Buckaroo news for March 23rd to March 27th

Welcome back from Spring Break!  I hope it was restful and enjoyable for everyone.  I caught up on my sleep in between training so even though I don't get away to a warm place I still feel like I had a restful break:).  Here is a snapshot of what we learned this week.  I hope that you use this snapshot as a way to encourage conversations about your child's school life.  In word study, well…they explained it best below:).  In writer's workshop, we are in-between studies so the children wrote on topics of choice.  Honestly, this is my favorite way to write because their creativity runs wild and the stories produced are amazing!  I get the great privilege of listening in on their conversations with each other and I can hear them making great suggestions to each other like "are you going to add more detail to your illustration" or " what about this for your character's problem…"  They also compliment and encourage each other and several have started a different genre simply because another peer shared that type of writing.  In science, again, you can read all about it below.  One picture that didn't make it on was of a balloon that is filled with carbon dioxide from mixing vinegar with baking soda.  Simple experiment to demonstrate using a mixture to make a gas.  In math, we are continuing with measurement and then moving on to telling time to the hour and half-hour.  In Reader's Workshop, we took a a literacy approach to matter and read two Dr. Seuss books that were not only enjoyable but a good look at when matter runs amok:).  We used these stories to talk about problems and solutions, making connections and story elements such as characters, setting, problem, events and solution.
Mrs. Kachinka wants you to know that the Art Show is fast approaching.  A flyer will go home on Monday with details but if you want to put it on your calendars it will be Thursday, April 30th from 6:00 to 7:30 at SCE.
Spring Pictures will be taken on April 1st.  
Mrs. Aldin is our new room coordinator for our end-of-year celebration and the Springtacular basket.  She would LOVE to have a volunteer to create our theme basket for Springtacular.  If you are interested, please let her know by emailing her at jesaldin@gmail.com.  She looks forward to hearing from you.

Our schedule for next week:  Monday - Library   Tuesday - P.E.  Wednesday - Art  Thursday - Music   Friday - NO SCHOOL!  Monday - Library

We are measuring in math.  This girl is measuring C. with cubes.  We are learning about measurement in math and on that day we were measuring big things.

A. is measuring the table that holds our mailboxes.  

A. is pointing at the words we learned during word study.  We are bracketing the root words.  We are learning about /ed/.  We learned that one of them says /d/.  One of them says /t/ and one of them says /ed/.  We are also underlining the blends.  We circled the /ed/ and put a /t/ or a /d/ on top of it.  We also circle our old hunk-and-chunks and /ed/ we underline instead of circling it.  

This is after Reader's Workshop when you can share a book, your favorite part of a book or a connection from it.  If you have something like a writing piece or a picture and you really want to share, you can.  When Mrs. McNeal says, "Would you like to share?" you say "yes please" or "yes thank you" if you want to share.

We are learning about matter.  Scissors are solid.  Water is a liquid.  Oxygen is a gas.  The three states of matter are solids, liquids and gasses and today we learned how to make Jello and change matter.  We changed solids into liquids by using hot water.  We turned liquids into solid by adding cold temperature.  Solids can turn into liquids and liquids can turn into gasses.  

J. is enjoying his Jello.  He is eating his science experiment.  It is J. versus Jello!  J. won!

This is our friend K.  Here are some things we'd like you to know.  We want you to know that we miss you!    We think you are very creative and a really, really good friend of ours!  You are very kind!  We think you are really great!  We care about you and we love you!  We hope that you are still reading this blog!  We hope that you can come back and visit us.  We hope that you are making new friends there and we hope that you still remember us and won't ever forget us.  We hope that you still keep your bucket fillers to remember us.  We hope that you have fun at your new school.  Will you send us messages too?  I hope that you like your new teacher too.  

Buckaroo news for March 2nd to March 13th

Hello Families,  I apologize for no blog entry last week but this one should more than make up for it:).  When your child comes home from school totally worn out, you will understand why when you look at these photographs.  Here is a snapshot of the learning in Camp Buckaroo for the past two weeks.

