Sunday, August 24, 2014

Place Value

We recently began a unit on place value and number sense.
Students created a chart listing and labeling place value.
The chart will be graded according to a rubric, which was thoroughly explained before we began the project. 

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Fabulous First Week!

The week began the night before the first day of school, with students sprinkling "Planet Powder" under their pillows to get the jitters out.
On the first day of school each student participated in a scavenger hunt looking for another student in the class who...can count to 10 in a foreign language, has a dog, has brown eyes, left the country this summer, is on a team, etc. This was a fun way for students to get to know each other!
Homework the first day of school was to decorate and fill a "Getting To Know You" bag. 
Throughout the rest of the week each student got a chance to present his or her bag to the rest of the class. It was fascinating to learn about each student! This year in our class we have chess champions, math maniacs, baseball stars, rock climbers, super swimmers, amazing dancers plus lots more! 
We also worked on a glyph about pizza and a craft about apples. Along with creating the craft, each student had to scan various QR codes to learn facts about apples to include with their project. 
QR Codes are one of my favorite learning tools and we will be using them a lot this year.
On Thursday students literally clapped and cheered when I told them we would be "Buddies" with Mrs. Bird's 5/6 self-contained class again this year. Each student was matched with a buddy who they then interviewed and then later we played a game as a large group.
We wrapped up our fast paced week on Friday with a little "Mystery Science." Students worked collaboratively to create play-dough out of flour, oil, water and salt. Each team also got to choose a color to dye their dough.
Once each team was finished making their dough, they participated in some challenges like creating an animal out of dough, a musical instrument, something you eat, etc. 
We had a fabulous first week with a wonderful group of students! I am so excited about this coming week and the rest of the year!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Welcome Back!

Welcome back! As I am sure you all know, the 2014-15 school year kicks off on Tuesday, August 12. There is an open house in the classroom from 3:00 to 3:40 this Friday, followed by an ice-cream social in the cafeteria. Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to complete the form below to help me maximize the learning and potential of your child this year!