Friday Follow Up-December 18, 2009

Welcome back Diener friends. Please read below to see what your kids have been learning!!

K class: Emily

This week we enjoyed working together to make home made latkes (potato pancakes) in honor of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. We worked together to peel, grate, and mix the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. As we worked through each step, we learned new vocabulary and concepts. Social skills were incorporated throughout this wonderful activity!

1-2 class: Jenni

This week we enjoyed working together to make home made latkes (potato pancakes) in honor of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. We worked together to peel, grate, and mix the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. As we worked through each step, we learned new vocabulary and concepts. While our yummy latkes were frying we played Latka Jeopardy, which included the categories Ingredients, Utensils, Sequencing, and What Does Not Belong. Social skills were incorporated throughout this wonderful activity!

Monday in fitness we played a cooperation game sharing hulla hoops and trying to catch balloons in them, also sending the hoop from friend to friend holding hands without letting go of each other. The rest of the week we practice our dances for fri.

In yoga, worked on breathing techniques and learning to control our bodies and heart rate after being worked up.

This week in science, we wrapped up our unit on the human body. The kids enjoyed completing their Mini-Me Projects. They learned the difference between the interior and exterior of their bodies. We labeled our bones and all of the major organs in our bodies. We also discussed the functions of our bones and organs and we briefly talked about digestion.

During the last session of the Uppers Buddy Program, the kids had a great time hanging out with their buddies for the last time. We played several group games, as well as, playing Kickball and having a fabulous fashion show!

We had fun making a variety of holiday treats during the Social Club, this week. On Monday, we colored different holiday objects to that represented numerous cultures and their holiday traditions. On Thursday, we had fun assembling our Penguin
Thermometers and singing holiday music.

This week in music, we were busy practicing our songs for the Holiday and Multicultural Festival. Today we all performed our Christmas and Hanukkah songs for our parents! We all sounded beautiful as we sang songs like "Jingle Bells," "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel." We can't wait to come back in 2010 and keep having fun in music!


We had so much fun this week in speech and language! The Uppers enjoyed exchanging gifts during Social Skills group. All of the students managed to keep their Secret Snow Owls to themselves -- which can be quite a feat! We practiced what to do with big/little problems within gift giving situations and all of the kids were thrilled with the gifts they received! Lots of fun was had by all!

Ms. Courtney's Inters had a blast creating Rudolph puppets. They followed multiple step directions and were pleased with their creations.

Primary-This week we focused on the letter U during our weekly handwriting group with Ms. Brook. We also practiced our fine motor skills, and body and spatial awareness skills by making a tasty snowman craft using marshmallows, pretzels, raisins, and other sweets.

Inters (Ms. Jenni)- This week we participated in a large group activity with Ms. Courtney's class, making a tasty holiday snack. We used a piece of bread shaped like a triangle, and added antlers, a red nose, and other facial features using a variety of yummy treats. We got to practice both our fine motor and sequencing skills. We also worked very hard during our weekly handwriting group with Ms. Brook. This week we started learning about lower case "tall" letters.

HAVE A GREAT BREAK AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE DIENER STAFF!

Friday Follow Up-December 11, 2009

This week in music, we continued to work on our holiday songs for the concert on December 18th. We are singing a lot of fun songs, including "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." We also did fun activities with rhythm sticks, such as "I Like to Move It." We are really enjoying learning our holiday songs!

Primary-The letter of the week was L and the kids continued to work on letter formation using a multi-sensory approach. This week the kids experimented with chalk during our handwriting group. They also participated in their weekly motor group dancing with bean bags and focusing on body awareness. In addition, the boys worked on formulating and maneuvering their very own obstacle courses.

This week during speech and language, Ms. Barbara and Ms. Abbe's Uppers continued to further their knowledge of figurative language - specifically, idioms. Not to blow our own horns or anything but we were on top of the world when we realized how much we had learned without having to pay an arm and a leg! :)

Ms. Kate and Ms. Ginny's Uppers are very excited about our Secret Snow Owl project. We spent some time discussing and practicing perspective taking and others' favorite things during Social & Life Skills group. We also had lots of fun learning about and celebrating Hanukkah!

Ms. Courtney and Ms. Deanna's Uppers had a blast reading about Pirate Joe and Pirate Pete but felt badly for them when they lost their ship! After our story, we used Give Me 5 to follow directions when creating our own pirate ships with sticker scenes. The boys especially enjoyed taking turns giving each other verbal directions.

Friday Follow Up-December 4, 2009

This week in fitness, we worked on balance, directional moving, skipping, hopping, stepping backwards, forwards, and side to side. We finished up our T-Ball unit on Wednesday by splitting into stations, doing target practice, batting practice, and catching.

We did many different dances in dance class such as, The Maccarena, The Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Hokey Pokey, and many more. The kids had so much fun!

This week in music, we started singing holiday songs! In all of our classes,we sang both Christmas and Hanukkah songs. In the Primary class, we sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer" and "Dreidel, Driedel." In the Inters classes, we sang "The Chipmunk Song," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." In the Uppers classes, we sang "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree," "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." "Dreidel, Dreidel," and "Holly Jolly Christmas." We had a great time!

We had another great Thursday of drama. We explored making big choices with our bodies and allowing the actions of those around us to affect our own creative decisions. Some of the classes also explored some new clowning exercises which we hope to use in our production of the Ugly Duckling this spring.

This week in science, we continued to discuss the human body by focusing on one of it's most important parts, our bones! The primary and intermediate classes assembled a skeleton and learned about the major bones in our body ( skull, spine, ribs, pelvic, arms and legs). We learned two important functions of bones in our bodies; 1) to give us structure and 2) to protect our organs. The uppers were excited to start their Body Building class projects. Each student had a friend trace around their body. The students will draw their bones on their body outline. Eventually, we will add additional part of the body to these drawings. What a great way to learn about our bodies from the inside out!

We had so much fun making Gingerbread pops and playing relay games, in the Buddy Program this week. The kids worked with their buddies to decorate and devour their scrumptious creations! Aaron organized some fantastic group games which encouraged the kids to work together.

The participants of the Social Club had fun decorating a snowman and using different objects to make an appropriate setting for their creation! We also talked about Hanukkah and made menorah candles. Hooray for the holidays

This week in art the students learned more about colors and how to blend them using watercolor paints. The students then helped me prepare a 'special project' for a 'secret special Diener School person' (bet you cant guess who)!? Please ask your children what they helped create - they all loved being in on the secret!

Primary- participated in weekly movement group focusing on body awareness and turn taking. Handwriting group- letter K focusing on letter formation, mature grasp patterns, and utilizing non-dominant hand as a stabilizer. Inters-J participated in weekly movement group focusing on upperbody and core strengthening, social skills, and visual motor skills. Participated in weekly handwriting group focusing on lower case e. The kids continued to focus on letter formation, spacing and alignment, pencil grasp, and posture.


K class: This week in speech group we learned how to make chocolate pudding. We covered a variety of language areas during the activity including sequencing, following directions, and turn taking.

1-2 Class (Jenni)- This week in speech group we learned how to make vanilla pudding. We covered a variety of language areas during the activity including sequencing, vocabulary, following directions, and turn taking.

We had a fabulous week expanding our speech, language, and social skills! On Monday, Ms. Kate's class read the book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. We had lots of fun sharing the parts of the story-the boots that went CLOMP CLOMP, the gloves that went CLAP CLAP, etc We then worked together to sequence and paraphrase the beginning, middle, and end.

Ms. Barbara's class continued to work on our figurative language book. Thus far, each student has completed a homonym, homophone, and idiom. We will work on humor and then put the finishing touches on our book soon.

Ms. Courtney's class worked on their sentence development and using both irregular and regular past tense verb forms. We played Photo Fish and Say and had so much fun finding as may matches as we could!

NOTE TO UPPERS PARENTS-Please check your children's backpacks for letters regarding our Secret Show Owl program. Thank you and have a great weekend!

While working with Kathy, we enjoyed participating in fun but challenging social games. Our games focused on visual skills, motor planning and most importantly, proper social skills!

Friday Follow Up-November 20, 2009

Welcome back Diener friends. This is what we have been up to...

In fitness, we continued with our T-Ball unit, working on our throwing and hitting. We also focused on catching pop flys and grounders and making double plays. All of the kids had to aim and throw through three circles shaped like a triangle.

We had a great performance at the Hebrew Home today-the kids were wonderful!!

We had a great week in music class. In the primary class we sang our Thanksgiving songs including "5 Little Turkeys" and "Lets Be Thankful." We read two of our favorite musical books, "5 Green and Speckled Frogs" and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" In the inters classes, we had some new fun instruments to play for our instrument pass. We also did rhythm stick games and practiced keeping a steady beat! Today, the uppers classes went to the Hebrew Home an did an AMAZING job! The audience loved our singing!

We had a WONDERFUL time in Art class this week! To kick off our activity, the students told me about the Thanksgiving holiday and I read them a story, "Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving! The students were then given featherless turkey cutouts that they had to put in disguise to keep them away from the dinner table. All of the kids came up with their own creative costumes and were so pleased with the final products! Please look for Mack Nuggets Turkey Farm and our Turkeys in Disguise the next time you stop inside Diener.