In Word Study, we have worked on the hunk-and-chunks of /oi/ and /oy/ and the "bossy r's" of /ir/, /ur/, and /er/.  In Writer's Workshop, the children have been writing on topics of choice as we are in between studies.  It's amazing to see what and how they choose to write.  Some are writing their own sequels to the graphic novels of Lunch Lady and Baby Mouse.  Some are creating dress designs with shoes and jewelry to match.  They are labeling the parts of each and at what event each dress should be worn.  A few are still enjoying writing letters to each other and others are writing fantastic stories with engaging characters and lots of details to draw all of us in.  Our final study will be nonfiction writing.  In science, we have been learning about the three states of matter and the properties of each.  When we return from break, we will be engaging in many science experiments to help us better understand solids, liquids and gasses and how they change.  In math, we have finished up our very lengthy study of tens and ones.  I am so proud of each and every child for persevering through this study to gain a better understanding of our base-10 system.  We are now moving on to measurement and then geometry to finish the year.  In Reader's Workshop, the children have continued how to make strong predictions based upon what was read to a certain point and to also make meaningful connections to help them to better understand the story.  

I hope that all of you have a very relaxing and enjoyable break and I will see your little ones again on March 23rd.  When we return, here is our schedule:  
Monday - Music   Tuesday - Library   Wednesday - P.E.  Thursday - Art  Friday - Music again

It was a snow day and we made snow angels.  The boys in the background are playing a snowball fight but we couldn't do snowball fights close to where other people in our class were building a snowman.  When we were done with the snow angels we looked at them and they actually looked liked real snow angels.

This girl is making a little snowball to make it into a big snowball to make it into a snowman.  

This is the picture that Mrs. McNeal took of all of us with our sleds, saucers, and snowmen.  The snowmen in the background have already melted.  One of the girls in our class brought snow dye to put colors on our snow people.  

These boys are kind of laying in a couch in the snow.  It was a giant hole.  They are in the snow.  

This girl is holding a bottle of water from our science experiment about matter that we are learning about.  Matter is solid, liquids, and gasses.  Solids have a shape and only force can break it.  Liquids take up the space of whatever container they are in.  Gasses are invisible and they float around us.

Mac Barnett came to our school!  He came on Monday and taught us about a lot of things about some of his books.  He was really funny.  Mac Barnett is super cool!!!  He is one of the first graders' favorite authors.  In this picture, Mac Barnett is reading one of his books called Oh No!

When he comes down from his sleep he sees a white paper in front of his face and it says, "FEED ME!" and it scares him.  The paper wants WORDS which is food to the paper!  Everytime he said, "FEED ME!" he rips off the paper.  Some kids asked, "Do you have a girlfriend?" and he said, "Yes, her name is Taylor."  Everybody laughed like crazy.  

On Thursday, we celebrated Snowmen's Birthdays.  We are scooping up snowballs from a basket of them and putting them into a basket on the other side and if they dropped their snowball on the way they were disqualified (DQed) but they got to get back in line.  P.S. They weren't snowballs.  They were cotton balls.

This girl is trying to make the cutest snow fort instead of the tallest.  The rest of the class tried to make the tallest snow fort.

This boy won fourth place in the tallest snow fort contest and someone else tied with him.

This is a snow fort but it doesn't look like a fort.  Table 5 won first place and came in 1st.  Some of our friends said that it looks like a big blob of marshmallows and toothpicks.  We tried to make it squares and then connect them together but that didn't work because it fell over so we just made it a blob.  

This girl won second place so she got two tickets.  Her fort looks like a dog standing on a cloud.  

This fort fell over five times but she got third place in the snow fort contest anyway!

This boy won fourth place and he used a lot of marshmallows.

This boy is getting wrapped up in toilet paper to make a snowman.  It was really funny!  We were wrapping one person at our table with toilet paper.

This is a picture of all of the snow people wrapped up in the toilet paper and they are all decorated.  The middle one is the funniest one because it has huge eyes and a funny nose.

I haven't sent book orders home all year so I will be making up for that by sending a few for this last part of the school year.  It is vital that your child read over the summer months.  This is one way to stock your child's home library if you choose to.  Please know that this is purely optional but I wanted to extend the offer.  Your child will be bringing home the order form as well as directions on how to order online if you choose to.  There are many other forms on this site as well if you choose to order from another Scholastic form.  This is also a great way to restock our classroom library as our class gets points that can be used to order books for our room.  If you decide to order, try to have your order in by March 23rd.  I will send the final order in on Wednesday, March 25th.  

