December 5th-9th

Hi families,

Your child is coming home with a set of lime green "10 frame" flash cards today. These are excellent and will really help your child progress in math. The first video shows an example of how you will review these flash cards with your child. They should not be counting the dots after a couple weeks of repeated practice. The goal is for them to quickly recognize how many dots are shown without counting. Simply add these to your weekly homework routine. 

After they master this, they will use the cards to work on math facts to 10. The second video below shows that. They can say "1 plus 9 equals 10." OR "1 and 9 make 10." We use both phrases and both are correct. Sorry for the noise and a couple of upside down cards in the second video. 

Reader's Workshop:

This week everyone received their guided reading book. We reviewed making connections to stories (text to text, text to self and text to world). We also worked on word study words, sight words and word sorts (blends and short vowels).

Writer's Workshop:

This month's theme is "how-to" writing. Many children are writing about some of their favorite activities: how to ride a bike, how to score a goal, how to brush your teeth etc.

Math Workshop:

We worked on filling out December calendars this week, more number bonds and recognizing dots on ten frames. I was was surprised at how well the kids did on writing numbers this week. We are getting fewer and fewer reversals. 

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Amelia Earhart. She was the first woman to fly! She was also the first person to fly across the ocean. We did several activities. 

1. Compare and contrast the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. What was similar about these heroes? What was different? We did this as a class. 

2. With your table, come up with a skit that tells the story of Amelia Earhart. These skits were awesome and really showed all the information that the kids have leaned about what it means to be a hero and all about Amelia's life. I am sad I did not film these. 

3. Using what you know about paper air planes from last week, create a paper airplane that can carry cargo. See who's plane can fly the farthest with the most cargo (we are doing this tomorrow).

4. Play the airplane pilot version of "Simon Says". These directions came home in the red folders so you can repeat the game another time. It was great to get to know some of the flight terminology. 

**We also had a guest speaker that came to Mrs. James' class that we were invited to listen to. Sam's dad (student in Mrs. James' class) is a pilot and works for American Airlines. He came to teach us about what all it takes to fly. It was so neat.

Announcements:

Gingerbread House Decorating: December 15th at 11:00 in our classroom. We invite all parents to come in and join us! Unfortunately we do not have enough supplies for siblings. I will be sending out a sign up genius for icing and candy. Thank you to everyone who has helped glue so far! We are about half way done gluing. 

We are in need of clorox wipes, paper towels and washable markers. If you are able to send in any of these supplies, we are so thankful.

Have a happy weekend, 

Mrs. Schultz

November 28th-December 4th

Learning how to write "how to" books.

Hello!

I hope everyone had a great break last week. Below are some important dates:

December 15th at 11:00 Gingerbread House Decorating-We invite all parents to come in and help us decorate our houses!
December 19th-January 3rd- Winter Break
February 2nd at 11:00 Heroes Play (will probably be in the middle school black box like our ocean play)
February 7th- Field Trip to the Children's Theatre (If we have more volunteers than slots available then I will draw names out of a hat)
May 4th at 11:00 Artist Play
Sometime during the week of May 22nd- Field Trip to Hiddenite Mine
May 30th- Author's Tea (in our classroom we will reveal our bare books)

This week we started studying two new heroes. We are learning about the Wright brothers! We learned that hard work and determination can produce great results. We rotated through 4 main centers:

1. Create a candy airplane and write a step by step direction sheet to go along with it. This month's writing theme is "how-to" so we introduced this concept through the center.
2. Illustrate the Wright Brothers fact book and read it to an adult.
3. Create a time line of Orville and Wilbur's lives. Side note: The kids loved the time line about Eleanor and begged for another one! We did not have time to make one for Helen Keller so we decided to create another one for this week. We did a large one as a class and then some kiddos chose to do an individual one as well.
4. Using what you know about the science behind flying (from what we read), create your own air plane. It can be made from any material and can be any size. Have an airplane flying contest and see who's can fly the farthest.

Writing:

This month's writing theme is writing how-to books. Using words like "first and then, next" etc.

Reader's Workshop:

Everyone received their leveled reader this week. We focused on learning about plural words. We learned how to make a word go from a singular word to a plural word. Many times you can just add an "s" to the end of a word to make it plural. Of course there are exceptions and other rules but for first grade we won't go into toooo many of those details. :)

Math Workshop:

We played two new math games this week:

Roll and record a shape: Roll the 2-D shape cube, spin the spinner. Color in that many shapes on your recording sheet,

Number Bond Matching: Math the answer to the two numbers that either add to that number or subtract to equal that number.

Science :

Ms. Rachel came a couple weeks ago to do Sci Fri (thank you!!) and we made play dough color wheels with her. It was awesome! The kids loved mixing different colors.

A quick conversation that I loved this week...

Student 1: I wish we could stay in Mrs. Schultz and Ms. Alicia's class forever.

Student 2: It will be ok. We can go visit.

