Spelling City!

Looking for a way to practice spelling?  On Wednesdays, we practice our spelling words using a website called Spelling City.  We do it as a whole class using our BrightLink.  Students may use this website at home. You can go to Spelling City and click on Find A List.  You can search for our spelling words by typing in my last name (henault).  Our newest words are on the top, but students could practice any list.  Enjoy!

Fire Trucks Visit!

The Underhill/Jericho Firefighters came to visit us yesterday.  They taught us about fire safety and about their fire trucks.  We even got to see them use their fire hose! 

Week of October 21st, 2013

We started a new morning job today.  Students had to write 10 Word Wall words.

Hard at work during Daily 5 time!  Reading, writing, and listening!

We started a new unit in math.  Students are working on describing shapes and building with them.  We played a game called Fill the Hexagon.  We worked as a group to list all of the ways you could build a hexagon using other shapes.

During Math Menu, I met with different groups to work on story problems.  Some of the work went up on the Marvelous Math Work wall.  These students were working on using strategies to find all of the combinations to make 9.

Be on the lookout for Friday Journals and Friday Homework Folders!  Both of these come home on Friday and should return to school on Thursday.  Students should read the letter they wrote to an adult and the adult can respond within the journal.

Students should be reading at least 40 minutes a week and recording it in their Reading Log.  If students bring the Reading Log back on Thursday, they may put a marble in our jar.  Once the jar is full, we get to pick out a new book for our classroom library.

We went past our goal this week!  Next week we will be celebrating by watching a special Magic School Bus video on Thursday.

Our Word Wall words this week were he, be, she, we, for, and or.

Week of October 14th, 2013

We worked really hard on story problems this week.  We are now story problem experts!  We have been working on listening to story problems and deciding if the story problem has 1 equation or a lot of combinations. Students learned a new game called A Very Hungry Mouse.  It helps student to practice their addition fact skills.  It will be a choice during Math Menu next week.

We have been working on counting backwards from 20 this week.  We used this video to help us practice.  Here is the video if you want to listen at home: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=srPktd4k_O8

Students have been really excited about their math binders.  They are a choice during Math Menu time.  Students may have different work inside their binder, depending on their needs.  

We finished up our first math unit, and we will be moving onto a new math unit next week. The new unit is called.  

In writing, we have been working on addition details to our writing.  We started by reading different books that had good examples of details.  We practiced using out senses to add details. Some of the books we read are on on our Shelfari Bookshelf. 

We have been reading the book Marty McGuire, and participating in The Global Read Aloud.  Students all over the world are reading and sharing their thoughts about the book.  Here is the website if you would like to check it out: http://www.globalreadaloud.com/.

Our new Word Wall words are has, as, into, and to.

Week of October 7th, 2013

We celebrated making our paws point goal from last week by having a freeze dance party on Monday!

We are working on combination story problems.  For example, I have 7 vegetables.  Some are carrots and some are cucumbers.  How many of each could I have?  Students worked in groups to build the different combinations with unifix cubes.  We took pictures of their models to hang on our Marvelous Math Wall.  Students are working on representing the combinations on paper.

Mr. Lane has taught us all of the Unthinkables!

Math Menu and Daily 5 are up and running!  Students pick two Daily 5 centers and one Math Menu center each day that we have it.  The top of the board tells the choices for that day or week.  Eventually I will be running small math groups at this time while students work independently.

The bottom of the board is where students sign up for their choices.

Our Word Wall words are growing!  This week we added his and of.

Week of September 30th, 2013

Check out our new bulletin board!  We made fall pictures as a paws points celebration last week!  We painted using Q-tips.

We have been practicing the Word Work center of Daily 5.  Students practice making words on white boards, with fancy pens, and with Wikki Stix.  They have a list of words in their folder to work from and the words on the Word Wall.

We used a new app called Word Wizard during Word Study.  Students practiced building words as a class.

The Cardboard Challenge was a blast!  Students were so creative and worked well together.

Mr. Lane enjoying the cardboard!

Our Word Wall words this week were and, is, and the.