Hot DIGGITY Dog!

2012-02-01T07:18:00.001-06:00

Just in case the hard copy never made it home! I found several on the floor after school...and of course when I asked who didn't have theirs...

2012-01-30T15:15:00.001-06:00

SOME TOP DOGS

Trying to get caught up!

Kenidy had lots to share with us!

Kenidy's mom came to enjoy lunch with her!

Show and Tell! What fun!

Logan is such a hard worker...enjoying his HIPPEST IN THE HOUSE award!

Sharing his camouflage all about me poster! His favorite thing...ARMY!

Logan is hiding behind his book while everyone listens intently!

Logan and Mom enjoy a yummy Sonic lunch!

LOOK at this science set!

THIS WEEK's TOP DOG

DEMI!

2012-01-30T14:29:00.001-06:00

Jan. 30-Feb. 3 Due Friday, February 3, 2012

Investigations Activity Book: Unit 5: pg. 7, 9, 11, 12, 13
Spelling: -ell chunks and -est chunks
Writing: Puppy Blog: 1 new post. You must retell a book you have read THIS week! :)
Problem Solving:

I hope everyone had a great weekend. They seem to go by so fast!

We continue to write and publish our own poetry!

Nice job Akin!

More to come...I am working as fast as I can to get them published so we can illustrate!

The Ocean

One of our favorite science topics...the ocean! Today we were lucky

enough to attend a district introduction...VIA video conference. We will be learning lots and lots about the ocean and what animals live there!

Comprehension through sensory images

We had a lot of fun with the book

Night in the Country

today! It was FULL of great word choice that allowed us to create mental and sensory images. We also discovered that sometimes what we picture is NOT what the author was trying to tell us...so we had to monitor and adjust our images to help us understand the meaning of the book! We talked about the words that helped us create those images and are trying to use them more in our writing!

2012-01-27T07:20:00.001-06:00

Math Problem Solving

Be sure to download the QR decoder apps to your phones or ipod touches. After you scan this code it will read the problem you are to solve! Have FUN! Be sure to bring in your solved problem on Monday!

READ to SUCCEED!

Your child will need to complete six hours or 360 minutes of recreational reading. Your child may read books, magazines, newspapers or comic books. Guided reading books or homework do not count Kids may read silently, aloud or with an adult- you can can read to your child, or your child can read to you.
Reading Log (coming home in blue folder today) must be returned NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 24th.

2012-01-26T07:12:00.000-06:00

Search Engines...

We all use them...It's a part of our everyday computer usage! However, is the content that pops up always what we want our little ones to see??? IF NOT...Let's try the...

Kid Friendly Versions

As we get ready to start our research project here at school. You and your children may want to start exploring and become familiar with the search engines above. We will be researching TEXAS!

2012-01-25T16:32:00.000-06:00

Poetry Writing

Creating Mental Images

Our first individual published piece of poetry!

Way to go Emily!

Pizza Pizza

by Ms. Guy's and Ms. Woodard's First Grade Class

Pizza, Pizza

I LOVE pizza

pepperoni, sausage

cheese and pickle

I LOVE pizza

hot pizza, cold pizza

LET'S

GET

SOME!

We have been reading poetry written by first graders JUST LIKE US!

We notice that not all poems have to rhyme. We notice that the poet puts the words on the paper in special ways. We have also noticed that it should sound good (have rhythm) when it is read! We notice that our word choice must be extra special so that the reader can create a mental image! Did you know that text plus our schema equals our mental image. We are finding out that sometimes our schema doesn't match what the author had in mind. Next week we will talk more about going back and adjusting so that we BETTER understand what we are reading! So...it is extra important to chose JUST THE RIGHT WORDS!

We are off to a GREAT start.

We are using non standard tools to measure the length of things! Today was so much fun...we estimated how long we thought our arm, leg, hand, paper and other things were in unifix cubes, beans, chain links and such!!! Boy do we have some AMAZING estimators...

PHONE BOOK RECYCLE PROJECT
Help us collect a RECORD number of phone books!

Start sending them in...You know you want to get rid of them!!!

IT IS TIME TO START THINKING....

VISIT US AT...
Robertson Elem. Boosterthon
Last year this was an AMAZING fund raiser for Robertson and TONS OF FUN!
LET'S MAKE THIS YEAR EVEN BETTER!!
We need to start brainstorming our CLASS NAME!

2012-01-23T18:29:00.001-06:00

Good evening! I sent math books home today! Here is the homework to go along with it! Math HW for this week: Unit 3: 5, 7, 9, 13, 18Today we checked out books from the library! It's been awhile! If your child has overdue books send them in tomorrow so I can let them go to the library and get some new ones!We started our poetry unit today as well! We have a lot of great background knowledge...we listened to a poem written by a first grader. After listening to it we discussed what mental images we had when I read...Skating! Some had an image of skateboarding while others had an image of ice skating! Tomorrow we will try to create mental images for our classmates...we need to think of STRONG words that will describe the activity of our choice!We are starting our measurement unit in math! We will measure using NON STANDARD units!Have a wonderful evening!

2012-01-23T06:52:00.000-06:00

Good Morning!
I am so sorry I did not get pictures and videos uploaded! The monitor on my "teacher" computer, where I keep all the pictures and videos, stays black! Makes it kind of hard to see what I'm doing! Once that glitch has been corrected...I will work on blogging! Have a wonderful week.

2012-01-06T14:49:00.003-06:00

REMINDERS

Don't forget next week is CogAT testing...Please make EVERY effort for you child to be in school and here ON TIME! We will be testing in the morning and afternoon each day!

Make sure they rest well and eat good meals! Thanks for your help!

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!

WOO HOO VIDEOS

GOOO BEARKATS! ESPN was here taping as well...I hear there may be clips of the BearKat visit to Robertson played on their station!

TOP DOG
ADDISON

Okay...so I need to remember NOT to hold my camera vertical!!! I thought I knew how to fix it but obviously I'm challenged right now!

Working together to read a FAVORITE...Addison also brought a interactive story and puppy dog that we ALL ENJOYED listening to!

Lunch with TWO special people!

Show and Tell! WE had barbie brides, Justin Bieber singing dolls, press on nails, CDs and "Kady Perry" make up!

Addison was an enthusiastic TOP DOG this week! She is such a happy first grader! Thank you, Addison for letting us get to know you better!

GUEST READERS
We were so lucky this week! We had several 3rd Graders "BUY" read to another class....and OUR class was the one they chose!

Parker was in my 1st grade class a couple of years ago...MY how FAST they grow up!

And then Miss Laila (please forgive me if I spelled that wrong) came in and got right to business. I didn't have a chance to get the flip out before she started or finished the book! Justice LOVED having her big sister come in and read! And she read a GIRL favorite!...Pinkalicious!

The Sullivan Girls all dressed in PINK of course!

Thank you Parker and Laila!!!WE LOVED having you in our classrroom!

2012-01-05T17:26:00.001-06:00

CogAT 2012

The week of Monday, January 9th-Friday, January 13th your child will be taking
the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) in class. The test will be read aloud to all students,
and paced in such a way that there will be plenty of time for completion for each child.
The CogAT measures developed cognitive abilities, those abilities start at birth and
continue through early adulthood. This test reflects the overall efficiency of cognitive
processes and strategies that enable students to learn new tasks or solve problems,
especially in the absence of direct instruction. This test measures general thinking and
problem solving skills that students have learned through in-school and out of school
experiences. You can find more detailed information about the test at www.cogat.com.
The best preparation you could provide for your child would be plenty of sleep on the
nights before the test and a nourishing breakfast on the mornings of the test. Make up
tests will be given the following week with results being sent home in approximately 6-8
weeks.
If you have any questions regarding the test please feel free to contact your child’s
teacher or myself.
Thank you,
Karen Kidd
Campus Instructional Support Facilitator
kiddk@friscoisd.org
469-633-3675
CogAT Testing Notification
1st Grade Parents

You will be getting a hard copy of this notice tomorrow in your child's folder!

What a WEEK we've had!

Just getting back into the routine of things...it's assessment time and of COURSE football championships!

Today we had the privileged of hosting Sam Houston State University at Robertson! Of course when I want to post a video of something extra special...you tube says it is taking an extra long time to process videos but we've been added to the list and they'll get to us when we can! SO...needless to say I will try again with videos tomorrow!

Language Arts

This week in Language Arts we have been listening to a lot of Arthur books by Marc Brown! So much fun...we have done an amazing job of questioning ourselves as we read! We have noticed that some questions do not get answered in the TEXT and we have to use our INFERRING skills! We like playing detective and looking for clues that help us answer the questions! We have also had the opportunity to story map several of the books. We've noticed that Arthur always has a problem, and a solution. Marc Brown uses the same characters in most of his books and that there are only a few settings!

Next week we will go to the library to learn more about MARC BROWN the author!

Be sure to ask your little one about these stories!

To enter PBS KIDS Arthur website Click Here! Lots of fun Arthur activities...

Math

In math we are still working on place value and comparing and ordering numbers! We used cups to help us understand place value and expanded notation! (Wait til you see them!)

Science

Science time has been all about natural water sources! See if you can name some!

Like I said, hopefully tomorrow you tube will be more cooperative and you can enjoy what's going on in our classroom and school with us! Thanks for all you do!!!

2012-01-02T15:42:00.002-06:00

2012...Wow! I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break! I enjoyed EVERY minute of mine but was looking forward to being back in the classroom today! I missed my sweet puppies!

Recess Change

From now on we will be going outside if the temperature is 32 degrees or warmer! That is 32 windchill as well...So if it is 42 degrees with a wind child of 30 we will NOT be going out! SOOO...please make sure your child comes to school with a warm outside coat, hat and mittens if need be!

Our author study has begun!!! We are entering the world of Marc Brown and ...

Today we read

D.W.'s Lost Blankie!

We found out that

Marc Brown writes about his experiences as a young child. The characters in his books are based on friends and family members.

During this study we will focus on QUESTIONING. Good readers often ask themselves questions when reading. They question themselves before, during and after the piece has been read. So...we took this opportunity to think about what we would like to know about this story before we read it! "Where did she lose the blanket?, What did it look like?, Did anyone help her find it?, Where did she find it?" All great questions and most of them were answered in the story! We paused throughout the story to ask ourselves questions as well. And after we finished we still had some questions we wish had been answered... After reading we then worked on retelling D.W.'s Lost Blankie. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to make our "STORY MAP" game board...but will look forward to that as time permits throughout the week!

SNOWBALL FIGHT???

2011-12-09T15:16:00.001-06:00

YES...there is that pesky little guy...with a SNOWBALL...Let the CHAOS begin!

WHAT A WAY TO START OUR DAY!

We continue to HELP our Grinch grow a bigger heart! He is definitely going to be ready for the Holiday Break!

HIPPEST IN THE HOUSE

Caring/Kind

Robertson Round Up LOTS of Fun!

TOP DOG

Julian shared all about himself on Monday!

Mom and Daisy came and had a special lunch with our TOP DOG!

The Holidays

2011-12-08T08:50:00.001-06:00

It's Holiday Time In Room 405-406

So...here's our sneaky little elf! I wonder what mischief he has planned for tomorrow!!

He seems to be hanging out helping us on the
HOLIDAY EXPRESS
First we traveled to Europe: We stopped in Germany. We learned that the ART of baking Gingerbread Houses started with the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. It became popular to bake them around the Holidays. Many German settlers lived in what is now Pennsylvania where baking gingerbread men was started. ( On a side note..."Man they must have a lot of pencils there!" Yes, these kids keep us LAUGHING!) In honor of the German tradition of gingerbread...WE mad our own!

The HOLIDAY EXPRESS then brought us back to North America and the United States.
We learned that most of our holiday traditions came from other countries! WE learned that Santa is called many different things...but one thing for sure he has a big OLE belly from eating all those cookies...There's a chance he might even get STUCK in the chimney...

Sorry that picture is sideways!

We hopped back aboard the HOLIDAY EXPRESS and it took us back across the ocean to France. We now know that "Father Christmas" fills the children's shoes and "SOCKS" with goodies! So of course we are going to hang our "socks" out next week and see if they get FILLED!

Next we headed to Israel on the continent of Asia! The Jewish people of Israel celebrate Hanukkah! We found out that the Jewish people had to fight a battle to get their temple back. They won the battle but their temple had been vandalized. When they returned they found some oil that should have only lasted one night. BUT it was a miracle and it burned for 8 days! Now a candle is lit each night of Hanukkah to symbolize this miracle.
The children play a game of dreidel...so we packed one away in our "suitcase"!

The HOLIDAY EXPRESS brought us back to North America today...One of my friends was hoping we were going to talk about Mexico...as he is looking at the map he excitedly shouts out, "HEY, there is a NEW Mexico and an OLD Mexico!" OH OH OH how I love my puppies!
And the express stopped in Mexico...FELIZ NAVIDAD...WE learned that in Mexico the families participate in Posadas, have pinatas shaped as stars and grow the Christmas Flower, Poinsettias! The beautiful red flower was a must for us to bring back!!!

I think this is my FAVORITE project so far!! I can't wait to see how they turn out when we are completely finished!
WE have two more stops to make next week!

On Monday, THE GRINCH made an appearance in our classroom. WE all know that the Grinch has a heart TWO SIZES TOO SMALL!

So we have been trying to get "caught" doing acts of KINDNESS...when we do we get to put a heart on the Grinch and watch his heart GROW!!! (this is an old picture...you should see how big it is now!!!)

Guest Blogger: Kennedi

Today the elf put my box in the chrash can. It was so funny I could harele sotp lafing. "You elf". The elf is on a cord he whil slad down.

Our CLASS Elf

2011-12-07T08:02:00.001-06:00

this mornig are   E L F spred magick elf snow   in are  seets.
I went CRAZZZY!!!.
Every ONE   did !!!.
We moovd are seets back to are desk to are spot.
It was AMASING!!.
by landon

Today the Elf Took all are charis in the class room.We wre looking for are chars.The Elf ws lafing at us. I ws mad at Elf .Logan made not for the Elf

OH! MY! What a TRICK...Our little elf is having some FUN with the puppies!!!

2011-12-05T15:08:00.001-06:00

While we were talking about solid shapes...look what I over heard the kids talking about in the cafeteria!

I heard this one has 8 vertices and 12 edges and 6 faces!

This one had them stumped for a bit...But finally I heard them say "well...if it was flat across here that would be a face. I don't think it has any vertices but there is this point? But it's a cone FOR SURE!"

TOP DOG

Dec. 5-9

Julian likes pizza and jumping on the trampoline with his friend!

Yesterday I got to see Kenidy as a "Do Wop" girl and an angel in her Christmas program! Thanks for inviting me!!!

Nov. 28-Dec. 2

Mia brought some of her treasures to share with us!

YUMMY... Mia's family brought Chic Fil A to eat with Mia!

2011-12-05T14:22:00.001-06:00

HOMEWORK

DUE TOMORROW: Tuesday, December 6, 2011

PASSPORT APPLICATION

Dec. 5-9 DUE Friday, December 9, 2011

Investigations Activity Book: Unit 2 pg: 5, 6, 8, 11, 19 (you got a pattern block sheet to help complete this homework) Use the pattern blocks to fill in the "figure" and record how many of each "block" you used.
Spelling TIC TAC TOE pick three activities from the TIC TAC TOE board (sent home last week. If you do not have it...it is attached below)
Writing: Go to the puppy blog. Make a new post (remember at least 3 sentences) and comment on at LEAST one of your friends posts. Puppy Blog

2011-12-02T16:04:00.001-06:00

Busy busy week both at school and at home! I promise I will update the blog with TOP DOG this weekend. Right now I need to get to my parents to pick up a shovel! My water pipe broke last week and the plumber didn't fill in the hole...SOOOO now that we are anticipating a FREEZE I figure I better get to work filling it in! UGGG what a fun Friday night!

PAJAMA DAY

We are talking about Day/Night in science and would like to have the kids come to school in P.J.s Monday, Dec. 5th!

2011-11-28T15:55:00.001-06:00

Welcome Back

Wow! Last week seemed to fly by...BUT I have a feeling the next 3 weeks will be zooming past as well! I sure did miss seeing my little ones everyday...however, I enjoyed spending so much time with my family and friends. I decided this was the BEST Thanksgiving ever! I hope everyone enjoyed their break as much as I did!

I did send new books home today in green folders. We also took our spelling pretest! Homework is listed and I will send math books home tomorrow! Time just got away from me today!

TOP DOG

Mia!

Mia has two brothers and loves her family! Her favorite food is eggs and bacon with an apple! At school she likes to go to computers! Mia's name is a "princess" name! Pictures to come!

Thank you...
for remembering our Angels at this time of year! Several friends brought in items today! TOMORROW is the last day to bring items in!

Reminders...
5.00 for the Holiday Party (in an envelope labeled with your child's name)
Questions: you may contact me or Mrs. Lloyd

PTA HOSPITALITY LUNCHEON! Our class is responsible for bring BAKED POTATOES.
Please drop these off in the office on Dec. 9 no later than 10:00 am!
Questions: Tricia Stimac

2011-11-18T16:04:00.001-06:00

The Little RED Hen (rooster)
So...here's the story. I started uploading these to you tube at 7:30 this morning! Here it is 4:30 Thanksgiving Break has started...it's getting dark outside, POD 2 is EMPTY , it's kind of eerie here alone...BUT I'm waiting on 1 last one!!! It is 74% uploaded...HURRY UP is all I have to say! OOOOO 91%....it won't be long now! Since I'm waiting I thought I would send everyone an email about our Holiday Party...BUT my desktop has NO icons...so I can't get to my email. I tried to go through the remote location but it cannot find our Parent group email list...WOW what an afternoon!
HOLIDAY PARTY
You will be getting information from our room after the break BUT they wanted us to let you know that we will be collecting 5.00 from everyone. Please send this in ASAP in an envelope labeled HOLIDAY PARTY and your child's name. This way they can get started on buying all the goodies!
Video UPDATE
The LAST one is processing! ANNNNNNNDDDD here it is! UUUGGG something terrible has gone wrong! I will continue to work on posting theses videos....just not today!

2011-11-18T15:25:00.001-06:00

GOBBLE GOBBLE

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for this bunch of puppies!

Mia: I am thankful she is so kind to others.

Gage: I am thankful for his sense of humor.

Akin: I am thankful for his willingness to try.

Thatcher: I am thankful he always has something to say that makes me smile.

Sam: I am thankful he is such an amazing listener.

Peyton: I am thankful for his creative writing.

Emily: I am thankful for her wonderful HUGS.

Addison: I am thankful for her happiness.

Julian: I am thankful for his patience.

Ella: I am thankful she is here with us.

Demi: I am thankful for her helpfulness.

Jacob: I am thankful for his effort.

Kennedi: I am thankful for her spunk.

Landon: I am thankful for his attention to detail.

Anna Richey: I am thankful for her wonderful behavior.

Anna Rotz: I am thankful for her sweetness.

Logan: I am thankful for his love of school.

Kenidy: I am thankful for the joy she brings to the classroom.

Kent: I am thankful for his growth.

Alison: I am thankful for her out of the box thinking.

Kreston: I am thankful for his uniqueness.

Taylor: I am thankful for her kindness and perseverance.

Justice: I am thankful for her never-ending smile.

I am thankful that I have the opportunity to share my days with each of these special children.

Families please enjoy your time with them!

Happy Holidays!

TOP DOG

Anna FILLED the bag with her favorite things!

Pirate Bear, an animal from Ghatti Town, a Hello Kitty ring, nail polish and make up!

All things ANNA!

HIPPEST in the HOUSE

Respect

THATCHER

I wish everyone could have seen the expression on Thatcher's face when his name was called.

priceless!

OUR GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER

snapping photos during reader's/writer's workshop

2011-11-17T12:07:00.001-06:00

TOP DOG

A Special Lunch with Special People

And a HELLO KITTY cupcake!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

THE LITTLE RED HEN

Readers' Theater

David, Akin, Jacob, Cayley, Sam, Jubilee, Thatcher

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

2011-11-16T14:07:00.001-06:00

A Wise Old Owl

A wise old owl lived in an oak.

The more he saw, the less he spoke.

Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

The less he spoke, the more he heard.

BLOGGERS

We started blogging today. We logged into our own personal blog pages today! SO much excitement! Please know that, because this is them typing on the computer I am not checking for capitals. I'm trying to encourage punctuation and SPACES. Your child may log in from home. I will send you the password (just send me an email requesting it)! This will be a GREAT place for our writing homework! In the future there will be some blogging assignments but until then please feel free to have them log in and use the site! I talked a little about posting comments on friends blogs...As I am encouraging that please monitor. I also have it set so that I have to approve ALL posts and comments before they can be posted!

TOP DOG

Anna's mom was busy! Anna got not ONE poem but TWO today! Her smile was priceless!

Anna Claire

Always loveable

Nice and kind to others

No front teeth or Never without a headband

Athletic

Collector of rocks, squinkies, receipts, candy wrappers, dollar bills

Loves music and dancing

Artistic

Intelligent

Really pretty

Everyone's friend

We love you Anna!

My Anna

Anna is a tender soul with love to give to all.

She crafts and paints and draws so much she could cover every wall!

She has 2 sisters and one brother and is very easy-going.

Her favorite thing to do is shop and she always asks "Where are we going?"

She is everyone's friend, athletic and clever,

Does she ever walk out of the house without a headband? NO, NEVER!

She loves to listen to music while doing her chores and she even likes to dance.

She entertains all her family including her 6 aunts!

She loves 1st grade and her teacher Ms. Guy,

But you may not believe that she is not really shy.

We love you ANNA!

2011-11-15T15:21:00.001-06:00

YEE HAW WESTERN DAY

WOO HOO

2011-11-14T15:36:00.001-06:00

It's the LITTLE things that make this first grade teacher SOOO happy! I logged into Hot Diggity Dog this afternoon and I have a BACKGROUND...Oh MY Goodness. That puts me on cloud nine! (LOL)

We had one of those FLIP FLOP days again...kinda gets us out of sorts!! But we made it through. We had library but a quick check out only day then it was time for SPECIALS...yes you heard that right...specials first thing this morning. Mr. I and his wonderful office staff did our LUNCH and RECESS duty for us today...(such a treat for us teachers). We came back and got to "meet" our...

TOP DOG!

Anna is such a quiet little puppy...so you are going to have to listen hard in her video!

Anna has 2 sisters and 1 brother, her favorite color is uhmmm oh yes...PINK! She likes to eat tortellini...And at school she likes to get "punches" and have GREEN DAYS!

Math

It's 3-D TIME

Don't forget to review those 2-D shapes...

This week we will be comparing 2 and 3 D shapes.

The Little RED Hen (Rooster)

We will begin video taping our Reader's Theater tomorrow! PLEASE practice again with your little pup! BIG BIG BIG voices, lot's of expression and fluency! We made our headbands today so everyone is getting excited! Please make sure your pup has his or her script here at school this week! We will begin "normal" guided reading after the break!

IMPORTANT STUFF

Be sure to check homework tab...Due Friday!

We need brown lunch bags!

Let me know if you will be leaving EARLY for the break!

Send in notes/email ANYTIME your child misses school!

I'm looking forward to a GREAT week AND a great HOLIDAY WEEK off!

FUN FRIDAY

2011-11-11T16:22:00.001-06:00

Well today was FUN FRIDAY...

But first we had to get some learning out of the way! We took our spelling test...lots of great spellers again today...if it weren't for that darn bonus word "mopping" we would have had a LITTER FULL of SUPER STAR SPELLERS!!! Keep up that spelling practice. I am so amazed and proud of my little puppies!

Then we read one of my FAVORITE Thanksgiving books...

We got a jump start on questioning (comprehension strategy).

Pete is a clever, plump and perky turkey! How did he survive Thanksgiving? You'll have to read the story or ask your first grader to find out!

After we read we went ahead and made our own plump and perky turkeys!

OH, how I love them all!

TOP DOG

This week we learned a lot about Thatcher...

He was born in Utah. And he was told he was the cutest baby EVER!

He LOVES LOVES LOVES to swim and visit Disney World and ride Splash Mountain!

Thatcher is a wonderful PUPPY...please be sure to check out his personal blog by clicking on the link http://kidblog.org/HotDiggityDogGuy/

Yesterday, Thatcher's mom joined him for a YUMMY TACO BELL lunch!

SHOW US HOW OLD YOU WERE YESTERDAY,

Taylor!

WOW...what a BIRTH DAY! 11/11/11

This won't happen again until Taylor turns 107!!

Thank you all for reminding your little ones to be respectful of learning! We had a much better day today! I, too am getting excited for the holidays! LOVE LOVE LOVE spending time with family and friends...SO I understand BUT we've got to remember why we are in school!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend...I'm already missing my puppies and looking forward to Monday morning!

HOMEWORK

Nov. 14-18 DUE Friday, November 18, 2011

Investigations Activity Book: Unit 2 pg: 1, 2, 12, 13 (you will get a patter block sheet to help complete this homework. PLEASE keep the pattern block sheet for future homework)
Spelling TIC TAC TOE pick three activities from the TIC TAC TOE board (sent home last week. If you do not have it...it is attached below)
Writing: Write about the Thanksgiving traditions you have at YOUR house! Then illustrate! Remember our BIG 3. Always start a sentence with a capital letter, Always end a sentence with correct punctuation and VBH (Very Best Handwriting)

WOW

2011-11-10T17:06:00.001-06:00

This teacher had to just go home today!! I am sorry about not uploading pictures and blogging moreReminders...Spelling Test tomorrowNEEDED AT SCHOOL!The Little Red Hen scriptAll folders!!!Thank you all for you continued help and support!

2011-11-09T14:48:00.002-06:00

Kids Count

Today the Children's Advocacy Center of Collin County came and talked to us about some very important topics. Your child should have a flyer in his/her blue folder outlining what was discussed. Please look it over and talk with your child.

TOP DOG

Our Thatcher Boy!

Thatcher is such a fun little boy

He loves to run and play

Lately he's been learning to play basketball

And I think he could play it all day

He has a sweet little heart and he loves to share

with his brother Taggart, his family, and friends

And if his parents buy him a treat (and not for his brother)

Back to the store, them he sends

Thatcher loves to learn lots of new things,

From books, computers and T.V.

He loves to do math and learn science too

He makes them seem all to easy

In short Thatcher is a special boy

Friendly and kind to all he meets

Never was there such a good little child

(who also loves to eat too many sweets!!!)

HOLIDAY TIME

2011-11-09T07:21:00.001-06:00

Making the Difference in the Lives of Children

It is that time of year when the spirit of the holidays fills us with joy! We want to spread that feeling to families in Frisco who need help insuring the holidays are memorable and filled with wonder for their children.

Our class is participating in a service project to sponsor an "Angel" during this holiday season. "Angels" are less fortunate children in this community. These families and children will have a joyful and memorable holiday season with your help and generosity.

Please send in donations:

Unwrapped (if you would like to donate a roll of wrapping paper please send it in with your gift)
IN A BAG LABELED WITH THE ANGEL NUMBER
If you are donating to more than one angel, please send in separate LABELED bags

Please have gifts in the classroom by NOVEMBER 29th!

Angel #827

Age 7

GIRL

Pants: size 8
Shirt: size 8
Shoes: size 13
Coat: size 8
Underwear: size 8

NEEDS: boots, coat and winter clothes

WANTS: boots, Barbie, Arts and Crafts

Angel #523

Age 6

Boy

Pants: size 7
Shirt: size 7
Shoes: size 13
Coat: size 7
Underwear: size 7

NEEDS: pants, underwear, shoes and coat

WANTS: Bike, Legos

SOMETHING NEW

2011-11-08T16:59:00.000-06:00

Your child will now have a place to blog about school! We will talk about what we have learned, what is going on in our school and our classroom, or maybe just tell about what is going on in our lives! This will also be a place that we can respond to others! I will post things periodically for your child to leave comments (homework)!! What a technological world these kids are growing up in!

http://kidblog.org/HotDiggityDogGuy/
You will find the permanent link on the side bar..."A Blog for the Puppies"

Let's get ready to blog!

2011-11-08T16:19:00.000-06:00

UGGG

I don't know what happened to our CUTE blog...I am trying and trying to add a background again to no avail! I'm at a LOSS...It is frustrating me immensely!!! But, I figure until I can get it figured out I best keep blogging. If any of you bloggers out there would like to give me some {private tutoring} I would APPRECIATE it!

SPEAKING OF TUTORING...if your child attends on Tuesday and Thursday please be aware that we will NOT be having it next week!

The Little Red Hen

Every student came home with a script of The Little Red Hen. We will be performing in groups of 7 as a readers' theater (meaning we will be allowed to read our parts...no need to memorize). We are practicing our fluency and EXPRESSION...along with retelling this week and reading for a purpose (our purpose is to entertain)! So, please have your child practice, practice, practice! To help with fluency it would be WONDERFUL if everyone in the family took a part. Our first graders need to be able to follow along and know when it is their turn to read! HAVE FUN with this!

SHAPES SHAPES AND MORE SHAPES

Yesterday we went on a shape hunt around the school. I had some very creative finds!!! LOVE the observant eyes we have.

What shape are these? How many sides do they have? What about VERTICES?

TOP DOG READS ALOUD

Looks like a teacher...

I love my listeners!

Listen to Thatcher READ!

2011-11-07T15:58:00.002-06:00

HOMEWORK

Nov. 7-11, 2011 DUE Friday, November 11, 2011

Investigations Activity Book: Unit 2 pg. 28, 29, 30, 31
Science: Use the circle maps provided to record sounds you hear outside going to school in the morning. (be sure to record the time) AND record the sounds you hear outside after the sun goes down (be sure to record the time).
Spelling TIC TAC TOE pick three activities. (This is the

Tic-Tac-Toe card that you will use this nine weeks. We

will send a new one next nine weeks...so please do not

throw it away!! Recording sheets will come home each

week!) Notice the middle square is for you to be creative!

please share with us ways you study the words so that

we can add them to the next card!

TECHNOLOGY

http://myap.ps/eHP

This link was shared by our technology department. Lots of GREAT, free or almost free apps!

BATTER UP...

This morning we started our day with a CELEBRATION OF LEARNING world series style! We enjoyed recognizing students that have been HIPPEST IN THE HOUSE, had perfect attendance and just all around GREAT STUDENTS!

TOP DOG ROCKS!

GOING ON A SHAPE HUNT...

Fun FRIDAY

2011-11-04T15:32:00.001-05:00

GOOD TO BE BACK

What a great day I had with my puppies...TWO DAYS in a row! It's been a while. We are all excited about FALL FESTIVAL tonight from 5:00-8:00pm. I will be working at one of the bounce houses from 5:00-6:00! Hope to see you all there!

Yesterday we took a math CBA that covered money, place value, patterns and fact families! Everyone did a good job.

SPELLING

Today was our spelling test. I wanted to make a correction to our grading of the spelling tests.

Grading is based on first 10 words, two bonus words and dictation sentence.

Check ++ SUPER STAR SPELLER.= EVERYTHING correct

Check + SUPER SPELLER = no mistakes in first 10 words AND 2 bonus words

Check GOOD JOB= 1-4 misspelled words in first 10 AND/OR 2 bonus words

Check - Let's study more= 5+ mistakes in first 10 words AND/OR 2 bonus words

I can tell we have some little ones really working hard on these words! Next week I will send home a Spelling TIC TAC TOE board that has some ways to study weekly words.

Homework

Last week I did not get the homework until late so we had a week off!!! Next week we will have math, spelling, reading AND a science activity! I will send it all home on Monday and it will be due on Friday! SO...make sure to have your little one budget their time wisely!!!

TOP DOG

Anna has been such a sweet Top Dog! She always does her best work, is polite and a good friend to everyone!

Thank you Anna for being such a SPECIAL PUPPY!

Thursday

2011-11-03T17:33:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been CRAZY...I'm so sorry to have been out so much! I think I am back for good now! My mom had a hip replacement and needed to have someone with her all the time for the first couple of weeks. My sister and I took turns. I kind of thought well...at least I might get a nap in while she was resting! BOY was I WRONG...I was making breakfast, dropping kids off at school, doing laundry, getting lunch, picking kids up from school, making sure hip exercises were done, medicine taken AAAUGGGH how I longed to be in the classroom with my 23 little puppies. I know it has been hard on some of them having me here one day and then out the next...But I think all in all we have SURVIVED. I am so thankful that Ms. Woodard was here to us on schedule!

TOP DOG
On Tuesday Anna shared one of her "favorites" and it seemed as if it was a favorite of MANY!

Anna's Poem
Anna
"GRACEFUL"

A is for Activities, for you have many

N is for Natural, the genuine side of you

N is for Noticeable, she shines, she sparkles

A is for Affection, it's warm as the sun

Thursday

Anna's was lucky to have her mom here to have lunch with her today! AND she got a BIG girl burger!

2011-10-28T17:13:00.000-05:00

Last Friday's Ice CreamFUN

Our new Friend Ella

Ella with Mia and her 4th Grade Book Buddy Kristi!
Welcome to Ella, her 4th grade brother and family from Virginia Beach!

This Friday's PUMPKIN FUN

Our CLASS pumpkin

Today we had a pumpkin filled day! Ms. Woodard had a family member donate small pumpkins to EVERYONE in our classroom! How FUN...We completed our pumpkin observation booklet based on one big class pumpkin! Please use it to guide you through observations of your small pumpkin at home! ENJOY

I read The Bumpy Little Pumpkin

It was FILLED with "sparkle" words! And then it was time to OBSERVE!

We, first made some predictions on the height (in unifix cubes), number of ribs the circumference and if our pumpkin would sink or float and of course how many seeds would be in our pumpkin! THEN it was time for putting those predictions to the TEST!

The books we read during our day.

SPARKLE WORDS describe our pumpkin!

Predictions: height and #of ribs

Circumference

Sink or Float

How many seeds

OUR LAST OBSERVATION

COUNTING SEEDS!!!

Ms. Woodard read How Many Seeds In a Pumpkin

Did you know that the number of "ribs" on a pumpkin gives us a "clue" as to how many seeds it will have! WOW

We each got our very own pumpkin to bring home and observe!

THANK YOU

TOP DOG

Emily has been a great Top Dog. I can count on her to be a role model for others!

Today she brought in some of her "old friends"...Ellie and Giraffee...Emily told us she has a "bunch more" at home. It must be a ZOO in Emily's room!

2011-10-26T16:08:00.002-05:00

TOP DOG

Yesterday Emily brought in If You Give a Pig a Pancake! She even had the MAIN character here at school with her!

Thanks for sharing such a FUN book Emily!

E -Entertaining

(You always make us laugh)

M -Marvelous

(Work hard at all you do)

I -Inspiring

(You make us better people!)

L -Lovable

(You care about others)

Y -YOU!

(the BEST daughter ever!)

I hate, hate, hate that I have had to be out so much the past couple of weeks. Thank you so much for all of your concern for my mom. She is doing well and is hoping that tomorrow after her doctor appointment she will be able to be more independent.

Spelling Test on Friday (all 10 reg. spelling words, 2 surprise bonus words, a dictation sentence and 5 challenge words)

0 mistakes on EVERYTHING (excluding challenge words)

Check plus plus SUPER STAR SPELLER

1-3 spelling errors (excluding challenge words)

Check plus STAR SPELLER

4+ spelling errors (excluding challenge words)

Check minus BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

Math Unit 3 due Friday

Have a wonderful evening!

2011-10-24T15:24:00.000-05:00

Homework

Oct. 24-28, 2011

Investigations Activity Book: Unit 3 pg. 1, 5, 11, 14,43 DUE Friday, October 28, 2011

TOP DOG

Emily!

Coach B. is going to camp with the 5th graders this week...so Emily had a GREAT TOP DOG day today...Lunch with her family and telling all about her poster!

2011-10-21T16:30:00.002-05:00

FUN FRIDAY

What a GREAT day we had today. This morning we had a wonderful writer's workshop and then onto finishing up Daily 5 MUST Do's from the week! And then we had a special surprise...we flip flopped our day and did science this morning! EXPERIMENT DAY! Let's see what happens when we put some milk, sugar and vanilla in a bag. We all noticed it was a liquid. Then we put that bag in a bigger bag with some rock salt and ice!

Many predicted the liquid would freeze! So we took these bags outside....and we shook them for about 10 minutes (or like 40 hours as some said)! Guess what our prediction was RIGHT that liquid did turn to a semi solid. THEN we got to TASTE it...YUMMMO ICE CREAM!

(I have videos of a lot of what we did today however, it is my night with my mom so I'm going to post some pictures and get going! I will work on videos later!)

Anna and Demi look as if they are having fun! Anna said her hands were about to turn PURPLE!

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE Kent!

YUMMO time to TASTE for Emily and Paeton!

Thatcher and Logan wanted MORE!

ICE CREAM
I promised I would post the recipe:
Each "serving" will need:

1/2 cup of milk (we used whole)
1 tsp of sugar
1/4 tsp of vanilla
6 cups of ice
1 cup of Rock Salt
2 quart size ziplock baggies
2 gallon size ziplock baggies (can be replaced with large coffee cans)
spoons

In one of the small baggies measure out the milk, vanilla and sugar. SEAL the baggie. Put it into the other small baggie and seal!

In the large baggie put the rock salt and ice and the small baggies. Seal the baggie. Put it into the other large baggie and seal! SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE for about 10 minutes. Check to see if the liquid has changed to a solid. If so...ENJOY...if not seal everything up and keep shaking!

TOP DOG

Kreston has been a wonderful TOP DOG! We were especially lucky to have his grandmother, all the way from Michigan, here to read to us during his special week!

On Tuesday Kreston brought in his book...

I wasn't here but it looks as if he was enjoying reading to the class! Way to go BUDDY!

Thursday we read his poem:

K is for his kindness

which fills all of his days

R is for respect

for all his chivalrous ways

E is for his excellence

Kreston is a great boy, and a great brother, and a great son,

And one day, Kreston will be an excellent man

S is for his smile

because he always thinks he can

T is for the trickster

which gives him so much glee

O is for outgoing

for he never dwells on "me"

N is for his noise

for he truly is all boy!

Mom and Dad love you Kreston! You are amazing!

Friday was a BIG day!

Kreston had his mom come and eat with him!

She even brought a HOT DOG from Sonic! MMMMMmmm we all know Kreston likes hot dogs!

And then Kreston shared some of his "freinds" with us! Thanks for letting us get to know you a little better Kreston!

2011-10-19T06:08:00.001-05:00

FALL FESTIVAL SILENT AUCTION BASKETSHello Fellow Parents:Robertson Elementary Fall Festival is right around the corner. Please mark your calendar for Friday, November 4th from 5:00pm to 8:00pm. We are asking that each student please contribute $5.00 to donate towards the awesome baskets we will have at our Silent Auction during the Fall Festival. Each grade level will have various themes for boys, girls and adults.We need to strive for 100% participation. Your donations are greatly appreciated and PTA is working very hard behind the scenes to make this Fall Festival the best ever!!! Please send in your child’s $5.00 donation in an envelope marked attention “Misti Lloyd Fall Festival" by October 28th. Again, thank you for your support and we hope to see you on November 4th! Thank you all so much, Misti Lloyd & Alison BlankenshipMs. Guy/Ms. Woodard’s Room Parents

2011-10-17T17:59:00.000-05:00

HOMEWORK

Investigations Activity Book: Unit 8: Pages: 14, 21, 25,36,44 Due Friday, Oct. 21!

Miss Guy

Unfortunately, my mom will be having surgery tomorrow and I have to be out!

TOP DOG

Kreston is our TOP DOG this week! What a coincidence...His Grandmother, who used to be a 1st grade teacher is visiting from Michigan as well!! SOO... we were lucky enough to have her come in and read an OLD FAVORITE...The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Not sure why these came out this color BUT since it is RED RIBBON WEEK...and everyone is in red! I'm going with it!

Thank you Mrs. Wells for coming in and reading to us! We all enjoyed hearing one of our favorites!

Kreston is telling us all about what he and his family like to do...Did you know Kreston really likes Hot Dogs?

Hippest in the House

Congratulations to our Hippest in the House recipients...

Sam and Jackson have a lot of INTEGRITY!

2011-10-13T16:54:00.004-05:00

A BUSY BUSY Week

I am going to try and catch up on some blogging...it's been a busy week around here!
No School Monday of course but I met with most of you though! I want to thank you for coming up! I really enjoy getting to know all of you and talking about your special little ones! I am so lucky to have such a sweet sweet bunch of kids.
Tuesday...morning was busy busy...the fifth graders performed some COOL KID songs and SKITS.
After school...SWEET Emily invited me to watch her and her Diamond Sox softball team!

A SWING and a HIT

Ready to RUN the bases...

Emily was all business on First Base
If anyone else has after school activities I can come watch...PLEASE send in a schedule!

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was another BUSY BUSY DAY...we had Istation Assessment, Book Fair and Eat Lunch with a Loved One BEFORE we left for SAFETY TOWN!

Frisco Safety Town Fun

Create your own photo album

The video is almost 5 minutes long!!! ENJOY...I can't wait to see these little pups driving in about 10 YEARS!

Thursday

Today we had some magnet fun!

(Tune “Did You Ever See a Lassie?”)
Did you ever see a magnet,
a magnet, a magnet?
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?
On iron and steel,
Its pull is unreal!
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?
Did you ever see a magnet,
a magnet, a magnet?
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?
A magnet has action,
It’s called an attraction!
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?
Did you ever see a magnet,
a magnet, a magnet?
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?

Are those magnets "attracted to WOOD"?

Look closely and you will see the magnet on the BACK of Logan's hand!

Landon what a TRICK! LOOK no hands!

A magnetic ATTRACTION MESS!

2011-10-13T16:54:00.003-05:00

A BUSY BUSY WEEK CONTINUED...

TOP DOG

Jacob has been our Top Dog this week...another AMAZING role model!

On Tuesday, Jacob shared his all about me poster!

Wednesday, we were not in the classroom long enough to do much of anything...but Jacob has enjoyed being our line leader and lunch room helper all week!

Today was EXTRA special for Jacob. Not only did mom bring SONIC for lunch, we read his special home poem and one of his favorite books: Skippy Jon Jones!

Jacob is lucky...he gets to see his mom everyday (or almost everyday) at school! However, it is a SPECIAL day when they get to have LUNCH together! Look at those smiles!

Jacob with his book and his SPECIAL poem! (and that big smile)

THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR...

BOOK FAIR BOOKS

Our classroom library just got a bit better! You all are amazing! Thank you so much for adding new books to our classroom library! AND...I received a few more after I took the picture!

So...thank you Kennedi (Cam Jansen, A Hippo Ate the Teacher, Silly Milly, Flat Stanley, and Grumpy Cat), Bella (Dolphin Tale), Landon (Green Wilma Frog in Space, Miss Child Has Gone Wild, and Houdini Was...), Addison (We're Going on a Lion Hunt), Emily (Kickers and Hungry Book Club), and Paeton W. (Camilla the Cupcake Fairy)...I cannot wait to read these and add them to our library!

Don't forget tomorrow is SPELLING TEST, BANK, BOOK BUDDIES, ROUND UP and MATH HOMEWORK IS DUE! Show your school spirit...Wear a Robertson Shirt or our Class shirt!

2011-10-11T19:42:00.002-05:00

Homework

Oct. 12-14, 2011

Investigations Activity Book: Unit 8 pg. 5,10,15,17 DUE Friday, October 14, 2011

I will post more tomorrow...after our day at Frisco Safety Town! Let's hope the rain goes away so we can go out and PLAY!!!

2011-10-10T20:08:00.000-05:00

Thank you!

Thank you so much for all of your support today at conferences! I enjoy discussing all of your child's successes!

FIELD TRIP

Field trip to Safety Town is on WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12th! We will leave at 11:20ish. If you are coming with us you may follow the bus or meet us there!

BOOK FAIR

The book fair is OPEN for BUSINESS! Our eat lunch with a loved one is on WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12. Please be here at 10:20 . You will attend the book fair during recess time. Lunch time is 10:50 and it is very important that your child be in there ready to eat so we can leave at 11:20!

2011-10-07T15:31:00.002-05:00

TOP DOG

Taylor brought in a couple of her "friends" today for show and tell!

Thanks, Taylor for being such a GREAT TOP DOG and good role model!

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

Don't forget conferences are on Monday! Like I said yesterday we had hoped to have flash drives and student led conferences ready...BUT it just didn't happen. We will definitely be ready in the spring! SO...kids do not need to be present on Monday...If you have no other option they are welcome to come! Thank you in advance for your patience...We hope to stay right on schedule!

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND...We are having a "Pinterest" Party tonight!

2011-10-06T17:13:00.001-05:00

TOP DOG

Today Taylor's lovely family came and had a YUMMY lunch with her!

Yesterday, Taylor's parents shared the following and Taylor illustrated for us!

My Sweet Taylor

You brighten our day with your beautiful smile and funny laugh.

Your sweet spirit melts our hearts.

Having you around has made our family complete.

We are so proud of how SMART and TALENTED you have become.

As you continue to grow mom and dad want you to know...

We love you and you ALWAYS will be our

Sweet Taylor!

Language Arts
We are working on expanding our sentences.
The boy jumped.
The boy jumped high.
The boy jumped high into the clouds.
The wild boy jumped high into the clouds with bouncy shoes on his feet.

I will be looking for some AMAZING sentences to share with everyone!

Math
We play a guess my temperature game during math time! Well, this week I thought it would be fun to turn it into more of a 20 questions kind of game. And it was amazing to see them apply what they KNOW!!! I love this job...Today I told them the number was BETWEEN 50 and 90. They immediately said, "it can't be 50 or 90 then." So I turned those numbers over. The first question was is it even or odd. I started turning over 51, 53, and heard, "IT'S EVEN!". The next question was does it have 7 tens...(WOW, I was so impressed) I turned over 82 and 62 and everyone shouted, "It's in the 70s." So, we only had 70, 72, 74, 76, and 78 left...the question asked was, "Does it have MORE than 4 ONES?" (IMPRESSIVE) I turned over 74 and immediately they knew it DID have more than 4 ones...Honestly, I can't remember the last question that was asked...I was having so much fun listening to the learning going on! BUT we did get to the correct answer of 78!

It is just so much fun teaching this wonderful group of PUPPIES!
I'm looking forward to talking with you all on Monday about the wonderful successes your child has had so far.
We had hoped to have flash drives ready to go by conferences but...there are some SERIOUS set up processes with some of the drives you all sent in! SOOO....with that being said they will NOT be ready on Monday! :(

2011-10-04T15:29:00.000-05:00

The 31st Day of School

WOW! We are on a ROLL. Two days this week and TWO days of FANTASTIC puppy behavior! Ms. Woodard and I can see so much learning going on and lots and lots of smiles while we learn!!!

HOMEWORK

Tonight a Investigations workbook will be coming home. This will come back to school on Friday with HOMEWORK completed! Homework for this week will be Investigations Activity Book: Unit 7 pg. 1,2,4,6,10,12,13. This is due Friday, October 7, 2011. Please help your little one take care of his/her workbook. This is the only one he/she will receive.

Language Arts

This week we are reading First Grade Here I Come of course there TONS of connections to be made and it is a PERFECT story for retelling. Henry the mouse takes us through his day at school. We will be connecting this story with s.s. and creating our very OWN picture schedule.

Our poem this week as we work on adding DETAILS to our writing:

Fall

Fall is here.

Another year

is coming to an end.

Fall is piles of crunchy leaves

orange, gold, and red.

Fall is football,

Fall is pumpkins,

Fall is where summer ends.

Math

What an amazing day during the math block today! The afternoon FLEW by because there was so much great learning going on!!!

We are extending our learning...not only are we working on our doubles but did you know we are also working on DIVISION! We noticed that if we make two equal groups out of our 12 months we have 6 in each group!!! AND...if we make two equal groups out of the days of the week we have ONE left over...Kind of like Doubles + 1...

Then we read Pigs will be Pigs Fun with Math and Money! The pig family is hungry...but they've already "raided" the refrigerator and there is nothing left!!! Father pig only has a dollar in his wallet. So we had a friend come up with a dollar. But that certainly was NOT enough to buy them all something to eat. So...they all start a HUNT FOR MONEY! Mr. Pig found a 2 dollar bill with his socks. That makes 3. Mrs. Pig found two nickels, (Logan told us he would just get a dime instead) 5 pennies and 1 quarter. We started counting the dollars then the coins. We started with the quarter, looked on our 100's chart and quickly added the dime and then 5 more! WOW!!! Meanwhile the piglets found 6 shiny dimes, a dollar bill and 200 pennies!!! How much do we have now? (We continued to act this story out.) In the end we had 34.67. BUT the pigs each bought the daily special which cost 7.99. We rounded this up to 8.00 and found out their dinner bill was almost 32.00. We paid our bill and had some left OVER!!! WOW...lots of mixed money counting! Once we had 100 cents we knew we could trade that in for a dollar bill! Be sure to try some of this with your little one! We then went to math stations and as I listened in to problem solving today I was impressed at the explanations of how they knew 47, 43, 38 was ordered from Greatest to Least. Almost everyone talked about looking in the 10's place and then the 1's place.

I saw puppies building numbers trading ones for sets of tens and then counting the left overs. (All on their own!)

TOP DOG

Taylor is our TOP DOG this week! She is a hard worker and very good listener! Taylor is a great role model of what all TOP DOG's should be like!

On Monday, Taylor told us all about herself. Can you guess her favorite colors? She also likes the Disney Channel, McDonald's chicken nuggets, soccer and basketball! Not to mention she is FABULOUS!

Today, Taylor brought in one of her favorite Barbie books! She told me it was a tough decision...Barbie or Green Eggs and Ham!

Taylor was excellent at showing the pictures!!! Maybe a future FIRST grade teacher!

Here's a sampling of her story! Thanks for sharing Taylor!

2011-10-01T11:45:00.000-05:00

FUN FRIDAY

It seems crazy to me that when we come back on Monday it will be OCTOBER all ready! I love FALL but it seems like it is such a busy time of the year! I am LOVING this class and team teaching with Ms. Woodard. I think all of the kids benefit from each others strengths as well as two teachers. With that being said...I want everyone to know I HATE missing school...but over the next few months I will have to be out several days. My mom will be having surgery and will need my help throughout the recovery process! However, your child's school life will not/should not be disrupted. We are lucky that Ms. Woodard will be here!

Don't forget Monday is Library Day! Please HELP your child remember to bring it in on Monday. We will not be going to the library as a group (due to Presidential Address AND preparations for BOOK FAIR) however, we would like to get into the routine of having the books here on MONDAY.

Friday, like most days, is BUSY, BUSY. We start our morning making sure we have completed all of our "MUST DO's" in literacy stations. Friday is a day to catch up for those that may have missed something important! For those that are finished with everything they get to go to the literacy stations of their CHOICE and participate in the activities that they most enjoy.
And then it's SPELLING TEST time....I wanted to explain the "grading"...if a child misses NO words and completes the dictation sentence with no errors then they get a check plus plus (SUPER STAR SPELLER), if all words in the list are spelled correctly but there are some errors in the sentence it is a check plus (SUPER SPELLER), if a (1 now with only 5 words)word is missed in the list then it is a check. (Good Job), and if 2 or more are missed in the list then it is a check minus. (Good Try)! We are all striving to be SUPER SPELLERS! Spelling homework suggestions are on the first grade website...Castle Spell A-Lot. These are not required and do not need to be turned into me. You may practice anyway your child enjoys! Example...if you have a little puppy with LOTS of energy I found this suggestion: Put a letter for each word on a post it, post them on a wall in random order (of course), tell your puppy that you are going to play a GAME...you will call out a word and he/she needs to find the letters on the wall and put them in order to spell the word on the WINDOW, DOOR or TABLE, as soon as they have that word spelled correctly you will call out another. Set a timer...See if they can beat their best time! If you have other fun HOMEWORK ideas please share with us!!! Making it interactive is much more fun than just drilling! :)

First Grade has started something new at lunch! Instead of just quiet eating time we have started reading during that time. The whole school is looking for creative ways to add reading time to our day! I am lucky enough to be on lunch duty this week and get to read! (something I LOVE LOVE LOVE to do...well read children's books at least and out loud to first graders) We started this on Thursday...Friday was AMAZING...as I walked around the cafeteria to raised hands...thinking I was going to be opening milks, yogurts, answering questions like...can I go to the bathroom, get a drink...or hearing statements such as...I need a spoon, he's/she's bothering me or I don't like...BUT NO I heard, "when is it going to be quiet time, when are you going to read to us, and can we start quiet time EARLY?" Looks like reading during lunch time will stick around!

Our afternoon goes by SOOO quickly. We do some calendar, make sure we get in some informal assessment of the week and before we know it our 4th grade buddies are knocking at our door! After spending time working on reading and writing with them we get to have Fun Friday. This is a time for our puppies to really work on social interaction with their peers, we work on taking turns, real life problem solving, listening and speaking to each other. And then it's time to PACK UP!

Coins
Counting Coins
This website will allow your child to practice counting like coins as well as mixed coins!
Enjoy!

TOP DOG
I just realized I didn't post Sam's special poem from home!

DearSam,

Thereare so very many ways in which we could describe what an amazing son, brotherand friend you are. We decided we could do so best by using the lettersof your name...

S-S is for your super silly sense of humor. You keep us smiling with your funnyways.

A-A is for your always awesome attitude. You try your best each and everyday.

M - M is for your marvelous,miraculous mind. You blow us away with the things you do and say.

U - U is for the uniqueness thatmakes you who you are. We sure do love the qualities that you display.

E - E is for your endless,enthusiastic energy. You work so hard at both school and play.

L - L is for the love you give us andthat we have for you. May it always surround you, this is what we pray.

Love,

Momand Dad

Sam was a wonderful Top Dog. Thanks to his family for helping make it a wonderful week!

I hope everyone enjoys this BEAUTIFUL weather and their weekend!

2011-09-29T17:16:00.001-05:00

Thursday

Be sure to check your child's folder! There is LOTS of "good" stuff in there today. State Fair tickets, Six Flags Fright Fest coupon, book fair information and School Picture order forms!

BOOK FAIR: We will preview the book fair next Friday with our book buddies. Your child will make a "wish list" bring it home and you all can talk about what can/will be purchased (if anything)! The book fair will be open on Monday (Conference Day) and the rest of that week! On Wednesday, someone may come, take the child to the book fair during recess (10:20-10:50) and then eat lunch with us (10:50-11:20)! Instruction begins at 11:25 so we ask that your child be with us as soon as lunch is over!

We are continuing to make make memories and connect text to ourselves! There has been some great "memory" writing! It's so fun to see the progress only 6 weeks into school! I'm so proud of all the puppies in Pod 2!!!

We have introduced a few new word work activities. Last week we worked on word shapes. This week we introduced rainbow words and price a word!! When we make rainbow words we trace over our spelling words with colors from the rainbow! And price a word allows us to practice coin counting AND number sentence writing and solving!

Now that I am finished with assessments and our work stations are becoming more controlled...AND our guided reading library opens in October...I will be able to get on a more regular Guided Reading schedule! Thank you all for your patience! I can promise you that we are all doing LOTS AND LOTS of reading!

COINS...

we still need some practice recognizing the following coins by name and value ...

Next week we will be asking your child to count like coins as well as mixed coins! So identifying them by name and value is SUPER IMPORTANT! We have several games in our math tubs that are helping with this at school. But in order for it to become automatic PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

We are Getting FRUITY

We are using fruit to explore different properties...Texture, Density and Mass. Day one we explored texture with pineapples, apples, cantaloupes, lemons, limes, peaches, bananas, pears and oranges and grapefruits. Everyone was eager to describe their texture! We noticed that some had the same "bumpy" texture, some were smooth, one was rough and one was even POINTY...how would you describe them?

Well, today...it was time to see which fruits were going to sink and which ones were floaters! We thought we had it all figured out. Our HYPOTHESIS was "the heaviest ones are going to sink and the light ones would float!" OH MY GOODNESS...that darn cantaloupe and that itty bitty lime messed up that hypothesis BECAUSE the cantaloupe FLOATED and the lime SANK to the bottom...several friends wanted to change their prediction but we discussed being wrong is OKAY and that's what Scientist do...they TEST out hypothesis!!!

TOP DOG

Sam switch-a-rooed days today he brought in his show and tell and tomorrow he will have lunch with someone SPECIAL...

!!!HAVE A WONDERFUL EVENING!!!

2011-09-27T18:30:00.000-05:00

Tuesday

Don't forget...we took the spelling pre-test on Monday. Everyone should be studying those words for the test on Friday. It might be a good idea to dictate some sentences using those words. We want them to be able to not only spell them in isolation but in context as well!

Today in writing we brainstormed "linking" words otherwise known as verbs! We now have a circle map posted with lots of words we can use in our writing!

Our reading focus continues to be making connections. We are reading Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge and in this story we find out that an older lady has lost her memory. Wilfrid brings different objects to help her regain her memory. The lady was able to connect to the objects so we went ahead and made some connections as well. We discovered that connections and memories are PERSONAL. They are kind of like snowflakes...no two will be EXACTLY alike!

Don't forget tomorrow your child may bring in an object that creates a memory for them. We will use these items to write about.

SCIENCE all caps because WE LOVE SCIENCE. Today we introduced the word PROPERTIES...When asked what a property was we had a couple of answers...It is where your house is and it is also how something looks, smells, tastes, feels or sounds! "HEY, those are our 5 senses!" Look at those connections being made! We talked specifically about texture today. Texture we found out is the way something feels...however, we wondered if hard, cold or even soft were textures...hmmm what do you think? Then we handed out different kinds of fruit. We were able to look at it and touch it but that was it! We were not smelling, tasting or listening to the fruit today! After our exploration of the fruit... We decided we needed to go back and redefine... Maybe texture for us was how something LOOKS and FEELS...some words we came up with were rough, bumpy, fuzzy, hairy, smooth and pointy! We decided we couldn't really SEE hard, soft or even COLD! What budding scientist we are! We then predicted which fruits would float. We can't WAIT to test it out tomorrow!

TOP DOG

Sam brought in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

This is a picture from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Musical playing at the Dallas Children's Theater! What a coincidence...I was there on Sunday with Jack (8) and Hank (4)! They BOTH LOVED the play. I promised the puppies I would let you all know about it! We have season tickets and have enjoyed introducing the boys to the theater here! This is the link if anyone is interested in seeing this play or others throughout the season! Dallas Children's Theater Rosewood

Please forgive my video skills...I was trying to read, turn the pages and video...

I need to PRACTICE more!

2011-09-27T10:41:00.002-05:00

SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT

Student council is collecting WRAPPED toothbrushes and toothpaste for "OPERATION SCHOOL BELL"!

Please send in a new toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste to help a child that doesn't have one! We talk a lot in our class about doing things that help others! This would be a great way to demonstrate that! Maybe your child could EARN the money needed to buy these items! These items need to be brought in by Oct. 17th!!!

Thank you SOOOO much for your help and support!

2011-09-26T15:23:00.001-05:00

Mixed UP Monday

Today we had to switch specials with our 4th grade buddies. So...we went to specials right before lunch and had recess later in the afternoon! CRAZY...

Library is first thing on Monday morning...please help your child remember his/her book! Remember the safest place to keep it is in the BACKPACK! Then it will always be here on library day. Your child is also welcome to leave it here at school if that is easier. He/she cannot check out new books until the previous week's have been returned!

This week in Language Arts we will be talking about making connections with others and using our memories! More on that tomorrow!

MONEY...we LOVE MONEY

Penny, Penny, easily spent,

Copper brown

And worth one cent.

Nickel, Nickel, thick and fat,

You're worth five

And we know that.

Dime, Dime, little and thin,

We remember--

You're worth ten.

Quarter, Quarter, big and bold,

You're worth twenty-five,

We are told.

Dollar, Dollar, green and long,

Worth one hundred cents,

We can't be wrong!

This week your child will need to be able to identify each of these by name and value! We will be informally assessing this. Please have your child do this for you at home and if they are struggling with it...repeat OFTEN!

TOP DOG

Sam is new to Robertson Elementary! We got to learn more about him today!

STAR WARS is his FAVORITE Movie!

Super Mario Bros is his FAVORITE Game!

He plays soccer...(when his arm isn't in a sling)

2011-09-23T07:39:00.001-05:00

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

I'm sorry I missed uploading this yesterday!

2011-09-22T16:21:00.001-05:00

A WILD and WINDY Thursday!

We have been talking about weather in science! Today we had "extra" friends from Mrs. Williams' class so we made WIND SOCKS. Of course we needed to take them outside and test them out!

We got a taste of some rain while we were out there! What a discovery...it can be windy and rainy, cloudy, sunny or snowy!!!

We have introduced another way to practice and remember our spelling words! WORD SHAPES...We are using ourselves to show TALL letters, small letters and long letters. The chair is our bottom line. We then trace around our words to make sure we are correct! Some friends learn how to spell by the way a word LOOKS!

Way to go SPELLERS!!!

TOP DOG

Just was so lucky this week. Her Dad came to eat with HER and her twin. They got to sit at the parent table and enjoy each others company!

Look at those beautiful SMILES!

Have a wonderful DAY!

2011-09-21T16:20:00.002-05:00

Good Afternoon

WOW! Today was an exceptional morning! We all got a punch for being GREAT writers. We came in and everyone got started. I reviewed the Edit It poster....make sure your paper has your name, the date, picture matches the word, words go from left to right and top to bottom, there are spaces between words and punctuation is used (and used correctly)! I saw a number of our writers check their papers against the poster. I heard students checking each others papers before they had me look at it! AWESOME job little puppies! Independent already! Not only are we editing but we are continuing to improve. Our papers are becoming longer and more fluent. NO MORE short, choppy sentences...We are combining like sentences with and AND using pronouns!

Not only did we ALL get a punch for writers workshop but we WON the cafeteria challenge...we lined up quietly and quickly! Way to go!!! So everyone got 2 punches...some got more of course but what a great day!

TOP DOG

Today our the parents of our Top Dog, Justice, wrote a little something to let us know JUST HOW WONDERFUL Justice is to them!

My Justice

Her name was created for the purpose that she may serve our world in fairness.

Her smile is like the sunshine

So warm that it melts away all sadness

and encourages love.

Her eyes shine light with a glow that

inspires.

Her sweetness is contagious

My justice makes me want to be better each day.

She reminds me of her Mother.

My Justice is LOVE!

Happy Happy Birthday!

2011-09-20T17:28:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Math Homework

We know you all are expecting math homework on Tuesday and Thursday. Our homework usually comes from our math series...however, we do not have those workbooks yet!!! SO...we thought we would post some problems on the blog for your child to complete and return to school the following day! (I understand if this is not possible tonight since I am so late in getting it out!) I will probably set up a homework section either as a page like (all about me, links, classroom needs...) or just a section like "What We Are Learning". BUT for tonight: You may pick 2 out of the 3 to do. Encourage your child to challenge themselves!
There are several ladybugs. The first one has 2 dots, the second has 4 dots. If the pattern continues to 30 how many ladybugs will there be in all?
Justice had 14 necklaces. She bought 9 more. How many does she have now?
Peyton earned 3 stickers on the first day of school. Each day he earned 3 more stickers. How many stickers did he have on the 12th day of school?
CHALLENGE: If you would like to write your own problem to be posted on the blog...give it a try! Make sure you can solve your problem!

TOP DOG

Justice brought in one of her favorite books to share with all of us today!

Reading Mini Lesson

We had such fun today during our reading mini lesson. It's always a GREAT day when students initiate really amazing discussions. I love "hearing" their thinking! Yesterday we read My Very Big Little World. We made some good connections about the parents having jobs that produce some NEEDS of ours. Dad is a baker. He bakes bread which we need HOWEVER he also bakes cakes and cookies that we do not NEED as one friend pointed out! And Mom is a dentist. We decided that our health is something that we all need! So today we sorted or classified some pictures on our tree map. NEEDS WANTS and CANNOT DECIDES! Those cannot decides sparked lots of conversation! Some of them were meat, fish, a veggie garden, television and telephones! Some thought meat was a need but then we found out that some people don't eat meat at all...hmmmm we came to the conclusion that if we had had a card that said food it would DEFINITELY be a need. The ones that I found very interesting were the T.V. and Telephone. The pups immediately said those were NEEDS. When we asked them to explain why they classified it as a need one said you need the t.v. to watch the weather. Another student said and I quote, "a telephone is needed to communicate information to others!" WOW such great thinkers. And BOY am I OLD...Because my first thought was these are only WANTS...I can live without them BUT I think the discussion today may have swayed me to the other side. However, we kept them in the Cannot Decide Category!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE learning with your children each and every day! What a great bunch of PUPPIES!!!

Yesterday we did celebrate Landon's birthday!

2011-09-20T16:58:00.002-05:00

GOOD AFTERNOON

Just a heads up...I am a "soccer antie" on Mondays. SOOO I need to leave school at about 4:30 on these days which make it difficult to update the blog the way I would like to!!! I hope you all understand...My bubbas are precious to me and I want to spend as much time as I can with them!

MONDAY

This week our poem is Rain !

Monday mornings are often a busy time!

We have really gotten into our authentic journal writing! The puppies come in and get right to work. At 8:30 we head off to the library!

BUT yesterday we started our practice spelling...Every Monday your child will take a pretest.(Once we start first grade words...2nd 9 weeks those who get all of the words correct on Monday will get an additional set of CHALLENGE WORDS) He or she will study these words through out the week here at school and hopefully at home. On Friday, we will take the final test. The final test (2nd 9 weeks) will consist of the 10 spelling words 2 bonus words and a dictation sentence as well as the 5 challenge words for those who received a 100% on Monday.

Mrs. Biamonte read a story called Chalk. It is a 2X2 book. We will try to read all of these this year! This book was a special book! It was a wordless picture book! Ask your children to retell the story! (Some children find some chalk at the playground on a rainy day. They start to draw beautiful things!!! Including the sun. THOSE things come to life. One decides to draw a SCARY dinosaur. The children get scared and run to hid in one of the playground tubes. Mrs. Biamonte asked how our kids thought they could get rid of the dinosaur. And sure enough someone answered ERASE the dinosaur. However, the kids were not near the drawing.. So the little boy draws rain inside of the tube! Sure enough the dinosaur started to "melt" away.) WE then got to draw with chalk. Although it was not "magic" chalk...We had lots of fun!

When we returned from library we started our Daily 5 with a reading mini lesson. We read My Very Big Little World. We revisited the purpose for reading. In this story we were able to make some connections to ourselves and our world.

Math time brought us to ODD and EVEN. We have been singing about odd and even numbers for quite some time. MOST of us can name all the odd and even numbers...BUT today was the day...to find out what even and odd ACTUALLY meant. When I asked what does it mean when we say a number is even some answers were, "2, 4, 6,", "counting by twos", "when the last digit is a 0,2,4,6,8" all good answers but then...someone said, "It's when a number has a twin or a PAIR!" YAY for coming up with a wonderful definition!

TOP DOG

Top dog started this week! Thanks to everyone for getting all about me posters back and doing such a GREAT job! We are looking forward to "meeting" your child throughout the year!

Our TOP DOG IS.....

Justice told us all about herself. She is a TWIN (I guess that makes her EVEN)! She has two other sisters as well! She loves pizza, dressing up and playing soccer! Her favorite destination vacation is DISNEY! (She is a sweet, sweet princess!)

2011-09-16T15:11:00.001-05:00

College Week...

comes to an end!

Thank you very much for reminding us JUST how important being a mom is!!!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Our class t-shirts have ARRIVED! If you have not sent in your 8.00 please do so ASAP! Our class color is pink this year!

2011-09-15T16:04:00.001-05:00

BUSY BUSY DAY

We started our day with our daily writing! Check out our two friends that are applying mini lessons to their independent writing!

AWE SOME job Sam and Addison! Thank you for sharing with us!!

We are talking about putting words in alphabetical order in the word work station. We are FOCUSED on putting words in order by the FIRST letter...

but we have some SMART PUPPIES in here that are ready to move on to alphabetizing to the SECOND letter! WOO HOO...

COLLEGE WEEK

We didn't have JUST one guest speaker today BUT two!

Mr. Rotz came in early this morning and shared with us all the FUN things a financial adviser gets to do do!

He told us he gets to work with MONEY...We all made a quick connection.

Mr. Rotz graduated from University of North Texas with a degree in Business Finance! He told us you can become a financial adviser, work in a bank, or even be a stock broker!

THANK YOU so much for coming in and sharing what you do!

This afternoon Mrs. Lemons came to visit us!

Can you guess what she does?

She works in an orthodontist's office. She went to Texas Tech and majored in Music and then went back to school to learn about BRACES!

She talked to us about the difference between an orthodontist and a dentist. She emphasized the importance of keeping our teeth clean when we have braces. She brought some COOL COOL teeth models for us to look at AND a bag full of goodies!

THANK YOU for the goodie bag and sharing your career with us!

celebrating our BRIGHT futures

and Coach B's birthday!

Coach you are a STAR!

The best reason to celebrate with Coach B is because he's

EMILY's DAD!

Have a wonderful evening!

2011-09-14T17:14:00.000-05:00

It's Robertson Elementary's Fund Raiser at Baskin Robbins in Little Elm! Everyone ENJOY...I think I just may have to have a scoop of peanut butter/chocolate! mmmm YUMMMO

Mr. Burgess

Today Mr. Burgess came in and talked to our class!!

We learned about what he does. Did you know that it takes a lot of computers "talking together" to make businesses run? Well...it does and that is what Mr. Burgess does. He works with the computers making sure they are communicating properly with one another to run a bunch of hotels. He told us he went to college to learn about how computers communicate (because...you know they don't talk like you and I)!

Mr. Burgess decided he wanted to be a leader within his business...so he went back to school. He told us to be a leader he needed even more education! I know that there are some GREAT present and future leaders in our classroom!

THANK YOU Mr. Burgess for coming into our class today! We really enjoyed it!

The DAILY 5

We are really working on our fluency in read with a partner! The kids are practicing and then using photo booth to record/video themselves. They can then play it back and do a little self assessing. I noticed lots of students pointing out errors and self correcting! YIPPEEEEE

We are currently working on writing 3 good sentences on topic. Last week we talked about each sentence had to have the same subject...we picked some "connecting words" (verbs) and then added the details. This week we started talking about using pronouns and compound predicates to make our writing more interesting! Some students gave it a go and some still didn't feel 100% comfortable with all of that! HOT DIGGITY DOG we are all great writers!

Problem Solvers

A BRIGHT FUTURE

Don't forget to wear your sunglasses tomorrow!

2011-09-13T15:46:00.002-05:00

WOWZIE...can you say SCHEMA!

Yesterday we started talking about schema. What in the world? Such a crazy word for a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds! Since we are talking about our community in social studies...what better way to introduce schema as well!

We started with our "defining in context" circle map! I asked the students to tell me all the things they might find in their community! LOOK what we came up with. I asked them how they knew these places and things were in our community...WE know because we have visited them, or see them....But we are not at Kroger right now. I don't see a stop sign or the Little Elm Beach! I kind of got some blank stares!!! Finally, we came up with we REMEMBER those things in our BRAIN!!! So, we talked about our brain being a BIG OLE filing cabinet...and our community is just ONE file stored in there. Once we open that file and start using our memory and making connections it is called SCHEMA!

Not everyone has the same schema we found out! Mr. Blankenship had mentioned Dubai in his presentation earlier in the morning. Because of that we all knew that the tallest building in the world was there...but that was about it! Ms. Woodard and Ms. Guy knew a little bit more about it. So our schema was different from the rest of the class! After reviewing a little it was TEST time! And listen to this...

College Week

(or we could call it furthering education week)

Today we recognized Lone Star High School with our silver and blue! So...I dug out my MAROON AND ORANGE!!! I attended William Byrd High School in Vinton, VA...
GO TERRIERS!

Mr. Blankenship
The Chemist

He talked to us about making cement! We all thought that cement was what we walked on outside! Guess what we were wrong! That is called concrete. We found out...that when cement and water are mixed there is a chemical reaction that happens and causes the cement to get hard!

Mr. Blankenship showed us this picture of the "elements"! He compared it to Legos...But I think I got lost about here because I don't remember much else except that some of our necklaces are made of the element gold! (Sorry...good thing I didn't want to try and be a Chemist that first year at HPU!)

Sam's dad also brought in samples of the different materials used in making cement. I think everyone was surprised that rock could be melted!

The model bulldozer was a HUGE hit! We found out that the one they use us as tall as our school and weighs more than some of our dads (as your children were quick to point out)!

We had a BUNCH of good listeners! We really enjoyed looking at all of the materials

Mr. Blankenship brought in to share with us!

Thank You

2011-09-12T15:40:00.001-05:00

Okay...someone crafty...WE need this in our classroom in Pink and Brown PLEASE!

Gotta love the stuff you find on Pinterest!

2011-09-12T15:18:00.000-05:00

Calling all Dads!

On Thursday, September 15,2011 at 7:00 p.m. we will be having our 2^nd annual WATCHD.O.G.S. kickoff meeting.

WATCH D.O.G.S. is an innovative program being used by schools acrossAmerica which helps them to be positively impacted by the committed involvementof fathers and father-figures in their student’s life. Our goal is tohave you spend at least one day this year at the school to be a positive malerole model and to help promote a safe and positive school environment.

Dads, granddads, uncles,step-dads and adult brothers. . . . this is your chance to have a night outalone with your Robertson student in a fun atmosphere at school!

College Week

This week we are recognizing the importance furthering ones education!

I started my college career at High Point University (then it was College). I grew up in a house of educators. My mom was a 4th grade teacher and my dad was a football coach, P.E. teacher, math teacher and shop teacher! So...from a very young age I KNEW I would become a teacher. BUT once I got out on my own...I decided I wanted to be an accountant! OOOPS I didn't know you needed to know how to balance a check book!!! I soon dropped all those classes associated with accounting and put myself back where I belonged! Elementary Education! My freshman year was lots of fun. I pledged the best sorority EVER...

and made the cheerleading squad. However, I became very homesick and after my sophomore year I transferred closer to home.

Radford University soon became my home. I had finished all my general courses and was ready to TEACH! Or so I thought...I spent the next 3 years at Radford (sister school to Virginia Tech)!
Having gone to Radford to be closer to home...my family soon moved to Georgia...should have stayed in North Carolina.
I will dig up pictures from WAAAAYYY back to recognize College week and share more later!

Mr. Kidd was our first College Week Presenter!

He got us all started with something we ALL like...MONEY...This is how much you can make by graduating from High School...BUT...

This is HOW much you can make if you graduate from College!

Mr. Kidd showed us plans for the building of a PIZZA HUT...that got ALL of our ATTENTION!
He talked to us about how much math he has to use on a daily basis.

Thank you so much for encouraging us to do our homework and to become life long learners!

Have a wonderful evening!

2011-09-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

Our comprehension focus this week is retelling. We are reading The Napping House by Audrey Wood. After reading the book we decided a flow map would be the best map to use to sequence the beginning middle and end of the book. You can see that our "map" is color coded to help us remember what happened and when! The first person has the HARDEST job!!! He/she has to remember to tell us about the setting as well as what the first character is doing! We had LOTS of fun! Retelling is a VERY important part of our guided reading lessons and DRA 2 assessments. Please help your little pup remember to retell stories that you all read at home!

Look at our LLP (Listening, Learning, Position)! Folders under our pockets, hands in our laps and bubbles in our mouths! MODEL PUPPIES! We love them so much!!!

Oh...how we LOVE Daily 5. At read with a partner we continue to practice reading out loud. We really like trying out our "funny" voices! Can you tell what voice Landon and Sam are using...And Jackson and Miss Guy? Be sure to try it at home some of our favorite voices are cowboys, pirates and of course TEACHER voice!

The girls are illustrating their poem for their poetry folder!

In the word work station we continue to work with the alphabet, the sounds the letters make and how to manipulate them into words we can read! As you can see there are a number of kids working at word work...But EVERYONE is working on something meaningful to them and on their learning level! LOOK everyone is on TASK! We LOVE authentic learning!

Jackson wanted to share his writing station circle map! We read A My Name is Alice! We noticed so many cool things in this book...It is sequenced in alphabetical order. Each page is a little story about two animals that begin with the letter, their names begin with the letter AND they live somewhere that starts with the letter, as well as, SELL something that starts with the SAME letter! We decided it might be fun to write our OWN "tongue twister" using alliteration! This is how we are starting our process....we are brainstorming (on a circle map of course) everything we can think of that starts with the same sound as the first sound in our name! Once we are finished we will post the final product! HOW FUN...we are excited about Friday!

Mrs. O'Hearn our guidance counselor made her first visit to the Diggity Dog Room! The first thing she said, "NO NAME GAME IN HERE!" too many people! Lots of groans...She did get to meet our new friends though!

Mrs. O'Hearn will come to our classroom about twice a month! We always look forward to our time with her!

Yesterday!

Well, since I took the night off last night to get my fingers and toes done...I thought I should catch up! We have started our problem solving journal! Miss Woodard and I are loving all of the great thinking that is going on! Many of you may remember UPS check...WELL...this year we will not be REQUIRING they use this method for problem solving. However if a student chooses to use the four square method that is fine too! Miss Woodard and I are overwhelmed with the amount of thinking we are "seeing and hearing" from our little puppies!

Problem of the day...There are 8 children sitting on a bench. Each child has 2 eyes. How many eyes are there?

Mia's strategy was to draw a picture! Way to go MIA!

Ethan thought making a table would be a great way to find the answer! WOWZIE!

Emily went ahead and used the UPS check! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that she shows us repeated addition. My friend that wanted to learn multiplication! LOOK we are getting you READY for it!!!

This blog is to allow you to be a part of your child's first grade year! Miss Woodard and I are loving each and every day with your children. We realize we get to spend more time with them each day than you do! So PLEASE take a moment each day to talk about what is going on in the classroom...and CELEBRATE all of their accomplishments. They will only be a first grader for a short time! Thank you for sharing them with us! Enjoy your evening!

2011-09-06T18:20:00.002-05:00

Wait...it's the END of Tuesday already! The week is flying by! Having a long weekend was great...but I sure did miss my little puppies! We had a FULL day today. The morning flew by...We made our FIRST visit to the library! Everyone was excited.

Listing to a story on the "steps" is ALWAYS more fun than sitting on the classroom floor!

Mrs. Biamonte asked how many of us were new to Robertson! We had a lot of hands go up!!!

We talked about what we KNEW about pirates. There were a lot of GREAT answers...but my favorite was..."they say ARRRRGGGHHH"! Miss Madeline made the perfect pirate face and had a wonderful pirate voice! I only wish I had had my camera on THEN!!!

Mrs. Biamonte then read to us! At this point I ran back to the classroom (which is on the OTHER side of the building or so it seems when I'm in a hurry) to get the camera...so unfortunately I missed the pirate story...Ask your little one about it though!

Since it was our first visit Mrs. Biamonte went over some important library rules:
1. Bring your book back ON TIME. We will go to the library regularly on Monday mornings!
2. Keep your books SAFE. Keep them in your backpack if you are not reading it! This will also help you remember to return it ON TIME.

Then it was on to SHELF MARKERS!!! Mrs. Biamonte showed us how to put the shelf marker in RIGHT beside the book we want to look at. Then Mrs. Yake came over and helped us all practice with the shelf markers before setting us FREE!

What a FUN time in the library. Please practice your child's ID number. This is the number they log into the computer, check out library cards AND buy lunch with! It will follow them as long as they are enrolled in a FISD school! (Kind of important to know!)

All About Me Poster

Just in case the instructions didn't make it home! If NOTHING made it home please let me know so I can get you the right size poster board! (It must fit on our Top Dog board!)

Don't forget...short sides are on TOP and BOTTOM!

Have a wonderful evening! Miss Weinke is sitting here waiting on me to finish so we can go EAT! (We did just walk 3 miles! LOL)

2011-09-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Happy Birthday

Kreston!

The Birthday BOY!

Our first school celebrated birthday! Thank you Kreston for sharing cupcakes with ALL of us! They were YUMMY!

Read with a Partner

The girls were having lots of fun!

The Daily 5

We have almost completed a week of the Daily 5! We seem to be following the expectations and procedures pretty well! What a great bunch of puppies!

"TOP DOG"

Tomorrow your child will come home with a manila poster board a letter to you and expectations! On this poster board you will be creating an All About Me (your 1st grader) poster. This is a FAMILY project.

I am attaching a couple of pictures...Please make sure your child's poster is ready to hang VERTICAL (short sides at top and bottom)

Nice job!

Curriculum Night

I am unable to attach the power point to the blog (or at least I can't figure out how)! So...I will make sure it is on the First Grade Website:

http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/Robertson_1st/

and/or email it out!

Have a wonderful evening!

2011-08-31T17:58:00.000-05:00

The middle of WEEK TWO. I am just amazed at how fast things are moving already! We continue to get into a routine. We are getting really good at unpacking, writers' workshop and Daily 5! However, we continue to work on STAMINA...after lunch we have quite a few that try to "check out"! But I have seen a big improvement over the first couple of days! Be sure to talk with your child about the word stamina. We use that in our daily conversations!

Today we switched up our reading mini lesson! WOW the kids noticed right away that we were NOT reading for fun today! I read My Five Senses. They noticed that I did not have my "silly lips" on...I was reading more slowly, and I was EVEN taking notes on things I really wanted to remember. We reviewed what reading for FUN sounded like and then we brainstormed what my purpose for reading might have been today! It sure didn't take long for one of the pups to come up with "TO LEARN"!

Our writing continues to improve! Look at these multiple sentences! I love the way Jacob experimented with talking in his writing!

Funny story, I picked the kids up in the cafeteria this morning...Emily was first in line and the ENTIRE way to the classroom she told me all about her adventure to"Mr. Gade"! We came into the classroom and it was time to write! Emily came up to me and said, "I don't have anything to write about!" That made me laugh! Sweet Emily is rarely without words!

Today was the FIRST day Ms. Woodard and I were able to sit down and do small math groups! YIPPEEE this means that math stations are starting to run smoothly! I am SOO proud of all the kids...It definitely is NOT quiet in here but there is A LOT of learning going on! Yesterday, our mini lesson focused on ordinal numbers. In our small group today the students were asked when they might need to use ordinal numbers: the days in a month, the way we finish a race and what grade we are in were all GREAT answers...We then cut out the ordinal number WORDS and glued them in our math journal in "grade" order. One of my friends noticed kindergarten didn't have one...So we decided we would call them ZERO the HEROES! After gluing them in we talked about what number we thought about when we heard or read the word first. Everyone knew it was 1, but we didn't think 1 grade sounded good so we need to add the "st"! We moved on to 2nd and 3rd...it was not long before everyone caught on we needed to add the last two letters from the word to the end of the number! HOT DIGGITY DOG we are some smart PUPPIES! Here is an EXCELLENT example of what our finished journal entry looked like today...(Thanks Sam)

Reminders: Tomorrow is Curriculum Night! We will meet in POD 1 at 7:00. We will sign up for Oct. 10th parent/teacher conferences! We have a power point presentation and then we will take questions! (I just hope I have some answers...please be nice!)

Have a wonderful evening! Thank you for your continued support and for sharing your little one with US!

2011-08-30T17:08:00.002-05:00

Good Afternoon!
I would like to welcom Miss Anna R. to our classroom. She helped balance out numbers and comes to us from Mrs. C. Williams! We look forward to having a new friend!

Well...The past two days our purpose for reading has been for FUN! We have noticed some things about "how" we read when we are reading just for fun! Our voice sometimes changes, we may get louder or softer, the speed of our reading also changes! We also have observed when we use EXPRESSION to read for fun our audience often giggles, interacts and enjoys the story! We have been reading King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood.

We have been having a lot of FUN! It has a repeating phrase which allows us all to participate! "King Bidgood's in the bathtub, and he won't get out! Oh, who knows what to do?" Today when I read the book I read very monotone. The students noticed right away that there were NO GIGGLES and the book was not very fun...because I wasn't using "funny voices"! So...we talked about quotation marks and how I need to make my voice different when I see those! We practiced by reading the following: (maybe your family can take a part and practice too!)

"Help! Help!" cried the girl when the dinner was served. "King Dan's in the bathroom, and won't come out. I don't know what to do!"

"Don't worry," cried the Prince when the lights were low. "Hey, Dad, it's time to eat."

"No worries my son, I'm on my way." "I don't want dinner in the tub!"

After our mini lesson I saw many students applying this new focus in their own reading! I heard some reading with expression... (I really hope this video works!!!)

Not only did I hear some expression today but I also had several friends start to notice speech bubbles and talking marks in the books that they were reading! Boy is it going to be fun to add those to our writing as well!

As promised I took some pictures of the writing station today! We are writing our First Grade Favorites. I will share a couple...Parents, do you know your child?

Who wrote this?

Is this your child?

Anna is busy writing "tortulene" as her favorite food!

After lunch it was math and science time! We introduced some new math stations today.

Clear the Board.

Data Collection and Organization

Clear the Board: We start with 5 cubes and place them anywhere on our board. Then we take turn rolling two dice or die ( never get that right!) We have to add the two together...IF we have a cube on that number we can take it off! If not it's OKAY and the next person's turn! This goes on until someone clears their board!
Data Collection and Organization: We have several questions to answer...collect the data (tallies) then organize that data on our graph and complete some statements about our graph!

Here is a quick overview of math time!

After math we watched a power point about Science Journal EXPECTATIONS. We are all so excited to start Science...COMING SOON...

Behavior Chart

We've had some questions about our behavior chart/colors/consquences and rewards!

I thought I would address that today!

All of you have (or should have seen) your child's behavior calendar. All of first grade uses a color system. Every child starts on green each morning and green is equal to 5 WOW bucks. If your child has repeated an undesirable behavior after several warnings he/she will be asked to move their clip to purple. Purple is a warning and is equal to 4 WOW bucks. If your child continues with this behavior or another he/she will move clip to blue. Blue is equal to 3 WOW bucks...Green, Purple and Blue are all within the "normal" first grade behavior continuum...However, once they start getting to Yellow, Orange or Red...the behaviors have become too frequent or severe. Yellow is 2 WOW bucks, Orange is 1 WOW buck and unfortunately if your child ends his or her day on Red there will be 0 WOW bucks for that day. In the behavior folder you can also see that there are consequences for each color. We try very hard to make our classroom a positive one! We realize that there are students that may NEVER have to move their clip...and some that may move it daily! In first grade we do not allow students to "earn" a color back. However, we do not want a child to feel DEFEATED if they have moved it! And we also want those who never move it to be rewarded as well. Therefore, this year we have gone to the "punch card" when we see your child doing something GREAT we award them a punch. These are recorded as + however many punches they got that day in their behavior folder. (When a child fills his/her punch card he or she will recieve 20 WOW bucks) So...all those pluses you see in your child's folder are a GOOD THING! We will have a WOW BUCKS SUPER STORE 1-2 Fridays a month. The other Fridays will be BANK days (your child will need to count bucks and "trade them in for the least amount of bills) Look at the math!!!

Have a wonderful evening! As always...if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me! I absolutely love our 45 puppies!!! We are off to a WONDERFUL start!

2011-08-29T18:06:00.008-05:00

Good afternoon! Starting the 2nd week of school ALREADY...Hard to believe! I'm sorry I never added any pictures from "Fun Friday" last weekend but the weekend just went by way to fast!!

Inside recess...small block play!

LEGOS...always a big hit!

Free drawing!

Computer time!

Big block play!

Building together!

Mr. Creative!

How tall can we get it!

Free draw!

Look, Miss Guy...We built a WALL!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Today we introduced all FIVE of our language workstations! Your child will be going to 5 stations each day (or almost each day)...They will work at independent levels in the Read-to-self library, read-to-partner poetry or big books, writing, word work and listening!

Word Work: using the word wall to practice our K
word wall words. Stamping and white boards.

Listening: CDs and nook.

IPad 2!

Read with a Partner: poetry

Read to Self in the Doghouse!

I will be sure to take pictures of writing tomorrow!

This afternoon we worked in math workstations and built on what we were doing last week!

We are comparing/ ordering and looking at place value!

Reminders: Flash Drives and T-shirt money!

We would like to welcome Anna R. to our classroom. She is joining us from Mrs. C. Williams room in order to balance out numbers!

Have a great evening!

2011-08-25T16:32:00.000-05:00

Well…today not only was I tired but the puppies were tired as well! I think it’s beginning to hit everyone that we are back to school! We do seem to still be having a lot of fun overall though!

This morning…can you believe it??? Our writing is STILL improving! I had several friends write MORE than one good sentence! When I helped put punctuation in the right spots their little eyes were so big! It’s so amazing to see that light bulb go on! (the reason I LOVE this job so much) We had several people share. It’s not easy to find anyone that HASN’T included the setting, their characters and an event! YIPPEEE!

Today we read Officer Buckle and Gloria. A little background…Since day one I have been talking about our classroom being a safe place much like a family. We don’t have to be best friends but we have to look out for one another. Well…if you’ve ever read Officer Buckle and Gloria at the end Tip number 101 is Stick with your buddy (help them out…look out for them)…So, I asked, “What do you think Tip number 101 might be? Always look out for….?” And one little one shouted BANANAS! And sure enough another one said, “Yeah the peels so you don’t slip!” Well…needless to say GREAT answer…not quite the one we were looking for but it made our day!

We had to watch the bus evacuation video today and will have our drill on Sept. 6. We all enjoy practicing the backdoor exit!

We introduced two new math stations today! Build a number and show me how many! Math time can get a bit loud but Ms. Woodard and I are extremely proud of how well everyone is staying on task!

We continued setting up our science notebook today. We added the definition of a scientist to our picture of ourselves as a scientist! And then WOW it was already specials time!

Don’t forget tomorrow is SPIRIT FRIDAY…if your child has a Robertson shirt BE SURE TO WEAR IT! If he or she does not there are lots for sale in the main office!

2011-08-24T16:54:00.002-05:00

We are over the first hump! Another good day in 405-406! Our day started with a little writing! We continue to focus on characters, settings and event! I really am enjoying watching the kids apply our mini lessons to their individual work! What great learners! After writing we had an opportunity to share our writing! So…now we are learning that we are writing for an audience. It is very important that we make sure our sentence matches our picture, we use our very best handwriting and we include all important elements of our sentence!

I like you too, Thatcher!

I love the invented spelling! Great job on scavenger!
Look at the detail in this picture. She is holding a "magnifying
glass so that I can see the ants more clearly!"

I played with my army guys! We learned that guys is JUST like
Miss "GUY"! (and it's on the wall)

We continue talking about books that fit just right! I introduced the I pick good fit books strategy!!! I look at a book, Purpose, Interest, Comprehend, Know most of the words! We reviewed the 3 ways to read books and then discussed what the students in Read to Self should look like and sound like as well as what the teacher should be doing! Then all 44 of us practiced read to self and the I pick strategy! We did a pretty good job!!! After reading it was time to go to the cafeteria (for practice), recess and lunch!

During math today we had our FIRST LOST TOOTH. Jackson was able to add the first tally of the year and got to take home the tooth fairy bag. What an exciting time! We continued to practice workstations. Today we introduced a matching game and added that into the rotation. We had to stop workstations a couple of times to go over what station time would sound like but once we reviewed we were good to go!

The students are reflecting on the different ways numbers
were represented in our memory game.

Today in science we drew ourselves as scientist in our science journal! And believe it or not…it was then time to pack up, eat snack and go to specials! We went to ART today!

A few reminders: 1. Flash Drives due ASAP 2. Field trip t-shirt money 8.00 due ASAP (Safety Town is coming up!) 3. Google Doc forms due! I will resend these this weekend to those I have not received them from!

I hope your children are enjoying school as much as I am! This is a FUN group of kids! I am looking forward to spending the next 170 plus days with them! Thanks again for sharing them with me!

2011-08-23T17:43:00.000-05:00

First Grade is "DOGGONE" fun!
front: M. Willams, Woodard, C.Williams
back: Boor, Guy, Corley, Davis