Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wow! A great way to learn spelling!

Wow, check out this new website I just found for helping your child learn spelling words in a fun way. Start here: (or click on Spelling City under great websites bar)

http://www.spellingcity.com/laforge/

(and ignore that our school says it's in Bozeman, MO. I have emailed the website to change their abbreviation error!)

Now click on the list

HM 9.3 The Surprise Family

(because that's our list for this week)

and students can then click on Flashcards, Games, etc. to practice the spelling words and their definitions! It really is a great tool!

Have fun!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Our Class Is Totally Awesome

I just had to tell you about one thing that really warmed my heart today!!!

We do Rocket Math every afternoon, and when students open their folders and see that they have moved up to the next level, usually no one says too much to them. Today, I heard at least three separate groups of kids say, "Congratulations, _____!" And that was even if they hadn't moved up themselves. That may not seem like that big of a deal, but it showed me that we really have created a community in our class. For six and seven year olds to be truly happy when their friend moved on and they didn't????? That's HUGE. Thanks again for having such awesome kids. And once again, I keep asking but no one is answering!!! Can I keep them? :)

This afternoon all the teachers headed over to Emily Dickinson during early release to discuss some exciting new things in writing! Writing is emerging as a more and more important part of school due to the sheer amount that we are required to write as adults, especially with the increase in technology. All of the teachers commented on how amazing it is to see what students can do! Way to go first graders!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Okay I'm back!

Wow, what a busy time of year! Sorry for the absence of new posts last week! Due to site maintenance, the website wouldn't let me login to submit new posts...of course it probably would've helped if I would have tried more than one day! Sorry!

Thank you chaperones for the great field trip! Our class showed excellent behavior, learning, and had a lot of fun!! Remember our next field trip up at Hyalite on June 2. We will just be going for the morning, so hopefully some of you can come!

Last week we also had our guests from the Billings Special Olympics team join us for about an hour in our classroom! It was a great experience to be able to support the athletes!

Just yesterday we had a police officer come to our class and tell us about his job and safety. The police car was especially a favorite, and students got to slide through the back seat to see just what an uncomfortable place it is! Thanks to all of our police officers for keeping us safe!

Here are some pictures from the Fun Run, which was TOTALLY fun! The kids really did run for 30 minutes straight, which was between 20 and 40 laps for most students. They ran about 2 miles! They were amazing! Thank you for your support with sponsoring and collecting pledges. Remember, you can turn those in right away!












Here is almost everyone in our class. Don't they look so much bigger than at the beginning of the year!?

On the horizon--

We have several other fun presentations coming up: U.S. flag, recycling, and our last Junior Achievement session this week.

I will be out the 20th and 25th, so there will be a sub. As much as I hate to be out, I am on the social studies curriculum committee, and we are trying to finish up before the end of the year.

In math, we are finishing our unit with tens/ones and fractions.

Science will be states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) from here on out.

Social Studies--We just finished up slavery and will be going through the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement.

Walk to Read will be finishing strong with reviews and assessments. Keep sending those reading bags!