April 13th-20th

Welcome back! We have had a rainy week but a busy week as we jumped right back into our schedule on Monday. We started a new unit this week. Our last unit for the year! We had a field trip and we were picked on Monday to raise the three flags with Paw Paw. At school there is a CSD flag, a NC flag and of course the USA flag. Our field trip to see the organ was neat. We learned the three main pieces to an organ are the air, pipes and keys. We got to hear several songs and even a few skits!

Thematic Unit:
We finally caught everyone up with their art gallery artwork and we are ready to move on to author's. This is our last unit for the year! We will study 3 authors total. We started off with Ezra Keats. We read several books by him and rotated through four centers.

1. Read Snowy Day and answer (with a teacher) comprehension questions and discuss setting, characters, plot etc.
2. Read A Letter to Amy and write a letter to someone special. If families can mail these if they need to be mailed, that would be awesome! We also discussed different "rules" for writing letters. How do letters begin and end? What is an indention when writing a letter? How do you address an envelope?
3. Read Peter's Chair and re-create one of the scenes from the story using paper and other supplies from the "junk box." These came out so neat and we decided to hang them in the classroom. They look like Ezra Keats did them himself!
4. Create a Mister Big Face puppet from Hi Cat and write what the character did in the story.


Math Workshop:

This week we are still studying fractions. We reviewed rules for dividing into halves and fourths. We also used new manipulatives called "c-rods." We figured out how to divide certain rods into halves, thirds and fourths. For a challenge some students worked on fifths and beyond. It was neat! We learned the terms numerator and denominator for fun and added those words to our fraction vocabulary. Even though thirds is not on our report card, we also added this in because of so many wonderful conversations that were being held during our math talk. We even discovered 4/4 is the same as one whole! We had the same tubs as last week and we started pulling small math groups to review subtraction and addition, geometry, time and other math concepts we have covered this year.

Reader's Workshop:

We are still working on bare books! We have moved on from the dash facts and we are writing "meaty" stories, non fiction pieces, poems and more. The editing process takes a while but has created so many wonderful conversations. Punctuation and capitalization are coming more naturally as we are writing so much each day. We are also still reading our leveled stories and working on comprehension as well as reading strategies. We are working on handwriting daily and everyone's letter formation has dramatically imporved.

We also read many Ezra Keats books that we were able to compare and contrast. We looked at Hi Cat and The Snowy Day and discussed characters, setting, plot, solution and problem. We also loved looking at Ezra's wonderful illustrations that were made using all different textures and art supplies.

Poem in Your Pocket Day: April 30th We will be celebrating this at school! Please allow your child to carry a poem in their pocket on this day. It can be handwritten, copied, typed etc. It can be a new one, a memorized one or an old favorite. Short or long...it does not matter! We just want to celebrate the beauty of poetry!

**Please practice play lines!!! This is so important. It is such a busy time, but we want everyone to feel confident with their lines. :)

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

Dates to remember!

April 30th: Artist Play (in the gym) combined with the gallery crawl (in our classroom afterward)
        Hopefully we will get lines out ASAP.
May 5th: Our last visit to the Laurel's Nursing Home
May 12th: We will be going on a field trip to Hiddenite for gym mining!
June 2nd: End of Year Party (in our classroom)

March 23-27

Lots of important dates. I am giving out dates for the rest of the year. Ahhhh!

April 14th: Field Trip to Davidson United Methodist Church for an organ demonstration

April 30th: Artist Play (in the gym) combined with the gallery crawl (in our classroom afterward)
        Hopefully we will get lines out ASAP.

May 5th: Our last visit to the Laurel's Nursing Home

May 12th: We will be going on a field trip to Hiddenite for gym mining!

June 2nd: End of Year Party (in our classroom)

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Picasso. He painted using rose colors and blue colors. He also started practicing art at the age of 12! His paintings like the one above were very interesting and not symmetrical at all. We rotated through 4 centers.

1.  Illustrate How to Find a Picasso

2. Roll a dice and draw a Picasso styled face...by using the dice, it will tell you which piece of the face you draw next.

3. Use a step by step drawing guide to illustrate your own style of a Picasso self portrait. 

4. Paint a picture about a time you were sad using different shades of blue. This represents Picasso's blue period where he painted many sad things.

Reader's Workshop:

We have been working in our handwriting books each day! Everyone received their leveled book to work on reading goals and each child worked very hard on their passion project as well. This week we discussed how to take dash facts and turn them into sentences. This is a lot harder than it sounds! We also discussed editing and how it does not mean your writing is not good, it simply means we are making it even better! We are adding capitol letters, punctuation, making complete sentences etc. We are still reviewing the different types of writing that children can do (poems, non fiction, fiction, how to etc.) and using it for passion projects and just for fun.

