I tried something new today. During Text Talk, the program for teaching vocabulary words, I asked students to draw a picture for each of the words and they did a marvelous job! The words they learned today were imagined, grumpy and tame. Our shared reading for the week is called "We Like School." It has many lines about things that kids do at school, such as "We like centers." It said nothing about most students' favorite thing -- recess -- so we worked together to write a new sentence which we added.

Don't forget to turn in November reading minutes so your child can get his or her Pizza Hut certificate. It's supposed to snow tonight so please send your child to school with snow boots and maybe even snow pants.

Today students rearranged cut apart sentences using what they know about sentence structure to put them back into proper order. We talked about "announcements" and then students made "Lost" posters for imaginary lost pets. In math we learned about symmetry. Students cut shapes and divided them into equal parts. We related equal parts to "fairness." Check out the "symmetry" link I just added to the links section. You upload a picture of your child to find out if their face is perfectly symmetrical. During afternoon recess a tree service was cutting down some trees on school property which was provided lots of entertainment! Tomorrow is library day and it's supposed to get really cold in the afternoon so make sure your child is prepared.

Students learned 2 new words today: we and can. They also worked in pairs to use pattern blocks to create new shapes. They were challenged to put together a variety of hexagons, triangles, parallelograms and squares to create a large triangle. They discovered that the square was of no use for this task. We used Google Earth to zoom from outer space to our school. We also looked up several addresses and saw some of your homes. Pretty cool! We read the book Maxi the Hero and talked about heroic acts. I also had a student tell someone else a story and then asked the child to retell their friend's story. They had a really hard time doing this, so we will practice those important listening skills.

We accomplished a lot of work in our half day of school. I think most students were able to check out a take home reader. I met with reading groups to work on strategies such as using the picture to get information about the text as well as using letter sounds to figure out unknown words. When your child is reading to you, please be sure they are pointing to the words. They need to know that they can only say as many words as there are on the page. As their reading skills improve, they will be weaned off of the pointing but for now it's important. Have a safe and happy Thankskgiving holiday!

We learned a little about the pilgrims and their journey to America. It took them 66 days to cross the ocean and we've only been in school 61 days! The students couldn't imagine being on a boat for that long. We also talked about our state, where it's located, and how it differs from other states. In Social Studies students are working on a book about their place in the world. Today they cut out the shape of Montana and also located Montana on a US map. In math students put events into proper sequence. I didn't offer students a sentence starter in writing today and I think they did more writing as a result. They impress me so much with their ability to sound out words to convey a written message.

Students did an excellent job at process spelling, a program in which I say a sight word, students write it on a mini white board, and then all the students spell the word in unison. I also pulled some small groups to my reading table and had them reading sight words. I was impressed with how well they did. I can tell that they are practicing at home, so thank you, parents! They also made these awesome turkeys and added signs saying things like, "Eat pumpkin pie, not turkey." Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!

I just received email confirmation that our Scholastic book order has been shipped. Hopefully it will arrive before Tuesday! We had a busy day. The Very Hungry Caterpillar mobile project took much longer that I expected so we missed morning recess. We wrote questions in our journals today. Please help your child practice zipping his or her coat. Most of them can easily do it once they've been shown how. Speaking of coats, it's going to be mighty cold tomorrow. School policy is that students go out for recess unless the wind chill is below zero so warm clothes are essential, including hats and gloves.

We read the book "A House is a House for Me." It talks about how things are houses for other things. For example, a bowl can be a house for soup and a sandwich can be home for ham and cheese. We started thinking of all sorts of things that are houses for other things like a tree is a house for birds and squirrels. Try to think of some more at home tonight--it's kinda fun! We learned the Planet Poem. I had trouble adding the link to the site, but if you search "lyrics, Dr. Jean Planet Song" you can find the words. We practiced reading the ABC phonics chart as I am beginning to test students to see if they can remember all the letter names and sounds. We spelled and added to the word wall the words and, on, and my. Caine's dad came in to help with writing time. He also helped during musical chairs. If you have a spare wire hanger we could use it tomorrow. We will be making a mobile to go along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the book that is helping us with sequencing and learning the days of the week.

Today we learned about the seasons and which months occur in each season. We also learned about the importance of the sun to life on the planet. Tomorrow we will learn The Planet Song which will help students remember the order of the planets from the sun. Students used a new sight word, and, in a sentence during writing by telling about two things they like. Example, "I like apples and bananas." Tomorrow is library day so please return your books. I will place the book order tonight so we can get your books on the way to you as soon as possible.

Special Visitor

Andy Armadillo from Texas Roadhouse visited today. He brought fresh, hot rolls with honey butter as well as a notepad and pencil and a token for a free kids meal for everyone!

The class earned another reward so we had ice cream cones in the afternoon. It also served as math review with the cone and the sphere of ice cream (ha ha). We watched a Magic School Bus video called Lost in Space while we ate ice cream. We also read a book about all the planets and learned what's in outer space. For art, students created a picture of what they imagine is in outer space. They used glitter as the stars and you wouldn't believe how many stars are out there! We'll have glitter in the carpet for weeks! It was a fun day.

