Today we talked more about being thankful.  We wrote notes to family and friends and told them why we are thankful for them.  We remembered that when we write notes we have a greeting, the body of the note, and sign it at the bottom.  Ask me about the notes I wrote today.  We played Counting-On Hot Potato today.  We started the hot potato and practiced counting on from different numbers.  We also skip counted by tens by lifting weights.  The weights were imaginary but ask me to show you how I can skip count.  I might still need some practice going from decade to decade, but we are working on it!
In case tomorrow gets crazy and I don't blog,, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  If you are traveling, please be safe!  

Juliet

We shared what we are thankful today.  Children chose different ways to share their thinking by writing a list, writing sentences, drawing and labeling, making a card, and writing a song.  We also worked on counting sets of objects without moving them.  We counted stickers on cards, then recounted to be sure our count was correct.  One strategy we used was to count backwards to recount the set.  We studied a famous picture by Norman Rockwell this morning and compared it to a copy that Charles Schultz made.  Ask me to tell you about how the two pictures are the same and different.  

Don't forget, tomorrow is Dress Like You Just Get Out of Bed Day.  

Today we started Buddy Reading.  On Fridays, instead of Independent Reading, we will have Buddy Reading.  We got to choose a partner to read with and talk about what they did well as a reader.  We learned more about landforms and how they occur in nature.  We know landforms are made by nature and not humans.  Ask me about the three things that can cause erosion.  We wrote about a kind of landform we would like to visit and set writing goals. 
Today we celebrated our November birthdays.  As part of our celebration, we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  It's so nice to end the day hearing these little people belly laugh over Snoopy and Woodstock's antics.  A nice end to our week!
Have a nice weekend!
Juliet

We had a great time learning about landforms and bodies of water.  We sang a great song that names some landforms as we went on a virtual field trip to the Southwest United States, Alaska, and then to Hawaii to warm up!.  I'm bringing the song home today, so ask me to sing it to you!  We soared over the land and saw many different landforms in a very different place from where we live!  Go on the field trip with me and ask me about the landforms in the video!  I'll post this video, along with a couple others on the Social Studies page as well.  

We also read the rest of an information text about the life cycle of an oak tree.  We are learning to represent ideas and our understanding in different ways.  Today I am bringing home a paper that shows the life cycle of an oak tree that I represented two different ways.  We talked about showing our learning in a circle, numbered pictures, in a flow chart and with arrows.  Showing what I know in different ways is important!

Be sure to check out our homepage for information from the Student Government about Spirit Week next week.

We worked on our postcards today.  Your child will be bringing home four postcards.  You can help us with this project by cutting apart the postcards, addressing them and mailing them to people who live in different states or countries.
We are so excited about getting mail and learning more about our world.  
I was hoping to send home the Words Their Way homework today, but will send home the word and picture sorts tomorrow.  I want to go through all the groups first before sending it home so the children are familiar with the pictures and sort. 

We listened to a beautiful story this afternoon about a little girl who dreams of becoming a dancer like Janet Collins.  The girl's mom tells her to not spend her time wishing on a star, but to work hard to achieve her dream.  This is a really beautifully written and inspiring story.  The book is called A Dance Like Starlight: A Dancer's Dream, by Kristy Dempsey.  You can read this book online at :   
http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/a-dance-like-starlight
You will need to set up an account to read the book, but it is free to join.  This website has many good books to read with your child so you will want to bookmark it to return and read more!

Today we went to P.E. and learned the underhand throw.  Ask me about the four steps to the underhand throw!

Have a nice evening!
Juliet

Today was a very busy day!  We learned more about seeds and how they grow.  We practiced making lower case y and then practiced our new word wall word you. We learned more about globes today and looked at a political globe that shows continents, countries and cities.  We also looked at a cultural globe which shows continents, designs that represent those continents, and plays music from the continent.  Ask me about the globes! We went to the computer lab today and learned about painting and drawing on Pixie.  The kids did a really great job and make really interesting pictures with the different tools they can use.  We had a Mystery Reader today too!  The children loved guessing who the Mystery Reader was, and it turns out we have a lot of Pittsburgh Steelers fans in our room.  At least today we did!  
Our homework is on our the Home Page.  I will also be sending it home later this afternoon in an e-mail. We did not have time to make our postcards today, so we will be doing that tomorrow, so look for the postcards to come home then.  The kids are really excited about our Postcard Project.  As always, it is not necessary for you to print out the homework as most of it is online.  

