Week of December 12th

Sam and his family made my Friday much brighter --- thank you for the coffee and treats! :) 

We performed our Reader's Theater, "Name that Character" for the kindergarten, first, and second graders on Friday. I was so proud!

Thanks to Addison, Grant, Sam, and Myra for the Toys for Tots donations! Makes my heart so happy!

Addison spent an evening doing ST Math at home --- look at all those puzzles solved!!!!

Laurel ROCKED her ST Math time on Friday! You go, girl!!!!

For our Reader's Theater Marissa played the part of Pippi Longstockings. Look at her cute "Pippi" hair she sported on Friday! :)

A day in the life of Bennett :)

This week in reading we will begin Unit 3! Our essential question is: What makes animals unique? Our genre is folktales and we will be reading "Martina the Beautiful Cockroach," "Get a Backbone," and "Inchworm's Tale." We will be working on the skills of visualizing, problem/solution, synonyms, sentence fluency, and contractions. Our vocabulary words for the week are:

In math, we will begin Chapter 7: Division Facts and Strategies. This week we will focus on dividing by 2, 10, 5, 4 , and 6. Each child should be able to solve division problems using: equal groups, repeated subtraction, arrays, and fact family knowledge.  

Don't forget that Wednesday December 15th is the stduents Christmas program.  There will be two idetical programs one at 10:00 and the other at 1:30, so please come to the program that is most convienent for you. It is one of my favorite days of the year -- you won't want to miss it!

Code Word = Spread Kindness 

Week of December 5th

Evan (also known as Ivan and Ethan ;)) got an Eagle Eye card (this is given out by adults in the building when students are caught doing something unusually helpful or thoughtful). Proud of you, Evan!

We had a PILE of lunch baskets one day!

The students did a fabulous job of dressing in black in honor of Mrs. Meier's epic birthday! Was fun to see!

Some students ROCKED at completing a record-setting amount of ST Math puzzles this week! Way to go, guys!

LOVE Marissa's outfit (and that amazing smile, too!).

Santa sent his elf, Enrique, to watch over us for the month! :)

Jackson did a "random act of kindness" and brought snack for a classmate!

Laurel and Marrissa donated a toy for Toys for Tots. Thanks, girls!

Eden made my morning by giving me a sweet, glittery card! 

This week (on Thursday the 1st) I sent home two things that I would LOVE students to work on through the month of December: our Kindness Calendar and a Christmas Book Bingo activity. Please encourage your child to spread kindness this month! It really is the reason for the season, right?!?  If you take a picture of your child completing one of the "random acts of kindness" please snap a picture so I can add it to the blog!

This week in our Wonders reading series we will be on our "review" week. So, their will be no spelling words. We will be reviewing the skills discussed throughout the chapter, as well as conducting a short research project and performing a reader's theater! Our learning objectives this week are to: cite relevent evidence from a text, summarize the text, interpret information presented visually, gather relevant information from digital resources, write an informative text, conduct research, and select reliable sources. 

In math we will continue on in Chapter 6: Understanding Division. Last week we looked at division using equal groups, bar models, and repeated subtraction. This week we will model divison with arrays, relating multiplication and division, writing related facts, and division rules for one and zero. By the end of the week, we should be ready for the Chapter 6 Assessment. It really helps students to recall their multiplication facts quickly, so please encourage your child to work on their flash cards or Xtra Math for even a few minutes a night. Thanks!

Also, we are in need of a few items in our classroom: rolls of paper towels, Dixie cups, markers (for our classroom art supplies), and reams of computer paper. Any donations would be greatly appreciated!

Lastly, if you could please make sure your child has a water bottle and a healthy snack for school each day, I would deeply appreciate it. However, if you are reading the blog, you are probably one of the parents that already does a fabulous job of this, so thank you! ;) 

Have a great weekend!

Code Word = Enrique the Elf

Week of November 28th

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving break. I will definitely be counting each one of these kiddos as a blessing this year! Remember to read over the break. Also, your child can work on math facts and skills by logging onto Xtra Math, ST Math, or Front Row!

The kiddos were genuinely excited about their NEW dictionaries that the Rotary Club donated to them! It was pretty cute to see how happy they were!