Buckaroo news for February 23rd to 26th

It was great to finally have four days in a row with my little ones!  Hopefully this weather will break this weekend and we will be on our way to Spring!  Here is a snapshot of our week.  In Word Study, we learned about /ight/, /oa/ and /ow/.  In Writer's Workshop, I assessed the children's writing progress by giving them the same prompt that was given at the beginning of the year.  Prior to them writing, I passed out their piece of writing from the first week of school.  They were shocked at how they used to write and there was a great deal of laughter as they looked at this writing.  They all agreed that they have truly grown as writers.  We will spend the next couple of weeks in a fun study about snowmen.  We will be writing how-to booklets and learning all we can about everything snowmen.  In science, we are embarking on our study of matter.  In math,  we have finished up adding tens and ones and have begun our final study of tens and ones but this time we will be subtracting tens and ones.  In Reader's Workshop, we are continuing to learn how to make meaningful connections.

Read Across America begins next week!  The children are very excited about this and can't wait to get started.  All of the information about this fun week is coming home today with your child.  We will be collecting canned and boxed food for the Mid Ohio Food Bank.  This will be a friendly competition next week to earn icons.  In order to earn certain icons each day, we have to have at least 75% participation.  We figured out that that would be about 17 people each day participating.  

Related Arts next week:  Monday - P.E.  Tuesday - Art  Wednesday - Music  Thursday - Library  Friday - P.E.

These boys are crunching ice in a bag.  This is a matter experiment.  We had to find our own idea to melt the ice first.  We couldn't put them next to lamps or stuff that is plugged into the wall.  If your bag leaked, you were disqualified:).  Whoever got their bag of ice melted won.

These girls are using the blanket on the reading bench to melt the ice. 

They were hugging to melt the ice because it was warm.  These boys got disqualified because the bag got a leak:).

Some kids put their bag of ice up to the window to melt it by the sun.

In P.E. we got three 5's in a row for trying hard, running for ten minutes without stopping, giving compliments, and no reminders.   We voted for what kind of party we wanted because we earned it for getting three 5's in a row and  the most votes were for an electronic/crafting party because some people don't want to rot their brains ( I love this!!!)  We may also have cookies that we bake.  I have decided that we will do this next Thursday.  Please talk with your child about your expectations for taking care of this electronic device while at school.  We cannot be responsible for items that are broken and such.  If your child wants to bring in a crafting item such as Rainbow Looms, stickers, duct tape, etc. please feel free to send them in on this day.

This poster is a special poster about Read Across America and it tells about all of the spirit days.  

Buckaroo news for February 9th to 13th

Happy Valentine's Day!!!  I know it's a day early but we all celebrated in a huge way today and had a blast!  This post, once again, is a bit picture heavy:).  I just can't help post the great learning and fun we have at Camp Buckaroo!  Here is a snapshot of our week:
In word study, we focused on the long /o/ vowel patterns of /ow/ and /oa/.  Each word study group had their own focus.  When they write their words three times each and do rainbow words for practice, my hope is that they will practice at home as well.   Our writer's workshop became Valentine's Workshop this week as we wrote a Valentine for each of our peers in our class.  The children loved doing this and adding a personal touch to each and every one of them.  In science, we ended our study of penguins by writing six facts about them in our journals.  I hope that you'll take a moment to look at these wonderful journals when they come home with your child next week.  They are officially penguin experts:)  In math, we've been adding strategies to our "tool box" of strategies.  We learned how to use a hundred chart to add in groups of ten.  We also used base-10 blocks as a strategy to add groups of ten onto a given number.  Several are already doing this mentally and it's amazing to see them thinking and applying these complicated concepts.  Next week, we will be subtracting tens.  In reader's workshop, we are honing our skills to make meaningful connections to the books we're reading and not just making superficial connections that really don't help us to understand what we're reading.  

Next week's schedule:  Monday - NO SCHOOL (this time I'm right about this:)   Tuesday - Music   Wednesday - Library   Thursday - P.E.   Friday - Art

This is just a small part of the huge paper chain that wrapped itself around our room.  They worked fantastically as a team to create this and they were so proud when it was finally hanging up.

