them.
2. During writing we are continuing with Drafting. We are using our previous webs to build a story. Each student is learning to use specific details and examples which support their ideas.
3. In art Mrs. Feinburg was absent due to her daughter's wedding. As a class we traveled far and wide outside, drawing and coloring.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Thursday November 6, 2008
PIZZA LUNCH FRIDAY!! Please only send in a snack and drink for your child.
Ms. Debbie’s Class (The Magic Trains):
1.) Today we voted on a class name and decided on, “The Magic Trains.”
2.) During Language Arts we finished reading a short book called “If I Were the Weather”. We also acted out different types of weather such as rain, snow and wind.
3.) Fitness was great. We played jump through the hoola hoop, letter tag, and “Mr. Dan says”.
4.) Music with Deanna was a lot of fun. We practiced the songs that we will be performing for the Hebrew Home residents soon.
Please have your child complete their homework and have a great night!
Ms. Courtney’s Class (The Diener Dinosaurs):
What a top-notch Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Worked on story sequencing - we colored and cut out story pictures, assembled them in the correct order, and then retold the story to our friends!
2.) Built patterns out of our word family words in math!
3.) Had fitness with Mr. Dan and music with Miss Deanna! We shared music with our friends from the K class and practiced songs that we're going to sing at the Hebrew Home later this month.
Ms. Kate’s Class (The Mighty Dieners):
1.) In Math we graphed the results from yesterday when we asked various people in the Diener School community, "What is your favorite stuffed animal? (frog, dog, alligator, lion or teddy bear).
2.) Ms. Kate started reading the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. While she was reading, we had to find which picture represented what she was reading. We then colored the picture and cut it out! As we read the story we looked for the corresponding picture, color and cut, and then glued the pictures in sequential order!
3.) In Music, we sang "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "God Bless America" to practice for our trip to the Hebrew Home!
Mr. Paul’s Class (The Golden Owls):
Today in the Golden Owls we:
1.) Met with Ms. Jen for speech and worked on problem solving in social situations.
2.) Had fitness with Mr. Dan, music with Ms. Marilyn, and drama with Mr. Jim continuing with our work on teambuilding and teamwork.
3.) Discussed the importance of positivity. We also talked about how complaining is something we need to do less of.
Ms. Debbie’s Class (The Magic Trains):
1.) Today we voted on a class name and decided on, “The Magic Trains.”
2.) During Language Arts we finished reading a short book called “If I Were the Weather”. We also acted out different types of weather such as rain, snow and wind.
3.) Fitness was great. We played jump through the hoola hoop, letter tag, and “Mr. Dan says”.
4.) Music with Deanna was a lot of fun. We practiced the songs that we will be performing for the Hebrew Home residents soon.
Please have your child complete their homework and have a great night!
Ms. Courtney’s Class (The Diener Dinosaurs):
What a top-notch Thursday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Worked on story sequencing - we colored and cut out story pictures, assembled them in the correct order, and then retold the story to our friends!
2.) Built patterns out of our word family words in math!
3.) Had fitness with Mr. Dan and music with Miss Deanna! We shared music with our friends from the K class and practiced songs that we're going to sing at the Hebrew Home later this month.
Ms. Kate’s Class (The Mighty Dieners):
1.) In Math we graphed the results from yesterday when we asked various people in the Diener School community, "What is your favorite stuffed animal? (frog, dog, alligator, lion or teddy bear).
2.) Ms. Kate started reading the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. While she was reading, we had to find which picture represented what she was reading. We then colored the picture and cut it out! As we read the story we looked for the corresponding picture, color and cut, and then glued the pictures in sequential order!
3.) In Music, we sang "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "God Bless America" to practice for our trip to the Hebrew Home!
Mr. Paul’s Class (The Golden Owls):
Today in the Golden Owls we:
1.) Met with Ms. Jen for speech and worked on problem solving in social situations.
2.) Had fitness with Mr. Dan, music with Ms. Marilyn, and drama with Mr. Jim continuing with our work on teambuilding and teamwork.
3.) Discussed the importance of positivity. We also talked about how complaining is something we need to do less of.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Ms. Debbie's Class:
1.) Today in kindergarten, the class discussed the qualities we would consider in choosing a President. Some of the kids voted for their Mom or Dad, and others recognized in themselves some very fine qualities.
