Monday...

Six Flags Read To Succeed....
Just a reminder that your reading logs are due by Feb. 22, 2013 if you are participating!  Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept late forms.click here  for a reading log!

Top Dog!
 It's Monday and we have a NEW Top Dog in the HOUSE!

Language Arts:

We are really getting into Nonfiction text both reading and writing it!
Today we looked through lots of nonfiction books that we have here in the classroom.  Here are some features we NOTICED...

• factual (no opinions please)
• real pictures
• diagrams 
• labels
• captions
• contents page (page number and title of section)
• dark words (important words you need to know)
• Glossary (a dictionary for dark words)

And then we gave nonfiction a go...UH OH!!! Some tried it...some did nothing...we even had some tears today! BUT no worries...tomorrow I am going to take these little pups on a guided tour of the writing process when it comes to non fiction.  HOMEWORK: with your pup tonight find a vegetable or fruit and really look at it...make sure your child is an EXPERT on that veggie or fruit! They will need that expertise tomorrow!

Math:

We are starting measurement.  We read Jack and the Beanstalk by Steven Kellog. Now this is kind of a "dark" version and it has an ogre instead of a giant...but I did some creative reading!

After reading I thought it would be fun to make a giant for our classroom...How does this fit with measurement you ask??? Well, I had one group make the giants left pant leg, one group the right pant leg...so you get it...NOT one group asked me how long it should be...or how wide or how big...they just got

 started!  

...and here is what we ended up with!  NOT bad I must say...but if you can see on that one leg...it was quite a bit LONGER than the other...and the one arm is a bit "thicker" than the other!  We came up with some good vocabulary as we discussed our GIANT...length, width and measurement! GREAT JOB PUPS

CLASSROOM NEWS:

We indeed did lose sweet Samantha to the cold north.  She is moving back to Michigan where she came from!  BUT at the same time we gained Miss Mariah, from the cold north of Ohio!  I will add pictures if and when I get the okay from her family! 

On that note...I did redo the valentine letter from homeroom moms.  I recopied...please don't forget 2.00 ASAP so they can get started buying party stuff! Class list is on the back.  Please make sure if your child does valentines he/she brings one for everyone in the class.  

Have a wonderful evening!

Wow! Thursday

I can't believe tomorrow will be Thursday!  These short weeks always get me out of sorts!

I thought you might like to see our morning in action!  Two buddies making sure they are ready for the day! Helping each other out!

Owen has something important to give to one of his classroom friends, Samantha.

Speaking of Samantha, she will be leaving us on Friday.  If anyone has their valentines ready and would like to send hers in...It might be a nice way to send her off! We are very sad to see her go!


Boosterthon Rewards: Last Friday we enjoyed a couple of our booserthon rewards...can you guess what they were? PJ Day, Popcorn Party (thank you Mrs. Sheppard for popping without much notice) and movie day.

We still have some rewards to collect...Extra Recess and ice cream party! We are looking forward to it!

Top Dog:

Charlie and Lola books...one of our favorite series right now!

We started our CBA #3 today.  This student has the right idea, using manipulative to help find and answer!

And a wonderful piece of writing today:
"A butterfly start like a cadupelr.  And then gos in to a cakoon. last but not lest the cakoon hatchis into a butaful umarrikin budrfli."

This piece has been peer edited however, revisions have not been made throughout yet! I love what is happening during our workshop time!

I felt my typing of the piece did not do it justice.  You needed to see the picture and the editing that these first graders are doing on their own!  You should see details that the editor thinks should be added, circled words for misspellings and words added for clarification!  Not only is the writing wonderful but we need to celebrate the editing as well!

Enjoy your evening!

What day is it???

Oh, my what a treat the three day weekend was...but I am glad to be back with the pups and back on some sort of schedule (no CogAT)!

We did try to squish Monday and Tuesday into our Spelling/Word Work today...Everyone should come home with their pre-test.

We read One Tiny Turtle to introduce nonfiction narratives.  We noticed that although there were a lot of facts in the book it was written as a story with a beginning, middle and end.

