Monthly Archives: December 2018

A peek at our week…

My apologies for the delay in this post.  Between report cards, holiday crafts, STEAM projects, Wonders and AIMsweb assessments and writing projects, we have been out straight!  It is hard to believe that this is the week before winter break.  We have been crazy busy, the last two weeks.  We have just about finished up with our Unit 2 Wonders Assessments.  This has been a long process,  and the children have worked incredibly hard!  I am so proud of hem for keeping focused, and working through this assessment.  I can’t wait to share their progress with you!  We still have a couple of pieces to finish up, but will probably wait until after winter break, as we are out straight with activities this week!  We also finished up, today, with the benchmark AIMsweb assessments.  I was very proud of the children’s progress!

 

Last week, after finishing most of the Wonders assessments, we completed an elf delivery STEAM.  The children were challenged with the task of creating a parachute that would allow the elves to deliver packages safely.  I was quite impressed with the planning, and parachute building that the children did.  We talked about creating a parachute that would resist the air, and snow the decent of the elves, and packages.  This was a lot of fun!  The children assumed this would be an easy task, but quickly realized that they had to revise many of their plans.

Since we have been out straight with assessments, we decided to shift gears this week.  We have some amazing science experiments, STEAM projects, and arts and crafts to do!  This week, in our classroom, we learned about snowflakes, and conducted an experiment with borax, to see if we could form our own crystals, similar to the way that ice crystals are formed.  I’m so excited to see the end results!  We never know how they are going to turn out!  We have also been busy finishing up some “gifts”, that are so cute!  I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!  In class, we have also been finishing up a writing project, based on the book “Snomen at Night”. The children wrote some pretty creative stories about what happens with their snowmen at night.  Finally, in class, we have been counting down the days before winter break.  Each day, I have a small “treat” for the children.  Monday, 5 days before Winter Break, brought a week without homework!  It was funny to see the mixed reviews at this gift.  I asked the children to try and spread some kindness, instead of homework, or to spend some time with family.  I have loved reading some of the things that they have done, on day one!  Tuesday, 4 days before winter break brought reindeer noses (junior mints).  The children created and solved some math facts, sorted fact from opinions, and a completed few other activities about reindeer noses.  Wednesday will bring a bag of “elf pillows” (peppermint pillows).  We have a bunch of fun activities that we will complete with them, from math problems, to some short writing tasks.  On Thursday, 2 days before winter break, my teacher will give to me a heard of animals (animal crackers).  We are going to do some sorting, graphing and other tasks, with a bag of animal crackers.  This is a fun way to count down the days until break!

 

On Friday, shhhhh… this part is a surprise.  We will be having a Polar Express party!  The children will get “homework”, or an invitation to the party on Thursday night.  This will contain a ticket for them to attend the party.  We will invite the children to wear pajamas, and bring a small blanket to watch the movie!  We will have popcorn and hot cocoa (as the movie suggests), as treats!  It will surely be a super fun day!

 

This week, the children will also be visiting every second grade classroom, in the afternoons.  They will be making potpourri, conducting a STEAM project, and making moon dough.  This will be a wonderful way to spend our afternoons.

 

Just a reminder:  we are collecting items for our theme basket.  Our theme this year is LEGOS – Build it!  We will be collecting items through January 17th!  Donations can be sent in, at any time!  Thank you in advance for your help with this!

 

I will be sending out sign-ups for conferences, right after break.  I am very excited to share all the wonderful progress the children have made, with you!

This Week in Wonders…

Wow!  We are down to 8 days before holiday break!!!  Wowzers, December flew by!!!  There are no spelling words this week, because we are assessing this week.  We are at a Unit assessment for Wonders, and doing benchmark screenings for Aimsweb.  I will be sending out sign-ups for conferences.  I wanted to get in these last two check-ins, before meeting with all of you!  I’m excited to share all the amazing progress that this crew has made!