Buckaroo news for February 2nd-February 6th

Happy Friday!  Valentine's Day is almost upon us and I wanted to put this message closer to the top of my blog post:).  The children are in the process of making their own handwritten Valentines for each other rather than buying them.  These heartfelt notes will be treasured by them because each one will be made with great love and care.  I've had past students come back to tell me that they still have their box with the Valentine's inside and that they still read them to this day!  Our celebration will be the afternoon of February 12th.  
In Word Study, we continued to learn about the long /a/ patterns of /ay/, /ai/ and /eigh/.  In Writer's Workshop, we finished up our study of punctuation in time to edit our own persuasive letters to each other.  On Thursday, each child was asked to write a persuasive letter to a future first grader on why they will love first grade!  I will post these on Progress Book sometime next week.  Today, we kicked off the next four days of Valentine's Workshop.  As stated above, each child will be making a Valentine for each of the children in our class.  If you have any fun stickers, spongy stickers, anything fun and crafty that you'd like to get rid of to use to decorate our Valentine's just send it in on Monday:)).  In science, we learned about WHY penguins are so…well, pleasantly plump and how they keep warm.  See the picture below to read about what the children had to say about our experiment.  We also had a second visit from someone that works at the Columbus Zoo to tell us about polar bears.  Next week, we will begin collecting Pennies for Polar Bears as a conservation effort to help out these white, furry friends.  More information coming next week.  In math workshop, we finished up Topic 9 which was comparing numbers to 100 and have taken the pre-assessment for Topic 10 which is a continuation of tens and ones.  I have been attaching homework to the workouts of any students that need more experience with the lesson concepts taught that day.  In reader's workshop, we compared two fictional stories about penguins using a venn diagram.  

This is a reminder from our PTO:
SCE PTO presents "Family Game Night” held at Scottish Corners on Friday, March 6 from 6:30 – 9:00pm.  Enjoy dinner from LaRosa’s and free Bingo with lots of great prizes.  Keep your eye out for flyers to pre-order dinner coming home with students soon.  You won’t want to miss this fun-filled family event!

I have several coming for conferences next week.  If you have forgotten your time, please let me know.

Our schedule for next week:  Monday - Art   Tuesday - Music   Wednesday - Library  Thursday - P.E.   Friday - NO SCHOOL!

This girl looks like Princess Leah from Star Wars!

This boy is saying "AAAAAYYYYY" like the Fonz.  How many of you remember what show he starred in???  Yes, I am that old that I would know:))

This boy is reading the new penguin book that we got from Dury, someone's grandpa in our room.  I accidentally typed the child's real name and all of the children caught my mistake immediately and told me to take the name off!  Internet safety at work in Room 118!

We are doing an experiment.  This person is putting her hand in a blubber glove and the other two fingers that we touched the penguins with are covered in Vaseline.  The Vaseline was the waterproofing like the waterproof feathers of a penguin.  We stuck them in freezing cold water. The blubber glove kept our hand warmer than our fingers.  Penguins are pleasantly plump because their blubber keeps them warm.  We think Santa stays warm because he is fat like a penguin and has blubber.  Mrs. McNeal told us not to splash the water out but then she spilled all of the water out when the tub broke and Mr. Graham had to come and clean it up. 

They are doing the same thing as the picture above.

In indoor recess, we built this big, block hotel with all the different colors of teddy bears in it sorted in a row.  

This girl is working on one of her persuasive letters while sitting on one of our awesome chairs.

We are having a person talk about polar bears from the Columbus Zoo.  We wrote what we needed to learn about polar bears in our journal.  One way we can help them is by recycling.  We can also plant trees, watch TV less, play computer games less, turn lights off, walk or bicycle more often, use recycled bags, and be a conservationist.  

Polar bears weigh as much as twelve first graders.  They are fat with small ears and small tails.  They have big claws and big, sharp teeth.  They like to play with toys.  February 27th is National Polar Bear Day.  On this day, turn your thermostat down 2 degrees.  

This boy is holding a real polar bear claw.  They didn't just pull it out when it was alive.  It was from one that had already passed away.  

She was so proud that she wrote a whole bunch of stuff about polar bears in her journal.

This sweet girl is holding up the book that we just finished!  It was a reminder that we will be exchanging the Valentines that we've made for each other next Thursday afternoon.  I am asking that each child make something at home in which to hold their Valentines.  You and your child can be as creative as you wish or have time for.  It can be as simple as decorating a bag or covering a shoebox or cereal box with paper.  You can begin sending them in on Monday if you work on it this weekend.  

This is the mountain of blankets that kids from our class collected to give to the homeless people.