When we return on Monday, November 28th, we will be on Unit 2, Week 5 in our Wonders Series. Our essential question is: How do people figure things out? This week's genre is poetry (specifically limerick and free verse poems). We will read the following poems: "The Inventor Thinks Up Helicopters," "Montgolfier Brothers' Hot Air Balloon," and "Empanada Day."  The skills we will work on this week are: citing text evidence, author's point of view, similes, possessive nouns, and alliteration and rhymes. This weeks vocabulary words are:

In math this week, we will dive into Chapter 6: Understanding Division. Just like we did with multiplication, we will explore some different strategies to help unravel any division problem thrown our way. This week we will learn about making equal groups, using bar models, using repeated subtraction, and modeling division with arrays. Since division is simply the inverse of multiplication, students will be WAY more successful if they are working on fluently knowing their multiplication facts. Please work with your child a few minutes a night at home. It really does make a big difference!

In science, we will finish our glider trials. In December we will get to go up to the Rocky Mountain College Aviation Center, which is a lot of fun. Look for the permission slip coming home soon!

Code Word = Division

Week of November 21st

This might be the shortest week of the whole school year, as we will only spending one and half days together. I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving with their families. This is always a difficult holiday for me, as my mom passed away on Thanksgiving Day years ago. So, even though I have SO much to be thankful for, there is always a great deal of sadness I experience on this holiday, too.

Anyways, I want you to know that your child is one of the many blessings I will be counting this Thanksgiving. Truly, thank you for raising such wonderful human beings and sharing them with me. What a great honor and privilege! They bring my life so much joy!

Here are some pictures from our glider trials. I've never been able to do them outside before, but since this November has been exceptionally warm, we took advantage of the warmth and went outside! 

On Wednesday we celebrated Grant's birthday with scrumptious homemade cupcakes. Grant is a role-model classmate. He is quiet, super smart, humble, helpful, funny, polite, and has the best smile/dimples. He is a keeper and we are SO lucky to have him in our class!

Nathaniel finds some interesting reading positions ;)

He also brought in his dad's old Army hat to show us (since we had just been learning a little about the different branches of the military for Veteran's Day). Thanks for sharing, Nathaniel!

Thanks to all the dads that came for Donuts for Dads. It actually wasn't even too crazy of a day! ;) I grew up without a father present in my life, so it always make me incredibly happy to see these kiddos with such awesome male role models. They will never know who truly blessed they are!

Friday was also our Cat/Griz spirit day. We are surely a class divided. I stressed to the kids, though, that even when we are on different sides, we still love and respect each other. Right!? :) Wish some people would remember that in regards to our recent election!

This week we will do a fun Thanksgiving-themed writing, math, and reading activities. Please encourage your child to spend sometime reading over the break (remember, this can be done together!). Also, your child can practice math skills on Xtra Math, Front Row, or ST Math!  

Also, remember your child's reading log is due on Monday. LOTS of kiddos have been forgetting them at home :( 

Code Word = Go Griz!

Week of November 14th

A very happy birthday to Will! He brought in yummy airplane-themed sugar cookies! They were delicious and creative. I forgot to snap a picture :(  Anyways, we are so lucky to have Will in our class. He is quiet, hardworking, kind, helpful, and polite! 

I got to pull my first tooth of the year! Thanks, Dylan ;)

Kayoe's newborn sister is adorable!

It was so fun to watch the 4th and 5th graders'  Vetran's Day program on Thursday! 

This week in reading we will focus on the essential question: How can people help animals survive? We will continue reading Expository Texts this week. We will read the stories: "Whooping Cranes in Danger," "Help the Manatees!," and "Kids to the Rescue!" We will work on rereading texts, author's point of view, combining sentences, and figurative language. Our spelling words will have three letter blends (ex. scrubs).

 Our vocabulary words this week are:

In math we will dive even deeper into multiplication. Overall, students did a nice job on their Chapter 4 math assessment, proving they have TONS of strategies to solve any multiplication problem thrown their way. In chapter 5, we will describe multiplication patterns (using input/output tables), finding unknown factors (algebra/unknown variables), using the distributive property to problem solve, and multiplying with multiples of 10. This is a pretty short chapter, so we will begin division before you know it!

In social studies, we will go back to learning about Montana Native American tribes and reservations. We took a brief break to learn about Ellis Island/Immigrants and the election process, but now we are back on track!

In science, we have now built our gliders and done one of our trials. This week, we will work with adding weight to see how that affects how far our gliders can fly. 

I am so thankful for how well the students behaved for their Guest Teacher on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was VERY impressed at their fabulous behavior. I feel so very blessed to call these twenty-seven children my students! 

Code Word = Thankful