Student 1: It won't be the same.

Students 2: Yeah but we will have all the happy memories.

Isn't that the sweetest? Love those cute moments that happen each day and just had to share.

Have a restful weekend and write those dates down!
Mrs. Schultz

November 14th-18th

Hello!

There will be a couple announcements this week:

1. Thanksgiving break will be November 23rd-25th. No school those 3 days. School resumes November 28th.

2. We will be having our "Thanksgiving feast" November 22nd at school. This year we are doing a different kind of feast though! We are asking that each child bring their favorite snack to contribute to the feast this year. It can be anything they want! No nuts of course. Cannot wait to see what this year's spread will be. :) This is for the kids only. I promise to send pics.

3. Gingerbread House Decorating: December 15th 11:00-12:00 Parents are invited! This is a blast, You won't want to miss it. We will need candy, icing and graham cracker donations later. We will also need help gluing the crackers to the cartons. Watch for a sign up genius soon. And save some of that Halloween candy to use if you want!

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Helen Keller. We could not believe that she was deaf and blind and accomplished so much including attending college. We also learned about braille and sign language. We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Cook "braille bites": take a cracker and spread icing on it. Then, using skittles, spell your name with the coordinating braille symbols. Eat and enjoy.
2. Illustrate the Helen Keller informational book and read it to a teacher.
3. Walk down the hall with headphones and a blind fold using a partner for help. Experience what it would be like to walk without sight and hearing.
4. Write your name in glue then dot the coordinating braille dots with glue dots. Let it dry and then feel what your name feels like in braille. Then find braille in our classroom and around the school and experience what it feels like on a real sign (bathroom, classroom etc.).

Last week we also spelled our name in braille using do-a-dot markers to practice for this week. We went over basic sign language words and phrases as well.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we worked on leveled books and sight words. So sorry I missed a couple groups last week with our short week! Hopefully we got all back on track this week.

Writer's Workshop:

We are still focusing on this month's theme of comics and enjoying every minute. The kids are coming up with the funniest stories.

Math Workshop:
We learned 2 new math games:

We played turkey subtraction match: Match the subtraction equation with the answer and the coordinating ten frame showing the answer.

Roll and cover: Roll 2 dice and add one. Cover up that space. The first player to cover up all their spaces wins. Another concept that we focus on in first grade is "plus 1." As part of our learning about numbers we start with the concept of one more and one less. Then we move into 10 more and 10 less as children learn the connections between numbers and patterns in math. We utilize the tool of the hundreds chart and children can begin to start to make connections with even more advanced patterns of addition and subtraction like 9 more, 11 more etc. That's also why we work at helping the children so thoroughly understand addition facts to 10. So that they can then apply these rules to larger addition and subtraction problems.

Science: We cannot wait to see what Ms. Rachel brings today.

Have a nice weekend!
Mrs. Schultz

November 7th-10th

It has been another great but busy week!

Please remember to send a water bottle with your child every day. We are out of water bottles and cups and many people are forgetting water bottles. If it is your turn to play the math game that is being sent home, please play it that evening and return it the next day. Please also make sure you are checking red folders every night. We are noticing many red folders are not being emptied and notes are not being read. This is one way we communicate each day and it is important. Thank you for your help with these things!

Thematic Centers:

We are still learning about Eleanor Roosevelt and feeling so inspired to give to others in her honor. This week we discussed how happy you feel after you have made someone else happy by doing something kind. We also learned that Eleanor Roosevelt loved hot dogs. She even invited the King and Queen over for a hot dog picnic when she was First Lady. We thought that was hilarious. We  rotated through 4 centers:

1. Make your "no sew scarf" to give to the homeless shelter.
2. With your table, make a replica of the White House out of legos.
3. Write a letter to the new president telling him something or asking him a question. We will be mailing these next week! Maybe we will get a response! :) We learned that Eleanor and her husband were very responsive to letters and visits with the public.
4. With your song lyrics book, listen to the words of the Eleanor Roosevelt song (that we will be singing in our next play) and try to learn the words. Then, highlight all of the sight words in the book. Take it home and review the words with your family!

Math:

We are still studying geometry. We went on a shape hunt around the school and in our classroom. We also played geometry battle ship. Player 1 makes a shape out of a rubber band on their geo board ( a plastic board with pegs). Player 2 has to mimic that same shape in the same exact spot on their board. And then player 2 gets a turn.

Reader's  Workshop:

This week we met with all reading groups, worked on sight words, word study words and even started word sorts. An example of a word sort is in the video below.  This was a new thing this week. We are gluing these in our day books. This student was sorting pictures by their beginning sounds. Each student will be working on a word sort that is needed for their individual reading/writing goals. This week we all did the same word sort for practice. Next week kids will be grouped based on their needs. Students might sort words according to long and short vowels, ending sounds, certain spelling patterns that they get mixed up on etc. Excuse the background noise, we were starting to clean up but I wanted to take this short video because Ella was doing such a nice job saying each word out loud as she sorted.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we are still studying comics. We focused on making speech bubbles in multiple different ways.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Mrs. Schultz

November 2-4

It is already November! Can you believe it?

