Friday, December 12, 2014

Starfish Gazette- December 12, 2014

Dear Starfish Families,

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.  The kids could not be more excited to come in each morning to tear their next holiday chain to help us count down the days to Hanukkah, Christmas, and 2015!

It has been an exciting time in the starfish classroom.  We have accomplished many fun holiday
activities and are looking forward to traveling to Mexico,  Germany, and India, Israel, and China to learn about various cultures and holiday traditions.  The kids will prepare on Monday afternoon with decorating their holiday passports and Holiday Around the World Journal.  In the journal the kids will record their learning from each country.  It has been fun sharing our holiday dolls and learning more about people's family history!   
 
During Math Workshop, we have been busy learning about non-standard and standard forms of measurement.  This week the kids partnered together to measure classroom items using paper clips, gingerbread men, and unifix cubes.  We have been using math vocabulary such as measure, length, width, longer, shorter, edge. Today we measured using rulers.  We measured different lengths of paper to build a paper Christmas tree.  It was a great activity for the kids and they enjoyed helping each other.   We have also been working on addition strategies to build our math fact power.  This week we worked on our doubles facts and played two math games: Doubles Rolling and Doubles Hop.  I will send a few games home next week for you to enjoy with your family over winter vacation.  
 
We have been working hard to become experts of our 5 senses in our classroom.  Mrs. Caldwell and I have been working hard to build a new unit on the senses to allow for the kids to incorporate science talking, writing, and hands-on exploration into their learning. The kids have done various activities and experiments with our sense of sight and smell.  This week we looked at shells with our naked eye opposed to a sight tool such as magnify glasses.  The kids recorded their thinking in their science journals and began adding more detail into their science drawings.  This afternoon we had so much fun learning about our sense of smell.  I brought in various objects such as coffee, shallots, onions, cinnamon, lemon, candles, lavender, rosemary, etc. The kids explored the items at their tables with their friends.  We learned descriptive words to describe smells around us.  Rather than just saying good and bad, we add rancid, flowery, fragrant, bold, faint, and pungent to our vocabulary. Racquel brought in a great scent kit with 30 various scents such as lemon, honey, grass, mango, and rose.  I gave each group 4 different scents and they had to work together to try to figure out the mystery smells.  We put coffee beans on the table just like do in fragrance stores to help decipher between scents.  The kids had so much fun and the adults did too! :)

Here are some questions to ask your child to promote a home-school connection:
1. Can you tell me what you learned about your sense of smell?  Do you remember how many scents our noses can detect? (10,000)

2. Can you tell me about your experiment with smells and eating gummy bears?

3. Can you tell me a doubles fact that you learned this week?

4. What games have you been playing outside at recess?  When you have indoor recess, what games do you usually choose?

5. Why did you make Mr. Fosher a banner in the hallway?  

6.  Who was your mystery reader this week?  What books did she read?

7.  Who are writing to in your classroom? (Santa) What did you put on your wishlist?

8.  Can you tell me about the Hour of Code?  What is the app you used in the Maker Space?

9. What does petal of your day and thorn of your day mean?  When do you share your petals and thorns? 

10. What Holiday story have you listened to during snack time this week?  Which was your favorite?

Starfish Pictures

Can you believe these pigeon drawings?  The kids had fun exploring paint and collaborating with a friend.


We had fun measuring with paperclips in our classroom

We supported Mr. Fosher today with our SMS apparel and blue clothing.  He is a finalist for Principal of the year!  We made a great banner in the hallway!

We are carefully taking down a paper chain each day when we arrive to school!

We are learning to measure with rulers




Exploring shells with magnify glasses- Learning how tools can help enhance our sense of sight








We had so much fun at our Pigeon Party.  Thank you so much for your support!  We loved having an authentic audience for our writing!


Mrs. Hartley joined us this afternoon as your Mystery Reader!
Trying to find sight words in our Poem and Song Journals during Free Choice Time


We celebrated Lauren's Birthday last Friday!  Happy 7th Birthday to our sweet friend! 

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Congratulations to the Carlson Family

Congratulations to Eli and his family on their new bundle of joy! Eli and his siblings received a new baby sister Abigail (Abby) last night.  Eli was so excited to share his special news with us this morning! We can't wait to meet her!






Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Holidays Around the World and Holiday Hike

 

Holidays Around the World

This month we will be studying holidays around the world...learning traditions through books, poems, and projects. We will be learning about St. Nicholas Day (The Netherlands), Diwali (India), Hanukkah (Israel), China (Chinese New Year) and Mexico (Las Pasadas) as well as our own Christmas traditions. 

 

 

The kids really enjoyed sharing their holiday dolls with the class. I showed the kids my over-sized maps of the seven continents that we placed on the rug to map out where each doll was from.  During our share we talked about the difference between a continent, country, and city.  12 of our class dolls are from Europe, 3 from Asia, and 1 doll for North America.  Thank you for helping your child with this project.  We are looking forward to sharing our family traditions from this week's homework on Friday.  I find it so interesting how different or similar our family traditions can be when we share with one another.  I hope the kids enjoy learning from each other, too!

 

 

Holiday Hike:  

As we focus on family traditions and celebrate holidays this month, we will read the book, The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. As a follow-up to this story, the students will hike on the trails next to the playground and decorate trees for the animals. All family members are welcome to join us. Hot chocolate and muffins will be enjoyed by all after the hike. We will be going out at 11:00 on Friday, December 19th with a snow date on Monday, December 22nd at 11:00. This activity is in lieu of a holiday party. We hope you can join us!

 



We will be doing a book swap at the party. Please bring in a used book from your child's book shelf that your child is willing to part with that is wrapped like a holiday present. (please do not go out and buy a new book!)  When we arrive back from the holiday hike we will do our book swap.   I will read the kids the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.  Each time I read the word 'Grinch' in the story, the kids will pass the book along to the person sitting next to them.  When the story is complete, the students will unwrap their new book and have a new story to read over winter break! 

*I have plenty of books that I can contribute to the swap, so if your family does not have a book to wrap, please let me know! I still have boxes filled at my house of children's books that I have inherited, so please let me know if I can help!  


 

 

 

Celebrating Our Pigeon Stories

We had such a wonderful morning sharing all of our pigeon books with a wide audience of family members. Thank you so much for making us part of your day!



Monday, December 8, 2014

Reminder: Mo Willems Writing Celebration is Tomorrow

The Starfish are looking forward to sharing their Mo Willems' inspired books with you tomorrow morning from 8 to 8:25. The books reflect all that we have learned about the "style" of Mo Willems writing.   Please look for expression in the character's illustrations, speech bubbles, ways in which your child makes their characters excited or frustrated.  The kids are proud of the creative ways the pigeon tries to persuade the reader!  The kids are so excited to share their stories with you and show you what they have accomplished in this unit of writing.  Thank you so much for your support and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.



 

Pigeon_1.jpg