TGIFriday, August 30

Wow... Today was a rough day. We talked and shouted and talked and were disrespectful... Mr. Hennes even had to come in and talk about the 4th graders behavior at lunch. It wasn't the entire class but the majority, at least. In Social Studies, we continued our practice and review of map skills. In Math, after our Number Talk, we used number lines to compare and order numbers and used roller coasters and bossy friends :) to round numbers. Auggie had an awful day in Wonder. He thought he had a a friend in Jack but overheard Jack talking bad about him. After we read silently, we went to the computer lab and typed our Important Paragraphs. Your child can access this from home if they would like to keep working on it.

Thursday, August 29

Boy this group likes to talk! And they like to talk loudly! Don't worry, we will work on self-discipline and controlling this but a reminder from home might help too. :) In Social Studies, we reviewed basic globe and map skills. Then, we worked on practicing these skills. We had our first fire drill today and they did an amazing job! After music, we had a number talk and then worked on comparing and ordering whole numbers. We are creating/using an interactive notebook this year to help with our math instruction. So far, things are going well but this was only the second day... After lunch and recess, we read more from Wonder. Auggie made a new friend, Summer, and seems to be adjusting well. We love one of the teacher's precepts. September was to "Choose Kind"... LOVE! In Reader's Workshop, we read silently and then worked on our decoding, fluency and self-correction in a Reader's Theater. We will practice these tomorrow and hopefully, perform them on Tuesday. In Writer's Workshop, we finished our rough drafts of our Important Paragraphs and then edited and revised them. Finally, we finished our work with short vowels.

Wednesday, August 28

We started the day by reviewing how homework should work and gave examples. Hopefully, with that and with the procedures email I sent home, we should be a little better with what is expected. I really want homework to do 2 things: benefit your child's needs and be used authentically. If you are having trouble with either of these things, please let me know and we can work together to make things work for your kiddo. In Social Studies, we familiarized ourself with the Ohio textbook. This will be one of the resources we will be using in the classroom to aid our learning and discussion on Ohio. However, we also discussed that the last update to this resource was the year that most of them were born so some information will be out of date. We also have new standards this year which have added to our study of Ohio to also include the United States and Ohio's place in the United States. In Math, we set up our interactive notebooks while learning/reviewing/discussing place and value of whole numbers to millions. At recess, the sky opened up and dumped rain on us! Once we got everyone lined up and brought inside, the rain stopped and the sun came out. :( Oh well! Sydney brought in Fruit by the Foot to share for her birthday treat during Read Aloud~Yum-o! In Wonder, Auggie had his first day of school. It seemed at first as if Julian had found something they may have had in common but Auggie realized it was just another attempt at being mean. In Reader's Workshop, we read silently (this group's favorite thing to do) and then buddy read to practice our fluency, decoding of unknown words and self-correcting. We started our rough drafts of our Important Paragraphs for Writer's Workshop and then worked with short vowel sounds in Word Study. 

As a treat, Mrs. Kleman's class came through on their Elmer Parade to show us that differences are good! That goes right along with what we have been working on!

Tuesday, August 27

What an amazing day! We are diving into the academics and so with the structure, we are quieting down (a little...) In Science, we completed our Bouncing Ball Experiment. The children really thought like scientists and came up with some great conclusions. In Math, we had our first Number Talk! Then, we took a pre-test on Place and Value. Next, we played Place and Value musical chairs. Fun! After lunch and recess, we read more from Wonder. Three students showed Auggie around the school and tried to make him comfortable with coming to this school. The kiddos wrote predictions for the book in their Read Aloud spirals. In Reader's Workshop, we read silently, worked on decoding skills and self-correcting. We read The Important Book in Writer's Workshop and modeled our writing after it by writing paragraphs of the important things about us. Finally, we worked a little with high frequency spelling words.

Monday, August 26

We are starting to get into more of a routine and therefore the kiddos are getting a little less talkative. We earned our first Mr. Potato Head piece too! This morning, we visited the library for a refresher course in how to visit our school library. In Math, we talked about Problem-Solving and what the mathematical practice standards look like. We'll be using and discussing these standards all year in Math so it is important that they understand what they mean and look like. We also tried to solve a few math problems. After lunch and recess, we went back to the library because we ran out of time earlier and checked our first books out--we get 3 books this year! This group loves to read so when we returned, we read silently for about 15 minutes. We completed the day by sharing our Social Media Getting to Know You. These will now create books for our room and students may now utilize our bulletin board to post and share things about their lives. These may be in the form of pictures (Instagram), status updates (Facebook), interesting websites or items found (Pinterest) or through tweets about what is going on (Twitter). Everyone loves to share so now they can without interruption or share time. Hopefully, this will also generate discussions and writing ideas!  