This week in science, we began our unit on the Human Body. The primary and inters classes examined a skeleton and watched an episode of the Magic School Bus, while the uppers identified the parts of our bodies that we use for our five senses. They also watched an episode of the Magic School Bus that focused on the human body and all of its amazing parts.

We had a great time in the Buddy Program this week. The buddies worked together to find 40 different objects on the Diener School Scavenger Hunt! Each team had three minutes to find 10 objects in four different rooms. The kids were so excited to see their buddies and show them around the school.

The social club is going great! We had a great time making candy corn figures, playing freeze dance, and playing Pirate Adventure on the playground.

In yoga, we jiggled to the beat with drumming music and shook our musical instruments to loosen all the tight places. We did our yoga movements to the story "The Lost Bone" and we challenged our bodies with the "Plank" pose. We ended our session with a relaxation and a hearty "yes" to acknowledge our hard work today!

Friday Follow Up-November 13, 2009

This week in science, we finished our amazing unit on the Five Senses. We did an overview of the senses and discussed how we use them and why they are important. All of the students had the opportunity to make their own playdough! Next week, we will start our unit on Fitness, Nutrition, and the Human Body.

The Buddy Program was wonderful this week. The participants had a great time playing as a team and getting to know the games. The Green Acres students are coming up with some wonderful ideas and activities to do for the remaining weeks. I'm thrilled about how well the program is going.

This week in the Social Club, we had fun making Hand print Turkeys and decorative mugs. We took advantage of the nice weather and had extra recess outside. When the weather turned rainy, we had fun playing an array of physically challenging games in the sensory room.

In drama we have continued to work on using our bodies and voices to communicate information and ideas. We have also been working on our ability to work together as an ensemble with games like "slow motion snowball fight" and "magic word" where performers work together to communicate a word without using their voices.

In fitness, we played balloon volleyball and hit balls in the air with paddle sticks. We also have been working on our softball unit. The kids worked out force outs and began hitting off of the T-Stand. In dance on Friday, we played freeze copy dance and worked on the dance routine for the Hebrew Home.

In yoga this week, we practiced gentle stretches, Downward Dog and Tree pose. e did an activity around the fall; imagining our leaf shapes, blowing leaves with a yoga breath and using a chestnut to roll under our feet. All of these worked on becoming aware of our foundation-our legs, like the tree trunk. Everyone kept their chestnuts as a reminder that fall is a time of year that gives us gifts.

It was another fun week in music! In the Primary class, we played our favorite movement games like "Bear Hunt," "Bop Til You Drop," and "Instrument Pass." We learned Thanksgiving songs, such as "5 Little Turkeys," and sang one of our new favorites, "Open Shut Them." In the Inters classes, we did our favorite games such as "Count and Move" and "Freeze Dance." This week we also got to use the new sets of rhythm sticks to play games such as "Greased Lightning" and "When The Saints Go Marching In!" We got to practice keeping the beat with our rhythm sticks. In the Uppers Classes, we continued to prepare for our trip to the Hebrew Home next Friday, Nov. 20th.

This week in art, we focused on the HUMAN BODY and the way that our bodies are put together. The students took turns giving me the names of body parts and as the parts were listed, I constructed a "new friend" starting with the head and working down to the feet. After my example was completed each student was given cutouts so that they could organize and create a person of their own! Once all of the pieces were glued down and their "friends" were posed, the students made each of theirs unique by creating clothing, faces, and a background! Every student came up with a different idea and I was astounded with the finished products. Please keep an eye out for the new artwork on the walls at The Diener School.

Friday Follow Up-November 6, 2009

Welcome back Diener friends!

This week in art, we worked with Mrs. Gilbertson (better known as Ms. Jackie or Kelley's mom) to create a surprise auction item for this year's Diener School Auction! Each child was given a blank square tile that they painted using many different techniques ranging from stamping to dragging to free hand! The tiles turned out amazing and will soon be fired so that they can be put together to create our finished product! Be sure to look out for the auction item on May 26th!!

We continued to have fun playing all of our favorite instruments and movement games this week in music. In the primary class, we started learning Thanksgiving songs, including, "Five Little Turkeys." We did "Bop Til You Drop" and "Bear Hunt." In the Inters classes, we joined together for one big group music class and had played a lot of fun games, including "The Hokey Pokey," "Count and Move," and Instrument Pass! In the uppers classes, we continued to practice our songs for the upcoming Hebrew Home performance, including "The Star Spangled Banner," "Over the River and Through the Woods," "Oh Susanna," and "Home on the Range."

In fitness we worked on hand eye coordination and color matching by catching different color frisbees and matching the frisbees up with tHe same color cones. We also swatted down the frisbees in the air by hitting them with foam lacrosse sticks. We started out T-Ball unit on Wednesday and have been working on different throws (overhand, grounder, etc.).

In yoga, we learned a new word, Namise (ask your child the meaning!). We also used our eye pillows and learned a new position, a lung and playing baby.

This week in science, we continued to discuss the 5 senses and highlighted the sense of sight. The primary and inters classes had a blast listening to the story, "It Looked Like Spilt Milk," by Charles G. Shaw. In addition to this, we made our very own "spilt milk" pictures. They look amazing! The uppers classes created Five Senses poetry and assembled kaleidoscopes as appealing to the eye as possible. I was very impressed by how hard they worked! Please see end of blog for Five Senses Poems!

Everyone agreed (kids included) that the buddy program was the BEST ever this week! Mr. Aaron organized several group games to play. The children enjoyed working together as a team to keep a soccer ball on a parachute. They had to listen to each other and work together to be successful. We also took advantage of the beautiful fall weather by going outside to play an invigorating game of kickball. We are all looking forward to the rest of our sessions together!

This week in the social club, we focused on completing circles of communication. The kids are continuing to form bonds and friendships with each other and I am striving to asses them with this, sometimes difficult task. I encourage the students to ask friends for help to and to engage in social conversation. We have worked on puzzles, played with Legos, played outside, and created various arts and crafts projects!

MS. BARBARA'S CLASS-5 SENSES POEM:

I SEE MS. PATRICE, PEOPLE, AND BEAUTIFUL SHOES.

I HEAR FIRE ENGINES, WRITING ON THE BOARD, AND THE CREEKY CHAIR.

I TASTE ENCHILADAS, RAMEN, AND DUMPLINGS.

I TOUCH TOYS, PRESENTS, AND WINDOWS.

I SMELL MASHED POTATOES, PERFUME, AND FLOWERS.


MS. KATE'S CLASS-5 SENSES POEM:

I SEE OUR EXPERIMENT, A FLAG, AND CONSTRUCTION SITE.

I HEAR A SIREN, INSTRUMENTS, AN GUM.

I TOUCH THE CHALKBOARD, THE TABLE, AND THE CARPET.

I SMELL CHOCOLATE DONUTS, CHEESE PIZZA, AND SUBWAY SUB SHOPS.

Friday Follow Up-October 30, 2009

Welcome back Diener friends!

We had a great time this week in music! In the Primary class, we enjoyed all of our Halloween songs for one more week-"Scarecrow," "Five Little Pumpkins," "Orange Orange Pumpkin, What Do You See," and "Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Big and Round." We also did the Hokey Pokey and played with some new instruments. We learned that all of the instruments we play in class, such as maracas, wood blocks, rhythm sticks, and bongo drums are all percussion instruments. We listened to clips of the different instruments playing with an orchestra. In the Uppers classes, we started learning our songs to sing at the Hebrew Home next month. We will be singing fun songs such as "The Star Spangled Banner," "Oh Susanna," "You are My Sunshine," and "Over the River and Through the Woods."

In fitness, we went over different passes in basketball and chest passes. On Wednesday, we began T-Ball which unit will be covered next month. In dance class, we learned a new routine for our group dance. The Uppers classes practiced their dance for the Hebrew Home next month. During Yoga class, we made bridges with our feet working on our core muscles. We also pretended to be trees in the fall and shake our leaves!

In Art, the Primary class created wonderful 3-D collages using the secondary colors. In the Inters and Uppers classes, we focused on lines, the basic principle of art. The children discovered that there are lines all around us in different shapes and forms.

This week in science, we are focusing on the sense of touch/feeling. The Primary and Inters classes played with "Feely Bags" and tried to guess what objects were in the bags (without looking)! We also utilized our fine motor skills by completing a worksheet that identified what body part we use to touch things. In addition to this, we read the book, "My Five Senses," by Margaret Miller. The Uppers classes explored the sense of touch by creating "gak." We made predictions about what would happen when we mixed all of the ingredients together. We also made "spooky bubbles" and read a special book!

In the Buddy Program, we had a blast making candied apples and playing "Find the Pumpkin." The students are really getting to know their buddies from Green Acres! Everyone is working together, in a safe, but fun, environment. We couldnt ask for more!

Friday Follow Up-October 16, 2009

Hello Diener Friends! Welcome back to the blog! Please read below to see what your children have been doing...

