Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a great Easter! I made the kids an Easter egg with a little fun stretchy rabbit in there. I will be sending home a field trip permission slip next week. Please sure you are checking your child’s folder and reading every night!

Good Friday--3 Day Weekend

 Our schedule has been so crazy we haven’t had science buddies for the past two months. The kiddos were extra stoked to find out we were having science buddies again this week. Since we have been learning about plants, our science buddies did a little experiment with us, teaching us about plants. The first graders put seeds in in a bag and placed it in a wet paper towel. In the next couple of weeks, the seed will start sprouting. The first graders also made “chia pets” with their 5^th grade buddies. These chia pets will start to grow like crazy in the next couple of weeks.

 We learned about parts of a flower and each part’s job.

We learned about what plants need to survive.

In math, we have been learning about measuring weight. We did activities over which object was heavier/lighter and we also worked with our bilingual buddies using a balance scale. It was so fun seeing how much fun the kids were having with just a balance scale and finding pictures from magazines.

It's SPRING BREAK!

I am so glad it’s spring break. I came down with the flu leading into spring break during the school week and then came down with bronchitis. Glad to say, I have recovered although I am still finishing up my antibiotics. I hope everyone is enjoying their break so far! When we come back, we will have March 25^th off for Good Friday. In April, we will have our last field trip to the Austin Nature Center. Be looking for the permission slip in the next couple weeks.

We have been learning about fractions in class in math. We worked on reading fractions, coloring fractions, writing fractions and even writing our own fractions word problems.

In science, we have been learning about bodies of water, saltwater VS. freshwater, and nonliving VS. living things. This picture taken below was from one of our experiments of sink/float in saltwater VS. freshwater. I told the kids they could use anything in their school supply box for this. Some decided to put in a bead, a lip balm, scissors, gluestick, crayons, etc.

In VLA, we took a test about a week ago on KH and GI blends. This week we will be taking our sound check on our new ending blends we have been working on for the past week.

Swinging into February... Happy year of the monkey!

This will be a catch-up post for the past 2 weeks. I have been really busy and haven’t had time to update the website so here it goes!

In math, we have been working on 2D shapes and 3D shapes. We worked on identifying shape names, their vertices, their sides, their edges and their faces.

 We celebrated 100 days of school the first week of February. We did lots of fun activities in math and ELA. We are now on number 112. It’s crazy to think there are just a couple months of school days left. This school year really flew by quick.

 The kids got to enjoy an African clawed frog for two weeks. This little thing would swim in his tank and we would be able to hear his claws scratch the tank. He went back Wednesday and we should be getting another classroom pet soon.

 Our 5^th graders hosted a science fair for us last week. They had some really impressive experiments. The kids really enjoyed walking around looking at different science experiments and finding their 5^th grade science buddies. It’s been awhile since we had science buddies due to busy schedules but we will reunite with science buddies soon I hope!

 February is dental hygiene month so we have been learning about our teeth all month! We had some special guests come teach the kids all about their teeth. Every student got to bring home a little dental care package.

 Look at our crazy chompers we have hanging by the back of the room! This was a high interest lesson. They wrote about why it is important to take care of our teeth and created this fun mouth.

 Check out a VLA journal writing from one of my students who joined the Vietnamese Dual Language Program this year.

Wrapping up January-- "ROCKing" out and learning about area and perimeter

This week we learned about natural and man-made resources. We put on our jackets, bared the wind, and went outside to search for things that were natural or man-made resources around Summitt. We recorded our ideas in our science journals.

 We did a fun activity early in the week. If we had a lot of rocks, we would build…

-a hotel

-a house

-a pool

-a Pokemon temple

-a school

A playground

These are just some of the pictures the kids created. Come by our classroom and check them out!

Look at our cute rocks we made.

 “Rocks can be…”

-dirty

-small

-big

-rough

-smooth

-bumpy

These will be our new sight words. We will be working on the “TH” and “NH” blends. I decided not to give the kids a sound check on our last words because these past two weeks have been very hectic and we didn’t get to spend a lot of time in class to study the words so I didn’t think it was fair to test the kids on them.

 Our New Years costumes finally came in!!! Luckily, all the outfits fit the kids. No alterations needed! Only TWO more weeks until we perform for the school and the community. This upcoming Tuesday, we will be doing a dress rehearsal.

 In math, we worked on finding perimeter and area. We also created our Valentine’s bags. I know it’s a little early but these upcoming two weeks will be very hectic so I wanted to get them done and checked off the list of to-do’s. I will be sending home more Valentine’s information this upcoming week.

Graphing, Rocks, and New VLA Sight Words

 We have been practicing our New Years Performance almost every day in class. The performance for the school will be on the morning of Thursday, February 11^th and the night performance for the community will be February, February 12^th at night. The kids have been doing real well. For the next couple of weeks, we will be going on stage more to practice.

 In math, we worked on graphing bar graphs and picture graphs. Here is a jelly beans graphing activity we did one day this week.

 We did a class graph of our eye colors.

In science, we are learning about rocks. We sorted rocks by looking at them and sorting them by characteristics. We learned that igneous rocks are rocks that are hot and than cooled down. They can be blown out from volcanoes. Sedimentary rocks have layers. Metamorphic rocks are rocks that changes over time.

We got our new class pet this Wednesday. Meet our tarantula! 

Our new VLA sight words. We are working on the NG and NGH blend. This blend is kinda tricky to say. I told the kids that in order to say this blend in words, you have to slide our tongue against the roof of your mouth. 

Since this week was a little funky and we didn’t have a lot of time in VLA, we will extend learning these words another week and have our second VLA sight check this upcoming Friday.

 A little late, but I forgot to mention that our class won the attendance award again! That’s two months in a row. Mrs. Cumming came by about two weeks ago and we celebrated a vanilla pudding party.

Happy 2016!

It’s 2016 and it has been a great start. The kids are slowly getting back into the groove of routines. I traveled to California for the winter break and it was really nice. I felt refreshed for another semester of teaching. I hope everyone had a relaxing break also!

I've kind of been slacking with keeping up with the website so here's a little catching up!

Coming back, we warmed up our little brains by finding the sum of 10 and then adding on. We did lots of fun foldables in math that week.

 We also worked on expanded form and base 10 representations.

This week, we have been learning how to add/minus 10. 

We also started working on our Lunar New Year Performance. The performance will be on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12. The students are real excited about it. They’re doing really great during practice. I took Mrs. Skalaban’s kids up on stage on Friday to practice but haven’t had time to take my own homeroom. There’s just NEVER enough time during the school day.

 Dowser Dan came to visit Summitt on Thursday and he taught us how to conserve water. He also had songs teaching us where our water we use come from. Ask your child what they learned from Dowser Dan!

 Nothing makes a teacher happier than seeing all 18 of her students engaged and writing sentences in a different language in their journals! We worked on G and GH initial sounds. We also took our first sound check in VLA. Most of the kids did pretty well.  

In Mrs. Skalaban’s the students worked on writing their New Year’s Resolutions. Look at how cute their work are. My resolution is to drink more water, be in the best shape I’ve ever been by visiting the gym more, and to travel more!

Remember--We have a 3 day weekend!!! Woo-hoo!