We then gave it a go on our own!  I love how these pups jump right in! 

 "One morning I woke up with a bright, big star shining in my window.  At lunch time when I played the sun goes straight overhead.  I skipped out to play with my sister without needing my coat.  At sunset my mom calls me to eat dinner.  The sky is getting dark black...and at bed time I got a chill."

"In the morning I woke up to go to school. I was so excited to go to safety town.  I got on my green t-shirt and my jeans.  I mad my lunch.  At school I went to safety town.  I go on the bus.  I saw my brother's school and my brother's Nadatoreon.  Safety town was not that far from the school.  We saw fire trucks.  We learned about safety.  Then we road the jeaps and I saw my dad."

In math we are reviewing problem solving, going over our shapes and how they are alike and different.  

Today's problem:

Owen has a large pizza with 12 slices.  He gives Eliette 2 slices, Aidan 2 slices and Samantha 2 slices.  How many slices of pizza does he have left?

And Science...we started living and non-living!  

Am I Living?

(tune: Are You Sleeping?)

Am I living, am I living?

Yes, I am, yes, I am.

I need food, air, water.

I can move and grow.

I do reproduce, I do have young.

Am I living, am I living?

No, I'm not, no, I'm not.

You don't have to feed me,

Air and water aren't needed.

I don't reproduce, I don't have young.

Catch up:

Top Dog: Show and Tell

School Song!



This week's Top Dog!

Let's enjoy this beautiful week!

Day 87...

and we are DONE with CogAT!

Tomorrow! Let Boosterthon rewards begin!!! PJs (yes slippers and robes are ok...but shoes and coats are a MUST), Stuffed Friends and Popcorn!

Top Dog...
Jack has quite the week... sorry I'm behind!

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday Lunch: (he's lucky...I didn't eat it!)

Jack's Daddy showed up as a SPECIAL treat!

Enjoy your evening! Tomorrow is FRIDAY!

84 days...

But LOOK what went on at Robertson over the weekend...The cub scouts had their Pinewood Derby!  It looks like Micah was here to cheer them on.

The rest of this week we will not be on our normal schedule. We will be taking our CogAT's in the morning 8:30. Please make sure your little one gets a good nights rest and has a good breakfast. Then we will do a little math to finish out our morning. The afternoon will be focused on literacy!

Today we took care of some business...We took our middle of the year TEMI (math assessment), we took our spelling pre-test (we have some studying to do this week) and we had the store. A lot of buying going on today...but then again the behavior in this room is UH-Mazing!!

Spelling our "chunks" this week are long e (ea) and the st blend. We found the blend at the beginning and end of some of our words!

Jack can now say he has been promoted to TOP Dog Status!

This morning we heard from some more pups and their response journals!

This week we will be talking about VOICE in our writing!  Today and tomorrow we are focused on identifying our audience.  We will be writing messages to specific people.  When you are reading different things at home talk to your pup about who the audience is for that specific piece of writing...Using different genres (recipes, letters, emails, work publications etc). Identifying an audience can be hard for  little ones!

I have a couple of videos to put up...but of course my technology is not cooperating.

Thank you...

For being patient... here is the homework for this month!  I will send Math sheets home as soon as I get them!

Please see homework tab for more on problem solving!  I have added some 4 step problem solving information (UPS check). Let me know if you have questions!

1 more week...

closer to the end of this school year! That is not possible...

Top Dog:
"Will you play another one?"
"I want to learn to play that!"
"That was AWESOME!"

I'm sad (once again...)I did not hit record during the first song! Thank goodness Eliette was willing to play a second one!

And then...the pups demanded even MORE!!! Little Sister joined in this time!

Thank you so much for being a wonderful Top Dog this week and every week...and sharing your talent with us!

Today was 50's day!  HEEEEEYYYYYYY!

These are some pretty cool pups...I mean Cats!

Round Up...
Hippest in the House for Self-Discipline

Congratulations Savannah and Darrin! You both know how to set goals and make sure the happen!

Some Round Up fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Next week (Tu, Wed, Th)  is cogAT...information was in your child's folder yesterday! Make sure your pup gets lots of rest and eats a good breakfast! He/she needs to be here on time! We will start at 8:30am!