This week in the primary music class, we continued singing our favorite songs and playing our favorite instruments. We sang our "Scarecrow" song and learned a new song about Halloween, "Orange Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkin, What Do You See?" We were really into the Bear Hunt this week!
In the Inters and Uppers classes, we continued to learn about musical instruments. This week, we learned about the woodwinds family, and saw pictures of and heard the sounds of the flute, oboe, clarinet, piccolo, saxophone, and recorded. We continued to play our favorite movement games!

In fitness, we continued practicing our soccer passes. We also began our second week of kickball. We will eventually be able to have class vs. class kickball games and ultimately, a staff vs. students game! More details to follow!

This week in yoga, we learned new poses such as "lizzard on a rock" and "cobra snake." We moved our bodies into three different poses and everyone enjoyed themselves!

In art, the primary class had a great time painting popsicle sticks! First, we had to make the paint thicker by adding flour. The children put the paint on their paper and used their popsicle sticks to spread the paint and create wonderful designs!
In the inters class, we focused on making secondary colors combining different primary colors. The kids mixed different primary colors together to see which secondary colors (green, orange, and purple) they could make!

This week in science, we explored the sense of taste by conducting taste test(s). In the primary and inters class, we talked about how our tongue helps us to talk and taste things! We stimulated our taste buds by sampling foods (lemon wedge, jelly bean, potato chip, and unsweetened cocoa)from the four major taste groups; sour, sweet, salty, and bitter. The uppers had a blast identifying taste in the Jelly Belly taste test. The kids were delighted to try each jelly bean and match the taste in their mouth to the corresponding picture. In addition to the taste test, the uppers learned about the famous inventor, George Washington Carver, and his discovery of the peanut! We talked about how was use the peanut, products that contain peanuts, and how some people are allergic to peanuts. Overall, it was a very tasty week!!

We had a great time in the Social Club this week, making Halloween finger puppets/bookmarks and tasty carmel apples. We had fun putting puzzles together and building a Lego village! We worked on coming up with polite ways to ask friends to play with us and friendly ways to tell them that we do not want to play. The participants are making social strides and forming tighter bonds with their classmates!

The first week of the Buddy Program started out wonderfully! The Green Acres students took to our kids immediately and we coined the term, "Buddy Power!" Our kids were matched and introduced to their buddy from Green Acres and we jumped right into our activities. Half of the buddies hung out with Mr. Aaron and played a challenging game where they had to work with their buddy to find a pumpkin. The other half of the buddies worked with Ms. Patrice and Ms. Abbe to make delicious caramel apples. The buddies had time to discuss what they like about fall and what they like to do in the fall. Everyone is looking forward to our next meeting on October 28th!

Congrats to the Patrols on their first week on duty! A few kinks need to be worked out, but the more we do our post, the better we will be! Thank you Patrols, see you on Monday!!

Friday Follow Up- October 9, 2009

Hello Diener Friends!
Welcome back to our weekly Friday Follow Up. This is a chance to learn about what the children are doing in yoga, drama, art, music, science, and fitness. Enjoy!

This week in fitness, the kids began soccer! The kids worked on teamwork including, passing and learning how to control the ball. We also worked on passing with soft passes and not hard kicks. At the end of each class, the kids got to play a big game--Kids vs. Fitness Instructors! They had to pass the ball to each kid before they scored and in the end...THE KIDS WON!

In dance, all classes reviewed the dance(s) that we have learned. Ask your kids to show you count(s) 5, 6, 7, and 8 and they will dance for you!

We had so much fun this week in music!

In the Primary class, we continued singing our favorite songs, including "5 Green and Speckled Frogs" and "Old McDonald." We learned some new songs such as, "Open Shut Them" and "Scarecrow." We had a blast playing all of the different instruments!

In the Inters class, we started to learn about musical instruments. This week, we learned about the string family, and got to see and hear what each instrument sounds like. We continued to play our favorite music and movement games like, "Bop Til You Drop" and "Count and Move."

In the Uppers classes, we also started to learn about musical instruments and discussed the string family a little more in depth. We learned about the violin, viola, cello, bass, harp, guitar, and mandolin. We got to hear orchestral clips of each instrument. We continued to play our favrite games and sing our favorite songs.

This week in science, we focused on one of our five senses; hearing/sound. The primary and intermediate classes heard a story called "My Five Senses." We talked about how we can use one of our senses, and we can use more than one at a time. To really grasp the concept of sound, we made personalized noise makers. Students had to unscramble the letters in their names and follow step by step instructions to complete the project. Ms. Patrice made a noise maker that had tissue paper inside, while the students filled theirs with ceramic chips. We made comparisons about loud and soft sounds and we concluded that the students' noise makers made a louder niose than Ms. Patrice's!

The intermediate and upper classes were introduced to the inventor of the week: Alexander Graham Bell. We talked about his infamous invention, the telephone, and how his creation was and still is so important in our society. Linking his creation to our topic of the month, we recreated his contraption the old fashioned way, using cups and string. We used different materials (metal cans, small plastic cups, larger plastic cups, paper cups, oatmeal canisters, etc.). Students had the opportunity to make predictions about which model worked the best. They recorded their obervations and tested their theories.

During the After School Social Club on Monday, we acively participated in a structured peer activity where we constructed festive paper plate scarecrows by following step by step verbal directions. We worked on sharpening specific social skills such as sharing, resolving conflicts, and working together to complete a task (putting a puzzle together). To pay homage to Fire Safety Awareness Week, we had a very special visit from three wonderful volunteer firefighters on Thursday. They came to speak to us about important facts and tips about fire safety. The participants had the opportunity to ask quetions, demonstrate their prior knowledge about the topic, take a picture with a fully uniformed firefighter, and even watch the fire truck pull away with all of its sirens on! It was a very memorable educational experience for all!

In yoga, all of the classes played a game called The Pillow Game. Each child lays their head down on each other's tummy so they can feel each other's tummy rise and sink with each breath. We also became balloons!! We started by crouching down close to the floor and as the yoga instructor pumped the kids with fake air, we got bigger and bigger until we were standing on our tip toes! We released the "air" by running around.

In art class, the Primary class created secondary colors (green, orange purple) by mixing primary colors together! The children has so much fun painting with toothbrushes and are learning about all different kinds of tools they can paint with!

The Uppers class learned about all of the warm colors and created very interesting 3-D designs! In order to create these designs, the children used yellow, red, and orange contruction paper, cutting long rectangular shapes. The children the bent, twisted, and curved these shapes, glued them down on background paper, and out came our 3-D designs! They loved it!

Friday Follow Up! Friday, October 2, 2009

Hello Diener Friends!

Thank you to those who read our blog. We have formally changed our daily update to a weekly Friday blog that we call Friday Follow UP! On this blog, you will find information about our weekly specials including yoga, drama, art, music, science and fitness.  All language arts and math information and updates will be distributed via email or your child's folder on Mondays and Fridays! Enjoy!

This week in fitness we worked on balancing on the balance beam, catching bean bags, frisbees while walking through traffic (don't worry, our kids were the traffic!). This improves body awareness and paying attention to their surroundings.

In dance we did the hokey pokey, practiced our dance moves, and had a ball!

In yoga we worked on breathing techniques. We sat back to back with friends and listened to how we felt each other's breathing.  We learned yoga positions such as downward dog, sleeping baby, cat, and lion.  The kids started and ended each class with our yoga bell.

In art, our students worked with primary colors and "cold colors". Our primary and inters classes made color collages using red, yellow and blue and our uppers used various shapes and colors to create a collage with "contrast".

In drama, our students laughed as they enjoyed several games with Mr. Jim. Some classes played, "The Magic Suitcase" game while others played, "Guess who I am".  Please ask your students about their fabulous drama experience!

This week in music, we have been working on the connection between music and movement.  Our primary and inters classes have been singing fun songs such as "Bop til you drop" and "Bear Hunt" and "Count and More".  In the uppers classes we have been singing lots of fun songs such as selections from High School Musical and "Ol' Time Rock and Roll."

After weeks of investigations and observations in science to confirm our hypothesis on scientific subjects such as weather and tornados, we are currently exploring the five senses. We used our five senses to further examine all 5 senses!  

Friday, September 18, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) Today during morning meeting we began talking about our classroom jobs (weather helper, line leader, line caboose, schedule helper, and calendar helper. Each week we will be rotating the jobs so that everyone can have a turn. We will begin our jobs on Monday.
2.) Today we had a special trip to the fire station! It was so much fun. We met firefighters, explored the trucks and even had a turn to sit in the driver’s seat!
3.) This afternoon we made our own fire trucks using markers, scissors and glue.

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) Ms. Jen from Speech came to our class today. She read us a chapter of Frog and Toad. Afterwards, we played a fishing game with sentences.
2.) In Language Arts, we started our sight word rings. We will add to them daily!
3.) Today was yummy pizza lunch day! Have a great weekend!

