Highlight Reel #6

This week was a quick one!  We had some great days.  We had our first citizen of the month assembly.  Students who are chosen to be the citizen of the month embody our five Beulah Ralph characteristics:  kind, respectful, positive and a problem solver.  One of the great things about citizen of the month is that it is chosen by our class friends.  With a secret ballot our class voted for our first citizen of the month.  We couldn’t vote for ourselves!  On Thursday, kindergarten, first and second grade classes came to the gym to honor these people. Room 304 was so proud!  Our citizen got lots of high fives!  Here is our first citizen of the month!

We started math by myself and math with someone.  These are great ways for us to practice the skills that we are learning.  This week we focused on learning about 3D shapes.  Our class worked so hard during this time that when another teacher came in she was amazed at how hard they were working!  

We are lucky enough to have eight iPads for our classroom!  Mrs. Fitch our media specialist came to our classroom to teach us how to use Myon Reader for the listen to reading part of our day.  She brought a cart of iPads so that each one of us to go use one at the same time.  Up until now, we have done listen to reading as a large group.  Now that we have practiced with the iPads, this will become a choice during reading time and each student can choose what he or she would like to listen to.  

During writing time, we have been learning that writers can solve their problems on their own.  We learned that when you think you’re done you’ve just begun!  You can add more to some work you have already finished, you can add labels or you can start something new.  If you don’t know what to write about, instead of asking a friend to decide for you, you can look at our class chart for an idea.

We have seen some beautiful big butterflies on our playground.  Many of us were interested in them so we decided to learn a little more.  We watched a time-lapse of a caterpillar go from a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly.   We read books about it too.  Ask your child to tell you some of the cool facts we learned!  Here are the two time-lapses that we watched! 

 

Soon our class will vote for our school mascot.  This week our class had a preliminary vote for the bird party.  After watching some election videos made by fifth grade students at Beulah Ralph, our class voted for the owl to move on to the next round.  We will have a school wide vote very soon.  We will see if our preliminary choice will be the same as our school!  

We had a friend loose a tooth at school!  Check out his happy smile!

Announcements:

• October 4th - Picture Day -  If you'd like to order you can send back the form from last week's Friday Folder or you can order online too!  

• October 13 - Kindergarten Field Trip  - We will be taking a field trip to Peach Tree Farms.  It will be a half day field trip and we will be back in time for dismissal.  We are all looking forward to it!

• October 19 - Early Dismissal - We will dismiss from school at 12:50 on this day.  

Highlight Reel #5

Enjoy our highlight reel!  I think you’ll get a great peek into our week.  If you have any questions feel free to email!  Don’t forget to check your weekly checklists.  Enjoy your three day weekend!  See your kids on Tuesday!

Coming soon...

Our week in review will come a little later this weekend.  Our kids were amazing this week.  I seriously took about 100 pictures.  Rather than filling a post with all of them, I am going to attempt something techy.  I am going to see if I can make them into a slideshow.  If I can’t figure it out, I’ll just pick a few.  Wish me luck and stay tuned!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday friend!  Thanks for sharing treats! 

Yum! Crickets!

Thank you to this friend for bringing Lenny crickets!  Yum!

Friday Behavior Reports

Happy Sunday!  Don’t forget to check your link to your child’s weekly behavior report.  I sent it in an email on Friday.  When you have viewed it please use the form link at the bottom to electronically sign it.  I would love to use this for us to communicate back and forth each week about your child's progress.  Feel free to use it in the same way that we used email for weekly comments.  The attached form is linked to the sheet so you will be able to view comments from myself on the first page and comments that you make on the fourth page of the document.  I will update it on Friday and check it on Monday.  If you need something during the week, please email or call the office instead as I will only check it Monday and Friday.  Thanks!

Highlight Reel #4

We had a special visitor this week.  Mrs. Naylor, Beulah Ralph’s daughter came to visit our classroom.  She made a short book telling a fun story about her mother, Mrs. Ralph.  After reading it to our class, we were able to ask her questions about her mother.  We learned that she was a great person who worked hard to make it possible for ALL kids to go to school and get a great education.  Each of us have a copy of the book in our Friday Folders for you to enjoy as a family. 

Shapes, shapes and more shapes!  We sorted shapes and talked about how many sides they have.  We learned hex means six so a six sided shape is a hexagon.  We looked for shapes around the room.  We found circle tables, rectangle cages, a square smart board, a circle clock and a rectangle rug.  Pictures were drawn starting with a single shape and adding things to turn it into something else.  We finished the week by filling a hexagon with other shapes like a puzzle. 

For writing, we made settings for characters and told stories about them.  Some of us shared our work with the class.  We also started talking about labels.  We learned that writes use labels to tell about the different parts of their drawing.  We used Pete the Cat to help us learn about labels.  We will continue this work next week. 

Today we began using star cards.  As the week went on, I felt that I was correcting behavior more and more.  I told the kids that I felt more like a police officer than a teacher!  I strive to be a positive person and I would much rather tell them when they are making the right choice than when they are not.  So because of this, today we began using star cards.  Our first goal was to follow directions.  When I saw kids that were following directions, I gave them a star cards.  I had them put it in their take home folder.  I asked them to share with you all the reasons that they were given these cards.  Please talk with your child and celebrate the good things they are doing.  I hope to use this less as a reward and more as a way for me to identify what it looks like to follow directions and a way for you and your child to process together what good school choices are and why they are important.  I’m hoping that as the year goes on we will need these less and less, but for now they sure did appreciate the positive praise. 

Announcements:

Thank you to all that have sent family pictures.  The cubbies look great and it makes a great space for each child.  If you haven’t sent one in there is still time.  I will take them any time!