Rockin' Out

 

 

 

What crraaaazzzy weather Texas has been having this year. Two snow days within one week? In Texas?! Even though it threw off our schedule a bit, I’m glad I could catch the kids up with what I had planned. After coming back from the Tuesday’s snow day, we discussed about different bodies of water and saltwater vs. freshwater in Vietnamese. While teaching the vocabulary in Vietnamese, I also teach them American sign language. It’s so cute when they’re all doing their sign language. In first grade, they are learning English, Vietnamese, Spanish, and sign language!

Last week in class, we really focused on rocks. We learned that rocks can come in all different shapes, sizes, textures, and colors. We also learned that rocks and minerals are very important to us because we use everyday things made from rocks and minerals. For example, they are used to make jewelry or to build houses. Since it’s testing time, Bill Nye the Science Guy was very popular in the class. We watched a couple of his videos that taught us about rocks and different bodies of water. So happy to say that I am almost done with testing. I will be taking off next Tuesday to complete my testing but I will still be on campus.

I asked the kiddos to bring in some rocks so we could observe the size, texture, and

sizes of their rock. Some of them brought in some very cool looking rocks.

In this activity, the students used their creativity to think of something they would build with rocks.

 “Nếu em có rất nhiều đá, em sẽ cất cái...”

=

 “If I had a lot of rocks, I would build a…”

 

 

 

 

Snow Day!

 

Happy Snow Day!

I hope everyone enjoys their unexpected day off playing with the snow outside! Be safe!
The Teacher Talent Show has been canceled due to weather.

This week we worked on adding and subtracting 10 from any given number and identifying place values (location of the hundreds, tens, and ones spot.)

For most students, this was an easy concept. Next week, we will continue our place value unit working more ones, tens, and hundreds manipulatives and the following week we will start our unit on fractions.

 

My afternoon class finally earned their link party this past week. To earn a link party, for each compliment they earn in class, I add a link to our link chain. When it gets long enough and touches the floor, they earn a party in which they vote for. The class voted on a movie and popcorn party but with the upcoming busy schedule we have for the next week, I promised them we would have the party sometime in February. My morning class has earned two parties already and in the process of earning their third party.

Comparing Numbers and Natural vs. Man-Made

What a loooooong week it was. I'm so happy the week is over and I somewhat have some time over the weekend to just rest. This week consisted of:

-Starting to test the kids with the TPRI test (which I am proud to say that I only have 8 more students to test!)

-Individually having the kids try on their Tết costumes to make sure it fits before our show in about 3 weeks.

-Squeezing in time to teach the kids their dance for our New Year performance.

-Practicing our act after school for our First Grade performance for the Teacher Talent show coming up this Friday, the 24^th.

We had class pictures Friday afternoon. Some of the students came to school with the cutest outfits and some of the students planned to be twins.
 

 

We’ve been working on vowel sounds in Vietnamese since some of them can be tricky. Next week, we will focus on O, Ơ, and Ô. We haven’t been reading and writing much during VLA time because we have been practicing our dance on stage. The kids have their dance steps down…we just now have to clean up our stellar dance moves.

 

In math this week, we worked on comparing 2 digit numbers. To help them understand the less than and greater than sign, we learned that the alligator wants to eat the "big, juicy" number and so the sign will open up to the number that is greater.

 

 

 

Look at all my smart mathematicians hard at work!

The kids wrote their New Years Resolutions last week in Mrs. Skalaban’s class.

 

 

In science, we learned about natural resources and manmade resources. We did a "nature walk" around the school to observe things that were natural or either man-made. It was too beautiful outside this week to not take advantage of! We even stayed out at recess longer than usual for a couple days because the weather was just too perfect.

 

 During the winter break, I changed our autumn classroom tree to a winter tree.

If you haven't turned in shirt sizes form, please do so by Jan. 23rd!

 

Some reminders for the upcoming weeks:

-MLK Holiday: Monday, Jan. 20th

-I will be out Thursday, Jan. 23^rd to a training

-Teacher Talent Show: 7:00 Friday, Jan. 24^th

-100^th day of school!: Weds, Feb. 5th

- Our Tết day performance, Feb. 6^th

- Our Tết evening performance, Feb. 7^th starting at 6:30

- Student Holiday: Monday, Feb. 17th-optional parent/teacher conferences

 

 

 

 

 

Chuy's Parade!

During the 2013 Thanksgiving weekend, our Summitt Dragon/Lion Dance Team got invited to march in the Chuy's Parade downtown. This was my second year being a part of it. I have been assigned to be the honorary flag holder leading our team in the 2 mile march :) It is always a fun way to give back to the community!

 

Check our school out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rwx6rpzoJg

 

Last year's march:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qjDAu4vY3Y

 

 

 

One of our very own classmate has been on the team for years now and she loves participating in all the extra events that the team travels to do. Here she is in her costume.

 

Starting off 2014

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a restful winter break like I did. It sure was hard getting back into the routine of waking up early in the morning. I can’t believe that we have made it through half of the year already.
Please let your kid enjoy this beautiful weekend OUTSIDE! The poor kids were stuck inside all four days this week during recess because it was either too cold or wet from the rain.
 

In math, at this point students are expected to be able to count up to 120. We did a lot of practice on counting on from various numbers and skip counting FORWARD and BACKWARDS by 1's, 2's, 5's, 10's in English AND Vietnamese. It's a hard concept for children to count backwards in English but to count it in Vietnamese...it really impressed me :)

We worked on counting to 120 for two days and then worked on even and odd numbers for the last two days by playing various games.

 

For my more advanced kiddos, I had them add two 2-digit numbers for more of a challenge. Next week, we will be working on comparing numbers.

Whenever your child brings home work done in school with multiple colors on their paper, it means they did the activity with a partner. Each partner picks a color and writes in that color. The color of the writing tells me which partner did what. If there is more of one color, it tells me either one partner was doing all the work or one partner was being bossy. Eeks! The students have really gotten the hang of this strategy. It also teaches them how to share and work with each other J

 

 

There are many different things available in the math center for the kids to do after they have finish their work. It’s amazing how a lot of the students become creative and make up their own math games with the math manipulatives we have in the classroom. I thought the kids were just having a good time playing Jenga when I reminded them that it had to be math related. They told me they were playing Jenga but using the pieces and writing down subtraction problems with the pieces they pull out.

 

 

Silly Quote of the Week:

We played an even and odd game with our table mates on Thursday that included rolling an "even/odd die." I told them that it took me a long time to make all the dice and that since it's made out of paper, we don't want to squish it so we have to be verrrry careful when we roll it. We have to treat it like a baby and be very gentle with it.

R: "Well then, why would you roll a baby?"

***Don’t forget, this upcoming Friday (January 17^th) is our class picture day!

 *** This upcoming week, we will be testing the children with the  MOY DRA & TPRI test. (middle of the year reading tests)
*** I will be out Thursday, January 23rd for a training.