Phonogram review this week: ou (has 4 sounds like in the words our, fourth, tour and famous), aw (like in the word saw), au (like in the word saucer), s has 2 sounds (like in the words sent and as), ow has 2 sounds (like in the words snow and ow), a has 3 sounds (like in the words bat, make and wasp), ch has 3 sounds (like in the words child, character and chef), ea has 3 sounds (like in the words beat, bread and break), and ay has 1 sound (like in the word say).

Math Workshop:

This week we learned a new game called Space Bingo. There are 3 steps to this game.

1. Roll two dice numbered 7-12.

2. Add the 2 numbers and record in equation format.

3. Take the sum of the two numbers and place a marker on your BINGO board if you have that number on your board. The first person to get 5 in a row wins. 

*For children who needed a challenge we used higher numbers and we also had them do subtraction and addition.

We also started learning about fractions. We learned about whole, half, fourths and quarters. We just introduced this and started using this vocabulary. We will dive deeper into this next week!

**We are now starting to type all the bare books and we would love if it we could get parent volunteers every day for recess. If one parent volunteers everyday, Mrs. Skaggs can stay in and type away and the parent volunteer can come out with Mrs. Schultz. That would be a huge help!

Have a great week and weekend!

Hugs, 

Mrs. Schultz

March 16th-March 20th

Lots of important dates. I am giving out dates for the rest of the year. Ahhhh!

March 24th: We will be traveling to the high school again this year to see the 5th grade Opera.

April 14th: Field Trip to Davidson United Methodist Church for an organ demonstration

April 30th: Artist Play (in the gym) combined with the gallery crawl (in our classroom afterward)
        Hopefully we will get lines out next week!

May 5th: Our last visit to the Laurel's Nursing Home

May 12th: We will be going on a field trip to Hiddenite for gym mining!

June 2nd: End of Year Party (in our classroom)

What a week we have had! The leprechaun came and DESTROYED our classroom. He left gold coins, glitter and paint on everything. Math night was so fun. Thanks to everyone who came!

Math Workshop:

This week we kept the same tubs as last week. We are still reviewing time and place value. For children who have master the tens and ones place, we have moved on to the hundreds place. We are working on building numbers with the base ten blocks (tens and ones) and also looking at the number already built and stating what number it is. Everyone is really doing well with place value so far. Examples of questions we have been asking...

1. How many tens and how many ones in the number 26? How do you know?
2. Can you build the number 49 using base ten blocks?
3. Which number is bigger, 32 or 23? Why?
4. Looking at this number that is already built with base ten blocks, what number is it? How do you know?

Reader's Workshop:

This week we have really spent our time and energy working on passion projects. We have been sitting down with each child to create dash facts about their topic. Once we got quick facts down, we brainstormed about different things they could do. We discussed couplet poems, acrostic poems, non fiction writing pieces, fiction stories about the topic, labeling a picture, a list of rules (for sports, playing minecraft etc.) Each child needs 10 things to put in their passion project so we need to get busy! If you still have not sent in your supplies, please do so quickly! Once we get everyone started, we should be good to go as far as the writing pieces. It is getting everyone started that's taking a little while! We were able to get through all leveled books with everyone but we decided not to do word sorts.

Word study phonogram rules are actually the same as last week! The words this week are: bacon, live/live (with the i making different sounds), alive, heat, box, three, if, stand, come and wing.

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Degas. We learned that he really enjoyed painting dancers, especially ballerinas! We rotated through 4 main centers:
1. Sculpt a ballerina out of pipe cleaners and tin foil. These are turning out really neat!
2. Make a dancer out of construction paper. These are hanging and they are turning out so cool!
3. Degas word search
4. Illustrate the book "How to spot a Degas."

Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

March 9th-13th

Hello families! What a beautiful week we have had. We have been rushing to get to recess each day as the energy is through the roof with all this pretty weather. ;)

Several Announcements:

-Scholastic orders due tomorrow! Remember that everything is done online now.
-Hot lunch session four orders are due MARCH 17TH!
-Bring your leprechaun traps next week on Saint Patrick's Day! Hope we catch him this year.
-Bare Book passion project materials are due tomorrow! I know there is a lot going on, so do your best but please do not worry if it is not 100% together by tomorrow morning.
-Math Night March 18th...please come join us! Math is one of our favorite times of the day so we would love for you to come see how it's done.
-Mark your calendars for April 30th. We will be having a performance that day! Time TBD. The first grade team is still working out all the kinks for details, but just know this is the date. The time will most likely be 11:00, but stay tuned!

