HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 Declan and Cullen at our holiday breakfast

 Brendan sporting his Santa hat and thinking about eating that cookie!

 Carter's big smile for the camera

 These kiddos love to read!

 All dressed up for the holiday concert!

 SANTA!

Candy Cane Science

Which liquid will dissolve a candy cane the fastest?

First, the second graders made some predictions about which liquid (cool water, warm water or vinegar) would dissolve the candy cane the fastest. Then they tested out their predictions. Ask them what they learned. It was so much fun to watch them be so excited and engaged during this experiment!

Random Acts of Kindness

We have been talking about the importance of random acts of kindness, especially during a month when giving is often focused on material items. We've learned that just giving someone a smile or letting someone know that you appreciate them can really make someone's day. I was very proud of how thoughtful the second graders were today when they were creating their letters to let someone know that they're appreciated.

There's Always Room for One More

This is what it often looks like during reading time. On this particular day, I walked by and heard one of the second graders say to another,  "Come on in, there's always room for one more." It doesn't get much sweeter than that. Also, just look at that reading engagement!

"I'm The Greatest"

Gavin, Brendan and Rowan play a game of, "I'm the Greatest". The object of the game is to make the largest sum you can with 2 two-digit numbers. They had a great time adding up all of their sums with the calculator once they were done.

XtraMath and iPad Fun

The second graders had so much fun using the iPads to learn how to log into XtraMath today. They were very engaged. I hope that they get lots of fact practice at home with XtraMath too!

Salute!

Today we learned the math game, Salute! This game allows practice for addition by solving for a missing addend. In this game, one student is the dealer. The dealer gives one card to each of the other two players. Those two players hold their cards on their heads with the number facing out. The dealer looks at the two cards and says the sum of the two numbers. Each player looks at the other player's card. They use the number they see and the sum said by the dealer to figure out what their number must be. Then they rotate roles and repeat the game. This would be a fun game to play at home!

Book Shopping

Once per week we trade out the books in our personal book boxes and "shop" for our new books for the week. It's always exciting to get some fresh reading material into our hands. This week I encouraged our readers to fill their boxes with mostly fiction so that we can practice some expression and fluency.

Above: Brendan and Ryan practice their fluency and expression during partner reading time.

Fairy Liv is helping Ms. Cindy review the important facts that we learned about dental hygiene.

Addie's Day in First Grade

Addie was our leader today. She wanted to share a few things about our day together.

"Today in first grade we went to Music. We got to see ourselves in our musical, Swamped. At recess, Amyaya and I  played on the swings together. We worked on telling time to the half hour, we played Penny, Dime, Dolllar Exchange and we worked on a page in our math journals. Henry was my  partner for the math game. Mrs. Serrecchia read a book about bubbles. We learned that you can make a bubble big enough to step inside. I brought Mrs. Serrecchia some flowers in the morning. We read Knuffle Bunny Too together and then we started learning about how to write book reviews."

What Did You Do At School Today?

So often when parents ask, "What did you do at school today?" The response is, "Nothing". Sometimes it helps to ask specific questions such as:
What books did you read at reading time?
Did Mrs. Serrecchia read any books today? If so, what did she read? What was it about?
What did you do during math?
What are you writing about?
Who did you play with at recess?
What did you do at Music? Art? P. E.? Computer Lab? Library?

Specific questions will often elicit more response.

Each day in our classroom one child is the leader. That child gets to take the lunch count to the office, run errands, lead the line, etc. I have decided to add a job to the leader's responsibilities. On days that we have time, the leader will help to craft a summary of our day from their perspective. 

 Here's what Cayla had to say today:

"We went to gym with Mrs. Spivack's class. We played with Gary the Clown. He showed us how to do the ring toss. We had reading time.  I read Honey for Baby Bear. We talked about how readers think and talk about the books that they are reading. We read The Three Questions by John Muth. We practiced telling time during math time. We rehearsed for our play with Mrs. Lazenby. I played with Liv on the bars at recess."

March Madness

We weren't following basketball in our classroom during month of March, but it sure seemed like a crazy month!  We had a little spring, a little winter, St. Patrick's Day, a quick visit from the Easter Bunny, a celebration for winning the Golden Trash Can Award and a whole lot of learning.

Henry and Wyatt enjoying a spring-like day

Simon's just hanging around

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring snow is perfect for building a snowman at recess

They won the Golden Trash Can for taking such good care of our classroom!

A surprise visit from the Easter Bunny!

I think Liv might be a future teacher. She loves reading to friends while they wait for the bus.

Cayla and Addie doing some partner-reading work

Aiyana is listening carefully to Henry read