Time!

This morning I attached a watch to each of the kids wrists and their job was to find out what time everyone's watch said.  All of the kids did a really good job and I definitely hope they will be ready for the test on Wednesday morning.

We finished up poetry last week with the book, "Mirror , Mirror." It is one of the coolest books ever! Afterwards, the students worked in pairs to reflect on a poem of their choosing. Before all of that, we created diamante poems.  They wrote them out first and then typed them up.  After that, they cut and pasted them onto kites that they made.  Diamante poems are in the shape of a diamond, so a kite seemed fitting.  

On Tuesday, Ali and her mom were nice enough to bring in her new lion-head bunny Leia for us to see.  

After a nice vacation in California, Kadin came back and shared some things with the class.  He was kind enough to bring me back an Oscar! 

Earth Day

We have already had a great day and it is only 10:35! The PTO has organized some REALLY fun things for us this week in honor of Earth Day.  This morning, we went to the science lab and created big flower magnets out of the bottle caps that we have been collecting since November.  Tomorrow, the kids will vote for what design they want to create in the garden in May.  Thursday, we will finishing up the collection of water bottles for the Dragonfly Studio.  The class with the most bottles will win a wonderful dessert picnic in May. SO, SEND IN EMPTY WATER BOTTLES!!!! Finally, on Friday, each student will receive an earth shaped cookie to enjoy.

We have begun "The Great Pencil Challenge!"  Pencils are my least favorite thing ever so, we trying something new to hopefully reduce the issues.  Each kid started with a pencil today.  We will have occasional check-ins to see who still has their pencil.  The last pencil standing wins a PRIZE! If I find a pencil on the floor, that kiddo is disqualified.  I am really hoping that all of the kids rise to the challenge!

  

Celebrating SPRING!

This week we continued to work on poetry (we will also be doing more next week).  We made adjective poems about Peeps.  First, we conducted a peeps taste test, of course.  Later in the day we wrote cinquains about Spring.  But, to make it more fun we made bluebirds to go along with them.

Some of the acrostic poems from Monday

This morning we had an Easter Egg Hunt.  I hid 24 eggs around the school and they all had questions inside that the kids had to answer.  It was a lot of fun! 

This week we took the array test and the unit 13 test.  I was incredibly happy with the results.  The average score for the Fundations test was 93% and 95% for the array test.  Thank you for working at home with your students.   I appreciate the support.  

Remember, no school tomorrow (Friday) and no school on Monday.  Have a great long weekend! 

Hooray for WINNING!

I am a very competitive person and I LOVE when we can win anything and everything.  A few weeks ago we had the canned food drive.  The student teachers in the building organized it and second grade collected more food than first grade.  So, we WON! Besides the winning part, it was awesome that so many of them were able to donate to the food pantry.  Second grade collected about 300 cans and first grade collected just under 250.  That's pretty great for only a week of collecting. Since we did win, we received popsicles at the end of the week.  The kids were very grateful!

Today we started poetry.  I am so excited to see their imaginations at work.  Today we wrote acrostic poems using their names.  Over the next few weeks we will be writing A LOT! 

Dates to remember...

April 15- Talent Show

Aptil 16- Array test

April 17- Unit 13 test

               11:05 Dismissal

April 18 and 21- NO SCHOOL

May 7- 1:35 Dismissal

May 9- Museum of Science and Industry Field trip (7:20-4:20)

May 14- Trip to 3rd Street (if they earn it)

May 19- Spending the afternoon at Sumner Park

May 26- No school

June 2- Field trip to Krape Park (information to come)

Chinchillas, yo yo's and arrays.. OH MY!

We have had an exciting last couple of weeks! Because of that, I have changed the test on arrays to Wednesday next week.  Our math time kept getting interrupted with meetings, assemblies, days off and more! So, in order to make the sure the kids fully understand rows, columns and arrays, we are moving the test.  That means we won't start a new math concept until after Easter break.

The kids did make an "Array City" this week.  We were supposed to do guided math but, the iPads were broken so, we improvised!

Last week we had the NED assembly and that is where the yo yo's come in.  They are driving me CRAZY but, the message that came along with them was wonderful.  Click here for the NED website.

Payton K. has been talking about her chinchilla Daisy for weeks now and we finally got to see her for ourselves.  Her mom was gracious enough to bring her in and let us all pet her.

As kids are starting their summer activities, please let me know if they want me to come to a game or recital or anything.  I would love to see them in action.

BOOK ORDERS ARE DUE TOMORROW!

The Elusive LIRPALOOF

April 1st is meant for tricks and school is no exception! 

First, we learned about the Lirpaloof.  It is a bird that comes out in early April and LOVES carrots. You can find it by singing it's name and holding baby carrots up in the air.  So, we did just that and... APRIL FOOLS! Lirpaloof is April Fool's spelled backwards (kind of). Below, we are searching for the Lirpaloof outside.

Later I rewarded the kids for a good day with Brownies! Well... kind of... I gave them brown E's! 

Let's just say that I had a lot of fun with today and the kids were note quite happy about being tricked but, I hope they saw the fun in it all! 

On a more serious note... we will have our Unit 12 test on Friday for Fundations and we are in the midst of a canned food drive that ends on Friday.  Also, tomorrow (Wednesday) is a 1:35 dismissal.