Our Learning Goals September 13th to 17th!

Reading: What does a good reader do when they read? Where do good readers read? How to pick a JUST right book? Building stamina when we are reading to our self. Reading sight words for term 1.
Phonograms: a, c, d, f, s, qu, and g.
Writing: Who's a who? What's a what? What's happening? and creating an All About Me Book.
Math: What is 5? What is 6? and Math Assessments
* We talk about digits and how there are many ways to show each number (digit, number word, quantity, number sentences, etc.) 5 is no longer just 5, it is the digit 5, five, -----(five dots, dashes), 5 + 0 = 5, 1 + 4 =5, etc. This is where I challenge students to think outside the box!
Science: Oceans... What are the names of the oceans? What kind of water do we find in the ocean? How much of the Earth is covered by water?
Geography: What is a city? state? country? continent? planet? What countries are located in North America?

First Day!

What a great way to start the year! Thank you for all of the donated supplies! I am grateful for all of the wonderful donations. You guys are great!

As we get this school year underway, I want you to know that if you have any questions, concerns or comments to email me or stop by after school.

I want to give you a heads up that math and/or language arts homework will probably not come home every night. My focus this year is going to be on reading, learning sight words and spelling, with having optional homework that students can choose to complete if they would like or have time. Homework will be due on Fridays. The due date will be written up on top. Every Friday your child will turn in their green homework folder with homework and make up work (if applicable). When you see the homework for the first time it will make more sense, I promise. A parent signature will be required at the top, in order for it to count. Homework will start the week of September 20th.

Daily schedule:

8:30 Adventures in Language
9:00 Math
9:55 Snack/Recess
10:15 Spalding
10:45 Specials
11:15 Language Arts/ Reading Groups
12:15 Lunch/Recess
12:45 Writing
1:15 History or Science
1:45-2:00 Recess
2:00-2:45 History or Science
2:45 Wrap up (Eventually Froggy and Ringo time)
3:00 Dismissal

I am going to thank you ahead of time for being patient and flexible. My plan is to try some new things and if they aren't working we will change it.

Please keep in touch...

Question of the day: Ask your child what a blue ticket is?

Welcome!

I want to welcome you to OCMS. I am excited to have you all in my class. A few things about my blog: you will find samples of your students work and art, you will find current information regarding what we are doing in class and probing questions to get your child to talk to you about what is going on in the classroom, you will also find class announcements and important school wide information.

I can tell this is going to be a great year! I am going to thank you in advance for being patient and understanding as we take this "late" plane off the ground. Thank you for all of your support!

Let's Catch Up!

It has been a hectic February and early March! Please forgive me that I haven't kept this up to date. We have been doing many exciting things in the month of February and March. We learned about the artist, Wassily Kandinsky and used his art piece called circles to inspire us to make a Valentine's Day gift. Come check out our large artwork that we created as a class that was inspired by Kandinsky. We mixed primary colors to make the secondary colors. See if you child can remember what the primary colors are and what two primary colors make each of the following colors; orange, green and purple. We also talked explicitely about friendship and what it means to be a friend.

We also spent the last part of February talking about Manners and we made a nonfiction book about how to use your manners and what it looks like. Look for it in your child's backpack!

In Language Arts, we are reviewing all the different comprehension strategies that good readers use to understand a text. We also are talking about what does being a good reader look like and sound like.

In math, we have been focusing on telling time to the half hour and learning about measurement. We are also reviewing one less, one more, ten less and ten more. We continue to work on becoming quicker at our math facts through around the world and learning strategies like counting on and counting backwards.

In science, we have discussed matter and what is matter? We discussed that matter is everywhere and that in can be a gas, solid, or a liquid. We also looked at water and learned that water can be a solid, liquid and a gas. We also talked about how we use water and a little about how we can save water and why that might be important. We learned two different poems, Bubbles Bubbles and I'm a Little Ice Cube. (I'm sure that they might have come home and tried to say/sing them to you:)

Thanks for being patient!