Buckaroo news for November 18-21

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving program and we hope that you can make it!  It will begin around 2:45 in our classroom!  You won't want to miss this!  You are going to see the cutest Pilgrims and Wampanoags that ever lived!

Buckaroo News for November 10th - 14th

This has been one of the busiest weeks of our year so far!  We celebrated Veteran's Day, Dads Dudes and Doughnuts, Book Fair, Spell-a-Thon and Multicultural Day!!  We are continuing to learn all we can about the Pilgrims, Native Americans and the First Thanksgiving.  We are very excited about our upcoming program and hope that all of you can make it!

The Spell-A-Thon papers are coming home with your child tonight.  If you decide to donate money for each word spelled correctly just put the money in the folder and return in the next couple of weeks.

Progress reports will be coming home soon.  I've already put quite a few grades into Progress Book.  Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

I'm trying something new with the math homework.  I'm only sending it on an as-needed basis.  After each lesson I check your child's workmat to see if there are any confusions.  If there are, I meet with your child to review and then I'll attach a practice sheet to the workmat.  It does not need to be returned as it is for your child and not for me:).  

Next week's schedule:  Today was A day even though we didn't have specials.  Monday - NO SCHOOL   Tuesday - B Day  Wednesday - C Day  Thursday - D Day   Friday - A Day  Monday - B Day

These girls and boys were making Veteran people for our class to hang up for decorations.  On that day it was also Dads, Dudes and Doughnuts.  On Veteran's Day the U.S.A. was very quiet on the 11th hour on the 11th day and the 11th month.  We were quiet to give the people who were fighting for our country and good feeling.  

We are writing in our Pilgrim journals.  We are wearing our Pilgrim hats made out of paper.  We are acting like our Pilgrims and this boy is holding a pencil with an feather on it but it is called a quill.  We were writing about what they ate on the Mayflower.  They ate dried bread and everyone drank beer including the children.  The babies drank milk from their mamas.  They only had a weeks worth of fresh water and after that the water wasn't safe to drink.  This boy's Pilgrim name is Francis Cooke.

This girl is wearing a bonnet which is called a coif.  This girl is also writing in her Pilgrim journal about the food.  Her Pilgrim name is Mary Brewster.

This girl is teaching about her thinking about a story problem in her math journal.  We are now using our document camera to share at the end of math workshop.  She showed us a double fact which made her thinking easy to understand.

Today was Multicultural Day at SCE.  We are doing a taste test of foods from different countries.  One of the boys who is allergic to peanut butter was able to get food that didn't have peanut butter in it.  

We are trying out new foods from around the world.  We could only pick three things.  Some of our favorites were gingerbread from Germany, edamame from Japan, and these yellow sweets from Colombia.

One boy was eating chocolate from Russia.  

We are eating the food that we picked out from the different countries.  

Yummy!!!!

We got photo-bombed by Mrs. Schwanke!!!!!  

This is Tony West and the Imani Dancers.  

She is dancing with the children.

Some of the boys and girls from our class got to play the drums!

Mrs. Mazur taught us all about her country, Italy!  Mrs. McNeal wants to go there someday.  This country is shaped like a boot.  It has mountains AND beaches.  We got to try gelato!  It was so good!

Buckaroo News - November 3rd to 7th

The weather has turned colder but we are still "cooking with gas" in room 118!  I feel like the most blessed person on earth because I get to be with these little ones all day!  We have been practicing many songs for our upcoming Thanksgiving Program on Monday, November 24th at 2:45 in our classroom.  Next week, each child will receive a special speaking part that he/she can practice at home.  We will also be practicing everyday at school as well.  We hope that you can make it!  On Tuesday, November 25th, the students earned a movie with popcorn for their exemplary behavior while I was out one afternoon this week.  The guest teacher left a glowing report about all of them!   The Book Fair will be going on from November 10th-21st and they are still in need of volunteers.  If you'd like to help out with this, please go to mysignup.com/scebookfair to sign up for a spot.  Dad, Dudes and Doughnuts will be on November 11th in the morning before school.  We've talked a lot about why this day is so special and I shared that Mr. McNeal is a veteran and I always thank him on this day.  Multicultural Day is next Friday and we are really excited to learn about other cultures!  The Spell-A-Thon is next Thursday.  I hope that your child has been practicing his/her words!  

