I'm thankful....

...every day for the opportunity to work with your kids. I hope you enjoy your family this Thanksgiving. 

We've been quite busy lately....let me catch u up!

We've started a new writing unit for quarter 2...we will be writing to inform. The kids have picked a topic they know a lot about, and are now learning the important parts of the informative writing structure as they work toward a final product...a non-fiction book!  We are in the early stages of "writing long" about the topic and talking with writing partners and groups about the topics.  Take a look...

We are continuing our work with main idea and detail in our reading for information unit. We are also focusing on using text evidence to support thinking when answering questions about the text. We have been using the Storyworks magazines and non-fiction articles from Newsela. The students are improving each and every day, take a peek...

We had a lot of fun visiting UES' own Environmental Science and Agriculture Learning Center. Mr. Kidd was our instructor as we learned about the wetlands and that where we live is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. We learned how our Great Heron Wetlands serves as a filter for pollution. It was so fun! We can't wait to visit our wetlands. 

I don't have Math pictures because I am always with a groups during Math, but we have been working with division...the algorithm, strategies for solving division, and problem solving using multiplication and division. That is why PRACTICING FACTS is soooo important!! It is very hard to work on division with remainders if you don't know how many groups of seven are in 28 when trying to solve the problem 31divided by 7.  Please see that your kids are practicing facts at least three times a week if they have not mastered them yet. Our next unit of study is fractions and division and multiplication facts will help with this, too!  

It's that time of year to think about giving thanks. Thank you all for raising polite, hard working, lovely children. I am thankful each and every day for this job and the opportunity to help shape young minds on their way to greatness. Now it's time to spend five full days with my greatest joys. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Walk for the Homeless and Fall Festival!!

I told you we've been busy!  If you're just seeing the blog for the first time in a while...this is post #2 for this weekend...make sure once you read this one, you scroll further down and read the first post!

On Friday, October 31st we participated in the annual UES Walk for the Homeless...this is a walk that brings awareness to homelessness and kicks off our food drive to help the less fortunate (this drive is going on all this coming week...Friday is the last day, and if the kids bring in donations...as a reward they get to wear a HAT on Friday...so buy a few extra things this week and send them in so our class can have a strong showing in helping those less fortunate than us!)  We walked with our buddies and it was loads of fun...we quickly realized that kindergarten legs do not move as quickly as third grade legs, so our pace had to change a bit!  We had fun seeing their costumes and talking about the parties that were going to happen later that day...take a look!

As if this wasn't enough excitement for one day...at 11:15 we had our Fall Festival Party...a special thanks to Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Petrolle for organizing this event...it is so obvious by the pictures what a great time everyone had!  They ate pizza, had sweets, made a craft, and played a game! Thanks to all of the parents who were able to join us for the fun and for everyone's donations!