Dear Families,
If you are like me, you can probably remember exactly where you were and what you were doing ten years ago when you heard the disturbing news of what happened on 9/11. Despite the tragedy that day was for our country, in tribute this year on the 10th anniversary I would like our class to participate in the 9/11 Day of Service.
This September 11th, please join millions of others who are taking the time to adopt a charity, volunteer, donate, or engage in other charitable service work to help those most in need. It’s completely up to you to decide whom you’ll support and what you’ll do. This can be a great way to help your child learn at a young age that serving others is much more important that only serving ourselves.
Here are three simple ways to get involved:
1. Visit 911day.org and adopt a cause or charity for the day, or post a good deed that your family or child plans to perform in observance of 9/11.
2. Create a volunteer or charity service project with your family. There are literally thousands of things you can all do together, and a service project is a great way to teach your children about the importance of setting aside time to help others in your community. You can:
✩ Clean up a neighborhood playground, beach, or park
✩ Volunteer at an animal shelter
✩ Donate books and toys to a shelter
✩ Create homemade gifts for the residents at a retirement home
✩ Collect sports equipment donations for a youth group
✩ Volunteer at a food pantry
3. Contact local community organizations, schools, and faith-based groups to see if they have any service plans for 9/11. Then you and your family can volunteer to help.
On Monday, I would love for the students to share what type of service they did with the class. You may even want to make a poster or take pictures that your child can show the other students. I can’t wait to hear the creative ideas your families come up with. We would also like for all the students to show their patriotism on Monday by wearing red, white, and blue shirts to school.
If you are unsure how to talk to your child about the events of September 11th there is a wonderful video available at http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/september11th/ that talks about the events of that day in a way that is appropriate for children. Many of the children know that this day is important in our history but don’t understand why, and this video is a great way to teach them about the events of 9/11 nonthreatening way. I hope we can come together as a class to help rekindle the spirit of service and unity shared by so many of us immediately following 9/11.
Sincerely,
Miss Ellis
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Special Persons Day
Next Friday the 9th of September we will have our anual Special Persons Day. Each child is aloud to invite a special person or two into the classroom to take part in some small activities and book reading. This will take place close to our classroom lunch time and our guests are invited to stay for lunch as well. With all of the extra people staying for lunch our lunch times will be extended so that everyone can get through the line and have time to eat. Due to the changes in lunch times for the school I anticipate that I will have an exact time that the festivities will start in the classroom on Tuesday. I will post that time here on the blog as well as send it home in your child's yellow School-Home Folders. We look forward to having all our the special people in our lives share this time with us at school.
Common Sense
I am very pleased with how well week 2 went!
We finished our first reading unit where we studied plot structure: beginning, middle, and end, as well as characters and settings within the stories we read. First graders practiced their phonics skills with words that all had the short /a/ sound that you hear in the word man. Second graders practiced short /a/ and /i/ found in words like hit and bat. We also focused on becoming better readers by reading to ourselves and listening to books on CD every day. Next week we will continue our reading study, practicing the skill of retelling events in order.
In math we used hands on manipulatives to deepen our understanding of plane shapes and 3-D solid figures. Students also practiced paper pencil skills to show knowledge of shape names, vertices (points), angles, faces and edges. Next week we will review shapes and move into a study of spatial sense.
We all use our 5 senses every single day to observe the world around us. In science class we spent time exploring our sense of sight using scientific tools like hand-lenses and microscopes to increase our ability to see. We used cup-telephones, whisper-phones and head-phones to explore our sense of hearing. At the end of the week we all took part in a smell experiment to see which liquid we might prefer to drink. All the while we used our Science Journal to record what we learned in class. Next week we will finish up our study of the 5 senses with a look into our sense of touch and tase.
In social studies we learned about communities, cultures, families and traditions. We discussed the thing we do in our families and communities over and over again as well as some other cultural aspects like food and holidays we celebrate due to the vast varieties of cultures we have in the United States. Next week we will look more carefully at our Nation and some of the Symbols that represent our country.
As a final note I would like to share that at our Health Screening on Tuesday our 1-2 Enrichment class was told we were the most well behaved class that participated. Due to this achievement Mrs. Conrad gave each student and myself a Panther Paw. With this and other times we were caught doing what was right by other staff members we earned 22 Panther Paws total in the first two week. I am so proud of the good behavior demonstrated thus far!
We finished our first reading unit where we studied plot structure: beginning, middle, and end, as well as characters and settings within the stories we read. First graders practiced their phonics skills with words that all had the short /a/ sound that you hear in the word man. Second graders practiced short /a/ and /i/ found in words like hit and bat. We also focused on becoming better readers by reading to ourselves and listening to books on CD every day. Next week we will continue our reading study, practicing the skill of retelling events in order.
In math we used hands on manipulatives to deepen our understanding of plane shapes and 3-D solid figures. Students also practiced paper pencil skills to show knowledge of shape names, vertices (points), angles, faces and edges. Next week we will review shapes and move into a study of spatial sense.
We all use our 5 senses every single day to observe the world around us. In science class we spent time exploring our sense of sight using scientific tools like hand-lenses and microscopes to increase our ability to see. We used cup-telephones, whisper-phones and head-phones to explore our sense of hearing. At the end of the week we all took part in a smell experiment to see which liquid we might prefer to drink. All the while we used our Science Journal to record what we learned in class. Next week we will finish up our study of the 5 senses with a look into our sense of touch and tase.
In social studies we learned about communities, cultures, families and traditions. We discussed the thing we do in our families and communities over and over again as well as some other cultural aspects like food and holidays we celebrate due to the vast varieties of cultures we have in the United States. Next week we will look more carefully at our Nation and some of the Symbols that represent our country.
