Apples, Apples, Apples

This week‘s  theme has been apples in honor of Johnny Appleseed’s birthday.  We have graphed them, tasted them, counted them, and even tried to sink and floated them. Thanks to our two moms who came in to help with our apple rotations today.  This afternoon we met with Mrs. Hoffman’s class to do an apple tasting.  It was fun to see our friends for another class.

Unit 1 is finished in both our Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop.  All writing samples for this month have been sent home.  Take a few minutes to see how your child has grown as a writer already in the first month of school.  You will see improved handwriting, more detailed pictures and also more writing.  Congratulate your child on a job well done.  Ask them to read to you their favorite one.  You may keep their writing.

In Reader’s Workshop we also learned how to read using whisper phones.  These phones help keep our reading voices in check while we read our “just right books.”

Next week we will be finishing up Chapter 1 in math.  This week’s focus has been on calendars, days of the week, temperature and working in small groups. 

This morning your child also took part in an assembly conducted by Ms. Black.  Ask your child, “Are you a bucket filler?” or “a Bucket dumper?”.  Let them explain what it means.

Congrats to our September Reading Challenge students.  I will be eating lunch with them on Monday in the cafeteria to celebrate their accomplishment.  October’s reading challenge paper will be sent home on Monday.

Did you know our trash gets us cash?  We get 2 cents for each item we recycle:

We are collecting the following items:

 Frito-Lay Chip bags:  Fritos, Lays, Doritos, Cheetos, and Sun Chips

  Capri- Sun Juice pouches

 Candy Wrappers: Skittles, Starbursts, M&Ms, Twix, Snickers

 Scotch Tape: Clear Dispensers and cores

Dairy Tub Brigade: all cream cheese tubs and lids, all sour cream tubs and lids, all cheese tubs and lids, all yogurt tubs and lids, all butter tubs and lids, all margarine tubs and lids, any other dairy product tub, foil tops, plastic tub tops, any other type of packaging on all dairy tubs.

Cleaner Packaging Brigade: all pumps, triggers, pouches, and flexible cleaner product packaging

 

Important Dates:

Reflections Art Contest starts on Monday, Oct. 1st

Scholastic book orders due Friday. Oct. 5^th

Half Day on Friday, Oct. 5th

An exciting week

Boy was there excitement in school today.  Our fire alarms sounded due to a faulty alarm sensor. The class was fantastic.  We exited the building quickly and quietly.  The Lumberton Fire Department came along with Lumberton Police.    The alarm company has been notified and this problem will be fixed. We all enjoyed the beautiful blue skies and warm weather but cheered when the firefighters came out and gave us the all clear sign for us to go back in and LEARN!!!

Thank you for all the parents who attended Back to School Night.  I enjoyed meeting each and every one of you.  I hope you found the night informative.  If you have not signed up for “Packed with Stuff about Me” (a.k.a. your child’s family week), let me know and I can assign you a date.

During our Reading Workshops this week, we focused on working with our reading partners.  We learned how to listen and take turns, where to meet on the “field,” how to read shoulder to shoulder with each other, and the importance of keeping order during our Readers’ Workshop.  We read The Day that Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash to understand the difference between order and chaos.

In Writer’s Workshop, the students are working hard on stretching out sounds and trying our best.  We also have added words to our word wall and the students are now using the word wall as another tool for our Writer’s Workshop.  It is great to see their learning come to life.  I live for those “ah-ha” moments in teaching.  Today we explored extending our writing.  We used a small moments writing we wrote earlier this week and added more details and feelings to it.

Math is so much fun.  We played Top-it in class.  This is a great activity for comparing numbers.  When it was time to move to another activity the children all moaned and said they wanted more time.  Some even said they did not even know they were doing math.  That’s a good thing.  I tell the class that I am always sneaking math in everything, because just like reading, MATH is everywhere!!!!

Things to Remember:

If your child is not able to tie their own shoes, please practice at home.  This is a skill that should be mastered this year.

Next week we will be learning about apples and Johnny Appleseed.

No school on Wednesday, due to Yom Kippur.

First Week of School

Well we have made it through a full week of school.  It has been full of new experiences and procedures. We have had 2 fire drills, 1 safety drill, learned how to get lunches in the lunch line and visited all of our special area classes. 

 In class we have learned about Gimme 5 during Reading Workshop.  This secret code reminds the students to have eyes on the speaker, hands to yourself and free, listening ears, quiet mouths, and still bodies.  I am also working on reading individually with each of your children to get them their "just right" reading level books. 

In Math we are working on reviewing some Kindergarten skills including tally marks, counting by 1 and 5s, and number writing and formations. I have also started the 100 Club.  This is a “club” that all children participate in.  They write their numbers from 0-100 in order in a book.  I am looking for correct sequence and number formation. This is great practice.  If the student can correctly write their numbers their name goes on a star and placed on the 100 Club cabinets.  Students work on this while waiting for the rest of the class to finish a task.

In Writer’s Workshop we are working on stretching out the sounds of words and writing them down.  In addition we are making sure that our pictures match the words and stories we are writing about.

Has your child come home talking about keeping their “colors”?  “Colors” are what I refer to as part of our behavior plan.  We want to stay “In the Green”.  That means we are having a good day.  If I need to speak to your child about their behavior, they lose a color (yellow).  They need to write their name in the book and hand in their color.  If I need to speak to them again, in the same day, then they lose their Red.  If a red is taken away, a note/email will be set home to you about their behavior. All “colors” are returned to your child the following day and they start new.

Things to remember:

Back to School Night…  Come in and check out what we have been doing. Wednesday, Sept. 19^th at 7PM

Scholastic Book Orders are due Sept. 25^th       You may order on-line.  Class Activation code: H4VGC

If you are sending in money for lunch, please have it in an envelope with your child’s name on it.

Don’t forget….. We eat a small snack daily in our class.  Don’t forget to send in a small snack.

Welcome to Dr. Mueller's Blog

This is the first of its kind for me.  I will be blogging to you about what is happening in Room 10.  This is for classroom use only and I will use this to tell you about our weekly happenings in school. Please enter your email on the right side of this page and follow our blog.  That way you will keep up to date on all of our adventures in class.  I hope you enjoy.