Buckaroo News for January 5th-January 9th

Happy New Year to all of you!!!  It's been a crazy first week back with the two snow days but we've managed to squeeze a lot of learning into just three days.   You could possibly blame us for the two snow days because we learned a new song on Monday called Snow Day and every time we sang it this week we ended up with a snow day the next day:)  Here is a snapshot of what we've been learning about this week.  In Word Study, we have been learning about the hunk-and-chunks /ew/ and /ui/.  I've also reassessed each child on consonant and vowel patterns and have reconfigured our word study teams.  Each week, your child will be bringing home work with his/her words so that you know what your child is working on.  We work on that group of words for nine days before being assessed on that particular pattern.  In Writing Workshop, we have begun a study of persuasive writing.  I'm reading lots of books to demonstrate how powerful our words can be to change a mind or to even change the world.  So far, the children did an on-demand writing just so that I could see what they could do on their own before instruction.  I then showed them how to write a letter and they've begun choosing people to write to to persuade them on something of interest to them.  Today we brainstormed a list of suggestions for possible topics in which to write.  In Science, we are learning about the lives of penguins.  We've watched and excursion to Antarctica on YouTube where people were able to get up close with Emperor penguins.  We paid close attention to their habitat and painted beautiful pictures of their habitats today.  While painting, we learned about the horizon line and how to draw 3-dimensionally to show a hole in the ice.  This study will continue for the entire month of January ending with a visit from a real penguin from the Columbus Zoo!!  We can't wait and are learning all we can before this visit!  In Math, we are working with tens and ones.  I have found that the children have no trouble counting by tens but when they have to go from counting by tens to counting by ones for the ones left over things get tricky.  Any extra help at home, would be great.  An idea is to give your child a handful of small objects such as buttons, marshmallows, Legos, etc. and have your child put them in groups of tens with possible leftover ones.  Have them practice counting the group.  In Readers Workshop, we have started the year talking about how we make meaning by making connections with what we are reading.  I put this idea into concrete form for the children by giving each one a puzzle in a baggy. I asked them if they understood the secret message on their puzzle by just looking at the bag.  Of course, they said NO!  They had to put the pieces together in order to be able to make meaning.  To take this a step further, I asked them to talk about how their secret message made them feel.  We will be working on making meaningful connections for the next month or so.  

THERE IS NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY AS IT IS A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY FOR TEACHERS.  

Here is our schedule for next week:  Monday - No school   Tuesday - P.E.  Wednesday - Art   Thursday - Music   Friday - Library

I just wanted to give you a heads-up that our second round of conferences will begin in February.  If you don't feel a need to meet with me that is perfectly fine.  If you do feel a need to meet with me, please let me know and we will schedule a time.

We were building blocks at indoor recess for a teddybear park.  What you're seeing is not only a tower.  We are building obstacle courses.  

This girl is holding up an envelope that she made for Mrs. McNeal.  Mrs. McNeal loved it very much!!!

They are doing yoga during recess for a brain break.  A brain break is a favorite kid's kind of video on GoNoodle.  A brain break is to rest your brain.  

These girls are coloring for the teacher and some of them are coloring for themselves or for their moms. 

This boy is on a laptop.  We can use laptops at recess and at Daily Five.  One of  the boys was on PebbleGo and he was looking at blizzards.  This is what he learned.  On December 21st in South Dakota 100 schools and offices had to close.

The girl with the blue shirt on is photo-bombing.  She was making a letter for another girl in this class.

This boy is painting a penguin and the penguin's habitat.  The farther the penguin lives from the south pole, the smaller they get.  Penguins do not live in the North Pole.

The penguins that are the biggest ones live on the bottom of the world.  This is Antarctica.  The girls at table two put fish in the hole in picture saying "hi."

The smallest penguins live in warm places like the Fairy penguins.  Penguins slide on their tummies. 