This week we all voted at school! We discussed the importance of voting during the presidential election and how cool it is that our country allows us to vote. We also discussed that voting is a very private and personal matter and should be kept a secret. Ask your child about his/her experience at school casting their vote for who should be president. Ms. Alicia and I were blown away with how much information they knew already.

Math:

We started our geometry unit and learned the difference between 2-D and 3-D shapes. We experimented with building 3-D shapes in our classroom and compared and contrasted 2-D and 3-D shapes. We sorted them as well based on characteristics like, how many sides and vertices (points on the shape). The 3-D shapes that we learned about were: cylinder, rectangular prism, cone, pyramid, cube and sphere.

**We finally started sending math games home to play for a night! So sorry it has taken us so long to get these going. When it is your turn to play, enjoy the game for one night and then return it the next day for another student to play. Your child should be able to explain the directions to the game on their own, but we included directions just to be sure.

Writer's Workshop:

This month we will be learning about and writing comics! Today was a blast and the kids LOVED filling in speech bubbles for their very own Elephant and Piggy comics. Some of them were hilarious and they decided to take them home. Check it out! Your kids are so creative. They wrote for over 45 minutes today and were sad when we had to clean up for lunch.

Reader's Workshop:

We did not have word study as it was a short week. We did however get through all guided reading groups and handwriting groups.

Thematic Unit:

We are beginning our new unit, studying heroes. We started studying Eleanor Roosevelt and learned what a marvelous lady she was. She has preformed so many acts of kindness ranging from decorating the hospital for sick babies and families to serving Thanksgiving meals to the homeless and SO MUCH MORE! We are inspired to get out in our community and do acts of service. Tomorrow we will be picking up trash (with gloves) around the school. And next week we will be making scarves to take to the Ada Jenkins center. We will also be making "blessing bags" for people in need. We will need your help gathering all of these materials so look for an email and the sign up genius for next week!

This week we rotated through 2 centers since it was a short week.

1. Create a sculpture out of model magic that represents a good deed that Eleanor did. Write a sentence explaining what your sculpture represents. Let these dry out at home and they will harden without baking them.
2. Create a timeline of Eleanor's life. Cut out and glue the different milestones on a sentence strip. Record the years above. This was great for background knowledge of Eleanor's life and was a great opportunity to introduce a timeline. The kids did great with this!

Admin Blog:

http://csdpowerofwe.org/admin-blogs/

Also see the special note below from our intern Ms. Morgan!

"Hi, I am Ms.Morgan and I’m doing my 8th grade practicum with Mrs.Schultz. I love getting to learn & play with your children. They are kind, creative & so fun to be around!  My 8th grade practicum group is doing a “Pay It Forward” for children at Ada Jenkins in Davidson. We have partnered with the owner of Davidson Pizza Company to give children at the Ada Jenkins Center pizza after school. Some children in need also take home pizza to their families. I want to share “Pay It Forward” with you as an opportunity for your child to help other children in our community. Just stop into the Davidson Pizza Company with a $1 & tell them that you are from CSD and would like to add to “Pay It Forward”. Each $1 buys a slice of pizza for a child. Davidson Pizza Company will have paper to draw a picture, write a word or note & it will be put up on the “Pay It Forward” board. The children from Ada Jenkins will get a slice of pizza & a note from the board that puts a smile on their face. I am also happy to collect a dollar at school & let your child write a note.  I will take these to the Davidson Pizza Company.  If you wish to participate this is a fun opportunity for children to give to others!"

**The opportunity above ties in really well with who we are studying this week. :)

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Schultz

October 24th-28th

Hello families!

The blog is coming out a day early and will be short and sweet because we are busy having fun (and also getting ready for conferences). :) This week we are enjoying working on various Halloween centers including making jack o' lantern cookies. We are also reading leveled books, taking a nature walk and writing about it and working hard on word problems with more than 2 numbers. We look forward to seeing you at the parade of fiction! I sent an email earlier about the time and location. Email me if you have any questions. Can't wait to see some of you at parent/teacher conferences as well. Please have a safe and happy Halloween!

Hugs, 

Mrs. Schultz

PS: Please see the 2 adorable videos below. The first one is the class reciting the Halloween poem we wrote with Mr. Ted and we added hand motions. The second one is Sully explaining the steps we took to make our jack o' lantern cookies. :)

October 17th-21st

Ella and Gunnar lost a tooth this week 5 minutes apart. Crazy!

Michael's morning journal entry says "I like Mrs. Schultz. She is a great teacher." He even drew my pumpkin sweatshirt and my hair in a bun on top of my head. Precious!

The 6th grade drama class came to preform today. They made skits based off of children's books. They were amazing. 

Sunshine chats with these two love bugs. 

