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.