Monday, January 26th 2009

The Magic Trains:
1.) Worked in their “Explode the Code” books during Language Arts. They also read stories called “Two Baskets” and “Pam and Sam”.
2.) Put shapes together to make a picture with Ms. Kathy by using “Playful Patterns”. Then the students played “Wild Woods” with Ms. Seena. All the animals made it to shelter before the thunderstorm arrived.
3.) Planted grass seeds for a science project. We will give regular water to one of our plants and sugar water to the other plant.
4.) Read a story called “Quick as a Cricket” by Audrey Wood at the end of the day.

The Diener Dinosaurs:
What a magnificent Monday! Today the Diener Dinosaurs...
1.) Went on a scavenger hunt for things that start with the letter 'L' in The Diener School! Then we used stamps to create pictures and spell words that begin with 'L'.
2.) Had Social Skills with Miss Melissa! We learned about listening and then we played games that helped us practice our listening skills, including Operator and Simon Says.
3.) Learned about magnetism in science! We watched a video about magnets, then we picked a variety of materials from around the room to test with our magnets.

The Mighty Dieners:
1.) In Math, we added a SNOW picture to our weather calendars! Then we finished answering our January Calendar questions!
2.) In Fitness, after we did our warm-ups (jumping jacks, push-ups and sit-ups, etc) we ran through an obstacle course. Then we played a number activity game! We picked a number, counted the number cards until we found the number and then had to complete the activity on the card!
3.) In the afternoon we continued to prepare for our Science Fair presentations! We analyzed what happened to our flowers over the weekend and wrote down/drew pictures of our observations.

The Golden Owls:
1.) In O. T. with Ms. Kathy we continue to work on our fine motor skills and visual motor skills. During our morning work we are including ocular motor activities that focus on our visual scanning and visual perception skills. In addition, the students participated in Charades, focusing on motor planning and body awareness.
2.) We began with math mania today. Each student was given one minute to see how many problems they could get correct. We will continue for the next few weeks in subtraction. We graph our results daily to see and realize our growth and progress.
3.) In writing we are breaking back into small groups. Ms. Maisie works with the girls and Mr. Paul works with the boys. We are working on topic sentences and supporting details. We then come together as a class and share. This gives us an opportunity to work on public speaking, eye contact, posture, and most importantly build confidence.