2.) Ms. Jen, the class speech and language pathologist, worked with the children on sorting weather patterns and the clothes that we wear in each season. This continues our monthly theme. In coordination with the speech lesson, Ms. Debbie presented a four -season worksheet which utilized fine motor skills, sequencing, and concept-building.
3.) During math class our students explored the concepts of thick and thin and reviewed triangle, circle and square while following an instructional set of directions.
4.) Finally, Mr. Jim, our Drama teacher came to school today.
Ms. Courtney's Class: (The Diener Dinosaurs)
What a wonderful Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Read a Magic Schoolbus book about weather! Then we played our beanbag word family game and practiced writing our -at, -an, and -ad words on the window with special markers.
2.) Acted out the words from our math word wall and continued to work in our Calvert math books.
3.) Colored our special weather books from NOAA and talked about different kinds of weather.
4.) Had drama with Mr. Jim - it was so much fun!
Ms. Kate's Class: (The Mighty Dieners)
1.) In math we brainstormed categories that we would like to graph, then we voted on one to do today. We went around and asked everyone what their favorite stuffed animal was (lion, alligator, teddy bear, frog, dog). Then we counted up the tally marks and put the results in order from greatest to least, and we will graph the final results tomorrow.
2.) In Social Skills, Ms. Melissa showed us the "We're Growing Character" Tree and explained how we can fill the tree with leaves. Each branch has a different word written on it (cooperation, honesty, kindness, etc). If a student is seen representing one or more of these virtues, they get to put a leaf with their name on it, on the tree! Today, we got a leaf for cooperation!
3.) In Yoga we talked about our highs and lows (something we are happy about/sad about) and each showed a yoga pose we have learned!
We went to Green Acres today to see our buddies!
Mr. Paul's Class: (The Golden Owls)
Today in the Golden Owls we:
1.) Continued to work on synonyms and using the dictionary, introduced new vocabulary, identifying problems and solutions, and putting words in alphabetical order.
2.) Continued to work on writing number sentences, rounding, greater than and less than during our math class.
3.) Discussed Obama's win last night and watched his acceptance speech on the computer, talking about the outcome.
4.) Had a wonderful and relaxing yoga class, working on calming our bodies!
1.) Today in kindergarten, the class discussed the qualities we would consider in choosing a President. Some of the kids voted for their Mom or Dad, and others recognized in themselves some very fine qualities.
2.) Ms. Jen, the class speech and language pathologist, worked with the children on sorting weather patterns and the clothes that we wear in each season. This continues our monthly theme. In coordination with the speech lesson, Ms. Debbie presented a four -season worksheet which utilized fine motor skills, sequencing, and concept-building.
3.) During math class our students explored the concepts of thick and thin and reviewed triangle, circle and square while following an instructional set of directions.
4.) Finally, Mr. Jim, our Drama teacher came to school today.
Ms. Courtney's Class: (The Diener Dinosaurs)
What a wonderful Wednesday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Read a Magic Schoolbus book about weather! Then we played our beanbag word family game and practiced writing our -at, -an, and -ad words on the window with special markers.
2.) Acted out the words from our math word wall and continued to work in our Calvert math books.
3.) Colored our special weather books from NOAA and talked about different kinds of weather.
4.) Had drama with Mr. Jim - it was so much fun!
Ms. Kate's Class: (The Mighty Dieners)
1.) In math we brainstormed categories that we would like to graph, then we voted on one to do today. We went around and asked everyone what their favorite stuffed animal was (lion, alligator, teddy bear, frog, dog). Then we counted up the tally marks and put the results in order from greatest to least, and we will graph the final results tomorrow.
2.) In Social Skills, Ms. Melissa showed us the "We're Growing Character" Tree and explained how we can fill the tree with leaves. Each branch has a different word written on it (cooperation, honesty, kindness, etc). If a student is seen representing one or more of these virtues, they get to put a leaf with their name on it, on the tree! Today, we got a leaf for cooperation!
3.) In Yoga we talked about our highs and lows (something we are happy about/sad about) and each showed a yoga pose we have learned!
We went to Green Acres today to see our buddies!
Mr. Paul's Class: (The Golden Owls)
Today in the Golden Owls we:
1.) Continued to work on synonyms and using the dictionary, introduced new vocabulary, identifying problems and solutions, and putting words in alphabetical order.