What an exciting time to be a first grader! Halloween, pumpkins, candy, costumes, fairy tale ball and parade of fiction. Enjoy this special time with your little ones. It is such a fun season! As I have heard from my mom 100 times....it goes by in the blink of an eye, so take it all in. :)

Fairy Tale Ball:

**9-11 in the elementary gym** We would love you to stay the whole time but no worries if you cannot. The dance will be at the beginning so you definitely want to try to catch that. Please send your child to school DRESSED in their costume. Please send tennis shoes and a change of clothes for after the ball. Please be sure your child can undress themselves out of their costume. You may want to practice that before Friday morning. Remember, your child's costume can be simple. Anything related to a fairy tale is acceptable. Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to help in some way. We cannot do it without you! We hope that you will enjoy this special one on one time with just your first grader. We prefer no siblings as gym space will be tight with the whole first grade and all 8 stations.

Thematic Centers:


We are still working through the Cinderella centers. We are reading many versions of this classic tale.

1. Make and decorate an invitation to the fairy tale ball. Be sure you get the time, location and date correct!
2. Turn a real mini pumpkin into Cinderella's carriage using jewels, sequins, paint, pom poms etc. 3. Record the beginning, middle and end of the story by illustrating and writing a sentence using your tri-fold story board. You may use water colors, colored pencils, markers or crayons.4. Using attribute blocks, trace different shapes to make a castle. After tracing your shape castle, you may paint it or color it in. Count how many shapes you have and record how many of each you used. Discuss 2-D and 3-D shapes among your table as well as the different attributes that each shape possess.

Math Workshop:

This week we had two new math tubs.

1. Say it quick: In small groups look at the flash card held up. Say how many more you need to get to 10. There are ten frames with a certain amount of dots on them. You must say how many more you need to get to 10 before the card goes away.

2. Spill the Beans: Shake a group of ten beans spray painted half black and half white. Drop them and color in how many out of 10 and how many are white. Write a number sentence that matches.

Example: I shake and drop my 10 beans. When they land, 4 are white and 6 are black. I color in the beans accordingly. Then the equation would be 4+6=10.

Both of these games work on addition and subtraction and math facts within 10.

Reader's Workshop:

Our reading strategy this week is chunky monkey. Look for chunks in words that you know as well as endings that you know. Example: In the word reading you know that read spells "read" and -ing says "ing." When you blend it together it spells reading!

We worked on leveled books, sight words and new word study words this week as well. I cannot get over how well your kiddos know their sight words. I cannot thank you enough for practicing at home!

Writer's Workshop:

We are working on poems to send to Mr. Ted who came to our class! We are also perfecting hand motions to the poem we created as a class with Mr. Ted so that we can video it and send it to him. Who knew poetry could be so fun?

Science: Last week we made slime with Ms. Rachel and we cannot wait to see what Josephine's does with us!

**A quick note about carpool. Please be sure you are in the carpool line by 3:00.**

-I will be sending out a sign up genius for optional parent/teacher conferences. You may sign up for a conference if you want.

See you all Friday at the ball!

Hugs, 
Mr. Schultz

2 Week Update!

Science Fun! Making elephant toothpaste for Sci Fri with Ms. Morgan.

Our visit from Mr. Ted is below. He was phenomenal! Read below find our more info. 

Sweet Liam, enjoying his moment of sharing his writing.

Hello families!

I just realized that I have not posted a blog in the last couple of weeks. Can you tell life has been crazy lately? So sorry about that! I started writing one last week and realized it never posted. So last week's and this week's will be combined. :)  Hopefully I will be more on top of that for the rest of the month! It was soooo good to see many of you at the CSD festival on Tuesday. Hope you had fun!

Thematic Centers:

Because of our crazy short two weeks, we finished Rapunzel centers Tuesday and started studying Cinderella today! We will rotate through 4 Cinderella centers and read several versions of Cinderella.

1. Make and decorate an invitation to the fairy tale ball (Next Friday 9-11 in the elementary gym). Be sure you get the time, location and date correct!
2. Turn a real mini pumpkin into Cinderella's carriage using jewels, sequins, paint, pom poms etc.
3. Record the beginning, middle and end of the story by illustrating and writing a sentence using your tri-fold story board. You may use water colors, colored pencils, markers or crayons.
4. Using attribute blocks, trace different shapes to make a castle. After tracing your shape castle, you may paint it or color it in. Count how many shapes you have and record how many of each you used. Discuss 2-D and 3-D shapes among your table as well as the different attributes that each shape possess.

We also rotated through 4 Rapunzel centers:

1. Using a stencil, trace and paint Rapunzel's tower. Place Rapunzel at the top and learn to braid her long hair.
2. Roll bread dough into a snake and then braid it to look  like Rapunzel's hair. Sprinkle with gold sprinkles. Bake and write down the recipe to take home.
3. Make a play dough braid out of yellow play dough. Measure the braid with pennies, paper clips, legos and unifix cubes. We use non standard measurement in first grade so this is practicing that skill. This also worked on fine motor skills.
4. Using various materials from the mystery bin, create an escape route for Rapunzel to travel down to escape from the witch and find her prince! Share your escape route with the class. This was certainly a favorite and everyone was so creative!