Homework was introduced today... It is different and the kiddos were still a little unsure of what to do but it will get easier. We'll do more examples tomorrow and throughout the week so please ask your child for assistance. 

TGIFriday, August 23

Whew! We made it through the week and I am exhausted! Today, we worked on teamwork and even began a science experiment to begin to understand the science process. Then, after Art, we read Black Dog by Levi Pinfold. This book talks about fears and how our mind makes things bigger than they actually are and once we figure things out, we realize that it is not a big deal. We are relating this to math this year. For some, Math is our Black Dog. Some are scared but once they realize the process, it is actually not too bad. You may hear us refer to math as the Black Dog this year. :) We then discussed what math is and began an exemplar about the pips on dominoes. This got our brains thinking mathematically. After lunch and recess, we signed our mission statement that we came up with yesterday. Instead of the usual signature, we decided to measure ourselves and place a mark with our names and the date. We have talked about how we need to measure ourselves with our personal growth and not measure ourselves against others. This is how we will show our 'growth' this year. I can't wait to see how much each kiddo grows by June! Then we read more from Wonder. I'm already falling in love with Auggie! The kiddos begged to read silently and independently and then we discussed what reading is, looks like and DOESN'T look like. Finally, we finished the day working on our Social Media get to know you activity. These are due MONDAY! They should have a Facebook profile, Pinterest board with 5 boards of their interests, an Instagram page with 10 pictures detailing their summer and then a Twitter name (@....) and 2 "tweets" of goals for the year following the Twitter rules.

Thursday, August 22

It seems a little too good to be true... we are doing great things and are seeming to be more of a team than I have seen before in such a short time. Today we did some partner activities and set up Clock Partners. In Math, we described ourselves in numbers. (Thanks Brock for figuring out how many thousands of days old I am...) We began our first chapter read aloud, Wonder by R.J. Palacio. It is about a boy going in to 5th grade. This boy has had medical issues and a facial deformity which makes him different from others so he has been home schooled up until now. This is a story of his experience trying to be "ordinary". Next, we read silently and they actually did not want to quit! We then read, You'll Be Sorry and discussed what it looks like to be "Ready to Learn." In Writer's Workshop, we reviewed sentences and the progression of sentences from a writer in Kindergarten to now. Finally, we took some time to work on their Social Media introductions.

Thanks for another great day!

Wednesday, August 21

Hello there! Another amazing day here at ADE! Today, however, we were a little more talkative than yesterday. Although it is great that we are all getting along so well, it makes it difficult to get tasks accomplished. We'll keep working on it! This morning, we played "I Have, Who Has?" ADE version to familiarize ourselves with the people/staff at ADE and fire and tornado procedures. After Music, we worked on describing the perfect classmate but first brainstormed what we do that might 'bug' others. I fixed everyone's boo-boos by placing band-aids on their wrists, no matter where their boo-boo was. This symbolized that FAIR isn't everyone getting the same thing, but everyone getting what they need, when they need it. I then, broke a brown egg and a white egg (a little messily, I might add) to show that even though we are different on the outside, we are all the same on the inside. We also read Hooway for Wodney Wat. After we came in from recess, we read Only One You and then went outside and found the perfect rock. We came in and painted these rocks. They will serve as a symbol of our similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we ended our day with seeing who has been listening and knows the most about me. :) How did your kiddo do?

Tuesday, August 20

What a lovely first day of school!! Please make sure that you received an email from me today, as well as responded to that email, to let me know that I have the correct email address for you. I will be communicating through email unless you would like to receive a paper copy. (Please let me know if you would prefer this.)

We explored and toured the classroom, went over expectations and our rule, met some superheroes and discussed our core virtues and read the book, All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant. We made it to lunch without starving to death, enjoyed recess and survived the heat and mixed up a yummy "Recipe for A Successful Year!"

The kiddos liked the 'fairness' and 'pride' best... (chocolate chips and yogurt covered raisins)

Hopefully, this blog will help you to have conversation and bridge the gap between school and home.