Final Reminder

Reading logs were due today. Students not having a total of 3 reading logs turned in by tomorrow will have '2' on their progress report in the area of homework.

Additionally, we had our first trip to the school library today. You will find either a library book in your child's backpack or a pink permission slip which needs to filled out completely in order for books to be checked out from school.

Also, if your child brings in one library book from an outside library (ie. Carson Public Library) they will receive a star on the star chart.

Fifty-fifth Day

We had a quick lesson on Power Point today. I suggested for those kids that have flash drives to bring them in to make organization of computer work easier. If your child brings a flash drive in, it would be helpful to somehow ID the drive with your child's name either by writing on the drive or attaching it to a lanyard that can be written on.

We will be taking a brief Social Studies quiz tomorrow. We reviewed how life was different a long time ago, why home are different in other parts of the world, and what traditions we celebrate in the United States.

Oops

Forgot to pass back kids' Thanksgiving creation yesterday; my apologies. Hope everyone has a great holiday.

Fifty-First Day

Today for science we generated properties of various liquids by observing how different liquids look and move. We discussed words like viscosity, transparency, opaque, and translucency.

Unit 2 Week 5 Preview

For the next 5 instructional days we will ask what neighbors do together for fun. Our focus vocabulary words will be: audience, entertain, brilliant, enjoy, and perform. Our sight words will be: all, put, show, together, under, and want. In phonics we will be introduced to the digraphs 'sh,' and 'th'. We will again generate retells and summaries of our selections using visualization and Flow Maps

Forty-Ninth Day

Yesterday we read and recorded our speeches for the office of Room 11 Class President. A total of 7 candidates ran for office. Those 7 students will receive Home Project credit. Today we chose our Class President by secret ballot. Those students who delivered a speech yesterday have a copy of the ballot for their memoirs.

It is highly likely we will not be taking a test for Topic 8 in math.

Unit 2 Week 4 Preview

Continuing our exploration of families and neighbors, we ask the question: what is a home? Our vocabulary words for the week are: collapse, company, construct, entire, and material. Our high-frequency focus words are: again, could, make, one, then, and three. For spelling we will focus on short-vowel 'u'. Our grammar rule will be proper nouns and capitalization.

Tuesday we will read our class president speeches and Wednesday we will vote. I will send home a copy of our voting ballot with those children making speeches. This is one of those documents you might consider scanning to your child's flash drive.

Last week, 22 of 24 students passed the district quarterly math exam. Two students passed with perfect scores.

Forty-Fifth Day

On Friday we worked cooperatively to complete 4 separate tasks using skills we've learned to date, including phonics, story analysis, and spelling.

For science we used our insight into the properties of matter to independently build towers with selected objects. The point being that some properties are better for building towers than others. We then drew a diagram of the towers we built for our science journal.

Forty-Third Day

Today we discussed absolute and relative location and read a nonfiction selection, On the Map, about locating places on a map. We discussed the main idea and details in order to help us summarize the selection. We also played the main idea/details game which 1st graders just love; go ahead and try it at home. We also read a nonfiction selection about animal camouflage.

On the Topic 7 math test 22 students out of 24 passed with a score of 17 or better; two students got a perfect score.

Forty-Second Day

We compared the the past and the present in a nonfiction selection today called Around Town, Then and Now. We started a Flow Map to write a report about the city of Carson. Our vocabulary words for the week include: frequently, service, variety, useful, and amazed.

We took Topic 7 math test today.

Fortieth Day

Sixteen students have completed seminar and 8 students have completed their Unit Projects. We began our own Flow Map to provide instruction for a family chore after completing a practice map to retell the events of The Little Red Hen. The best of these maps may be saved to be displayed in the office for Room 11's turn at the bulletin board.

We will likely take our Topic 7 math test on Monday. That makes for a busy test week in math.

Thirty-Ninth Day

Thirteen students have now completed the seminar portion of their Unit 1 Writing Project. Three students have shown me their final revisions. A number of students have yet to turn in both reading logs which are now past due.

Today we "share" wrote instructions for raking leaves and discussed the need for leaves to fall from trees during this season as an aside and current event. We selected a chore for which we will begin to develop instructions.