Math Workshop:

We are still working on those story problems and you can definitely help us by practicing these at home too! We also learned 2 new math games and filled out October calendars.

1. Subtraction Slide: Roll 2 number cubes. Add them together. Subtract 20 from that number. Find that number and slide it onto your color. The first player to cover all of their colored circles up, wins. This requires extra thinking.

2. One more, one less: Player 1 covers up two numbers on the hundreds chart with pennies. Player two only sees the number in the middle and has to say which number comes right before and right after that number. Example. Cover up 15 and 17 so that 16 is revealed. The player who did not do the covering must say that 15  is one less than 16 and 17 is one more than 16.

Science:

Ms. Morgan came again last week to do another experiment. We made elephant toothpaste! Ask your child what ingredients were in it and what happened.

** A side note...your kiddos are now super into rocks and gems after exploring the geodes in science with Ms. Leslie a few weeks ago. They have been wanting to hammer all kinds of rocks that they find at school. Learning is so fun.

Writer's Workshop:

Last week we worked on labeling and the different reasons you might want to label in your writing. This week we studied poetry and it was perfect because we had a guest speaker come and talk to us about it! Will's cousin Ted Scheu, came to get us excited about writing poetry. He was amazing and now everyone has been writing poems! Check out his website: http://www.poetryguy.com/ He speaks at all kinds of schools and we were honored that he came to visit us. He even gave us two of his poetry books and his CD,

Reader's Workshop:

We are still working on sight words, new word study words and reading each week. We learned "flippy dolphin" which tells us to flip the vowel and try it a different way!

So far we have learned Flippy Dolphin, Stretchy Snake and Eagle Eye. Remind your child to use these strategies at home when they come across a tricky word while reading.

**We still need toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls for castle building next week! Please send them in! We also need you to save cream/half and half cartons for December. We need you to save the quart size cartons. Sometimes juice and milk come in these too. Save them all please!** This is the size we need. Of course, it does not have to be this exact carton, this is just for size reference.

The fairy tale ball is NEXT FRIDAY! Can you believe it is already time for that? Please let me know if you need any help with costumes. Please be in the elementary gym by 9 am sharp. You won't want to miss the precious dance at the beginning of the ball. The ball will go until 11. We will rotate through 8 stations. We will also need someone to come and spray paint paper towel tubes/toilet paper rolls next week. We will use these to build castles at one of the stations. We would love it if you are able to stay the whole time (9-11) but completely understand if you cannot due to work or other arrangements,

**Leveled books: This week we got completely off track with leveled readers. Between last week's short week and this one, we got off a bit. Some kids will get books today. Just read them over the weekend and return Monday. Thanks for being flexible!

**Sight words: Everyone is doing amazing with their sight word cards! Some kiddos have already learned all of their words already. I cannot thank you enough for your help with this! Remember to keep it fun. Write your words in the bath tub with bath tub crayons, write them with chalk, roll letters to make words out of play dough, write them in the sand etc. If you need more ideas of how to make it fun, I have lots of resources!

Have a great weekend! Sorry again about all the confusion with the blog the past couple of weeks.
Emily Schultz

September 26th-30th

Have you seen the books above??? They are now both missing! Please check at home. As we were switching over to our new check in system, they were lost in the mix (we think).

Boys in action during free choice centers. Always building!

Gunnar's grandmother came to volunteer and it was so special. 

Lauren and Sully working away in art. 

Lily and William working hard. 

Allison and Sophie are too sweet!

Katherine and Tripp following all of Ms. Tasia's art directions. 

Hello families!

Can you believe September is almost over? Time is flying.

This week we visited our book buddies and read with them, had writer's workshop, a park walk, started word problems in math, learned a new reading strategy and studied Rumpelstiltskin. Can you believe we are able to fit all of that into a 5 day week?

Reader's Workshop:

This week we worked on reading guided reading books, sight words, handwriting, pencil grip and word study words. We also learned a new reading strategy. Each week we will learn (and practice) a new reading strategy. This week we learned "Eagle Eye." Look at the pictures to help you solve tricky words. We have cute Beanie Babies to go along with each strategy to help us remember the strategies! There are many things you can do when you come across a tricky word.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we learned the difference between using an author's ideas and copying an author. Everyone is in LOVE with all the books that Mo Williams writes. But we discovered there is a big difference between using his ideas and copying his ideas.

Math Workshop:

This week we focused on word problems. We started practicing subtraction and addition problems. We do these with "story boards" and we call groups of between 1 and 5 kiddos so that we can differentiate and meet the needs of all students. We are sure to use a variety of language so that kids get used to hearing the equations different ways for the future.