Buckaroo News for December 15-19

Hello Families,

I can't believe that it is the last day before our long winter break!  Where did the time go?!  Well, we've had another busy week here at Camp Buckaroo.  In word study, we have continued to learn those high-frequency words that pop up in about 80% of all of our reading and writing.  We've been practicing them with a fun game called SPARKLE.  Ask your child to share about this game.  Our class elf, Flash, told us that Santa is always taking applications for new elves and we each filled out an application in hopes that someday we'll be called upon to walk through the portal that leads to Santa's Workshop.  Many of the children have already decided what elf job they would be best suited for:).  We also practiced our visualization skills with activities that centered around the Polar Express story.  In math, we are continuing to work with larger numbers to 120 and finding ways to solve problems beyond counting on our fingers:).  This week, we used hundreds charts and ten-frames.  I've noticed that the children can really use some extra help skip-counting by 2's and 5's.  We all have skip-counting by 10's down.  An easy way to practice is in the car traveling to your destination.  Once they have counting by 2's and 5's starting at the beginning, give them a number and have them practice counting up and/or back from that number.
Even though we are still in December, I will be sending January's reading log home since the children won't be returning until January 5th.  The kiddos challenge each other by talking about how many minutes they read the night before or that weekend.  Please remember to record the minutes read each night on the log and to total it before returning it to me.  Saves me from having to total 23 logs:).

This is our schedule when we return:  Monday, January 5th - Art   Tuesday - Music  Wednesday - Library   Thursday - P.E.   Friday - Art

Finally, I can't thank you enough for the gift of your children.  I want you to know that I fully understand and take very seriously the fact that they are your hearts running around on two legs and I value and appreciate each and every one of them.  They each bring something special to my life and I'm enriched because of them!  I also want to thank you for all of your support, kind words, encouragement that you give to your child and to me!  I am truly blessed!  I hope that all of you have a joyous break filled with memories that will last a lifetime!

Our classroom elf left Tuesday night with all of our mission folders so that Santa could see how children celebrate in other countries.  Santa accidentally spilled hot chocolate on his laptop and lost all of his files.  We had to learn about different countries and how they celebrate this time of year so Santa knows what kids celebrate.  We can't touch Flash so we had to use a glove to touch him.  Santa sent this glove so we could pick up Flash.

The Chick-Fil-A Santa cow came to lunch this week.  He was here to celebrate the great job we did on the Spell-a-Thon.  

He got his face painted.

We learned about different countries.  You guys looking at this blog right now are probably wondering what is that fireplace and what country is it from?  It is from England.  

Buckaroo News for December 8th-12th

Wow!  It has been one crazy, busy week!  Our elf, Flash, has been traveling the world to bring back information about holidays in other countries and we've been working hard to take good notes for our mission from Santa.  We can't tell you about it yet because it's Top Secret but we will share it with you next week once the mission is complete.  Below you will see the "craftivities" that we had to complete for each country as part of our mission.  In word study, we have taken a little break from our word study teams to play a game that we love called SPARKLE.  Ask your child about this fun way to learn to use the word wall more effectively.  In math, we are working on counting with numbers to 120.  We have learned about the terms "more than" and "fewer than" to describe numbers as well as counting by tens using ten-frames.  In reader's workshop, we have been learning about reindeer and how to read and gather information from nonfiction texts.  Ask your child to share what he or she has learned so far about these fascinating creatures.
Next Friday, the children have earned a special treat.  They will be able to wear their pajamas to school (again:) and we will be enjoying hot chocolate, cookies and the Polar Express movie.

Our schedule for next week:  Monday is P.E.   Tuesday is Art  Wednesday is Music   Thursday is Library and Friday will be P.E. again

Mrs. Rudd has a sign-up for the holiday party that will be next Friday afternoon.  If you'd like to help out with this fun time with the little ones please sign up.  

F. made a Christmas tree.  We made these Christmas trees because we were learning about Germany and that's the country that started Christmas trees.  There is no Santa.  His name is Kris Kringle.  If you don't behave you get sticks.  They hide pickle ornaments in trees.  Whoever find the pickle gets an extra present.