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) Today during math we played a fun game that required students to make prediction and use tally marks to record results. Using a plastic cup we recorded how many times out of ten trials the cup landed on its side, upright, or upside down. We then made predictions of what we thought might happen if we tried it for a second time.
2.) We made a rice crispy treats with Ms. Lynn's class to take to the firehouse to thank all the Firefighters for the hard work they do protecting our community.
3.) During Morning Meeting we counted all the way to 60 on our number chart and discovered that we have had just as many sunny days as we have had cloudy days in the month of September!

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
1.) During Social Skills, Ms. Kate introduced the theme, “Think before Acting”, and our class learned (1) to pause, (2) think about what is really happening during a situation/conflict—“gather all the facts”, (3) reflect-- “ think about all the facts” and (4) then take appropriate action. Through a series of prompted skits (role play), and with the help of props, students learned to clarify a situation, understanding their own, and other’s actions/emotions, and be able to ask questions that are not emotion-laden. Students learned they can then resolve a potential conflict without individuals experiencing bruised feelings.
2.) In Science, Ms. Patrice read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which was followed by the class performing a storm-related experiment. Students’ enjoyed the accompanying craft project, making awesome storm clouds with individual flair.
3.) During Math class our students cut out construction paper representations of stop lights, roads (straight and curved) and landmarks, as we continued our study of map making. As discussion of dimensions, spacing, sequencing, memory work, (straight vs. curved road on route to the Post Office). We as well learned that many things in life (math or writing or moving around) take many steps to accomplish the final produce. We went over the steps involved in making a map. Step 1: Driving to the Post Office to discover the exact route. Step 2: Cutting out the parts of the map needed (brainstorming process). The following steps will be completed next week. Step 3: Building the map using the parts we cut out (drawing process). Step 4: Testing the final product by having Ms. Jillian drive to the Post Office using only our map!

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) Today we played a bean bag game in OT to help us with directionality.
2.) In music we played instruments to “Play That Funky Music” and then sang from our songbooks.
3.) We did a reader’s theater of Double Trouble in Walla Walla.

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) Today during math we talked about nearest and farthest. We played a bean bag toss game and talked about where the bean bags landed.
2.) During Drama with Mr. Jim we played lots of games using our imagination. We pretended to ride a train and make several stops, one of the stops was a pretend library.
3.) We continued to work on our “All About Me” books today, and everyone shared pictures of their families.

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) We started working on our community! We each picked a building in a town to create and started painting our boxes.
2.) We had drama with Mr. Jim and played lots of fun games like, “The Magic Suitcase.”
3.) We read the third chapter of our Frog and Toad novel. It was about eating lots of cookies and we learned the meaning of “willpower.”

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) In math we completed a chapter review and practiced patterns using foam sticker and dot markers.
2.) We had Drama with Mr. Jim and the students enjoyed such activities as “The Magic Suitcase” and “Night at the Museum.”
3.) We wrote thank you cards for the firefighters at the station next door and read several books on firefighters. Tomorrow we will be delivering our cards to the fire house with a special treat!

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
1.) Fine motor work was the order of the day. A warm-up arrival activity included learning to tie knots, and then knots at several spaced intervals along a line of string. This was followed by sequencing activities and identifying ordinal numbers, which included a great deal of scissor cutting, and printing practice.
2.) Today we created our Post Office word wall by pairing post office-related words with pictures on poster board. Students worked in groups, demonstrated understanding of the art of compromise, and furthered their understanding of the group process, as they sorted through the material together.
3.) Ms. Kathy led a wonderful O.T. class where students utilized gross motor skills. Incorporated during the session was: listening/attentional work, accurate processing of directions, “Form a circle please,” directionality (left-right, up-down, turn around) body awareness, teamwork, and timing/rhythm, combined with very lively sets of music. A “rock star” game served to strengthen the upper body and “cross mid-line” awareness.

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) Today we played some very funny drama games with Mr. Jim.
2.) We wrote a story to picture prompts.
3.) We started working on a 3-D map of Maryland.

IMPORTANT DATES:
· Pizza Lunch TOMORROW – Please send your child in with their snack and drink for the day.

· The following forms are due Friday, September 24th:
o T-Shirt Order (all sizes are adult sizes and NOT kids sizes)
o TaeKwonDo Registration
o After School Social Club Registration

· The School Counseling Group is presenting a Parent’s Lecture, September 30th, 2009 @ 9:30AM to discuss guidelines and ideas when considering schools after Diener and the general admissions process to other schools in the area. More information to follow. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to lois@thedienerschool.org.

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) Today we played “Hide & Seek” with Mr. Aaron. We were learning the rules, cooperation, and had a terrific time in the process.
2.) We went on a Bear Hunt with Ms. Deanna during music.
3.) Ask your curious caterpillar to show you how to “Stop, Drop & Roll.”
4.) During science we read, The Snowy Day, and made a snowman

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) In science today we finished our weather mobiles. Don’t forget to hang them up!
2.) We read Frog & Toad. Ask your child, “Why was Toad upset about the garden?”
3.) We also started learning how to write in journals.
4.) In Social Studies, we are continuing our discussion about community helpers and getting ready for our walk to the firehouse Friday!

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) We began building our Diener School Community today. Each child chose a type of building that is important in our community and then began painting their boxes. Tomorrow we will be adding windows, doors and other distinguishing objects to our buildings. Some ideas the students came up with were a movie theater, doctors office and a swimming pool!
2.) During math we continued practicing our ABAB, AABAAB, ABBABBA, and ABC patterns. Everyone did a great job completing these patterns without visual prompts!
3.) All the students are doing a great job in their Language Arts groups. Today as a large group we worked on sorting words by word families -at, -an, -ed, and –et.

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
1.) Language Art groups began today. Each Monday you will receive e-mails from your child’s Language Arts teacher, which will include specifics concerning group goals for the week. This is separate from the daily update (paper form in daily folder will not include LA Group information) as it will only come via e-mail. LA group homework will come home Mondays, and is generated by the LA Group teacher.
2.) In Math we continued the direction lesson and geometric shapes, (following yesterdays visual-rich driving experience to the Potomac Post Office), by learning specific written directions for driving from the Diener School to the Potomac Post Office. We incorporated our knowledge of shapes, rectangles and triangles as we created a large map. Once our map is finished we will put accuracy to the test by having Ms. Jillian drive us to the Post Office, using only our map to help her get there!
3.) Our fine motor skills were further honed today. We used modeling clay to mold a representation of the front of a properly addressed envelope. Different colors denoted the outside shape, the stamp, and the address lines.

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) Today we started our language arts groups.
2.) In social group we talked about expected and unexpected behaviors.3.) In math we answered word problems that involve place value.

IMPORTANT DATES:
· Pizza Lunch this Friday – Please send your child in with their snack and drink for the day.
· The following are due Friday, September 24th:
o T-Shirt Order Form (all sizes are adult sizes and NOT kids sizes)
o TaeKwonDo Registration
o After School Social Club Registration
· The School Counseling Group is Presenting a Parent’s Lecture, September 30th, 2009 @ 9:30AM to discuss guidelines and ideas when considering schools after Diener and the general admissions process to other schools in the area

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) Today we played fun games with Ms. Brook. We played a movement game putting our bean bag on our head, shoulders and elbows. We also played a bean bag passing game.2.) During Language Arts we read a poem about Firefighters and went on a letter hunt for the letter “S” and a word hunt for the word “fire.” 3.) During Math we talked about the concept of “thick.” We then played a game finding the “thick” fire hose, fire hydrant and ladder.

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) Today in math we sorted pasta while working on groupings of 2, 4, and 6.
2.) Fitness continued from yesterday working on eye hand coordination, catching and moving at the same time.
3.) In Social Studies, we discussed how police officers help our community and what their roles are.

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) We continued our community helpers theme talking today about police officers and firefighters. In speech, Ms. Sarabeth read us a story about community helpers and then we played a matching memory game. In the afternoon we read a story about police officers and completed a page in our Community Helpers Book.
2.) Today in science the students were introduced to the water cycle and made ‘Water Cycle Bags’ to see how water turns into water vapor.3.) In math we reviewed sorting and classifying object into categories such as size, shape, color and function.

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
1.) During Language Arts we read the book We Need Directions, which gave us a variety of ways to find locations using basic directional terms; left, right, north, south, east, west, turn, and straight. The students then made maps of their own about any place they wanted.
2.) In the afternoon, to continue our LA lesson, we piled in the Diener van to map out the route from the Diener School to the Potomac Post Office. The students had to direct Ms. Kate by telling her to “turn right”, or “go straight”. Upon returning to school, we started to draw out our map of the route. Throughout the week, as we learn more about maps, we will add to our Diener School to Potomac Post Office map by adding street names, landmarks, a key/legend, and the compass rose.
3.) During Math, we continued our lesson on geometric shapes. In small groups, we reviewed that triangles have 3 angles and 3 sides and squares have 4 angles and 4 sides. Today, we expanded on yesterday’s information by learning that squares have 4 equal sides! A shape that looks a lot like a square is called a rectangle, but we examined the two and learned that rectangles have 4 angles, and 4 sides, but the sides are NOT equal. To end the activity we all cut out different triangles, squares and rectangles and created collages of shapes!