2.) Continued to work on writing number sentences, rounding, greater than and less than during our math class.
3.) Discussed Obama's win last night and watched his acceptance speech on the computer, talking about the outcome.
4.) Had a wonderful and relaxing yoga class, working on calming our bodies!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Election Day @ Diener!
DAILY UPDATE: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 – ELECTION DAY!!
Ms. Debbie's Class:
1.) Today we started the day by using our new "Circle Time Center" which the kids really enjoy! We had a guest in our class, Teddy's sister Corinne, and she read "The Rainbow Fish" to the class. After the story, she nicely answered everyone's questions.
2.) During Language Arts we voted on our favorite ice cream flavor. We also discussed what it means to be a good "citizen" and the boys came up with some great answers.
3.) We had three specials today. We really enjoyed Fitness, Science and Art. In Science class we learned about "momentum" by doing an experiment involving a balloon and a penny.
Ms. Courtney's Class (The Diener Dinosaurs):What a terrific Tuesday!
Today we...
1.) played a really fun parachute game with Miss Brook - at the end we made a parachute tent and all jumped inside!
2.) added new words to our word wall and worked on our handwriting with Miss Brook in language arts.
3.) had science with Miss Llacey, fitness with Mr. Chris, and art with Miss Feinberg - what a great day!
Ms. Kate's Class (The Mighty Dieners):
Today we began with working the election booth! We had a GREAT time asking parents, staff, and students if they would like to participate in the voting process! We even showed everyone how to vote by: handing them a ballot and pencil, explaining that they should vote in the voting booth (since voting is a private thing!) and placing your vote in the "Vote Here" box.
1.) In Language Arts, we learned some important election words (election, vote, ballot, etc) by looking up the definitions. We ended our LA session by playing election bingo!
2.) In Math, we counted the votes! After we very carefully read and tallied the votes, we then graphed the results! We ended Math by coloring in our own "I voted!" certificate!
3.) In Science with Ms. Lacey, we worked on experiments with balloons!!
Mr. Paul's Class (The Golden Owls):
Today in the Golden Owls we:
1.) Worked on drafting from our brainstorming webs during our writing period.
2.) Began our November social studies unit of mapping. We started to map out rooms in the Diener School.
3.) Counted the election ballots and put them on a graph! Obama won!
4.) Had our second science class and did experiments based on hot air balloons.
Ms. Debbie's Class:
1.) Today we started the day by using our new "Circle Time Center" which the kids really enjoy! We had a guest in our class, Teddy's sister Corinne, and she read "The Rainbow Fish" to the class. After the story, she nicely answered everyone's questions.
2.) During Language Arts we voted on our favorite ice cream flavor. We also discussed what it means to be a good "citizen" and the boys came up with some great answers.
3.) We had three specials today. We really enjoyed Fitness, Science and Art. In Science class we learned about "momentum" by doing an experiment involving a balloon and a penny.
Ms. Courtney's Class (The Diener Dinosaurs):What a terrific Tuesday!
Today we...
1.) played a really fun parachute game with Miss Brook - at the end we made a parachute tent and all jumped inside!
2.) added new words to our word wall and worked on our handwriting with Miss Brook in language arts.
3.) had science with Miss Llacey, fitness with Mr. Chris, and art with Miss Feinberg - what a great day!
Ms. Kate's Class (The Mighty Dieners):
Today we began with working the election booth! We had a GREAT time asking parents, staff, and students if they would like to participate in the voting process! We even showed everyone how to vote by: handing them a ballot and pencil, explaining that they should vote in the voting booth (since voting is a private thing!) and placing your vote in the "Vote Here" box.
1.) In Language Arts, we learned some important election words (election, vote, ballot, etc) by looking up the definitions. We ended our LA session by playing election bingo!
2.) In Math, we counted the votes! After we very carefully read and tallied the votes, we then graphed the results! We ended Math by coloring in our own "I voted!" certificate!
3.) In Science with Ms. Lacey, we worked on experiments with balloons!!
Mr. Paul's Class (The Golden Owls):
Today in the Golden Owls we:
1.) Worked on drafting from our brainstorming webs during our writing period.
2.) Began our November social studies unit of mapping. We started to map out rooms in the Diener School.
3.) Counted the election ballots and put them on a graph! Obama won!
4.) Had our second science class and did experiments based on hot air balloons.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
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The Diener School
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