ZOOOMMMMM...

where has the week gone?

Don't forget...

• spelling test -ay/-ing, for, that, their, as
• library books (most were turned in before break)
• Robertson Round up tomorrow 2:10
• next week we will be taking the cogAT standardized testing (T, W, Th) 8:30-10:00
• middle of year literacy and math assessments are taking place now

Top Dog:

Eliette had a yummy chicken nugget lunch today with her Mom~

Language Arts

Today we shared from our Reading Response Journals at the end of readers workshop.

We also recorded our mental images of Green Giant by Jack Prelutsky. (both before reading and after)

So...everyone make a mental image right now of a Green Giant....Got it in your head? Okay, good!

Now here's the poem.

Green Giant

by Jack Prelutsky

There lived a green giant whose name was Sam.

His hair was the color of strawberry jam.

He had one brown and one blue eye.

And a beard the color of pumpkin pie.

His coat and pants were oh so bright, 

Like a peppermint stick all red and white.

His socks were as yellow as a lemon pop.

His shoes were as brown as a chocolate drop.

His hat was the color of gingerbread,

with a tall, tall feather of raspberry red.

So...did your mental image change as you red the poem! I hope so!

Math:

I took a great video of the pups making groups of 10s and some even having to groups 10 groups of 10 together and them explaining how they got their numbers and expanded notation and...well...come to find out I hadn't hit record! UGGG so just go ahead and create an UH-Mazing mental image of the pups working diligently on their desks creating numbers 50-150 using beans!  

I will get myself back together...I promise!

Have a wonderful evening!

81 days of...

Uh-MAZING times.  I can't believe we have under 100 days of school left...

TOP DOG

We can tell just how special this little Top "frog" is!!!


Lanuage Arts:
We are practicing peer editing for spaces, very best handwriting, punctuation and capital letters...We are practicing doing our editing in a friendly way so feelings are not hurt!  I can't wait to video some of these editing conferences!  I want the pups to feel a bit more comfortable though before I put it out there for you all to see!  You will not be disappointed!
Feel free to have your little one edit your writing at home! (You may want to slip in some mistakes for them to find!)

We are also, revisiting mental images.  Today we talked about chapter books! (We ALL want to read them! Ready or Not!!)  We noticed that most chapter books have little or no pictures.  YIKES...we use our pictures to help us understand (comprehend) what our story is all about.  I thought everyone would fall apart...NOPE...not this group!  Jack says, "Well, we just have to visualize!" What are you kidding me...where did these kids come from? Another pup, "...and that means to make mental images." WOW  I love this job more than I can ever tell you! We continued to talk and decided that our mental images NEED to change throughout the story.  "It's kind of like making a movie in your head as you read!" I LOVE THEM!!!

Math:

We are working hard on number sense/place value to 150!  We are practicing using our 100's chart and finding patterns. We know that each row is 10 and if we know one number we can fill in boxes beside it (+/- 1)  or on top/bottom of it (+/- 10).  We are having fun playing place value bingo as well!

Picture time!

Everyone wanted a picture with Mr. Snow!  

Mr. Handsome! He is very proud of his haircut!  

YEEHAW!  A girl and her BOOTS!

Have a wonderful evening...I know we need the rain...but we are ready for MR. SUN to come out so we can PLAY!

Full SWING!

We are back into our routine with full force...well...with a few exceptions!  Homework calendar will be ready for next week!  And guided reading folders will come home as soon as I get some assessing done!  I am watching them read and respond and am so impressed with their maturity!  Wow...my pups are growing up!

Top Dog:
Fancy Nancy...

Enjoy your evening! Study those spelling words!

Welcome Back...

I can honestly say...What a GREAT day! I was a bit bleary eyed this morning and ready for a nap about 11:30 (I must admit) but I really missed these pups!

TOP DOG...

Eliette tells us all about herself!

A little catching up! Warm Wishes to you ALL

Free digital scrapbooking design customized with Smilebox

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  Have a wonderful evening!