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) In math we continued to work with place value.2.) In language arts we learned about the idioms and discussed "straight from the horse's mouth".3.) In our study of Maryland we learned about landforms.

FROM THE OFFICE:
IMPORTANT DATES:
* Pizza Lunch this Friday – Please send your child in with their snack and drink for the day.
* Primary Field Trip to Fire Station: Friday, September 18, 2009
* Ms. Emily, Ms. Jenni, Ms. Lynn & Ms. Kate’s class Field Trip to Rose Manor: Friday, September 25, 2009
* No School – Jewish Holiday: Monday, September 28, 2009
* Ms. Barbara’s Uppers Field Trip to State House: Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Monday, September 14, 2009

Ms. Emily’s Primary:

During Fitness this morning we met Ms. Julie. We put together a puzzle while climbing through an obstacle course. It was so much fun!

We began talking about our visit to the Fire Station this coming Friday. We painted a big box red, that we will be turning into our own classroom fire truck.

Ms. Sara came in and red a story about Fire men and other community workers. Then we colored fun pictures of fire trucks, hoses, and fire hydrants.

Ms. Lynn’s Inters:

Today we had Ms. Kathy work with us on handwriting. She will be here every Monday.

We had our first art class with Ms. Gay. We learned about contrast using black and white paper. Please see Ms. Gay’s description attached.

We are learning about helpers in our community in social studies.

Ms. Jenni’s Inters:

In Language Arts today we split up between Ms. Jenni & Ms. Lynn's class for our reading groups. Everyone did a great job working on their new books for the week!

In math we worked on creating our own patterns when given an ABAB or a ABBA prompt.

We are talking about people in our community throughout the next two weeks. Today we focused on Teachers. We talk about the many ways a teacher helps us and read a story about what a teacher's day is like.

Ms. Kate’s Uppers:

During our Math Meeting we discussed, and located, four major items that can be found on a calendar: day, month, date and year. Weather words and their partner sensory words were reviewed. (i.e. The weather looks rainy, cloudy, sunny or snowy, therefore…it feels (temperature) cold or hot, warm or cool.) Students voted on the type weather we experienced today. Using our hundreds board, as a class, we added the numbers 1-30. After each student added a number to the hundreds board, we counted forwards from 1-30 and backwards from 30-1. We ended our math meeting by using a place value pocket chart to record the numbers of days we have been in school.

Language Arts began with a reading of Stone Soup. Students then began to produce their own version of a stone soup, identifying various vegetables, coloring, cutting, and gluing colorful paper equivalents to those ingredients found in the story. A student-led discussion followed, as classmates exchanged ideas about the true meaning of the story and the implications of a generous act.

A Post Office follow-up activity occurred during Spelling. It included a brainstorming session which elicited 16 Post Office terms. Students chose a word, wrote it, and drew a picture representing a definition of the word. Tomorrow the class will follow with actual written definitions – found on the computer – and a post board activity completion with visual/written definitions. A “book dictionary” activity will complete the process.

Mr. Barbara’s Uppers:

We did a binder check to ensure all our papers were filed in the correct subject areas. We will continue to do this every Monday during Organization time.

We learned about place value up to the millions. We practiced writing numbers in standard form and expanded form.

In social studies we used Google Maps to locate The Diener School. We found its location in Maryland, its location in Potomac, and its street location.

FROM THE OFFICE:

This Friday will be our first pizza lunch. We have ordered cheese and cheeseless pizzas from sienas pizza. Please have your student bring a snack and a drink.

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) Today, we painted the body tracing projects that we’ve been working on.
2.) During cooking, we made edible stop lights using red, yellow, and green apples.
3.) In dance, Mr. Aaron showed us some fancy floor spins and we played freeze dance.

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) Today we talked about feelings. We read a very silly book called, Today I Feel Silly. We laughed a lot at the story.
2.) Ms. Jen, from Speech, spent the morning with us. She will spend every Friday in our classroom. We look forward to working with her!
3.) Mr. Aaron also danced the day away with us. It was a great start to the weekend!
ENJOY THE WEEKEND!

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) In Language Arts we read a book about emotions and practiced showing various emotions with our faces and with body language.
2.) During indoor recess, we worked cooperatively to complete several large floor puzzles. The most difficult puzzle was the Prehistoric one.
3.) We painted self portraits in the afternoon. We each had a mirror and painted a picture of ourselves.

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
1.) During Science class with Ms. Patrice we read the story The Wind Blew. It described all the things the wind can blow. We made comparisons between windy weather and calm weather, created wind socks, and hung them in front of a fan, in order to replicate windy weather. Streamers on the socks assisted us with a conversation of directionality, and wind’s role in the change of seasons and falling leaves was discussed.
2.) Language Arts-Social Studies – we studied our maps closely, determined geographical locations of grandparent homes, and placed tacks in appropriate places. We spoke of the variety of names we use for our individual grandmothers and grandfathers, sharing a lesson in our rich, cultural diversity. (i.e. Italian for grandma is “Nonna”, grandpa in German is “Opa”, grandparents in Spanish are abuela/o, and other derivations of grandparent, from granny to granddaddy were talked about.
3.) Post Office trip—each student addressed his/her (grandparent) envelopes and we headed to the Post Office! Once we arrived our students went to the counter and purchased stamps. We learned that a stamp for a letter costs 44 cents. We put our stamp in the right corner of our envelope and gave our letters to the postal worker to be mailed off!

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) We filled out a K-W-L chart about Maryland. We listed what we knew about Maryland and then made a list of questions about Maryland that we would like to investigate.
2.) We completed a time telling puzzle that matched clocks with the time written in words.
3.) In science we reviewed our bubble experiment and studied the water cycle.4.) We had a fantastic time in music with Ms. Deanna singing a variety of fun songs.

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) Today we met Mr. Jim during Drama. He had a magic suitcase and pulled out lots of toys for us.
2.) During gym with Mr. Aaron we ran through an obstacle course and knocked down bowling pins with balls.
3.) We traced our bodies for our "All About Me" projects. We will be decorating them soon. :)

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) Today we read the story, “Jack’s Talent,” by Maryann Cocca Leffler.
2.) We talked about our special talents as well as some of our favorite things.
3.) We had fitness with Mr. Aaron & Drama with Mr. Jim. Mr. Aaron made a special tunnel for us today. It was fun!

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) In Language Arts we read a story called Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and talked about the items in the story that were Lilly's favorite. We then discussed some of our favorite things (many of which were shared in the Personality Bags) and completed an activity in which we colored, cut, glued and wrote our favorite fruit/vegetable, sport, color and type of weather.
2.) In math we practiced ABAB, ABBA, and ABC patterns and identified patterns going from left to right and up to down.
3.) In fitness we played a bowling game with Mr. Aaron and worked our upper and lower body muscles on the scooters.

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
1.) During Language Arts students wrote letters to their grandparents. Letter content included information each student gathered during an interview process with a class friend, using the K-W-L graphic organizer. Tomorrow we will learn how to address the envelopes and mail them. 2.) As an OT activity with Ms. Kathy we made birthday cards for Mr. Jim, our returning drama teacher. Mr. Jim received the wonderful cards during our first drama class, in the afternoon. Students used several different mediums, with a variety of colors, textures and shapes, to complete the project. This exercise continues to build upon the concept of contrast taught by Ms. Feinberg, during art class, on Tuesday.
3.) During drama class Mr. Jim had us play a game where we had to introduce ourselves! He also introduced our new classmate to some last year classic drama games, such as Fruit Salad, Statues and the Magic Suitcase!

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) In drama we played drama games such as Taxi Driver and Magic Ball.
2.) We finished reading "Monster Manor Frankie Rocks the House," by Paul Martin.
3.) We learned a song to easily remember the 7's table. We sing it to the tune of "Happy Birthday".

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) During Dance today with Mr. Aaron, we found a partner and made a bridge together while our friends climbed under.
2.) We had a special tour of the playground and explored all the different toys outside (houses, bicycles, race cars, jungle gym, fire truck, music center, and sandbox). Later we talked about which one we like the best.
3.) During cooking, we make pancake faces. We warmed up pancakes, and then added blueberry eyes, a raspberry nose, and chocolate chip lips. YUM!

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) We had our first dance class with Mr. Aaron. We did our name dance and it was a lot of fun! 2.) In math we built towers with Unifex cubes following special patterns.
3.) We earned 3 Diener Gold coins for our 1st week and had a party with Ms. Jenni’s class!

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) Today we read the book, “Jack’s Talent” and then made our own classroom talent book.
2.) We talked about our last classroom rule: Be Your Best. The students drew pictures of ways they could be their best such as trying your hardest and being ready to learn.
3.) We had a popcorn party for doing such a great job following the classroom rules this week!

