Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Ms. Stern gave us our 100 facts back from yesterday. Almost everyone in the class beat their score from last week! It was a great feeling to improve and complete more problems. Everyone is going to aim to do even better next week. A few children graduated and are ready for subtraction. One math smartie is moving on to addition-5 minutes!

Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday. We read a whole bunch of his books. So far this week, we have read 10 Dr. Seuss stories. He has an incredible imagination! After we read “Oh the Thinks You Can Think,” we had to try to figure out what “schlopp” and “snuvs” mean. We had to infer to get an idea. Lots of people had different thinking. Later on, during Reader’s Workshop, we tried our best to infer as we read to figure out the meaning through the words and pictures.

We made a special trip to the library to use the computer lab. The class split into two. One group read Dr. Seuss books while the other group was on the computer. We were on the World Maths Day website. Everyone has a special username and password. After we entered our private information, we played the game. We play against other children all around the world that are our age. Some students were in Egypt, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the United States. Some children even ended up playing against other children in our own class! The way you play is by answering addition problems. You have 1 minute to answer as many problems as you can. You can get up to 3 problems wrong in each round. After the time is up, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place is given out and you can start again with new kids. Ms. Stern gave us our login information in case we want to play at home.

During specials this week, all 4 classes are going to the gym to practice for the dance festival at the same time. We are practicing with Mrs. Kuhn, Mr. Gunther, and Mrs. Yelin’s classes. We were practicing most of the dances for the dance festival on Thursday.

Another tooth was lost today! Amanda was eating her Oreo during lunch time when she discovered that her very first tooth came out!

Flat Drew came back from Florida. We looked on Google Earth to see the area that he went to visit. There were lots of features on the map that we were able to see: houses, palm trees, lakes, houses, pools, roads, tennis courts, and baseball fields. We learned about his trip and the many things that he did. After we shared his journal and photos, we turned and talked to a partner to review where he went and what he did. Everyone had to write about his trip when we were done. A bunch of children thought it was a challenging activity. We talked together about why that happened. If we didn’t listen carefully, writing about Drew’s trip was difficult. Children gave themselves 3s or 4s for listening had a much easier time completing this task.

We had a talk about listening and being respectful today. Lots of times during the day, a whole bunch of children talk at the same time without listening to their classmates. We are trying to remember how it feels when people do it to us so that we won’t make other people feel badly. When we don’t listen, it can make it harder to do our work, to learn, or know what to do. When people call out, it is very difficult to understand what others are saying. It also keeps us from listening to what others have to say, ask, or share. Tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start. Let’s all try our very best to take turns, listen carefully, and make good choices!