Thematic Centers;

This week we studied Rumpelstiltskin and the different lessons that particular fairy tale can teach us. We also noticed that this story had a human as a villain instead of an animal like in past fairy tales we've studied. We rotated through 4 main centers:

1. With your table, make the castle that the king and queen lived in from Rumpelstiltskin. Present it to the class. There was a variety of materials to choose from when castle building.
2. Sequencing hat: put the pictures in order according to the story. Glue them on your hat and retell the story to a teacher.
3. Make your own puppet from the story Rumpelstiltskin and create a puppet show with your table. Preform the story to the class.
4. Graph your name next to Rumpelstiltskin's and compare how many letters your name has compared to his and other classmates names. Then try to come up with as many words as you can out of the name Rumpelstiltskin.

Science:

Ms. Morgan (our intern) did an amazing science experiment last week. Ask your child about it. It involved Coke and Mentos. It was so neat. You may have seen the science recording sheets come home. Tomorrow we will have another experiment.

**No school on Monday.
**Do not forget to work on your fairy tale ball costumes and parade of fiction costumes. If you need any help at all, please send me an email and I am happy to help out.
**New sight word rings will come home next week so be on the lookout for those. More details to come.

Have a wonderful long weekend!
Mrs. Schultz

September 19th-23

Fall is here and we are so excited! We look forward to watching the leaves change and temperatures drop.

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied a new fairy tale. We started reading Jack and the Beanstalk and reading all the different versions of that story. We noticed similarities and differences between the stories. We also compared it to Little Red Riding Hood. We rotated through 4 main centers.

1, Grow your very own beanstalk and discuss the stages of seed development. Label your coordinating science sheet.
2. Place the Jack and the Beanstalk words in ABC order.
3. Measure Jack's beanstalk using non-standard measurement tools (unifix cubes, paper clips etc,).
4. Glue the Jack and the Beanstalk poem into your day book and look for sight words!

Reader's Workshop:

Everyone read with an adult one on one and reviewed sight words with an adult in small groups! Sight words are based on need. Some students are working with two lettered sight words and others are working with 7 lettered sight words.Sight words are still being misspelled in writing. So, even if your child is reading them correctly, they still need to be reviewed until they are writing them correctly. Once your child masters the basic sight words, we are able to move on to more difficult words like: through, could, their vs there etc. We also got through two letters in our handwriting without tears books. We are still reminding students to use the correct pencil grip. Please  remind them at home too. Tell them to make their "A-OK grip" and they will fix it. Our word work table was so fun this week. Spin the paper clip spinner. Whatever word it lands on, you must trace that word using a highlighter. That yellow color really helps our brain remember the words! Return the word study binders to school tomorrow!

Writer's Workshop:

This week we reviewed correcting sight words that are misspelled in our books. We discussed the importance of using the word wall and our mini dictionaries to spell commonly misspelled sight words while writing, especially the ones we have been over numerous times.

Math Workshop:

We learned two new math games. Both of these games you can play at home.

1. Start With, Get To:

-Draw 2 number cards (you can use regular playing cards at home and remove the joker, king and queen). Place the lower number along the number line first and then place the higher number down on the number line second. Start counting from the lower number and stop counting when you get to your higher number. As a challenge, draw 4 cards. Add the first 2 together and add the second 2 together and play the same way. You can make your own number line at home by using sticky notes on the kitchen table and writing out the numbers or trying it with chalk on the driveway. Start with a 1-20 number at first and increase as needed.

2. Subtraction Smash (two ways to play):

-Roll a dot cube. Make that many mini play dough balls (only using 3 fingers to make the balls for extra fine motor skill practice).Smash one ball and state how many are left. State your subtraction sentence that you just made.
-Spin the spinner and roll that many playdough balls. Spin the spinner again and smash that many playdough balls. State how many are left. State your subtraction sentence.

Book Buddies:
We met with our book buddies this week to read and make a fall craft. What fun!

Announcements:

1. Names are coming off red folders, so we are going to fix that by adding a label instead!
2. Please return the fundraising packets and turn in your activity expenses! They are past due!
3. We are missing the leveled reader called "Dinosaur Day at School." Please return this if you have it! We were keeping track of who had what book but somehow got mixed up with that book. We are missing 1 copy!
4, Please sign up for the kickball tournament if you can. Our grade level is short parents!
5. Do not forget to work on those parade of fiction and fairytale ball costumes!

Have a great weekend!

September 12-16

Another great week down!