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
Three cheers to Ms. Kate’s Uppers, who came into class greeting others, put daily folders and homework in proper places, and immediately began their work!
1.) During Language Arts our students made a “classroom chain of talents.” Students brainstormed, and then listed personal talents, wrote them on individual chains, connected them to form a chain, and each reach out his/her own to foster positive sense of self, class strengths, and a sense of unity.
2.) Students continued to put their creativity to use and practiced social skills during a small group, team-based activity. They continued to work on their alien planets/creatures. Impressively, they remembered their alien-language greetings/gestures, employing the salutations as they learned more about each other.
3.)During Math small group activity the class worked with time lines using their birth month and birth year, utilizing the concepts of older/younger, ordinal numbers.

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) The students each wrote a letter to their parents for back to school night.
2.) They practiced multiplication facts by playing Prehistoric Times.
3.) This afternoon they will finish a two day bubble experiment with their science teacher, Ms. Patrice.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) In morning meeting we sang hello to each other while taking turns jumping and singing. We also started learning about our calendar and learned about what month it is.
2.) We took a walk to explore a new playground. It was such a beautiful day outside! :)
3.) During math time we read “We're Going on A Bear Hunt” and talked about over, under and through. We all took turns going through a tunnel.

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) We went on a scavenger hunt to the park with Ms. Jenni’s class.
2.) We talked about how we can be kind to another.
3.) We made a picture of our house and wrote our addresses.

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) Today we went on a nature walk and completed a scavenger hunt. We searched for bugs, birds and squirrels. We also found sticks and determined if they were short or long, identified colors of flowers and drew the shapes of different rocks we discovered along the way.
2.) We talked about our second classroom rule: Be Kind. Together we brainstormed the ways we can be kind to our teachers and classmates. The children came up with use kind words, share with your friends, keep hands to yourself, and wait your turn.
3.) We created our house by cutting out various shapes and then gluing them on to a piece of paper. Then each child colored the house to look like the one they live in. We then practiced tracing our address and reading it out-loud.

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
1.) Today during language arts we read a book entitled “I’m Special, I’m Me” with an emphasis on content words/comprehension. This lead our students into a whole-group discussion regarding the types of unique, positive attributes we each possess as human beings. An individual writing task followed as students completed a detailed questionnaire about themselves, and then sealed their responses in a year-long time capsule.
2.) Math class included a two-group rotation, with group 1 exploring directionality, (left-right), using assistive color-coded clues, followed by practice. Group 2…..worked on even and odd numbers and identifying the patterns to help figure out an even or odd number.
3.) During Sensory class, we used our sense of touch today! We participated in an activity called, “What’s in the Bag?” Ten paper bags were set up with one classroom item in each. Everyone walked around and had to reach in the bag, feel it, and guess the object. If they were not sure, each student was wonderful at putting descriptive words of what they felt (i.e. round, hard, sharp, etc). At the end we read off our guesses and then pulled each object out of the bag to see if we got it right!

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1.) The students wrote their goals for the year which will be opened and read again on the last day of school.
2.) They used logic and problem solving skills to identify and correct a problem on the map of the school.
3.) Students used a large beach-ball type globe to identify continents and countries and then make observations about the differences between them.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - The First Day of School!

Primary (Ms. Emily):
1.) We met Mr. Aaron today, and climbed through an obstacle course during fitness.2.) We greeted each other during Morning Meeting with a jumping song.3.) We worked together to create our list of classroom rules. 4.) During art, we finished our “What I Like” posters.

Inters (Ms. Lynn):
1.) We officially named our class The Diener Owls!
2.) We did an obstacle course of jumping and hoping to music with Mr. Aaron in fitness.3.) We’re working on The “My First Day of School” packet.
4.) We discussed the first of our classroom rules: “Be Safe!”

Inters (Ms. Jenni):
1.) Today during Math we reviewed the parts of the calendar and practiced saying the date using the month, day, ordinal number, and the year.
2.) We discussed our classroom rules: Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Your Best. We created a group web to identify 4 different ways we can be safe in the classroom. Together we came up with walk in the classroom and hallways, sit in your chair, keep your hands to yourself and stay with your teachers. The children then created pictures for each safety rule!
3.) During Language Arts we read a story called Summer's End and then shared with the group our favorite summer activity. The students then drew a picture and a sentence about their favorite summer activity.

Uppers (Ms. Kate):
Ms. Kate’s class had a wonderful day, starting the year with enthusiasm!
1.) In language arts we voted on a book to read, (The Boy on the Beach), did a book walk, learned to make predictions, anticipated endings, and discussed the book, with comprehension and “use of prior knowledge” as the emphasis.
2.) The summer- themed book segued into an activity called “me too” which used Popsicle sticks as “memory prompts”. Each student shared specific summer events they enjoyed, and introduction of a Venn diagram helped us sort out activities we had in common from those that were unique.
3.) Fitness class with Mr. Aaron was filled with excitement and plenty of movement, as the students demonstrated their large/small motor skills. First, we went over the Fitness room rules, played a freeze game and practiced our balance by running obstacles hopping on two feet or one foot!
4.) Alien Greeting: During our auditory listening class, we traveled to another planet! We discussed how on Earth, when you greet someone, you shake their hand and say, “Hello!” It involves a movement (shaking hands) and a sound (talking voice). On our faraway planet, we had to introduce each other, especially to Ms. Patrice—our new Science teacher! We each went around the circle and introduced ourselves with our own alien greetings!

Uppers (Ms. Barbara):
1. ) Today we worked with Mr. Aaron and had a fantastic time using the parachute in fitness!
2.) We worked as detectives to find information about all our new classmates.”
3.) To learn more about The Diener School, we interviewed staff, and labeled a map of the building.

Monday, June 8th, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) We had fun in Language Arts using a “Do a Dot” art project. We wrote letters and made a painting with our cool
2.) We read a book called Pull Lift, and Lower. A pulley is a simple machine that helps us lift objects that would normally be too heavy to move.
3.) During Social Skills we read some stories about good manners. Then we discussed and acted out some social situations saying please, thank you, excuse me, and sorry.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Made our '-ing' wheels! We reviewed words that end with 'ing', then made a word wheel that shows different words and pictures of things that end with 'ing'.
2.) Worked on our counting and sorting skills during our classroom inventory! We went through huge piles of games and learning materials in our classroom and sorted them into different piles as we helped Miss Courtney and Miss Deanna organize our classroom for the end of the year.
3.) Sorted our book collection into fiction and non-fiction books! We went through our class library and found some of our old favorites - we had a great time remembering some of the great stories we've read over the year!

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) Fitness was a lot of fun! We played with net catchers where we had to throw and catch the ball with the net. We also had to do our warm-ups for the last time this year!
2.) In Music, we went on a Bear Hunt and sang “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad!”
3.) We learned about how things that work this afternoon, and followed our water lessons last week by learning what different kinds of boats travel on the water and how they work!

The Golden Owls:
We had a Magical Monday in the Golden Owls!
1.) During our la blocks we had a discussion on President Obama and what we had read and remembered about him from last week. We then watched a PBS special on his life and compared it to what we already knew.
2.) During math we did timed mad minutes before we split up into groups and worked on money, multiplication, adding and subtracting with regrouping and borrowing.
3.) We had our last fitness class of the year today with Ms. Julie! We played some of our favorite games (beamos and boinga) as well as a new game with chirping eggs. We worked a great deal on teamwork and had a really fun time!
*Please note that the only homework for the rest of the week is to read!

FROM THE OFFICE:
If there are any families who had to borrow an extra set or article of clothing this year, please be sure to clean and return the clothing before the end of school next week. We really appreciate your help with this!!
** DISMISSAL TIME THURSDAY 6/11 HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 12PM**

Friday, June 5th, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Read a book about simple machines called “Cut, Chop and Stop”. This book focused on wedges. Then each student traced a wedge and wrote “This is a wedge”.
2.) Identified the value on pennies, nickels and dimes. Trevor played an addition dice game with Debbie.
3.) Had a lot of free time on the very rainy day!
4.) Sang our favorite songs during our last music class with Deanna. We truly loved music with Deanna this year.

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Art, we made clay sculptures and then got to color them with markers as well as add wires and pipe cleaners for decoration.
2.) During Math, we split into groups. One group played Dominoes and learned two different ways to play. We had to pay attention to the numbers on each Domino find strategies to match as many sides as we could. The other group played UNO and had to pay attention to colors as well as matching numbers.
3.) Mr. Jim made a surprise appearance to spoil us with one final Drama class for the year! We had such a great time using our imaginations this year, learning games such as: Magic Suitcase, VRRRooommm-vroooom, Taxi and Fruit Salad . These games really challenged us to think more abstractly and sort and categorize in our mind. The categorization games were great games to help us work on several fundamentals in language, such as, prediction, inference, and decision making. Also we had to pay attention to detail and always be focused and listening, otherwise we would miss an important part of the game!

The Golden Owls:
Today we had a fantastic Friday!
1.) During our math time we completed our mad minute before taking our final Friday Quiz. We then reviewed different strategies to help us solve multiplication problems, as well as subtraction problems with borrowing.
2.) During language arts we split up into our groups and did our Explode the Code books before wrapping up our lessons on Obama and jellyfish. We used strategies that we have been learning about all year to help write a detailed summary from our webs. We also drew pictures and labeled the different developmental stages of a jellyfish.
3.) We used clay, wire and markers in our last art class to build fabulous sculptures. We always have the best time Ms. Feinberg!