Today the children went out for recess and many of them didn't have coats or sweatshirts.  Please remember to send your child with a coat or jacket as they will be going outside even on these chilly days.  We all seem to also be passing around a nasty cough (including me:() so keep an eye out for this.  

In word study, we have been working on the long vowel /e/ hunk-and-chunks of  /ee/ and /ea/.  Each team has also been working on certain word features such as short vowel and long vowel patterns.  In Writer's Workshop, we have been writing from the perspective of a Pilgrim.  Each child chose a name of a real passenger on the Mayflower and, using quills (feather taped to a pencil:), they have written from that Pilgrim's perspective.  We learned about why they left England and what is was like to travel on the Mayflower.  Ask your child to share with you what they've learned so far.  It definitely wasn't a Disney cruise!!!  In social studies, we are learning about what school was like in the past.  We learned that they used coal-burning stoves to heat the one-room schoolhouses and that children of all ages were in one room together.  Ask your child to share what else they have learned.  Next week we will be looking at how and why transportation has changed over time.  Finally, we will be looking at how appliances have changed over time.  This is where I need your help.  If you wouldn't mind taking a picture of your kitchen and/or laundry room and send it in with your child that would be great!  In math, we have moved on to Topic 5 which is about doubles and near doubles.  I've noticed that the children are still having difficulty with story problems so I've added a new feature to our math workshop time.  Each day, they will receive an additional story problem to glue into their math journals to practice showing their thinking and strategies.  In Reader's Workshop, we have finished up the initial study of reading strategies and how to "coach" someone if they get stuck on a word.  A fun way to practice this with your child is to read one of his/her "warm up" books to him/her and purposely struggle with a word.  I always say something like "Wow!  That's a tough word and I'm stuck."  Your child should say "Do you need more coaching or time."  If you ask for coaching then they should be able to suggest some strategies for you to try.

We are singing in a group.  This group of kids are singing from their poetry and songbooks from the  new songs that they got.  One of the songs is called "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and one song is called "Hero."  It is about heroes that fight for our country and do "fill the bill."  "My Country 'Tis of Thee" is about the land of liberty.  It is the land where my fathers died.  This means all of those people that died in the past for our country.  

This boy is doing math.  He is practicing his numbers.  He is very proud of himself!

Buckaroo news October 27th-31st

We had so much fun last week with the 50th day of school and our Pumpkin Detectives day. 

Here is our schedule for this week:  Today was Music   Tomorrow will be Library   Wednesday is P.E.   Thursday is Art   Friday is Music   Next Monday will be Library 

Unfortunately this post was super "picture heavy" so it didn't completely load until today so all of the captions are mine.  The students were okay with this though:)  Many of the pictures are from the 50th day of school because they were just so adorable!  We sock-hoppers and greasers.

We spent several days comparing life in the 50's to life today.  We looked at dress, family time, recreation, and transportation for life in the 50's.

The cutest greaser around:)

One of our activities was to see how many bubbles you can blow in 50 seconds.  This sweet girl was able to blow quite a few bubbles in that time.

Here we are hula-hooping for 50 seconds.

We took a look at soda shops from the 50's and then made yummy root beer floats.  We also recorded the steps on how to make the floats.

She loved her float!

We graphed the results of how many liked the floats and how many did not.

After watching several video clips of actual sock hop footage we gave it a try.  They were excellent dancers!!!

Anyone want to twist?

This was the cutest picture!  The little guy that colored this brought it to me with the sweetest smile on his face.  Look at who is riding in the car.

We had a blast being pumpkin detectives!

Thank you to the parent volunteers for helping us out with our fun!