 

Last week, we all met in Mrs. Howe’s room for book buddies.  Mrs. Howe and I handed out awards, for reading counts.  Reading counts is a way for children to take a short, ten question quiz on each book they read.  The program will then count the total number of words, that the children have read.  This was a pretty amazing experience for many of the kids, and an inspiration for many others.

 

We also played a game called Salute last week!  This is a game where two players put a card on their forehead, and the dealer finds the sum.  Each player tries to figure out which addend they have on their forehead.  This was fun for all!

On Thursday, we also made some snowmen, to go with our Snowmen at Night stories.  Last week we read the story Snowmen at Night.  I LOVE this story, as it sparks the imagination, and this is surely true of this group!  We started to write our own stories for what snowmen do at night.  (if only we had some decent snow, for snowmen). I am sooooo excited about their stories, and so are the children!  I can’t wait to get these stories finished!

 

This week, our schedule will be a little off-kilter, as we will be fitting in all of these assessments, and taking some breathers when we can. I have told the children that I won’t be sending home homework this week.  I am hoping to finish up with Unit 3 in math, so that we can get the assessment in, before the holiday break!  I am so proud of this crew, and the progress that they continue to make!

 

That being said, we will also try to squeeze in some down time, including some following directions activities, crafts and STEM projects, to allow the children to decompress from the crazy busy week!

 

Next week, we really get to breathe!!!  The children will have enrichment activities every afternoon!  We will be rotating through each second grade classroom for craft, STEAM, science and literacy based activities!  The kids will have so much fun with this!  We will spend the mornings tying up loose ends, and reviewing, before the break.  Friday, we have a special surprise planned for the second graders, but shhhh…. it is a surprise!  Be sure to check their backpacks for a special “homework” Thursday night.

Just a reminder:  we are collecting items for our theme basket.  Our theme this year is LEGOS – Build it!  We will be collecting items through January 17th!  Donations can be sent in, at any time!  Thank you in advance for your help with this!

It has been a chilly week, already!  I have advised the children to wear their snow gear out, some days, regardless of whether or not they are playing in the snow, just to stay warm.  Please make sure the kiddos have gloves/mittens and hats.  Their little fingers get really cold out there!  If you have an extra set, it might be a good idea to keep them in their backpacks.  We’ve been borrowing quite a few pairs from the nurse.

 

We’ve also been VERY hungry during snack!  I don’t know if it is the cold weather, or the sharks and minnows they’ve been playing, but they are coming in, really hungry!  We’ve gone through A LOT of extra goldfish!  It might be a good idea to pack an extra snack, for snack time, as some of our kiddos have been quite hungry.

 

We stop and wash hands after each recess, so we are ready for snack, and the afternoon..  I have also encouraged the kids to wash hands before lunch, as there is A LOT of ickiness going around.  We have been wiping all of our surfaces, with disinfectant wipes, and we are grateful that we had so many, from the beginning of the year!  THANK YOU!!!! However, we have LOTS of runny noses, and could use some more soft tissues, if anyone has an extra box hanging around.  The kiddos’ noses appreciate it!

Thanksgiving STEAM!

We had two Thanksgiving STEAM projects that we participated in.  The children worked together, as a team, to save their turkeys from the Thanksgiving table!  It was fun to see the kiddos working together to save their turkeys from the fate of the table…

    

Next, we had an engineering challenge, where the children had to design a table.  I was hoping to see the children apply some previously learned information, to this new challenge.  It was fun to see the children, not only construct their tables, but also edit and revise their work as they went.

 

    

 

 

 

Brittney!

Wow!  What an amazing experience it has been to follow Mrs. Wright’s daughter on her trek to the Mount Everest base camp!  We could not be more thankful to her for thinking of us, along the way!  On Friday, we had the amazing experience of meeting Brittney in”real life”!  Brittney came to share with us her first-hand experience.  She showed us her journey, through pictures, and shared some interesting artifacts, such as her walking poles, boots, yak traks, backpack.  The kids were so excited to hear about her journey, and to see some amazing pictures of her journey!  There is a pretty great article in the New Boston beacon this week, detailing some of our experience!  Be sure to check it out!