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Magic Trains used puppetry to act out the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
2.) During Fitness we went on an awesome obstacle course shooting hoops, bowling, crawling through a tunnel and jumping on the trampoline.
3.) We went with Bob the Builder to a construction site. We dug dirt then hauled it away. We dumped sand in a big pile and poured concrete on top. We used a powerful tool called a “kanga hammer” that bounces up and down.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Read a book called 'How I Became A Pirate'! We loved the story, and after reading it we made our own graphic organizers showing the 'What', 'Where', 'When', 'Who', and 'Why' of our story!
2.) Worked on math review in our Calvert workbooks. We also worked as a team to identify and sort a HUGE pile of coins!
3.) Made our final planet neighborhoods in science - we made Neptune Circus and Jupiter Museum! Our space community is almost complete - we just need a moon and some rocket ships to travel from neighborhood to neighborhood!

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) This morning we worked very hard on making our own pretzels! We had several steps we had to follow throughout the day. The 1st step was to mix some water and yeast. While, that mixture sat in a bowl for a couple of minutes Ms. Kathy had us do some OT movement activities. Next, we measured and mixed in the flour and brown sugar. For 30 minutes, while the dough sat, we worked on our Handwriting. Step 3 was mixing in the remaining flour and kneading it until the dough was tough. The dough had to rise for an hour, so we ate lunch and went to recess!
2.) This afternoon, we took the dough and rolled it and shaped our pretzels! It was a lot of fun! In our folders are directions on how to finish baking our pretzels at home. (These are dairy-free pretzels.)
3.) In Drama, we had such a fun time with Mr. Jim! We played the Magic Suitcase game and had to pull out things you could find at your house!

The Golden Owls:
1.) In our last fitness with Mr. Dan we went through an obstacle course which included all of the different skills we have been working on all year.
2.) In speech we first read a book about the ocean and then got to make our own oceans out of blue Jello, marshmallows, Twizzlers and gummies. The Twizzlers represented the “limu” which means seaweed in Hawaiian. The jelly fish and octopus. The marshmallows were the plankton and the gummies were for the fish.
3.) In writing we began working on our favorite things we did this year beginning with a web!

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Read a book with Ms. Jen called “I Drive a Bulldozer” by Sarah Bridges.
2.) Played “Pizza Pile Up” with Jen. We had to “watch out that Poppa doesn’t wobble, causing the pizza to topple! This was a great game and we practiced taking turns and following directions.
3.) Blew bubbles outside in on this very sunny day!
4.) Practiced doing handstands with Ms. Melinda during Yoga. Everyone did a great job. We all enjoyed Yoga this year.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
1.) Broke into groups for language arts - we read sight word books and did an '-ed' review activity in one group and read, analyzed, and reassembled a silly poem in the other group!
2.) Read a book about telling time in math and then worked together on a giant clock to show different times of day to the hour!
3.) Had a great time in yoga with Ms. Melinda and drama with Mr. Jim! We practiced our poses, breathing, and meditation in yoga and played some of our favorite pretending games in drama!

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) During Math, we read a book called Pigs will be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money. The family of pigs wanted to go out to dinner, but the bank was closed. They decided to look all around their house to see if they could find any money! We added up all the money they found and talked about whether we thought that was enough money to go out to eat. At the end of the book it told us what they wanted to eat at the restaurant. We looked at the total amount of money they found in their house and figured out that it was enough for them to eat what they wanted at the restaurant!
2.) We had a gooey great time in Speech! First, we brainstormed what things we could find in an ocean. Then Ms. Jen read us a book that told about the ocean what we could find on each ocean level. We knew so much about the ocean, we had almost all the same things on our brainstorming list! Then, the fun and gooey part! We each got a clear plastic cup to build our own oceans! We used blue Jello for the ocean water, orange and green Jello to make ocean reefs, and different kinds of candy and gummi candy to make plankton, sharks and fish! We had to put them in the refrigerator to harden!
3.) In Social Skills, we played a silly Dr. Suess game called “I can do that!”. Each student had to pick a 3 different puzzle cards and fit them together. When the pieces were put together, the student had to read the phrase on their cards and attempt the challenge. An example of the challenge on one of the cards: “Spin around in circles two times, while holding the dress (it was a prop with the game) on top of your clothes.”

The Golden Owls:
Today in the Golden Owls we had a glorious day!
1.) During reading we began the period with "Freedom," one of our favorite games which works on flexibility, teamwork, and cooperation. We then read our nonfiction books aloud before independently brainstorming and working on our webs.
2.) During OT we reviewed our measuring and fine motor skills while making pretzel dough. We saw how long it takes for dough to rise and the patience it takes to cook! We cannot wait to bring them home and bake them! MMMMMMMMMM!
3.) We mastered our dance moves with Mr. Aaron while dancing to "Jump On It!" We also danced to "Jump Jump." Our rhythm and moving to the beat has improved a great deal!

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Made cards for Mrs. Feinberg. Teddy wrote “Thank you for being a great Art teacher”. Jack wrote “I love you”!
2.) Played fun games and worked nicely together during Fitness with Mr. Chris and Ms. Julie. 3.) Read a story about farm machinery such as tractors, plows and drills.
4.) Painted clay sculptures during Art with Mrs. Feinberg.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
1.) Worked on handwriting with Miss Brook - we impressed her with how far we've come over just the last couple of weeks! Then we made '-eep' Jeeps with '-eep' words as wheels!
2.) Made beautiful June calendars to welcome in the last month of school. We're bringing them home so we can cross off the days until our last day of school!
3.) Had a great time in fitness - we reviewed all of the things we have learned throughout the year! We practiced gallups, slides, hopping, running, jumping, throwing, catching, batting, kicking, and leaping - whew!

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) We had a surprise field trip with Mr. Paul’s class this morning to the neighborhood playground and park. We did a lot of gross motor activities, Mr. Aaron conducted a parachute activity and then we got to play on the playground at the end!
2.) In Science, Ms. Melissa read us a book called, All the Planets in Our Solar System. When we finished the book we each told something new we learned about planets from the book.
3.) In Music with Mr. David, we had a great time singing and working on our songs.

The Golden Owls:
1.) During our team activities we played parachute outside with Ms. Kate and Mr. Aaron's class. We took turns running through the parachute and changing places with a friend, while our other friends helped keep the parachute up in the air. We also built Hershey Park with blocks with our peers and had a terrific time working together.
2.) In science with Ms. Melissa we mastered the research of the solar system!
3.) During math we continued reviewing and becoming more fluent with our multiplication facts. We also reviewed adding and subtracting, with regrouping

Monday, June 1st, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Played a really fun Dr. Seuss game called “I Can Do That”. We picked cards and acted out the directions.
2.) Took a walk to a nearby park and played ball.
3.) Some students finished writing their books and we drew pictures to go along with what we wrote.
4.) Reviewed many concepts in Math. For example, we reviewed “top”, “middle” and “bottom”.
5.) Made colorful thank you cards for Mr. Chris, Ms. Julie and Mrs. Feinberg. We will miss them over the summer vacation.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
1.) Began our end-of-year review in Morning Meeting! We are reviewing all of the concepts we have learned about in Morning Meeting, including beginning and ending word sounds, rhyming words, word families, calendar concepts, tallies, one more, one less, addition, and subtraction!
2.) Did a fantastic activity with Miss Jen to celebrate her last day with us! She read us a book filled with facts about the ocean. Then we each made our own seascapes using blue jello, marshmallows, twizzlers, gummy candies, and other treats. We created fish, seaweed, coral reefs, and octopuses to make awesome oceans!
3.) Had science with Miss Melissa ~ we read a book about planets together, then finished our planet book and wrapped up our unit on Air, Space, and Water!

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Fitness, we played soccer and learned to kick the ball with the inside of the foot, NOT your toes!! We also had to line up and throw bean bags at bowling pins to try to knock them over.
2.) We learned about all the many water words today! Then we cut and pasted/matched the water words to a picture of the water.
3.) In Dance, we practiced our Dance routine Mr. Aaron taught us!

The Golden Owls:
We had a magical Monday in the Golden Owls.
1.) During OT with Ms. Kathy we worked on our individual goals as well as our fine motor skills. We did different stations including rubberbands, eyecatchers, screws, and putty. We also played Memo Zoo and Boggle.
2.) During language arts we began reading a new nonfiction book after we worked independently on our "Explode the Code" books. We began to fill our KWL chart filling in information we knew and wanted to know about either President Obama or jellyfish.
3.) We had a great fitness class with Ms. Julie. We each got a sticker to put on our shoe to help remind us where we are supposed to kick the ball. We practiced our dribbling skills through cones before passing with a partner. We then played a soccer game against Ms. Julie and won! We worked a lot on our teamwork skills!

