Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Today is voting day. Adam wanted to know who gets to vote and what people vote for. Ms. Stern explained that people vote for the budget (how money is spent), the Board of Education (a group of people who make rules for all of the schools), and money saved for projects like fixing the roofs so they don’t leak. Remember to vote!

We reviewed our –ow vs. –ow/ou list from yesterday and added a few more words to each side. Then we played a spelling game on a website. After that, we learned a new poem called Howard the Hound. We highlighted ow and ou words and then started rereading the other poems in our poetry journals (starting at the back and working our way forward).

Sarah’s tooth came out! It was practically hanging out. She said she wanted to keep it in until she got home but, as Ms. Stern suspected, the tooth didn’t want to wait! It came out right away!

Last week we talked about the oil spill that took place in Louisiana. Ms. Stern finished reading us a book called Oil Spill by Melvin Berger. We learned about how and why oil spills take place and different ways to clean them up. We also learned about how to use less oil. We looked at photos online of the water, birds being cleaned, people who were sad or unhappy about the situation, and beaches that have oil and tar washing up on the shoreline. Eesha suggested that we write letters to our senators like the book suggested.

We had art today. Mrs. S. was our substitute. She read us a book called The Art Teacher from the Black Lagoon. Everyone drew a picture of the art teacher doing different things. Nancy’s picture was of her putting two kids in a poster. Meaghan drew the art teacher locking the kids in a picture frame.

In math, we first went over the homework. Then, everyone worked as number explorers! Partners could choose to use a 100 board or not. Everyone also got a bag of number tiles. We worked together to match the number tiles on the right spot on the 100 board. People found different ways to work.





At the end, we shared our thinking, noticings, and observations:
*If you count to 100 with tiles, the 10s will go to 100 and they all end with 0. All the 9s in the column end with a 9 and it keeps going. –Adam
*We looked for 7s at the end and we noticed they are all in a row. –Victoria and Dylan A.
*You can sort by the end numbers. –Sasha and Eesha
*The 100 board doesn’t have 0 but you can always put it next to the 1. –Jacob, Hunter, Emma
*You can turn a 6 into an 8 by adding a 0 to the top. -Lauria

We’ve been reading lots of different ABC books. They are about holidays, people, places, animals, and insects. We had a conversation to figure out whether or not they are non-fiction. Today we read more ABC books. We reviewed our thinking from yesterday about our school (A is for art. In art, we create things using different materials. Mrs. Piteo is our art teacher. We go to the art room in the front of the school. B is for bathroom. There are two bathrooms in first grade. Kids shouldn’t scream in there. Responsible kids use the bathroom, wash their hands, and walk nicely back to their classrooms. C is for Charlie CAPS. Charlie is a bear introduced to the kids by Mrs. O’Donnell. CAPS classes are kind and caring, asking lots of questions, positive, and smile often. They earn marbles by making good choices. When a class earns 50 marbles, they get a Charlie CAPS party!) We started making our own books working by ourselves or with a partner. Everyone is brainstorming words that start with each letter of the alphabet that have to do with William O. Schaefer School or our classroom. Sarah chose to work alone because she thought it would be easier and she wouldn’t be distracted. She didn’t go in alphabetical order and thought it was the easiest thing she could ever do in her life! Jacob worked with Dylan A. They thought it was really hard. They wanted to use different words for the letter E. After discussing their choices, Jacob agreed to go with Dylan’s word, expression, since there was more to explain. Hunter enjoyed working on the ABC book and is excited to work on it again.