We learned about Italy.  We made brooms because the witch, La Befana, gave treats if you were good like Santa does.  She is a nice witch.  There were three kings that knocked on her door when she was busy sweeping so she couldn't go see baby Jesus.  When she finally went to see Him He was already gone so she is always looking for Him to give Him a gift.  She gave the gifts because she always thinks you might be Baby Jesus.  

These boys are holding up clogs from Holland and you leave them out on December 5th and Sinter Klaas will come and put treats in your clogs (wooden shoes) just like our stockings.  When we were at our house sleeping, Sinter Klaas came and left us treats.  Sinter Klaas comes on a boat and when he reaches land he comes on a horse.  He has a little guy that comes along with Sinter Klaas and his name is Black Peter.  He will chase you with his stick when you are naughty.

We made ornaments that we drew a picture and wrote about one of our traditions.  That night, Flash stayed in America and went to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.  We drew a picture of what we do each year as our tradition.

The boy is wearing a star hat.  It was Wacky Wednesday that day.  All of the girls are Saint Lucias and all of the boys were star boys.  They celebrate this in Sweden.  Their tradition is to kiss under the mistletoe (giggle, giggle).  The little kids give food to their parents and to older people who have retired.  The oldest girl in the family gets to be in the front of the parade.  They celebrate Saint Lucia day to pray to Saint Lucia.  She gave food to the ones that were hiding in the dark tunnels because they wanted to worship the way they wanted.  Saint Lucia went into an underground tunnel and she wore candles on top of her head to light the way.  The candles on that day are not colored.  They are white. They only use white lights to decorate.   They put candles in the graveyards to remember all their loved ones that have died.  Don't cry.

Buckaroo news for November 24th - December 5th

I hope that all of you had a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving filled with family and friends.  I know that I ate enough for two Thanksgivings:)  This blog post is a bit early due to the fact that I will be heading to Gatlinburg, Tennessee on Wednesday for my annual trip with my sister.  I will miss my little ones but they are going to be in great hands!  Thank you so much for coming to our Thanksgiving performance last week.  The children worked very hard on the songs and were incredibly proud of themselves.  We learned a lot about what life was like in the near past and the far past with the Pilgrims.  We learned that everything tends to change over time but sometimes it has nothing to do with making something better.  Sometimes it's for looks:)  We took a look at how Mustang cars changed over time as an example of this.  I have some vintage car lovers in this class!  
For the month of December we will be looking at how cultures around the world celebrate this time of year.  The twist is that we will be guided each day by our friendly Elf on the Shelf named Flash. He "appeared" in our room on Monday as soon as his name was said out loud and the children had to search the room to find him!  They went nuts looking for him and it was so fun!  Everyday he has appeared in a different spot along with artifacts to give us clues as to what country we will be talking about.  Today, we learned about Israel on the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.  We learned about the dreidel game and got the chance to play it with friends.  Flash brought us a menorah with candles the color of the flag of Israel.  We learned about the miracle of the oil and the Maccabees.  There is a fun video on YouTube by a group of young men called the Maccabeats.  Take a look.  
Don't forget that we will be going to a play on Friday in the morning.  It will be so much fun for the kiddos but I'm sad that I will miss it.

Here is the schedule of specials for the rest of this week and the beginning of next week:  Today - Library Wednesday - P.E.  Thursday - Art  Friday - Music  Monday - Library

Here we are looking for Flash!  We thought he was in a box shaped like a house.

S. and S. found him in a basket of books!  We knew not to touch him with our bare hands because it might take away his magic and he wouldn't be able to fly back to Santa.

Mrs. McNeal has on the "special glove" that Santa sent her so that she could touch Flash.

B., S. and F. made a beautiful house during indoor recess.

Here we are trying out the dreidel game.

Flash loved hanging out on the Menorah while we made our own out of our handprints.  

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!