Thematic Centers:

We have been finishing Renoir as there are several kids who are still working on their projects but we have also started studying Matisse. These artists are too cool! Matisse has some beautiful pieces. We also learned that he met Picasso! We cannot wait for everyone to come in and see all of our artwork. Sorry to make you wait! We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Create a replica of Matisse's famous Goldfish painting. We used plastic wrap to help create the illusion of a fish bowl.
2. Create a flower vase using paint, tissue paper and regular paper for the background if you choose. Make sure to divide your paper into the floor and ceiling and use different patterns on the left side of the paper and the right. Just as Matisse often did!
3. Create your own version of the "Dancing Ladies" painting using the template that is given to you.
4. Complete a Matisse word search learning about different vocabulary words related to Matisse!

Reader's Workshop:

We have been learning about non fiction text and different features of this type of reading and writing. We have compared and contrasted non fiction versus fiction, practiced labeling Mrs. Schultz and we even read a non fiction book and got to sticky note the important facts. We are really enjoying learning about the many features non fiction books offer! We will also continue this next week. We are working on handwriting without tears books each day as well! Our letter formations and pencil grips continue to improve.

Our word study words this week are: ask, let, then, gas, read, for, yes, door, now and lot. Word study phonogram review and rules are: ea has three sounds (like in the word beat, bread, break), ing has one sound (like in the word sing), oo has two sounds (like in the word food and book), ow has two sounds (like in the word plow and snow), or has one sound (like in the word torn), the has two sounds (th unvoiced like in the word think and th voiced like in the word than), o has four sounds (like in the words got, go, to, love), ou has four sounds (like in the words our, fourth, tour and famous) and ee has one sound (like in the word tree).

We have really been more conscious of working in our day books too! We have been gluing fun songs and poems in each day so that we have a neat collection at the end of the year.

Math Workshop:

We have been reviewing time to the hour and half hour. We also started working with place value. Right now we are working with tens and ones. For children that need a challenge we have been working with the hundreds place and thousands place. We played three new games this week. We played a place value matching game where you matched the number to the base ten blocks. We also played Star War. You draw two numbers and arrange them to make the biggest number. The person with the highest number gets to keep all four cards. The winner ends up with the entire deck! We also played a place value adding game where you were adding tens and ones that were in the shapes of marshmallows. Yum!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

March 2-6

Hello families!

We have two pictures above. The top picture is in front of our play background and the bottom is of everyone wearing their scarves they made. We finally got those finished!

We finally had a "normal week." Yahoo!

We said goodbye to the heroes unit and hello to our artist unit.

Thematic Centers:

**We have an art gallery coming up (date and time TBA) so we will be keeping most of the artwork that we make here. This week we will have made 3 pieces of art and we are keeping all of them here to display. Do not be alarmed if centers are not coming home. :)

We are studying Renior. We learned that he first started out by painting porcelain plates. He also enjoyed using pastel colors when painting people at parties and having fun conversation. We rotated through 4 centers:
1. Illustrate your "How to Spot a Renior" book
2. Paint a paper plate in the style of Renior
3. Water color pencil paint a famous Renior painting of people having a fun conversation and add speech bubbles
4. Water color paint a picture of a watering can and flowers from his famous "Girl with the Watering Can" picture.

Readers Workshop:

This week we worked on making inferences while we were reading. Inferences are made when you use what you already know to make a guess about something that is happening. It was really cool when we read a book without words because we had to infer what was happening. WE made a chart of what we could infer versus what we already knew. We also worked on our handwriting without tears lessons. Thanks to Ms. Courtney for helping us get those done! ;) We are really noticing a big difference in pencil grip and letter formation. We were able to each get a leveled book and finish a word sort. Word study words this week are: bread, child, star, day, wall, milk, hair, shot, floor and land.

We reviewed these phonograms. These are great to review at home! ee, c, ea, ng, ar, ay, ai and oo.

Math Workshop:

This week we reviewed 10 more and 10 less as well as addition and subtraction. We also officially introduced time to the hour and half hour. We learned how to write time in the digital form and how it compares to the regular ole clock. Everyone is doing really well with this! We played 3 new time games and were pulled for teacher table to perfect our skills. We played a matching time game. You had to match the digital clock to the regular clock. We also played a different matching game where you had to match a story problem to the clock. Then you had to put everything in order. FInally we played a game where it gives you a blank clock and you race your friend to add the arrows onto that clock after drawing a card that gives you a time. It is so hard to explain some of these games, so if you ever do not understand one come in for a better explanation!