Thematic Centers:

This week we started transitioning to our new unit: fairy tales. How fun! We are also finishing up our sports unit. This week we read Little Red Riding Hood (and a few different versions) and rotated through 4 main centers:

1. Count and graph the characters from Little Red

2. Torn paper wolf (this really works fine motor skills and we kept these at school)

3. Wolf fact book (wolves can and cannot, wolves do and do not)*Fill in the blanks and illustrate

4. Think about the setting of Little Red Riding Hood and plug in the furniture in the correct rooms.

Reader's Workshop:

We rotated through another round of handwriting and guided reading groups. Everyone received one on one time with an adult for handwriting and reading this week. Yay! We also introduced our last Daily 5 option which is word work. Each week there will be something different but this week we had a word search with our new word study words. Everyone also got a chance to work on sight words with a teacher this week too! We are still working on sight words each week. Please continue to work on these at home when you can as well! We had out first word study lesson and it went great. Don't forget to keep the binder at home until Friday and then send it back Friday for a spell check. 

Math Workshop:

This week we kept the same math tubs but started pulling math groups to work on individual needs. We also learned about a new game that we will practice next week called Make 10. This is an easy one you can play at home! Draw four cards (we use number cards at school, but you could easily use playing cards and remove the king and queen). Pick two cards whose sum reaches 10. Example: I turn over 4 cards and get a 2, 1, 1 and 8. I could say my combo was 8 and 2 or 8, 1 and 1. The player with the most combos to 10 wins!

Please do not forget to return your discount cards! They were due today and we did not receive very many.

Please also remind your child to do their correct pencil grip when writing at home. They all know how to do it, they just need to be reminded. Remind them to make their "A-OK" grip.

If you went to the handwriting without tears workshop this week please let me know and we will have you in class to volunteer!

Important Dates:

No School: October 3rd, 12th 31st and November 1st.
Optional Conferences: October 31st and November 1st (I will send a sign up genius a little later for these.)
Kickball Tournament/School Festival Event: October 11th
Fairy Tale Ball: October 21st 9-11 (Your child will need a costume for this.)
Parade of Fiction at 8:45 (Your child will need a costume for this.) We will also need lots of volunteer help with this event too. More details to come.

Have a wonderful weekend and check out the pictures below!
Hugs,
Emily Schultz

Gunnar and Landon built a cool creation.

Science fun!

Learning how to work as a team in free choice centers.

Sweet Sarah was being brave sharing her new book!

Watching the cement truck work hard near the playground.

Fun in music class.

Michael and Augie are giving Luke lots of love. ;) We adore moments like these!

Hello!

What an exciting week we have had! Two friends lost a tooth, we had our first fire drill of the school year and we had curriculum night.

We are having some WiFi troubles today so there will not be any pictures posted. They are not loading. Sorry about that! I will add this week's pictures to next week's blog.

Thank you all for coming to curriculum night. The support our class has is outstanding! If you missed it, please check your child's red folder. You have homework! ;) We placed the directions for your parent homework in the folder along with a packet we gave out last night. We need every parent to write a message on white paper with a white crayon. The kids will water color over it and reveal the secret message! We want every child to have a special note. Please see the important dates I announced as well.

Handwriting Without Tears Workshop: This is for parents only! September 14th 9:30 am-10:30 am and 7:00 pm- 8:00 pm.  This is a great workshop so please attend if you can!

October 11th- 4:00-8:00 School Festival and Kickball Tournament

October 21st- Fairy tale Ball

October 28th- Parade of Fiction

Scholastic: Orders will be due soon so get them in this weekend! This is a great way to get your child excited about reading while also earning points for our class to purchase more books for our class library. The kids were so excited to go "shopping" in the flyer that was passed out this week.

Math Workshop:

We played two new games.

1. Rollin, Rollin, Rollin: Roll two dice and add them together. Cross off the sum. The last person to cross off a number wins! It gets tricky at the end with one number left.

2 Connect Four: Roll two dice and all the numbers. Place your color marker on the sum. The first player to get 4 in a row wins!

Reader's Workshop:

This week we introduced partner reading and the listening center. We should finally be ready to introduce guided reading groups after Labor Day. My reading assessments are officially finished and all my groups are made. :)

Thematic Unit:

This week we rotated through 4 centers revolving around soccer! We studied Mia Hamm and learned she was the youngest player to help win a World Cup! We noticed that all the famous athletes we have studied have overcome obstacles.

1. Learn and practice how to do a header, score a goal, dribble and pass the soccer ball. Illustrate the new vocabulary terms.
2. Make a page for our class Soccer Rules book.
3. Illustrate the Mia Hamm fact book.
4. Create a soccer ball using hexagons and a round circle plate. Math is everywhere!

Have a great long weekend!

Emily Schultz

This Week!

Hello!

What an exciting week we have had! Two friends lost a tooth, we had our first fire drill of the school year and we had curriculum night.

We are having some WiFi troubles today so there will not be any pictures posted. They are not loading. Sorry about that! I will add this week's pictures to next week's blog.

Thank you all for coming to curriculum night. The support our class has is outstanding! If you missed it, please check your child's red folder. You have homework! ;) We placed the directions for your parent homework in the folder along with a packet we gave out last night. We need every parent to write a message on white paper with a white crayon. The kids will water color over it and reveal the secret message! We want every child to have a special note.

