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.

Welcome back...Famous Americans!

After a week of spring break we are back in school. Breaks are always welcomed but it sometimes takes a moment or two to get back into the routine of a normal school day. Monday began with teachers giving speeches to all first grade students in the screening room. They listened attentively as each teacher represented many different Famous Americans including Thomas Edison (Mrs. Ornelles), Grandma Moses (Mrs. Helm), Frank Lloyd Wright (Mrs. Keene), Beverly Cleary (Mrs. Clauset), and yours truly as Charles Schultz. As we regathered in our classroom we began the process of writing our own speeches using the worksheets we created a few weeks ago.
We began our unit on Presidents and began by listing some of the jobs a president must do. Later we talked about how much money they thought a president would make each year. They made predictions starting at $1000.00 to $!,000,000,000. When they learned it was closer to $400,000 they were amazed what someone could do with all that money. Now wouldn't that be a fun thing to do