Classroom Snapshot, Thanks and Reminders

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving filled with lots of love and family! I had a great Thanksgiving with my family, and enjoyed getting to spend 5 days with my little guy. We also had a great time listening to Christmas music and putting up our trees and decorations. My favorite tree in the house has to be sons tree that he picked out last year. If you didn't know my son is truly a basketball guru and can tell you anything you want to know about basketball including, every team Shaquille Oneal has ever played on! He's 4! Crazy! I know, but what can you expect when you have Varsity Assistant coach as a dad. Anyway, his tree happens to be my favorite because it is the Fighting Illini colors, which is his favorite college basketball team and has basketballs as ornaments!  Maybe we have a future Illini Alum? Who knows! So, I said all that to say, I hope your Thanksgiving Holiday was also filled with laughs, memories, and joy.

So it was great seeing all the kids today, and they came in ready to learn, which was great because we had a pretty busy day. Here are few things we did today:

Today we:

• took our pretest on geometry because that is our next focus unit, which I am super excited about. I love Geometry!
• practiced our reading responses during writing time. We practiced answerinf who, what, when, where, and why questions from our text. Then we put them altogether to make what we call a sentence stretcher.
• introduced a new shared reading book called His Majesty, the King, which is an excellent folktale about a king who wanted to go to moon, and decided to command all his subjects to bring a box so they could stack them as high as the moon. The King did all this at the dismay of the Queen.He finally had almost reached the top, but sadly he was one box short to his desination of the moon. So what did he decide to do.... he commanded his servants to take the box from the bottom of the tower and place it on the top. Everyone warned him that was a bad idea, but he is the king! As you probably guessed the tower came falling down with the King landing on top. With this book, we are working on Story traits, such as characters, setting, problem, solution.Funny side story: I think this was one of the abosolute cutest thing I have ever seen. As I read to the students the part about the King commanding the servants to take a box from the bottom and place at the top, one of our classmates facial expression was absolutely priceless! Her face started off as look of concern, ho wis he going to reach the moon. When she heard the King's not so brilliant idea her face slowly began to turn into a quizzical frown, as she began to realize that his idea was not going to work. I truly wish I had a camera because it will defintely be a memorable moment everytime I read this book in the future.
• began reading a great book by Dr. Suess called Batholomew and the Oobleck, during science. This book is excellent because it lends itself well to a discussion on Solids, liquids, and gasses. Additionally, tomorrow we further our discussion as we experiement with matter and make our own Oobleck! (Pictures to come tomorrow!)

Overall, we had an excellent day, and I am really excited about tomorrow!

Thanks:

• Our Thanksgiving feast was a success because of the great families we have here. The students had a wonderful time. Thank you to all the families who were able to contribute. Everything was so yummy!
• To Mr. Petty for coming in and being a mystery reader this past week! I I think I may have forgotten Mr. Flores who also came in to be a star reader a couple weeks ago! Thanks again we can't do it without you!
• To all the families that offered to donate an item towards our Science Experiments. It is truly appreciated.

Reminders:

• Naglieri Test Scores went home today.
• We are in need of Mystery Readers! Please click the link above if you are interested. We have three full weeks left before Christmas break and we would love to have some mystery readers! So far we have had moms, dads, aunts, and grandmas. Remember to pass the word on to family memebers too! Thanks!

Virtual Field Trip

Hello Parents,

Last week we went on a field trip!!! A virtual field trip that is :).  Students had an awesome time exploring different "exhibits". Each exhibit had to do with our new science unit which is matter. Students were to walk with their teams to each exhibit and discuss what they saw at each exhibit. What the students didn't realize until the end was that they were being scientist and listing the properties of the exhibits, which happened to all be solids, liquids, and gases. Here are some fun pictures of our field trip.

Classroom Snapshot and Reminders

Hi Families,

We have had a pretty busy week and half, and I have tons of pictures to show you. I hope everyone a great election day with your little ones if you were able to do so. Here are few things we have been up to.

This week we...

• began a new shared reading book called Putting on a Play, which is a nonfiction text, and informs students about how to put on their own play. Students have learned about stage directions, props, costumes, and much more. In addition to learning all about how to put on plays, we are learning about how to use context clues within our story to find meaning in unknown or unfamiliar words. Students are doing an excellent job with  this, and it is a great skill to practice at home. All you would have to do if there is a word where students are unfamiliar with the meaning, you could ask them if the author has given them any clues to figure out that word on their own, or you can ask them what would make since in it is place, often times that leads to discussion on possible meanings.
• Are wrapping up unit 17 which is about place value to the hundreds. Going into next week, we will be working on numbers up to the ten thousands place.
• will be wrapping up the drafting of our narrative pieces. With this piece of writing, we are really focusing on students organization. We are also working on focusing our topic so that they do not become too big and overwhelming, which students have been doing a great job with.

Reminders:

• We are looking for Mystery Readers for the rest of November and December. If you are interested just click the Mystery Reader link up top and fill in your information, and I will get to you as soon as possible and get you all set up.
• Students were allowed to wear hats in class today as a reward; however, I forgot to remind families via the blog and text message. Therefore, many students forgot. So tomorrow, Thursday, will be our hat day!

Thank you's:

• I would love to thank Mrs. Salkas for leading our Halloween party she did a fabulous job and the kids had so much fun!
• Thank you to Mrs. Burns, Mr. Field, Mrs. Flores, Mrs. Alapatt for their help as well in assisting in our Halloween parties!
• Thank you to  Mr. Larson for coming in a being a WatchD.O.G. on Halloween day as well.
• Thank you to all my fabulous parents who were able to come in and volunteer during center time in October! It was a great help, and the kids love seeing you all come in.
• I would also love to thank Mrs. Self, Elise's Aunt for coming in as a Mystery Reader.