Thursday, December 20, 2007

This morning we went to an assembly for the Meals on Wheels organization. We learned that our covered cupboards help to make sure that senior citizens have food to eat in the event that bad weather means that meals can’t be delivered to their homes. We feel proud to be volunteers who can help others in our community. There were A LOT of covered cupboards made by the students at W.O.S.

We had a New Year’s celebration with 3 different centers today. One was making and decorating gingerbread houses out of milk cartons and gingerbread cookies.

Another was writing New Year’s resolutions. A resolution is like a promise that we make to ourselves that we want to concentrate on. Some of our resolutions were to get better at tying shoes, to do homework independently, to snowboard or ice skate better, and to stop picking at our nails. After we made our resolutions, we made cool snowflakes out of people. Erin’s dad showed some children how to make snow people that are connected. The third center was hot chocolate and a story. Joseph B.’s mom and Conor’s dad read The Polar Express to children while they enjoyed their warm drinks. When the centers were done, we had a special holiday snack. Before we could eat, Ms. Stern made a toast and then we counted down to our pretend midnight. After shouting, “Happy New Year!,” we popped the poppers, which had confetti inside.

We also had fireworks playing on the Smartboard. At the very end of the party, Joseph B.’s mom took a picture of the whole class together in our pajamas.

Madison S. wore her robe today. Joseph B., Casey, and Ms. Stern all wore slippers. Ms. Stern’s had bunnies on them. Other special events that took place this week included: a performance of Tacky and Wacky by Ms. Jones’ and Mrs. Ochman’s classes, Madison S.’s mom came in to do a holiday candy cane craft with the class, finishing up our secret project, and we decorated our time capsules. It has been a very busy week! We are very excited for school tomorrow because it’s our last day before vacation!

Monday, December 17, 2007

This morning, Ashley’s mom came in to read us a book called Queen of Christmas, by Mary Engelbreit. The story is about a girl that made a very long list with all of the things that she wanted for Christmas. At the end, she realized that Christmas isn’t only about presents and that it’s important to give to others. Ashley passed out special lollipop treats to everyone in the class after we finished sharing the story. At lunch, Mrs. Poppe wasn’t here so the class got split up and went to 3 different classes for recess.

In art, we discussed how to make snowflakes by folding paper and then cutting it. Next time we have art, we will make them. The class did not earn a star because some people were not following the directions carefully.

Today, we were working on a special secret project. It required us to work carefully and use lots of details. We also started working on our time capsules by writing about some of our “favorites” in 2007 as well as what we will be doing in our lives for the next 100 years.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

This morning we decorated our Flat Stanleys! Ms. Stern gave us a plain body with a photograph of our head on it. We used paper, felt, and tissue paper to the clothes that we are wearing today. Tomorrow we will get to put on the final decorations. It was challenging figuring out how to cut out the shirt and pants. Ms. Stern showed us how to trace the body onto the construction paper in order to make the clothes.

We had music. Everyone played instruments like the triangle, hand drums, maracas, tambourine, and the jingle bells today in order to play the bird song. Then we did the Cha Cha Slide. Mrs. Fox wasn’t feeling well. She was losing her voice.

Today we had a class discussion about what it means to be a good friend. We are going to work really hard to remember to use kind words. We are also going to remember to let people know how we are feeling. Everyone shared the name of one friend who is kind to him or her and one friend who they are kind to. We also discussed the difference between telling and tattling. We tell when someone is hurt, in danger, or feeling bad. We are tattling when we aren’t involved and no one’s feelings are hurt or people aren’t in danger.

When we checked out the weather this afternoon we found that it will probably snow tomorrow. The whole class is supposed to wear their pajamas inside out so that it will snow and we might have a snow day. If you wear your pajamas half inside out, then we might have a delay or go home early. Maybe.

Monday, December 10, 2007

When we wrote in our journals this morning, it took a lot longer than it usually does. Ms. Stern always asks us to check over our work, look to make sure that sentences start with capital letters and end with punctation marks, 5 sentences are written about a topic, and correct spelling for word wall words and other words found around the room are used. Madison S., Jackie, Cassie, Nevin, and Justin were all successful in doing these things by themselves! Next week, many of us are going to try even harder to look over our writing and fix our mistakes.

