New Month = New Seating Chart!

 

It’s that time again! Just in case you’re wondering, I’m talking about new seating spots in the room. Every month, the students get new carpet spots, circle spots, math spots, science spots, and Vietnamese spots. Yes, I know that’s a lot of spots to remember…but surprisingly, the kids remember all their new spots by the second day. I like to give them lots of places to sit throughout the day so they can mingle with different classmates.

For each subject (math, science, and Vietnamese) in my class, I use this baking pan to organize their seating chart. There's 2 sets for each class-- my homeroom and my afternoon class. The kids are awesome and got the system down of how these baking pans work.

Last week in math, we worked on generating our own word problem when given a number sentence. Very similar to their math hw that was in the hw packet. I told them NO BORING SENTENCES!! We worked on including sentences that included exciting adjectives. Their sentences needed to be 6 or more words. Next week, we are moving on and will be learning about correct strategies to measuring length. The following week, we will focus on capacity, weight, and etc.

Busy, Busy Bees!

WOO-HOO! It’s finally Friday. We were lil’ busy bees this week. Lots of special events took place.

Monday- First grade dance practice

Tuesday- First grade dance practice and our evening performance

Wednesday- 5th grade science buddies

Thursday- Lucas Miller came to perform for us his science songs and library day

Friday- Percussion Assembly

Thank you for those who brought their child to participate in the dance!!! The students worked their tails off remembering all the dance moves. Luckily, we had an even number of students so I did not have to perform with the class. Phew.

Even with this busy schedule with all the transitioning from one place to another, the students were pretty well behaved. They earned lots of links this week and are getting really close to earning their next class party, which they voted on a root beer float party. I hope they earn the party soon because a root beer float sure sounds good right about now. Mrs. Skalaban and I kind of agreed that we're never having a normal schedule ever again. There has been something each week.

On Wednesday, our science buddies helped us make our own little chia pets. The kids took it home and are suppose to water it daily in order for it to grow. When we have science buddies, it 's an organized chaos in Mrs. Flemings' room. We have 3 teachers, about 25 5th graders and 38 little first graders crammed in one room. It's so great to see the kids have so much fun bonding with each other.

Lucas Miller paid us a visit Thursday afternoon and educated us on different topics of science through songs, slideshows, and puppets. The kids had so much fun watching and singing along. He was quite the comedian. I’ve never seen the kids laugh so hard before. Check him out on YouTube!

So glad it’s the weekend. I feel like I’m coming down with a mixture of a case of really bad allergies and a cold. My body started aching Thursday night and it hasn’t gone away.

Silly Quote of the Week:

N: Cô Tracy, how come you’re so small?”

Me: “What do you mean I’m small?”

N: “How come you don’t look like a grown up?”

Me: “Oh, it’s because I didn’t drink enough milk when I was a kid”

N: “Is that why you look like a teenager?”

Spring has Sprung

 

 

So happy my favorite season is finally here. Beautiful flowers, beautiful weather, and I can smell summer right around the corner. Sweet-sweet summer time.
 If I could describe Friday in one word, it would for sure be CRAZY. I was supposed to be out for training on Thursday but it got canceled since the presenter was ill so I ended up teaching the kids like a regular day. On Friday, it was one of those days when I tell the kids “I won’t be here, but I will be here” meaning – I will not be teaching you, but you will still see me around school because I will be doing something school related. From spring pictures, to dance practice, to robotics, to lunch, to recess, to token store….there was literally only one hour of math academic instruction time yesterday. The sub told me that the kids did a really good job transitioning so that was really good to hear.

The kids finally finished their cowboy writing in Mrs. Skalaban's. These turned out sooooo cute but I couldn't help but laugh at some of them (in my head, of course.) While in Mrs. Skalaban's class, they have been working on adding adjectices, vivid verbs, and action verbs within their writing. By doing this, it makes our writing interesting for our audience to read!

We practiced the dance 3 times this week and next week we will be practicing on Monday and Tuesday. Since we have an odd number of students participating, it looks like I’m going to have to dance with the class. Please don’t laugh at me during the night of the dance!! J I am literally learning the entire dance as I practice with the kids. Good thing I have been a fast learner. I will be passing out their tie-dye shirts that they are wearing for their dance on the day of the dance (March 25^th.)

 

 

Next week in math, we will be generating our own math problems when given a number sentence. For the past 2 weeks, we have practiced using a number line and pictures to solve word problems.

In science, we have been learning about parts of a plant and habitats of animals. We are going to be continuing with these two topics for the next week.

We have been using dry erase boards a lot lately when practicing our Vietnamese. I am so glad to see that most of my non-Vietnamese students are able to form sentences independently.In the writing samples below, can you guys guess which ones were written from a non-Vietnamese student? Even though they are producing written work, I am still trying to have them produce Vietnamese more orally.

We worked on the blends of -CH and -TR.
chim= bird
chó= dog
chén= bowl
trứng= egg
trăng= moon
trừ= subtract

 

Coming back from Spring Break

I hope everyone is enjoying the last 2 days of Spring Break!

I enjoyed my break by just resting and basically being a bum J I spent most of my week catching up on shows/movies and returning back to the gym! I have not been to the gym ever since the school year started in August. Yikes. I am just so exhausted after school days to hit to the gym but I am going to make it a goal to hit the gym at least 3 times a week…for now. Let’s see how it goes.

This upcoming week is going to be crazy…with me being out Thursday and Friday, the change of Spanish on Monday, and the change of specials time due to the first grade dance practice. I hope it doesn't throw the kids off. I will be sending home a dance practice form in their daily folders on Monday. Please send the form back the following Tuesday. Every year, first grade performs a little folk dance in the cafeteria in the evening. The children have been practicing this dance during music class every week. They are required to wear their tie-dye shirt that I will be passing out later on, and denim pants.

March Madness!

We definitely started off the month very busy and crazy with our off scheduling. Tuesday was a delay due to the weather so Suzanne and I decided we were just going to keep our homeroom the whole day. Friday, we started Robotics in the Robotics lab and we were scheduled to have our field day but unfortunately, the business canceled on us late Thursday. (I placed a note in their daily folders explaining a little bit more about the situation.) Breaking the sad news to 20 students was not an easy task especially when I hyped them up for it the day prior and they came dressed and ready to participate.

 

In the Robotics lab, the students learned how to make their color wheel spin on their motor. From now on about 5 weeks or so, we will have Robotics every Friday.

 

Happy Classified Teachers Appreciation Week! I have a TA (teacher assistant) that comes in and supports a few students every day. Not only was it her birthday on Thursday, but it’s also classified teachers appreciation week so the children made her sweet cards and I bought her some flowers and a balloon to show her how much we appreciate her in my classroom. The kids totally adore her and are always so curious where she is whenever she is unable to come in. She had to help assist benchmark testing this week and so for four days straight, they asked me where she was. Before I became a classroom teacher, I was a TA with Mrs. Wood last year and she was totally awesome to work with. She even has her own Vietnamese name that the kids call her! When I call her by Mrs. Wood, they get confused and ask me who Mrs. Wood is since they're so used to calling her Cô Lâm.

 

 

Silly Quote of the Week:

N: “Jennifer, you have such big, beautiful eyes…”

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Spring Break wherever you are!!! :)