Scholastic: Orders will be due soon so get them in this weekend! This is a great way to get your child excited about reading while also earning points for our class to purchase more books for our class library. The kids were so excited to go "shopping" in the flyer that was passed out this week.

Math Workshop:

We played two new games.

1. Rollin, Rollin, Rollin: Roll two dice and add them together. Cross off the sum. The last person to cross of a number wins! It gets tricky at the end with one number left.

2 Connect Four: Roll two dice and all the numbers. Place your color marker on the sum. The first placer to get 4 in a row wins!

Reader's Workshop:

This week we introduced partner reading and the listening center. We should finally be ready to introduce guided reading groups after Labor Day. My reading assessments are officially finished and all my groups are made. :)

Thematic Unit:

This week we rotated through 4 centers revolving around soccer! We studied Mia Hamm and learned she was the youngest player to help win a world cup! We noticed that all the famous athletes we have studied have overcome obstacles.

1. Learn and practice how to do a header, score a goal, dribble and pass the soccer ball. Illustrate the new vocabulary terms.
2. Make a page for our class Soccer Rules book.
3. Illustrate the Mia Hamm fact book.
4. Create a soccer ball using hexagons and a round circle plate. Math is everywhere!

Have a great long weekend!

Emily Schultz

This week!

Waiting for the ball to be thrown back over the fence!

 Dancing to the Olympic theme song in music!

Landon and I share a strong passion for Steph Curry. Go Warriors! 

Math tub fun!

Since we are studying basketball this week, Mr. Jay (CSD's varsity ladies head coach/Ms. Alicia's husband) came to talk to us about the sport. He even brought one of his players and some jerseys to try on!  How cool?  Thanks Mr. Jay and Courtney! He talked about hard work paying off in the end and also taught us some fundamentals of the game.

Wow, what a week! It has been another great but busy week.

Reader's Workshop:

This was our second week of building up stamina for reading independently and setting up reader's workshop. Today we read independently for 20 minutes without stopping. Yahoo! We have slowly added 2 minutes to our total time reading each day. We have also been working hard on getting all of our reading assessments done so that we can start guided reading groups soon. Everyone has a book bin that they keep in their cubby. Each week, new books are picked! We hope to start sending home leveled books next week. We also worked on writing during readers workshop.

Math Workshop:

We have LOTS of new games this year! Over the past two weeks we have moved from exploring manipulatives to playing math games. Our top three favorites this week are explained below. But we have several more in the tubs.

Penny Game:
Roll a die and whatever number it lands on, collect that many pennies. Each partner rolls and collects until all the pennies are gone. At the end, flip the more or less tile to see who wins. If the tile lands on "more" then the player with the higher number of pennies wins. If the tile lands on "less" then the player with fewer pennies wins.

Rock, Paper, Scissors
Play this traditional game but the winner records what they win with on a tally sheet. The tricky part about tallies is remembering that the fifth tally crosses over the fourth tally mark. Counting by 5's is much more efficient than by 1's.

Compare
Both players flash number cards at the same time. The player with the higher number keeps both cards. The player with all the cards at the end is the winner. A challenge would be to flash two or three cards and add the numbers together. Same rules apply.

Thematic Centers:
Our very first unit that we are working on is Sports/Famous Athletes. We usually start with fairytales but we wanted to tie in the Olympics with this unit so we started it earlier. Last week we studied Wilma Rudolph and track. This week we studied basketball and Michael Jordan. We have learned that these famous athletes overcame a lot before they were successful. We rotated through 4 centers again this week.

1. Illustrate the Michael Jordan biography mini book. There were some hard words in that book but working together as a team helped get the job done.
2. Design a basketball jersey (we kept these at school). Then, fill out the paperwork to go with it breaking it apart in tens and ones using base ten blocks.
3. Review and practice the top 4 basketball passes then illustrate them.
4. Complete the basketball word search. This is a great way to review vocabulary words we are discussing and practice those reading skills.

Writer's Workshop:

This month's theme is "small moments." Rather than writing about a series of events, choose one small topic to write about. Of course, not everyone chose to write a small moment writing piece. And that's ok! We just want to be excited about writing! We also received our personal word walls and started filling in our words we may need for writing this year.

Science:

Last week we did the skittles science experiment and had a blast. What happened when we placed warm water on skittles?? Ask your child. :) PS: Normally we love to have parent volunteers for Sci Fri, but because we aren't starting volunteers until after Labor Day, we decided to kick off our science studies with this exciting experiment!


**I am really hoping to start word study, park trips and parent volunteers after Labor Day. Because our first week back to school after Labor Day is only 4 days and I will be out of town through Tuesday, we will most likely start all of that the second week after Labor Day. I am also hoping to have all assessments done by tomorrow. That would mean next week we could start pulling our small group math and reading groups!

Have a great weekend and please continue to encourage your child to get rest each night. There has been lots of yawning at afternoon carpool!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz