From Beckah:
We read a book. It was called The Wednesday Surprise.
From Mrs. Clough:
Wow! Feels like forever ago that I last posted, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break, had full bellies, and had lots of good times with family! I certainly did and before you know it, it will be time for Winter break! :)
Monday I was gone at a meeting, hence no blog post; and the last two days I was home sick with a flu bug! Ugh! It certainly has been going around school and everywhere, I think!
To give everyone a quick update on what we have been working on this week since being back from break:
Math-We are working on different strategies and problems that require us to skip count by 2's, 5's, and 10's.
Shared Reading-We are continuing with working on inferring ("You take your background knowledge and your clues from the text, you put 'em together and you just infer!") and this week we read the book Baloney which the kids really enjoyed, and as Beckah mentioned, we read The Wednesday Surprise.
Social Studies-We are going to be wrapping up our maps unit. I have a special culminating event planned for the beginning of next week, so stay tuned!
I hope that the packets I sent home before break were helpful and that your child chose to work on it a bit! :) I will do the same again, at Christmas break time with some new activities.
A few reminders:
-Please send your child's holiday tradition page back to school (the red construction paper that went home before break). We want to begin discussing our holiday traditions before we begin our unit on Christmas Around the World. Please send them back as soon as possible.
-Wednesday December 5th is an Early Release at 1:40pm for teacher inservice
Thanks for stopping by!
Mrs. Clough
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
A little late, but better than never!
From Libby:
Mrs. Clough is reading a new Junie B. Jones Thanksgiving book.
From Connor:
We had good PE and Music. Recess was good. We got a 1 at recess so it was a really good day.
From Mrs. Clough:
WOW! First I want to apologize...I am a few days behind in the blog. Things have been crazy busy around here with conferences, birthday parties, and Thanksgiving activities!
I will leave you with a few reminders, and that final picture of our Feathers Full of Thanks turkey that we did last week.
1. Packets of activities and ideas to do over break in reading, spelling, and math will be coming home today to keep those "brain juices" flowing when the kids are away from school!
2. Cookie Dough fundraiser order forms are DUE (as of yesterday). If you have not sent your child's back yet, please do so next Monday.
3. There is a special project being assigned to do over break. Look for that in your child's take home folder tonight. They may work on the project over break and bring it back next Monday.
4. Cold weather is coming and I believe it will be here to stay. Please make sure your child comes to school with a warm winter coat, gloves, hat, etc. If you need help purchasing such items, please feel free to contact me or anyone else here at Starry.
5. December 5th is an early release at 1:40pm for teacher inservice.
Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!!!
Mrs. Clough
Mrs. Clough is reading a new Junie B. Jones Thanksgiving book.
From Connor:
We had good PE and Music. Recess was good. We got a 1 at recess so it was a really good day.
From Mrs. Clough:
WOW! First I want to apologize...I am a few days behind in the blog. Things have been crazy busy around here with conferences, birthday parties, and Thanksgiving activities!
I will leave you with a few reminders, and that final picture of our Feathers Full of Thanks turkey that we did last week.
1. Packets of activities and ideas to do over break in reading, spelling, and math will be coming home today to keep those "brain juices" flowing when the kids are away from school!
2. Cookie Dough fundraiser order forms are DUE (as of yesterday). If you have not sent your child's back yet, please do so next Monday.
3. There is a special project being assigned to do over break. Look for that in your child's take home folder tonight. They may work on the project over break and bring it back next Monday.
4. Cold weather is coming and I believe it will be here to stay. Please make sure your child comes to school with a warm winter coat, gloves, hat, etc. If you need help purchasing such items, please feel free to contact me or anyone else here at Starry.
5. December 5th is an early release at 1:40pm for teacher inservice.
Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!!!
Mrs. Clough
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Feathery Tuesday!
Hello Everyone!
No class blogger today as she was sick today, so it's just me again! We had another very busy day with lots going on! I will share a few pictures to go through our day.
One of our big projects today was to come up with a list of what we are thankful for. As a class we made a list of about 36 things that we are thankful for and discussed why. This is seemingly appropriate as Thanksgiving is FAST approaching! After we made our list of things we are thankful for, the kids each chose 3 things they are thankful for and why, and then wrote each thing on a turkey feather. After school tonight I pieced together our turkey and it is now on display in the hall for parents to see at conferences. I aimed to stress to the kids how lucky we are and that in parts of our state, country, and all around the world, many people do not have the same things we do and that we often take things for granted. Many of the kids had never heard that phrase before, so we talked about what that means too! :) I love our turkey feathers full of thanks and hope you will too, when you come for conferences! (Look for a picture of the completed project, in tomorrow's post)
No class blogger today as she was sick today, so it's just me again! We had another very busy day with lots going on! I will share a few pictures to go through our day.
One of our big projects today was to come up with a list of what we are thankful for. As a class we made a list of about 36 things that we are thankful for and discussed why. This is seemingly appropriate as Thanksgiving is FAST approaching! After we made our list of things we are thankful for, the kids each chose 3 things they are thankful for and why, and then wrote each thing on a turkey feather. After school tonight I pieced together our turkey and it is now on display in the hall for parents to see at conferences. I aimed to stress to the kids how lucky we are and that in parts of our state, country, and all around the world, many people do not have the same things we do and that we often take things for granted. Many of the kids had never heard that phrase before, so we talked about what that means too! :) I love our turkey feathers full of thanks and hope you will too, when you come for conferences! (Look for a picture of the completed project, in tomorrow's post)
In math today we further explored the concepts of even and odd and worked to define an even number and an odd number.
In social studies we learned about birdseye view and map symbols. We will continue with these map skills tomorrow.
A few important reminders:
-Report Cards went home TONIGHT! Please check your child's take home folder/backpack. Please look it over before coming to your scheduled conference!
-Early Release TOMORROW 1:40pm
-Conferences Thursday November 15th 4-8pm. Check your scheduled time!
-Early Release MONDAY Nov. 19th and Conferences 2-6pm
-NO SCHOOL next Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday
Have a great night!
Mrs. Clough
Monday, November 12, 2012
Busy Week!
Hello Everyone!
No class blogger today as we had a birthday party to end the day (Happy Birthday Philip!). We missed the last Thursday and Friday blog posts, so I will get you caught up!
Math-We finished up our last bit of work with story problems with known numbers and unknown numbers and have begun exploring the concept of even and odd numbers. Today we talked about pairing students in our class and making teams with a given number of students and if it would work to even out. We will continue with this concept tomorrow!
Shared Reading-We officially ended our focus on making connections and building our schema last week and tomorrow we will begin making inferences and will continue to do so through December. Just as a quick explanation-inferences are when you, "take your background knowledge and the clues from the text, you put them together and you just infer!". We will learn this chant tomorrow and drill it into our brains over the course of the next month to go along with all of the different stories to teach inferencing and activities we complete, so stay tuned!
Social Studies-Continuing our work with maps...tomorrow we will focus on birdseye view and the compass rose!
Writing-tomorrow we will be working on writing things that we are thankful for (as Thanksgiving is soon approaching). Look for a big turkey in the hallway on Thursday displaying our feathers of thanks! :)
A few reminders:
-Early Out this Wednesday at 1:40pm
-Conferences Thursday November 15th 4-8 (Check your scheduled time!)
-Early Out Monday November 19th 1:40pm, Conferences 2-6
-Book Fair at Starry Thursday (Nov. 15th) and Monday (Nov. 19th)
-NO SCHOOL next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! :)
Please make sure your child is coming to school with an actual (warm) coat-and hats/mittens. Not just a sweatshirt. It has become much too cold for just sweatshirts. If you need assistance purchasing a winter coat, please feel free to contact me or any other member of the Starry staff. :) Brrrrrrrrr!
Thanks for stopping by!
Mrs. Clough
No class blogger today as we had a birthday party to end the day (Happy Birthday Philip!). We missed the last Thursday and Friday blog posts, so I will get you caught up!
Math-We finished up our last bit of work with story problems with known numbers and unknown numbers and have begun exploring the concept of even and odd numbers. Today we talked about pairing students in our class and making teams with a given number of students and if it would work to even out. We will continue with this concept tomorrow!
Shared Reading-We officially ended our focus on making connections and building our schema last week and tomorrow we will begin making inferences and will continue to do so through December. Just as a quick explanation-inferences are when you, "take your background knowledge and the clues from the text, you put them together and you just infer!". We will learn this chant tomorrow and drill it into our brains over the course of the next month to go along with all of the different stories to teach inferencing and activities we complete, so stay tuned!
Social Studies-Continuing our work with maps...tomorrow we will focus on birdseye view and the compass rose!
Writing-tomorrow we will be working on writing things that we are thankful for (as Thanksgiving is soon approaching). Look for a big turkey in the hallway on Thursday displaying our feathers of thanks! :)
A few reminders:
-Early Out this Wednesday at 1:40pm
-Conferences Thursday November 15th 4-8 (Check your scheduled time!)
-Early Out Monday November 19th 1:40pm, Conferences 2-6
-Book Fair at Starry Thursday (Nov. 15th) and Monday (Nov. 19th)
-NO SCHOOL next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! :)
Please make sure your child is coming to school with an actual (warm) coat-and hats/mittens. Not just a sweatshirt. It has become much too cold for just sweatshirts. If you need assistance purchasing a winter coat, please feel free to contact me or any other member of the Starry staff. :) Brrrrrrrrr!
Thanks for stopping by!
Mrs. Clough
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Our 50th Blog Post!
From Lilly:
We were reading Jamaica Tag Along and I made a connection and others in our class did too.
From Mrs. Clough:
This is our 50th blog post (granted, I started the blog a little before school started). The kids came in this morning anxious to hear who had won the election (if they did not already know). I have to say, I think the whole two days of activities we did were certainly a learning experience and sparked their enthusiasm (without getting into any detail about what the candidates actually stood for).
In math we continued with the game "Cover Up" and more story problems. Tomorrow we will have an assessment over story problems and continue with some learning games.
We took some time with a grammar lesson today on proper nouns. We first discussed what a noun is (person, place, or thing) and that a proper noun is a particular or special person, place, or thing that needs to be capitalized.
We were reading Jamaica Tag Along and I made a connection and others in our class did too.
From Mrs. Clough:
This is our 50th blog post (granted, I started the blog a little before school started). The kids came in this morning anxious to hear who had won the election (if they did not already know). I have to say, I think the whole two days of activities we did were certainly a learning experience and sparked their enthusiasm (without getting into any detail about what the candidates actually stood for).
In math we continued with the game "Cover Up" and more story problems. Tomorrow we will have an assessment over story problems and continue with some learning games.
We took some time with a grammar lesson today on proper nouns. We first discussed what a noun is (person, place, or thing) and that a proper noun is a particular or special person, place, or thing that needs to be capitalized.
Our class has been working to earn tally marks for positive and responsible behavior as entire group (not individuals) and we reached our goal of 10 today, so I have a surprise planned for tomorrow. Stay tuned for that!
A few reminders:
-Book Orders are DUE tomorrow!
-PLEASE check your child's folder for you conference time note if you have not already!
-NO SCHOOL Friday November 9th
-Early Out Wednesday November 14th at 1:40pm
-Conferences Thursday November 15th 4-8pm
-Early Out Monday November 19th 1:40, Conferences 2-6
Have a great night!
Mrs. Clough
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Election Day and Birthdays!
*No Class Blogger today
We had a very busy day here in 2C! We had two birthdays (Happy Birthday Jakob and Beckah) and we also did a number of activities and read a number of books about voting and the election. We even had our own election in our classroom! All of this, on top of our "normal" schedule and routine!
Today we read several stories to learn more and engage in the election process going on across our country. We read Duck for President (which is a great story that tells about becoming mayor, wanting to be governor, and then president), Arthur Meets the President (because everyone loves Arthur, and we learned about a few places in Washington DC), and Vote! which gave a LOT of great information about the voting process, as the kids had so many questions about it. We had our own election and we talked about how our votes are to be private, out of respect. As it turns out, we had a tie. 11 to 11! The kids were anxious to know who won the real election, but I explained we will not know until tomorrow (hopefully!). We also did some writing titled, "If I Were President..." and you can imagine some of the things I read from their writing (longer recess, better lunch, help schools, etc). :)
In math today we learned a new game called "Cover Up" where we were working on solving addition/subtraction problems with an unknown number. Each pair had 18 counters and chose how many counters to start with and they recorded that number. Then, while the other partner closed their eyes, the first partner took some of the counters and hid them under a piece of paper. The other partner had to then use addition or subtraction to find the unknown number of counters that were taken, based on the number still left out to see. For the most part, the kids all did really well with this and I believe helps build the skills necessary to solve the story problems we have been working on! So we may bring this game out to play a few more times!
In math today we learned a new game called "Cover Up" where we were working on solving addition/subtraction problems with an unknown number. Each pair had 18 counters and chose how many counters to start with and they recorded that number. Then, while the other partner closed their eyes, the first partner took some of the counters and hid them under a piece of paper. The other partner had to then use addition or subtraction to find the unknown number of counters that were taken, based on the number still left out to see. For the most part, the kids all did really well with this and I believe helps build the skills necessary to solve the story problems we have been working on! So we may bring this game out to play a few more times!
We are now fully back into guided reading groups and assessments are over (for the most part). It was so great to get back to the "bean" table in our small groups!
A few reminders:
-Book orders are DUE this Thursday, November 8th
-NO SCHOOL this Friday November 9th
-Conference time notes went home TONIGHT, so check them out! Let me know if your assigned time, does not work. I did my best to schedule them based on your preferences.
-Conferences are November 15th and November 19th (Early Out on the 19th)
Have a great night!
Mrs. Clough
Monday, November 5, 2012
We're Back!
From Lora:
Tomorrow we have two birthdays in Mrs. Clough's class, but in all of November we have four birthdays in our class.
From Mrs. Clough:
Hello everyone! I'm sorry it has been a few days since I've posted! We just tend to run out of time at the end of the day some days! My apologies! I hope everyone had a great weekend!
To catch you up, we have been working more and more with story problems with unknown numbers. Those problems have been a bit of a challenge, but hopefully with more practice this week, we will get the hang of it. An example of a problem with an unknown number would be:
Kira had a bunch of balloons. Sally gave her 6 more balloons. Now she has a 18 balloons. How many balloons did Kira have to start?
If at all possible, work with your child on ways to solve this problem, to get some extra practice!!! :)
This will be our last official week of making text to text, text to self, and text to world connections to build our schema. We will then enter the world of inferring so stay tuned to that!
Today and tomorrow in social studies we are taking a brief break from maps, to do some activities having to do with the Presidential election! The kids are really into it and have been discussing it with each-other. I've heard a lot of, "I'm voting for______, because ______" which has been great to hear! Although, I think we all agree we are tired of the commercials on TV. A few kids have even said they're tired of hearing the lies from both candidates! :) It really is intriguing to hear what the kids opinions are and what they have picked up from TV, parents, etc. Tomorrow we will have our own class election, so I'll let you know who OUR winner is, tomorrow night! Today we talked about our current president, but also we talked about what any president is, has, and can do.
Tomorrow we have two birthdays in Mrs. Clough's class, but in all of November we have four birthdays in our class.
From Mrs. Clough:
Hello everyone! I'm sorry it has been a few days since I've posted! We just tend to run out of time at the end of the day some days! My apologies! I hope everyone had a great weekend!
To catch you up, we have been working more and more with story problems with unknown numbers. Those problems have been a bit of a challenge, but hopefully with more practice this week, we will get the hang of it. An example of a problem with an unknown number would be:
Kira had a bunch of balloons. Sally gave her 6 more balloons. Now she has a 18 balloons. How many balloons did Kira have to start?
If at all possible, work with your child on ways to solve this problem, to get some extra practice!!! :)
This will be our last official week of making text to text, text to self, and text to world connections to build our schema. We will then enter the world of inferring so stay tuned to that!
Today and tomorrow in social studies we are taking a brief break from maps, to do some activities having to do with the Presidential election! The kids are really into it and have been discussing it with each-other. I've heard a lot of, "I'm voting for______, because ______" which has been great to hear! Although, I think we all agree we are tired of the commercials on TV. A few kids have even said they're tired of hearing the lies from both candidates! :) It really is intriguing to hear what the kids opinions are and what they have picked up from TV, parents, etc. Tomorrow we will have our own class election, so I'll let you know who OUR winner is, tomorrow night! Today we talked about our current president, but also we talked about what any president is, has, and can do.
More election activities tomorrow so check back!
A few reminders:
-Book orders are DUE this THURSDAY, November 8th (the more you order, the more points we earn as a class to get free books for our classroom)
-Official conference time notes will go home this week. Be on the lookout (in your child's folder)!
-NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 9th (End of 1st Trimester)
-Please send your kids to school with warm jackets, hats, mittens. It is getting colder! Fall is here to stay, winter will soon follow!
Have a great night! OH-and as Lora mentioned, we do have two birthdays tomorrow which I will share more about in tomorrow's post!
Mrs. Clough
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