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

The Magic Trains:
Today the Magic Trains:
1.) The Magic Trains typed and illustrated our book covers!
2.) We went for a moon walk and pretended to be astronauts like Neil Armstrong chanting “Eagle has Landed” after reading the book One Giant Leap by Robert Burleigh.
3.) We finished putting the “inner planets” on our solar system window mural.
4.) Today was our last class with Ms. Brook and we played a new, fun game with her called “Sequence”. This was a matching game and the object of the game was to get three tokens in a row. We gave Ms. Brook a present and wished her a very happy summer!
5.) During Fitness with Mr. Dan, we ran through an obstacle course made of hoola hoops and participated in relay races.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
1.) Read a poem called 'The Moon'! Then we went through the poem and took turns finding sight words, rhyming words, and science words in the text.
2.) After we read our poem, we each got our own copy to cut apart, reconstruct, and glue back together! We decorated our poems with moon pictures and glitter.
3.) Had a very buggy afternoon! We reviewed our 'I'm an Insect' weekly reader and made fabulous bug masks! We used our amazing creativity to make super scary and super silly bugs.

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) This morning, Ms. Kathy had us feel letters! She brought a fun activity where you had to put your hand in a bowl and grab a letter—but not pull it out! When we were holding the letter we had to feel it and describe what shape it was and tell Ms. Kathy what letter it was!
2.) In Math, we read a fun book called Leaping Lizards and learned some more about counting by 5’s and 10’s.
3.) This afternoon we had a fun Music class with Mr. Paul’s class in the Sensory Room! We played musical and movement games such as Hokey Pokey and Going on a Bearhunt!

The Golden Owls:
We had a terrific Thursday in the Golden Owls!
1.) During math we went outside and did math problems with chalk.
2.) In speech with Ms. Jen we played, “What Did You Say?” a game of nonverbal communication including facial expressions, volume, tone of voice and body language. We had a super time in speech.
3.) During fitness with Mr. Dan we worked on our gross motor skills including jumping through hula hoops, leaping, running, and hopping.

Have a fantastic long weekend!!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

The Magic Trains:
Today the Magic Trains:
1.) Had a terrific fieldtrip to the Dulles Air and Space Museum. We learned how planes fly and we made our own boomerangs. There were planes from many years ago at the museum and we even saw a spaceship!
2.) Worked on our Solar System pictures in the afternoon with Debbie and Seena.
3.) Listened to a story called “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Teddy wrote this story on his own last night. The class was very excited about it and Teddy was very proud.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Had a FANTASTIC time at the Air and Space Museum! We learned about how planes fly using 4 forces - drag, thrust, weight, and lift. We got to do all sorts of wonderful hands-on activities, and then we made our own boomerangs!
2.) Got to walk around the museum after our class! Not only did we see many different kinds of planes, but we also got to see a huge replica of the Enterprise space shuttle and examples of space suits worn by astronauts! We loved looking at all of the great displays and learning about planes and space ships.
3.) Read a great book when we got back from our field trip! Ben S. brought in a special flying book to share and it was a great way to review the information we learned on our field trip - it had all sorts of cool facts and pop-outs. Thanks, Ben S.!

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) During Social Skills we played Charades and had to ask questions to find out what our friends were acting out! We also finished by playing Hangman with emotions words!
2.) In Yoga, we played a game to see who could hold the Downward Dog and the Bridge poses the longest!
3.) In Speech groups, Ms. Jen read The Flea’s Sneeze and we each made a 3 panel pamphlet where we wrote on each either the beginning, middle or end of the story!

The Golden Owls:
We had a great Wednesday in the Golden Owls!
1.) In dance with Mr. Aaron we reviewed and continued to fine tune our dance to "Jump On It." We worked on finessing our moves, our rhythm and timing.
2.) In writing, we split up into small groups and worked on brainstorming and then drafting a topic of our choice. Some wrote about cars, movies and their vacations while others wrote about their favorite food. We incorporated our five senses and specific details into our writing as much as possible.
3.) Ms. Kathy came in and played Charades with us during our team time. We worked on flexibility, reading body language and facial expressions. We had a fantastic time!

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

The Diener Dinosaurs:
Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Did fine motor circuits and worked on our handwriting with Miss Brook! We also colored, cut, and assembled an 'In Fish' ~ a fish that helped us review the '-in' word family!
2.) Reviewed measurement in math! We each got a pile of items and had to measure each item's length using unifix cubes. Then we recorded our lengths on our worksheets and analyzed our data to find the longest and shortest objects!
3.)Had a fabulous time in fitness and art! In fitness we worked together to build a house using blocks and then got to play with Bimos since we did a great job with our teamwork! In art we created beautiful drawing by connecting lines and forming shapes.

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) During Fine Motor in the morning, we rotated through circuits working on, hand-eye coordination, tripod grasp, hand stability, and muscle tone in their hands. This afternoon in Large motor, we ran through an obstacle course working on balance, crossing the midline and utilizing several muscles in the body!
2.) We played a Storytelling game where we were each given three random cards (for example: monkey, car, chocolate cake) and we had to tell a story! Then Ms. Kate asked us some “W” questions (who, what, where, etc) about the story that was just told!
3.) In Science we learned about the different planets and what they look like! We brainstormed the planets we already knew and then looked them up to see what they looked like! We then colored in a worksheet that had the planets on them, so they looked like the pictures we looked up!

The Golden Owls:
Today in the Golden Owls:
1.) We continued our lesson and discussion on planets during our science class. We colored the planet Mercury and learned different facts about it.
2.) During reading, we talked about past and present tense verbs as well as the different reading strategies we use. We talked about chocolate in one groups and Obama in the other, and worked on reading fluently and with expression.
3.) We did centers in the afternoon working on and building our skills in teamwork, Read Write and Type, math and spelling.

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Reviewed words that start with “v” such as “valentine” and “violin” during Morning Meeting.
2.) Had a wonderful time at “Personal Ponies”. We saw the goats, ponies and chickens and we even painted a beautiful pony named Neatherly. She is white but we painted her pink and purple. Then we let two wonderful ponies out so they could run in the sun!
3.) Sang our favorite songs with Deanna and the Diener Dinosaurs. We shared our instruments such as the triangle, rhythm sticks and maracas.

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we read a poem about the penny and the nickel. Using the detail words in the poem, we drew what we pictured the coin to look like. We checked our coin pictures to compare with a real coin.
2.) In Art, Ms. Feinberg read us a story! Then we got to pick our favorite part of the story and draw a picture of it!
3.) During, Auditory Stories, we listened to a short story read by Ms. Kate. She asked us a couple questions about the story, so we really had to listen and pay attention! Then we got a picture that went with the story and listen carefully again as Ms. Kate gave us directions on how to color it!

The Golden Owls:
We had a great Friday in the Golden Owls!
1.) In reading we continued to use our graphic organizers to help us write a summary about the story we read. We also answered questions along the way about our reading. We then wrapped up our reading period while brainstorming about different nouns that describe the main character in the book.
2.) We listened to our peers while they presented their book talks on The True Story of Balto, Sable, and When I am Quiet on O'Ahu! We saw a beautiful poster and a mobile! Wow!
3.) In art with Ms. Feinberg we drew a picture of our favorite part of a book! It was such fun and we were able to pretend we were an illustrator!

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Worked on punctuation and spelling during Language Arts (Teddy and Jack did this). Trevor worked with Ms. Brook on handwriting while Danielle worked with Lynn on identifying colors and the sounds of the alphabet.
2.) Reviewed the book “Pilot Pups” and discussed that pilots are the people who fly the plane.
3.) Participated in an amazing obstacle course during Fitness with Mr. Dan. The kids had to hop through hoops, crawl through a cave, jump on a trampoline, do ten jumping jacks, go on a pretend surfboard and knock over bowling pins. Then they practiced doing something called “step and throw” which is stepping with your left leg (if you are right handed) and then throwing with your right hand.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Played a fun game in language arts with water squirters and sight words! We each had to listen to clues and find the appropriate sight word on the wall outside- then we had to soak it with water once we found it!
2.) Worked on math review in our Calvert workbooks - we reviewed counting backwards and calendar math!
3.) Continued to work on our space community - we reviewed our plans and built our first two planet neighborhoods, Mercuryville and Venustown!
The Mighty Dieners:1.) In Math we had a great time learning more about money! Some of us identified the differences in the coins (colors, size, pictures on the front and back), we had to put together a collage showing facts about a given coin. Others worked on skipping and skip counting by 5.
2.) During OT group we went through an obstacle course where we had to run through hoops, crawl through a tunnel, forward roll on the mat, jumping on the trampoline while crossing the midline when giving high-fives!
3.) In Music, Ms. Deanna taught us the Star Spangled Banner!!

The Golden Owls:
Today we had a Terrific Thursday!
1.) We had a great math class where we reviewed subtracting with borrowing and our multiplication skills. We used white boards and dry erase markers to solve different problems.
2.) During speech with Ms. Jen we read a book relating to Apollo 11, continuing our study of space. We then made predictions about what will happen in the future and closed with an experiment making moon rocks out of salt, water and flour.
3.) We had a great fitness class with Mr. Dan while focusing on loco-motor which included running, skipping, jumping forwards and backwards, the crabwalk and hopping. We finished with a relay race!