We read some fun books about animals in winter and it seemed like they all had the same characters -- a rabbit and a hedgehog! We also read "Who Pooped in the Park?" Students learned about tracks and scat of various animals that live in Yellowstone National Park. For science, we talked about why animals hibernate and how they find and store food. I made some frozen food for them -- mandarin orange slices inside ice cubes. I asked if they could smell the orange and they swore they could. I asked how they would get to the orange so they could eat it if they were an animal. Most said they would let it melt in their paws (just like it was doing in their hot little hands). Funny! We had more success with the laptops during computer lab today. Students did a counting game and then worked some more on their typing skills.

We read Jan Brett's "The Mitten." Students matched animal pictures to each animal's name. I taught 20 new animal signs and then gave each student an animal card. We went around the circle with the first person showing their animal sign. The second person had to do the 1st person's sign plus their own. The 3rd person had to do the 2 previous signs plus their own and so on. I was so impressed with how well students remembered all the signs.

We read a story about the plus sign. (Can you believe there's actually an entire book about the job of the plus sign?) Students learned the word "sum" as it's used in math. We also contrasted the meanings of "sum" and "some."

I wanted to clarify a couple of things inside your child's Monday envelope. There's a hundreds chart with a sandwich baggie stapled to it. Inside the baggie are instructions on a tiny piece of paper. Your child is supposed to glue the numbers 1-100 onto the chart. Talk with them about patterns that they notice and randomly point to numbers and make sure your child can correctly name them. There is also a book order form. The due date for any orders is next Tuesday the 17th. (Your child was supposed to write that at the top of the form, but I noticed some forgot.) Remember, if you do not order online I need cash and not checks please.

Students read their mini book to 3 peers and hopefully they will also read it to you tonight. After practicing letter and number formation, I asked each student to write their ABCs and as many numbers as they could fit on a sentence strip so I could assess their handwriting. Even immediately following instruction, I saw lots of backward letters and numbers. Please practice with your child if you notice this. Students enjoyed our shaving cream snowman art. The classroom smelled great! Taylor's family came for a visit at the end of the day and shared birthday treats with us.

As you can see from the slideshow above, we have new 4th/5th grade buddies. We will meet every Thursday afternoon with Mrs. Manfredi's 4th/5th grade combo class. Students got to know each other by making an "all about me" book for their buddy. When they finished, they used coffee filters to make snowflakes for our bulletin board.

After yesterday's pep talk, students really worked hard on their writing. I was so pleased with the level of work they produced today.

We're comparing and contrasting snowman stories. We're studying "voice" as it's used in books. Students wrote about what the boy in the story The Snowman might be thinking or saying when he's discovered that the snowman has melted. I noticed that many of the students copied my example off the board. I told them I was disappointed that with all their creativity, that they aren't giving me original ideas. After my brief talk, they really stepped up their writing. I need to give them a pep talk tomorrow, letting them know that school is a safe place to try new things. They are in a supportive environment where a caring adult is there to help. I need to let them know that mistakes are okay and that mistakes help them learn.

We are learning about quotation marks (aka "talking marks") and learning to spell the word "said." As you read to your child, ask them to listen for the word "said" and see if they can spell it for you. We read the book The Polar Bear and the Brave Little Hare. The vocabulary words from the story were warn, concerned, and embarrassed. In math, students worked with a partner to put into order index cards that were numbered either by ones, fives, or tens. The goal for this quarter is for students to count to 100 by any of these means so keep practicing at home. If you haven't already turned in your child's reading minutes from December, please do so as soon as possible so I can get your child his or her Pizza Hut certificate. Tomorrow is library day.

It was great to be back at school today. The students were excited to share all the fun things they got for Christmas. In social studies we talked about how to solve problems with friends. Students learned to calm down, talk things out, come up with a plan, and then try it out. When there's a squabble about who gets to do something first, we decided that rock-paper-scissors is the easiest way to resolve the problem. Students tried out their problem solving skills as they played a card game with a partner. They played Top-It (what is commonly called War, but we can't call it that at school).