and we now say ....

Its been a great year .... and now its over. Enjoy this video ... it will give you a good feeling and it is a special reminder for all of us to view every day of life knowing that each morning is a beautiful gift. Looking at these sweet faces, how could anyone doubt that?!

Have a great summer!

Love,

Ms. Carol and Mr. Rusty

Earth

Next week we're going to the movies to celebrate Earth Day...click on the title of this entry and watch the trailer and find out what we'll be watching....

Back in the Saddle

We all made it back after the holiday feeling a bit tired but enjoying our 133rd day of school on this cloudy day. We practiced using a new sheet for reading where children may choose of one of six questions to respond to their reading. Mrs. Leinbach introduced several new words for our word rings with the "er" sound. Later I introduced some more words to add to our word wall. We are nearly finished adding to the wall and at the moment we have 93 words!
In math we practiced reading the clock and worked on reading the clock to the quarter hour. We did some hands on practice with our classroom clock as well as working in our math journals. Tonight's homework will practice with the quarter hour too.
As we were talking this afternoon we realized that there are only 7 more weeks of school and how important it is to treasure each day.

It's been awhile...

I think with all the happenings during Famous American Week I failed to remember to write about all the happenings in our classroom. Our classroom website which Mrs. Leinbach keeps updated so well relates many of the events of last week as well as pictures and videos. Also if you haven't seen the voice thread yet please take some time to visit and respond or comment to all of our Famous Americans!
Today finds us in much cooler temperatures and there seems to be tiredness all around...although I attribute much of it to the Carolina game! We've been looking at poetry this week and introducing some wonderful poems to the class. We are enjoying Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit a collection of poems with mixed up letters that the children enjoy listening to and figuring out. I enjoy reading it to them as well. We also read Casey at the Bat, first published in 1888, but still popular with kids today. I checked out four books today from the library based on the poem that we'll look at more closely tomorrow.
In math today we created a bunny on a graph by plotting out specific coordinates. Children listened to directions and were amazed by the figure they created at the end.
At the moment Senora Morgan is introducing more Spanish vocabulary about spring and going to restaurants to eat different foods. This Thursday we'll be going to Clemmons for a field trip at Tanglewood where we'll be tracking some wildlife! Be sure to check out Recent Happenings to see photos that will be taken on our trip!

Mr. Greedy Duck returns...

Every year first graders are introduced to our puppet friend Greedy. It seems that this greedy duck is of the kindly sort, but he always choices things that are longer, heavier, and bigger than other things. We use Greedy to introduce the ideas of more than, less than and equal to. We begin by drawing his mouth pointing to the bigger thing which leads rather easily into the abstract signs of <, >, and =.

Our rough drafts of our speeches were due today so we spent some time have children read what they had come up with so far. The most repeated suggestion was to talk louder and slower. Each year it seems that these two items appear at the top of the list each year. Also several students began working with Ms. House to create their tee-shirt designs on the computer. By Thursday they should be done and ready for parents to iron on this weekend.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump until Friday...

We enjoy making words at least once or twice a week. I give children a group of letters that they cut apart and move around to make as many words as they can. Today the letters were "i,i,g,h,n,s, and w." All the letters finally make a big word that most try and guess right away. Later we created our time line of our Famous Americans. In the hallway we placed the years on sentence trips in a very similar way that a number line reads. Along the line we've placed each Famous American as to when they were born, along with some interesting facts along the way. If you stop by the classroom please take some time to enjoy our completed timeline. Before days end we passed out our speeches and delivered them home to be completed by Monday. We also have been learning a song about the presidents that we've nearly memorized up to half-way.

Perfect day for a stroll...

With the temperature nearing 70 degrees and the sun shining just the right distance from our heads, we walked next door for a tour of the Reynolda House and Reynolda Gardens. As we continue to study Famous Americans, we thought it might be a good chance to take a peek at some Famous Americans right next door. We got to view the artwork and paintings of several artists, dress up in period clothes, and stroll through the house where the infamous Reynolds family took up residence. As usual the indoor pool, bowling alley, and shooting arcade were the places that received the highest verbal ratings! On our way back to school Mrs. Leinbach gave us a wonderful tour of the gardens. We got back in just enough time to celebrate Jackie Roses' birthday with her mom. Just yesterday we did the same for Hannah and in a few days Bobby will turn seven as well.

Our postcard project continues to increase as we received one from Maine and Mrs. Clauset graced us with one from her recent trip to Australia.