What we did....

On Monday we tried a math word problem working in groups.  This is a first for us.  We worked in small groups to try to solve this word problem.

 Bo is going to the carnival and wants to play some games.  He has only 20 tickets and he has to use all 20 tickets. He plays each game at least once.  What does he use his tickets on?  Can you find more than one combination.

The groups did a great job.  They were totally engaged in problem solving for over 30 minutes. Kudos to them.

Check out how we thought like mathematicians.

On Tuesday we worked on our how to books.  We are getting really good at our step by step directions.

Wednesday brought our Lumberton Police Department to talk us about safety.  Lt. Begolly came in and talked with the students.  He said we were the first class to answer correctly some of his really tough questions.  I was so proud!

On Thursday, we were treated to a play by the George Street Theater.  At night, thank you to all of you who came out and supported myself and Team Lumberton against the Harlem Wizards.  It was a great night.  So much fun.

On Friday we finished off the week with a great Fun Friday.  The students are working hard all week to earn their golden tickets.  They need to earn at least 5 to earn Fun Friday time.

Things to come next week: Spiders and Halloween parade at 1:30 and party to follow.

Owls, Conferences, Coins.... Oh My.

This week we have been learning about owls.  We are making an owl book to bring home next week.  We made recycled owls too.  Check them out.  Painting first thing in the morning is so exciting and unexpected.  The students did a great job.

In writing we learned about our different forms of punctuation with Period Pete, Questioning Quinn, Exclamation Ella and Comma Claire.

Conference notes:  Have you made your conference time yet?  Make sure to sign into the school website and make an appointment with me to come and talk about your child's progress during our November conferences.  I will send a reminder of the date and time when it comes closer.  If you have any problems, just email me and I can help set up a time.

Halloween is just around the corner.  If you do not celebrate Halloween please let me know.  The school will be providing alternative activities for your child during the parade and party time.

If you have not sent in the coins for our math lesson please do so.  I sent an email to all of you on Thursday with the amount and specifics needed.

Have a great weekend.

Bats, Fire Safety, and How tos

For such a short week we definitely packed it in with lots of learning.  On Monday we began a short unit on bats.  Do you know that there are megabats and microbats?  Most bats in NJ are microbats. Some bat facts we learned:

• The largest bat is the Flying Fox bat with a wingspan of 6 feet!!!
• The smallest bat is the Bumble Bee bat with a wingspan of 5 inches.
• The Vampire Bat makes a slit and sucks the blood out of animals without them even feeling it.
• One bat can eat about 600 mosquitoes in one hour!!

We split into groups to see what 600 mosquitoes look like.

On Tuesday we had Lumberton Fire Department come and talk to use about fire safety.  Here are a few photos from their visit.

We are also practicing our reading fluency with mini plays.  Here are two wonderful actors with a play.  Lights, Camera, Action.

 We have also started our next writing unit... How tos.  So what better what to learn than actually doing it.  We wrote about how to eat a banana.  What fun. You never realize how many steps it takes until you break it down.  The students did a great job.

Welcome to October

The first month of school has past.  Boy, did that go by fast, or was it just me?

The students are quickly learning the routines in class, our writing is becoming stronger and we just finished our first unit of writing.  Narrative.  Later this week I will send home their writing and you will see how their writing has progress from the beginning of school to now.  We wrote and edited our favorite narrative and then shared it with Miss Gizelbach's class on Friday.

As the year continues we will continue to strengthen our writing and editing.  This marking period in editing we are focusing on making sure that the first letter in the first word is capitalized.  We have also identified common nouns and proper nouns.

In math, we just started our unit on place value.  Place value is a super important skill for our Firsties to have as it lays the foundation for all other mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

In reading, your child will begin to take home their very own "just right" book nightly.  It comes from their seat sack.  Yes, reading this book is part of their homework.   As your child learns new comprehension concepts with their reading I will inform you of them too so you can practice with them at home.