I apologize for not sending out a sign up genius for this week. It completely slipped my mind! We will get back to volunteers next week. Oopsies!

**Please remember to wear tennis shoes! We really do not want anyone getting hurt and we all want to follow the school rules. Thanks for your help with this!

Have a great week and weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

February 23rd-27th

Hello and happy snow day!

"Mr. Jack" and I have been enjoying our first snow in our new house. I hope all of you have been having fun enjoying the weather.

I want to thank everyone for coming to the play yesterday. It was truly magical! After everyone left, we had a reflection and the kids talked about how much they learned and about all the fun they had. Thank you for taking the time to practice their lines and for supporting them yesterday.

Math:

This week we really focussed on perfecting the play but we also had a few lessons squeezed in the short time. For math, we learned about adding 10 more to a number and also learned about subtracting 10 less from a number. We used the hundreds chart at first and then we did this mentally. We had touched on this before but really worked on it this week. For children who needed a challenge we asked them to add 20, 30 and 40 more mentally. We had the same math tubs as last week.

Reading and Writing:

For reading, we got through a few kids with leveled books and we got out 10 new word study words. We did not get through our word sorts. Hopefully we will have a "normal" week next week and we will be able to do this. For writing, we learned about comics! Ms. Leslie gave us some really neat templates for writing comics and making speech bubbles. A huge hit! We also wrote thank you letters to military personal and gave them to the middle school practicum who is doing this as a service project. We edited these letters closely making sure to have site words spelled correctly, appropriate punctuation and capitalization. 

Thematic Centers:

This week we learned a lot about Eleanor Roosevelt. She had a heart of gold and was always thinking about others. We rotated through 4 things:

1. Make your new sew scarf to donate to a homeless shelter.

2. Pick up trash around the school with gloves and a trash bag.

3. Illustrate an Eleanor fact book.

4. Write and illustrate "I can _______ to make the world a better place. 

We also started brain storming for our bare books. This year we are doing something really neat with our bare books and we need your help! Please see the important letter in my email and pay close attention to the date we are asking that you have your items in. We really need to make sure everything is labeled as well!

Hugs,

Mrs. Schultz

February 2nd-6th

Hello!

There are lots of announcements so grab your calendar!

1. Winterfest is this Friday and should be lots of fun. We do this at school and parents do not need to come! :) Sorry for the miscommunication!
2. Play is February 19th at 11:00 in our classroom.
3. Our valentine's party is February 11th at 1:45. Come and join us if you can!
4. Please remember to send in your fleece fabric as we are making scarves soon.
5. This Friday is spirit Friday! Wear your spartans apparel and show your pride.

Thematic Centers:

This week we finished studying Helen Keller and started the Wright Brothers. We learned they were the first to have a successful flight! We rotated through 4 centers:
1. Make a candy airplane and write where you would like to fly to and why.
2. Illustrate the Wright Brothers' fact book.
3. Make a paper airplane and measure the flight distance.
4. Label the parts of an airplane.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we have been working on making connections to the stories we are reading. We worked on making text to self connections and text to text connections. A text to self connection would be: "I can relate to this story because I have a dog at home too!" A text to text connection would be: "This part of the book reminds me of the Eric Carle book we read last week. This book has a butterfly just like that book did."

For hundreds day, we also worked on a poem. This month's writing theme is "authors as mentors." We chose to start by studying Eric Carle as he has beautiful illustrations. Many children have chosen to write just like him this week!

Word study words this week are: fun, trade, robe, wash, baby, ring, kiss, toy, like and will
*Please do not forget to review the older words at home frequently as well. This really helps with reading and writing! We review a little here at school as well but as you go over your new words each week, it would be helpful to do a review of older words.

Math Workshop:

We played two new games this week and we loved them.
1. Out of this world: Draw a star card and place it in the middle. Use the hundreds chart to write the number above, below, to the left and to the right on the hundreds chard. Race against your partner or play on your own. This is getting us more comfortable working with the higher numbers.

2. Fact Families in Outer Space: Pull a card with three numbers and complete the 4 fact families as quickly as you can by yourself or with a partner. These are just like last week but you get to use a visa vi marker and a cool game-board!

These two games work on addition, subtraction and numbers up to 100. We also started working with time. Half hour and hour only! We are talking about this right before math starts and during morning meeting. If you want to talk about this at home, that would help us greatly! We discussed the short hand, the long hand and minutes versus hours this week.

Short week next week as we have conferences! No school Thursday or Friday.

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz