My heart may burst...

I am sitting here while the kids are watching Because of Winn Dixie and I truly may think my heart may burst. Their laughter and smiles are sure good for the soul. Man I seriously LOVE these 22 kids!

Also, I am sooooo proud of Ashlyn. She has gone home every night and worked on an extra page from her Chapter 1 math workbook. Way to go, Ashlyn! I am very proud of the extra work you are putting in to becoming an even better math student!

A VERY happy, happy belated birthday to Takoda. He is such a special, delightful boy who is a friend to every single person in our room. We are lucky to have him in our class. It was fun celebrating him while eating delicious donuts on Monday (and he enjoyed his confetti, too)! 

When I grow up I want to be a....

Week of October 12th

What a FUN week last week! We celebrated Bennett's birthday with donuts (and lost a couple due to an ant attack! lol!). And we ended the week with the Fund Run. It really was a beautiful day and all the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. They were pretty stoked about the medals and water bottles, too! 

This week is a short week due to MEA conferences for teachers.  There will be no school on Thursday or Friday and Wednesday is an early dismissal at noon.  There will be no lunch served on Wednesday, but your kiddo can bring a larger snack.  

In reading and language this week we will be writing some Autumn Cinquin poems and working with adjectives. Also, students will be writing a paragraph about what they want to be when they grow up and why. It is fun for them to look back at these at the end of the year to see how much they have grown and changed. Hopefully we will have time to squeeze in a Fall perspective art project, too! 

Since we are finishing up our read aloud, on Wednesday I plan on showing the students Because of Winn Dixie, so please make sure to send the permission slip back if you want your child to view the movie. It is one of my favorites! 

In math this week we will review picture graphs, bar graphs, and frequency tables.  We will also be problem solving with data and making line plots. 

I leave you with some pictures of the Fund Run. Also, Magdalen lost her other front tooth, and I just had to snap a picture because it was too cute!

Code word: Winn Dixie (earns your child a $50 bonus)

Buddies!!!!!!

We were SO excited to meet our first grade buddies today! We spent our time together by playing math games. It was a blast to finally be the BIG buddies!

Recent Art Projects

We wrapped up our Vincent van Gogh artisit study by painting our own "Starry Night" pieces. I love how they turned out!

Last week we looked at some abstract work by Russian artist Kandinsky. We did a tree activity inspired by his work.

Week of October 5th

In reading we are starting our next unit, Science At Play.  This is a fun unit and we will be researching based on our theme question: How does science help us have fun?  This week we will be specifically looking at how science is involved in the sports we play.  Encourage your child to tell you what our theme vocabulary words mean: energy, force, and technology. The skills we will be focusing on this week include: summarizing, antonyms, cause and effect, and contractions.  In grammar we will also work on singular and plural nouns, and common and proper nouns. 

In math we are now into chapter 2, which is all about organizing data.  This week we will learn to read and make picture graphs, use and make bar graphs and solve problems using data.  The thing to be extra careful about with graphs is that we are reading the key. 

In social studies we will learn about the physical geography, climate, and natural resources of a couple places, we will then begin discussing what they are for our community.  In science we are will learn about the water cycle and work on inquiry projects. 

Homework: reading log and math worksheets

Upcoming Events: 

•  Friday, October 9th: Arrowhead PTA is excited to announce our one and only fundraiser this year, the Fund Run 2015!  The run will take place on October 9 at 1:30 for primary kids and at 2:20 for intermediate kids.  Please support your students in the run by clicking on the ‘Donate Now’ button on the Arrowhead website, or sending in your blue donation forms.   Prizes given out randomly to those participating. Arrowhead water bottles. (All kids will participate in the run/walk so please dress appropriately on Friday)

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! 

Fun Friday!

We had a fun day today! We had yummy puppy chow to celebrate Brennen's 9th birthday. We also earned our pajama/stuffed animal celebration.  What a blessing these 22 people are to me.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

We had a nice, long "family meeting" about respect today. This is such a good-natured, kind group. However, there have been a few issues (mostly at recess) and I wanted to be on the same page regarding what respect looks and sounds like at Arrowhead.

Here were some ideas generated by the kiddos:

Respect SOUNDS like:
*Way to go!"
* quiet voices while working
* "Good job!"
* "Please"
* "Thank you"
* "Excuse me"
* "You're welcome"
* Laughter

Respect LOOKS like:
* Not shouting out
* No poking, pinching, etc.
* Eyes on the speaker
* Smiling faces
* Doing kind deeds
* Helping someone out
* Humor (we love to laugh!)
* High-fives
* Giving everyone a chance in football
* Inviting someone to play who is alone
* Straight, quiet line

Write the code word RESPECT in your child's planner and they will earn a $100 bonus! :)