As a final note I would like to share that at our Health Screening on Tuesday our 1-2 Enrichment class was told we were the most well behaved class that participated. Due to this achievement Mrs. Conrad gave each student and myself a Panther Paw. With this and other times we were caught doing what was right by other staff members we earned 22 Panther Paws total in the first two week. I am so proud of the good behavior demonstrated thus far!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
A New Year and A New Class!
Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year!
We are excited for a new year of learning and growing in our brand-new 1-2 Enrichment class. The first week of school we focused on learning the rules and procedures of the classroom as well as some review of last years curriculum. This week we are gearing up and starting our in-depth curriculum studies for the year.
Come back often to see more of what we are doing in our class!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Earth Day Update
What a fun few weeks! In science and social studies we have learned about our Earth's surface, how it changes and then moved into what natural resources Mother Earth provides for us. We learned about renewable and non-renewable resources, fossile fules and about the 3 R's: reduce, reuse and recycle. In class student's collaborated together in small groups to come up with ideas and ways to conserve resources and energy both at home and at school and then presented their ideas to their classmates. To culminate this unit students and their families worked together to create their own recycling project. They were aloud to use any thing that they would regularly throw away and create something brand new. Creativity and imaginations ran wild with projects that ranged from collage art to musical instruments, clothing and accessories to bird feeders and robots.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
This is how we communicate!
Over the past few weeks we have done many things.
In Social Studies this past week we learned all about how we can communicate. "Lots of years ago people couldn't have telephones so they could write a letter." said CL. "A long time ago people used smoke signals." said SZ. "A long time ago when people didn't know how to talk they used sign language." said MS. People who are unable to use their voices and talk now a days still use sign language. KJS reminded all of us that people who do not have enough time to write and send a letter can type an email. Our class even learned about how to communicate with a blog and as you can see, they helped to write this blog post.
In math class both Kindergarten and 1st grade finished learning about probability. MH said, "In math class we put X's next to things that were certain or impossible." "We spun the spinner." said CL. We also found out when events were more likely or less likely to happen. After we finished our probability chapter our 1st grade students started their very last 1st grade chapter on adding and subtracting using 2-digit numbers. Kindergarten started their in-depth unit on adding and subtracting 1-digit numbers.
This past week in Reading we focused our study around inventions. Our reading skills were questioning and identifying cause and effect. We continue to use questioning strategies as we read and are practicing how we can take what the author tells us and what we already know to make an inference.
In Social Studies this past week we learned all about how we can communicate. "Lots of years ago people couldn't have telephones so they could write a letter." said CL. "A long time ago people used smoke signals." said SZ. "A long time ago when people didn't know how to talk they used sign language." said MS. People who are unable to use their voices and talk now a days still use sign language. KJS reminded all of us that people who do not have enough time to write and send a letter can type an email. Our class even learned about how to communicate with a blog and as you can see, they helped to write this blog post.
In math class both Kindergarten and 1st grade finished learning about probability. MH said, "In math class we put X's next to things that were certain or impossible." "We spun the spinner." said CL. We also found out when events were more likely or less likely to happen. After we finished our probability chapter our 1st grade students started their very last 1st grade chapter on adding and subtracting using 2-digit numbers. Kindergarten started their in-depth unit on adding and subtracting 1-digit numbers.
This past week in Reading we focused our study around inventions. Our reading skills were questioning and identifying cause and effect. We continue to use questioning strategies as we read and are practicing how we can take what the author tells us and what we already know to make an inference.
In science we finished a plant unit where we explored plant life around our school and cultivated it in our classroom. We took a school yard plant walk where we collected different leafs and then made leaf rubbings and compared the shape, size and texture of leafs. We also took a non-living scoring pad added some grass seed on top and watered to create our own four-leaf-clover patched size of grass. Our plant study ended by learning all about the different parts of the plant and their function. Currently in science we are studying our Earth's surface and the changes that take place on the surface. Here is a free brainpopjr that tells about quick changes that you may want to check out.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Getting Ready to Travel
I would like to start out with a reminder that Samsula's Spring Break will begin for Students at the end of the school day Thursday. Friday is a Teacher Work Day. I hope everyone will enjoy their breaks and return rested and ready to learn!
In Social Studies we are going to learn about all of the different means of travel we have today. As well as the evolution travel has made over time. Today is a fast paced world and we travel quickly, too. This week students will compare and contrast early travel to the travel of today.
In Mathematics on Friday we began to look at the concepts of factions -- breaking a whole into equal parts. Over this next week we will spend time with both Kindergarten and 1st grade learning about halves (1/2 one out of 2), quarters (1/4 one out of four) and thirds (1/3 one out of three). This is going to be a fun concept with a lot of hands-on activities as well as paper and pencil to reinforce.
The time has arrived! Next week our Kindergarten students will begin studying the 1st grade unit 1 reading curriculum. Kindergarten will be reading Pam and Sam in class and will use this story to build upon their knowledge of characters and setting. We will still continue our short /i/ word family study. First grade is moving on up through the curriculum as well and has received their last reading anthology book that will take us through the last two units. This next week 1st graders will be reading Olivia in class. As we read this story and others we will learn about fantasy and reality. 1st grade's phonics and spelling is based on the long /o/ sound spelled o, oa, ow. Spelling words related to phonics are: boat, coat, go, low, now and row. High frequency words to know are: mother, father, try, always, love, firm and supposed.
In Language Arts we will continue our Writer's Workshop and have more mini-lessons on this month's writing theme -- poetry. Last week we were introduced to the idea of writing poetry and learned about many types of poems. We practiced writing acrostic poems. This week we will take a better look at "shape" or concrete poems. Below is a Kindergarten example of presenting writing during our bi-monthly Author's Day.
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