Enjoy your evening!
Juliet

Today was a busy day learning about seeds.  We studied photographs of seeds and noticed similarities and differences of size, color and shape.  We read several great books about seeds and a poem too.  In the afternoon, we used hand lenses to look closer at fruit and vegetables.  We removed the seeds and counted them.  We had fun holding sugar snap peas up to the light and SUBITIZING!  We just can't get enough of subitizing!  We even looked inside a cactus fruit.  Miss Wolfe found out the hard way that cactus fruit really comes from a cactus!  Ask me about the seed investigation we did.  Later this weekend our website will be updated for the new quarter.  We'll have pictures of our seed investigation too!

Be sure to check your child's folder today for picture order form with the photographs that were taken of your child a couple weeks ago.  There is an access code on the sheet as well.  I put the sheet in each folder so hopefully it made it home!

Have a great weekend!
Juliet

Today we learned about persistence.  We listened to a great story called Flight School, by Lita Judge.  This story is about a penguin who wanted to learn to fly.  Ask me to tell you about Penguin's feelings and how they change throughout the story, and about the surprise ending!
We played Compare today in math.  This is a fun game we played with dot cards that had different groups of dots up to 10 that we looked at and tried to know how many dots there were without counting.  We then played a partner game and compared cards.  Whoever had the card with more dots got both cards.  Miss Wolfe is sooo impressed at how well we can subitize and even describe the dot formations after just a quick peek!
We listened to a great story called One by Kathryn Otoshi that is about standing up to bullies.  This book simply uses dots of color and numerals to teach a very powerful lesson about how to stand up against a bully, how to stand together as a group to make a difference, and to understand that everyone counts.  A huge thank-you to Mrs. Pierre-Louis for sending this book in for our class to read.  We highly recommend this book for families because it handles a big issue in a child friendly-way.  The message came through loud and clear and every one had something to say about this story.  Be sure to ask me about One, by Kathryn Otoshi!

A few of our friends were cold at recess.  We do go outside on cold days so be sure your little munchkin leaves the house with warm layers or a coat.  

Enjoy your evening!
Juliet

Today was a great day because we were back to a normal day and got to go to recess!  Good thing we enjoyed the warm weather at recess because it's getting colder already!  We also enjoyed a very funny book by Mo Willems called That Is Not a Good Idea!  We were making predictions about what was going to happened and got a surprise at the end!  We also read a class Eric Carle book called The Tiny Seed.  We learned about why some seeds don't grow.  Ask me to tell you about what happened to the seeds in the story.  
We had a fire drill in the afternoon.  Our class did a great job of leaving the building quickly and standing in our spot quietly.  
We started a new unit in Social Studies.  We will be learning about geography.  We watched a short video about maps and globes.  
Have a great evening!
Juliet

Today was a busy, short day.  We learned about taking intellectual risks.  We learned that we take intellectual risks when we say what we think, even if we don't know if it's a "right answer."  We take intellectual risks all the time, but one activity we often do has us taking intellectual risks as we talk about what we notice and wonder.  Check out today's photograph:

Ask me to tell you about this photograph.  Many of the students thought it was something like a rainstick, which was a really good connection!  Another student thought it was some kind of dinosaur skeleton.  These connections show our thinking, even if it's not the "right answer."  We learned that our thinking is even more important than the answer.  After we talked about this plant, which turns out to be a Strangler Fig, we looked at another view of the same tree.

We all were so curious about this tree that we watched a 3 minute video that tells all about Strangler Fig Trees.  
Have a great afternoon and evening!
Juliet