We are Soaring with Pride...

Where to begin?! So much to share...let's start with how excellent our behavior has been...we continue to rake in the Soaring with Pride stickers. At the beginning of the month the kids predicted how many stickers we would receive this month...I asked them to adjust their predictions today based on how many we have right now...we have 26...and we have 7 more school days...over half the class thinks we will have more than 47 stickers by Jan 31...and I gotta tell you....they could be right!

Here's how our week went down...

In Language Arts, the students have been researching, taking notes, and organizing those notes in order to write the biography of their very important person. Each student is working at his/her own pace and the entire class is doing an excellent job. All students must be finished reading their books and articles AND taking notes by next Thursday when they return from the long weekend. There are a few kids who will be bringing their books home this weekend. We will be in the computer labs on Thursday and Friday publishing the biographies....many students have already started this endeavor! The Wax Museum timeline I sent home is a tight one and they're going to be very busy over the next couple of weeks. But they're very motivated and all are doing such a nice job.


Their writing skills have improved so much! Wait until you see the narrative essays they are bringing home this week. I was very impressed. I want every student to continue to PROOFREAD their work for punctuation and capitalization errors...these can be caught with one read through before my eyes get to their paper!!


In Math this week we have been working with line plots, finding the mode of the data, and finding the mean (or the average). We collected data about our class and found the mean height of all of our classmates to be 53 inches! The mode was a tie between 51 and 53 inches! We also wrapped up the geometry unit with a test today. There were 23 questions and a bonus...measuring and drawing angles...I was pleased to see how many students attempted this optional bonus.


And finally...the big news of the week...our new Science unit: Rocks, Soil, and Fossils. Sometime today we are expecting the arrival of our very own decomposers...the earthworms! The kids are very excited! We read and discussed composting this week and built our own...it was tons of fun...thank you to Ms. Wichman, Allie's mom, for helping us with this task...take a look for yourself...scroll down to the next blog entry!


In closing I'd like to leave you with a few important dates to mark on your calendar and a few needs for the classroom.



Tuesday, February 2 - Wax Museum dress rehearsal for second grade and third grade students

Thursday, February 4 - Wax Museum presentation for parents 9am

Friday, February 5 - Multicultural Fair at UES

Saturday, February 27 - Dancing Bear Toy store...wax museum figures can perform there...more details to come, just mark your calendars!


March 8-12 - MSA testing for 3rd graders (please do not schedule any appointments on these days if you can help it!)



Classroom Needs: kleenex and "Post-It" brand sticky notes (squares 3"x 3")

Thanks for your help with the needs...looking forward to a fun filled February...enjoy your long weekend...I plan to...headed to Chattanooga, TN to see my oldest son and his wife...they bought a new house, and we're excited to spend some family time together!