We had a great day! Students worked in pairs to illustrate our class book and then they shared their illustrations with the class. We reviewed 3-D shapes and students used clay to mold their own cone, cube, cylinder and sphere. We re-read "The Popcorn Dragon" and learned 3 more vocabulary words: overjoyed, scorched, and forlorn. Students did a fantastic job during writing. We've worked hard all week to put spaces between words and I saw lots of well spaced sentences. We also did a little letter formation practice on mini whiteboards. I am so fortunate to have such a well behaved and smart group of students!

We read a cute book today called "Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing" by Judi Barrett. A couple of students came up with legitimate reasons why animals really should wear clothing, so we decided to make a book in defense of our position. The class brainstormed reasons, which I wrote down. Tomorrow they will draw the illustrations and we'll put the book together. I want to have the students take turns bringing our book home to share with you so be on the lookout for it. The animal worksheet that came home with your student today was from an activity in which I said a word and students had to decide which animal had the same beginning sound. We also used the sheet to find rhymes and same number of syllables.

We put three new words on the word wall today. They are: a, here, and is. Students learned about the 3-D shapes cone, cube, and sphere today. I briefly talked about the cylinder, but will teach it again tomorrow. We read The Popcorn Dragon and learned the vocabulary words envious, forlorn, and ability. Mr. Besel, the school counselor, taught a lesson on personal safety in the afternoon. Students learned the "touching rule" which is that a bigger person can only touch your private parts if it is to keep you clean or healthy. Students learned that they should never keep secrets about others touching their bodies. They should keep telling a trusted adult until someone believes them and does something about it.

I sent home a Scholastic book order today. Online orders can be done anytime between now and Nov. 15. If you're ordering with the paper form, please remember to turn in the order form with your child's name written on it along with cash by next Tuesday morning by putting it inside the Monday envelope. The PTA kicked off the butter braid sale today. They told students to only sell to people they know unless they are with an adult. Please collect money as people place their order. The frozen butter braids will be delivered to school and need to be quickly delivered to your customers before they thaw or you need to keep them in your freezer until you have time to deliver them. Students got to taste the blueberry butter braid and they loved it!

In social studies we talked about the Rose Park neighborhood and the types of buildings and jobs that exist in the neighborhood. We will learn the difference between a neighborhood, a city, a state, a country and a planet. This works out so well because tomorrow we begin a unit on the planets in science.

We had fun practicing skip counting by 2s today. We used a different funny voice as we practiced several times. To demonstrate counting by 5s, each student traced one of their hands, cut it out, and we wrote a number on it then connected it to another hand. We wound up with a chain of hands counting by 5s all the way to 95. When Aleah gets back from vacation and I add her hand, we'll be all the way to 100! As I would write the number on a student's hand I would say, for example, "Sam, you're 70." It was funny because the kids were acting like it was their age. Mrs. Concepcion came in to read a story to the boys as I showed the girls a new procedure for the bathroom. To prevent "peeking," the girls will now have a "guard" outside the bathroom door as they use it. The problem is that the locks are too high for the girls to reach and the toilets are high enough that when you look under to door to see if the stall is occupied, you can't see any feet! Hopefully the new system will help.

Parents, don't forget that this Saturday is Daylight Savings Time.

We learned numbers 18-20 and started learning to skip count by 2s today. We also learned about adjectives or describing words and found some in the book Old Henry by Joan W. Blos. We learned a new procedure for using mini white boards and practiced letter formation for the letters a, d, t and f and practiced writing the numbers 1-5. We received a post card from North Dakota today. I'm enjoying having time to talk with parents about their child's progress. Things are going very well and it's nice to have so many positive conferences.

If your child sasses you at dinner time tonight, I might be to blame. One of our vocabulary words was "detest." I explained that it means the same thing as hate, which they said is a naughty word. I told them they could use the word detest instead. The example I used was for a food they hate. "Mom, I detest peas!"

In sign language we learned "Frosty the Snowman." We'll learn lots of Christmas songs and my hope is that we can put on a show for parents just before the holiday break. Since our schedule was off today because of the early out, we got to do something we don't typically have time for--we played musical chairs. The kids chose the music and naturally they chose Justin Beber.

The highlight of the day was going on a leaf hunt around the school grounds and the park behind the school. Just before going out, I read the story "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert. In the book, leaves are put together in different ways to create characters such as ducks, cows, or fish. As students hunted for leaves, they were to keep in mind what colors and shapes they would need to create their character. They had as much fun creating their leaf character as they did collecting leaves. When they finished, they were allowed to go to any center of their choice, which thrilled them to death! I'm glad such simple things make them so happy. I was very happy about their effort to clean up at the end of the day. We had pieces of dried leaves EVERYWHERE but everyone pitched in and the room looked fantastic at the end of the day. Don't forget that the next 3 days are half days. See you at your conference!