Ms. Stern made a mistake with our specials today. She thought the class was going to P.E. Instead, we went to music. Tomorrow will be P.E., Wednesday will be music, Thursday is P.E., and Friday will art. Today, we met our new lunch aide. Her name is Mrs. Poppe. She is very nice.

Yesterday was Aidan's birthday. Some children went to his birthday party. He turned 7 years old. He got to be the throne dweller and the line leader today.

This afternoon, Ms. Stern finished reading Flat Stanley. We found out that we are going to be making our own flat people to send to friends and family members who are far away. Ms. Stern showed us examples of former flat students and even her own Flat Ms. Stern travels to California! Everyone started to think about who or where we want to send our flat people to this year.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Yesterday Jonathan lost his tooth! It was his fifth tooth to fall out. In art, the class earned another star. Also, when Julia got home from school she found out that her mom was at the hospital because she had a baby! Julia has a new baby brother named Ronan and is going to go visit her mom and brother today!

This morning we had our spelling test. Lots of children got the sentence correct! That made Ms. Stern VERY happy and proud.

Ms. Eyer came in this morning. She taught us how to do Sudoku. It was really fun and also very challenging. First, we played using colored shapes.

Then, we played using sight words.

Finally, we tried it using numbers. Here are some websites where we can continue to practice some more: http://math.about.com/od/recreationalmath/ss/kidsudo.htm
http://www.thewordpuzzles.com/Sudoku/ch01.html
http://www.auspacmedia.com.au/viewfeature.php?id=620&example=1

Miss Owen’s class came in to visit this afternoon. Both classes had good days and the students made good choices. We watched Click Clack Moo…Cows that Type and then we took turns doing a noun activity on the Smartboard. Erin read a story to the class. It was called Autumn Leaves Are Falling.

It’s time to go home…and it’s snowing AGAIN!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

This morning, Joel lost his second tooth! It was very wiggly and it finally fell out while he was working at his seat!
We have been learning about nouns. Nouns are people, places, and things. Yesterday, we looked through magazines to find nouns and we made 3 collages, showing different types of people, places, and things. Today, we had to work by ourselves to find nouns with short vowel sounds. We cut out the pictures, glued them in our packets according to the short vowel, and finally we wrote the word underneath the picture. It was easy finding nouns but writing the word was a little more challenging.

After independent reading and partnerships, we watched the videos of children discussing their books again. Ms. Stern and the students were looking to see if children were thinking about what we discussed last time. We some improvements: lower level of noise, some children gave more feedback, and had both partners talking. We were proud of our growth!

We had P.E. for our specials today. We played “Keep the Balloons Up in the Air” by ourselves and then also with a partner. Then, Coach Hudson had us try it while doing ballet.

After lunch, Ms. Stern read another Patricia Polacco book to us called, Thank You, Mr. Falker. The book is story written about Patricia when she was little. She thought she was dumb. Her teacher helped her to discover that she wasn’t dumb, she just learned in a different way. Reading her stories gives us ideas to write about and also teaches us that good writers tell stories about themselves and write from their memories and their hearts.

It’s time to go home…and it’s snowing!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Today we finally had our Charlie Caps party! First, we had Kids Teach the Teacher. Madison S. taught Irish step dancing; Erin, Ashley, and Joseph V. all taught how to draw different objects; Kelsey taught about the responsibilities involved with getting a new kitten; Nicole showed the class how to make a triangle out of a tissue; Joseph B. taught the class some of the plays from his football team; Cassie taught how to do the “Jump of the Cat;” Conor taught the class about the Giants and Amani Toomer. Casey will have a chance to teach tomorrow.

After Kids Teach the Teacher, we watched the movie Ice Age: the Meltdown. Some parts were scary, like when the mammoth ran away with the herd and then the sea creatures appeared. Other parts were funny, like when Sid’s head bumped the ice and made it crack. Another funny part was when the squirrel went to acorn heaven and Sid was the fire king. We also had a pizza party today. It was delicious! Many children asked for seconds but everyone only had 1 slice.

Jackie has a tooth that is very loose. In fact, it’s so loose that it was bleeding for most of the morning. Mrs. Spiro said it still isn’t ready to come out yet. Ms. Stern really doesn’t like loose teeth and she can’t wait until it falls out!!! After lunch, the class went to P.E. where we continued to use the obstacle course. The most challenging part is the George Washington Bridge. It’s slippery. Since today is Monday, we had a spelling pre-test and we also had to write in our journals.