Weekly Wrap-Up (Last two weeks)

It has been a very quick two weeks here in the classroom. I apologize for not having a weekly update for you last week. I am folding the last two weeks into this wrap-up. The class has been getting an awful lot done, so let’s see what we were up to, on to the highlights!!!



Math:

We have had a lot of great lessons in math over the past two weeks. We revisited combinations of 10 and focused a lot on this concept. This led us to our unit four assessment last week. This week saw us focus on the place value concept. On Monday and Tuesday we practiced using base-ten blocks to make exchanges and to build two-digit numbers. Wednesday saw us take that place value knowledge and extend it to money. We had a fun activity where a banker collected pennies from the class and then used those pennies to make exchanges for dimes. The class had a lot of fun with this activity. Thursday we touched on greater than, less than, and equal to concepts. This will be something that I plan on re-teaching when we return from break in the New Year.



Science:

We have had a lot of fun in our motion unit these past two weeks. We have looked at the force, which we defined as a push or a pull. This disappointed some kids who were quite excited to learn more about “The force.” This disappointment quickly faded as we got to our hands-on activity. During our class party on Friday we had some fabulous parents help the class explore the concept of collisions. The kids had opportunities to explore and document different collision experiments. Thank you to the parents that helped with this center.



Phonics:

In phonics we have spent a lot of time on two subjects: consonant clusters and long vowel, short vowel comparisons. I was very pleased with how the class internalized both of these concepts. I did have some kids express displeasure with spending so much time on these subjects, but I reiterated to them the importance of practice, practice, and practice.


Writing:

We spent a lot of time over the last two weeks writing letters. Last week, the class, along with Mrs. Miller’s kindergarteners, wrote holiday cards for a local hospice. The kids really enjoyed this activity and particularly loved being mentors to the younger kindergartners. I look forward to more activities like this in the future.



This was a brief snippet of the goings on in the classroom over the past two weeks. We also had a fabulous class party on Friday. Thank you to John and Kelly for helping to organize this terrific event. Have a great break everyone and I look forward to seeing you next year!

S.O.S.: PARTY ON FRIDAY!!!

I have heard from only a few fabulous parents regarding the party this Friday.  However, we still have a lot of items on the list.  Please let me know what you would like to bring to the party on Friday as soon as possible.  I do not want to have only a few generous parents providing everything and I definitely do not want to cancel the party.  This is what we will need.

• 2 large bags of frozen fruit  (Dana, Anna)
• 1 bag of oranges
• 3 bunches of bananas
• Large bag of fresh, pre-washed spinach (green smoothies)
• 1 large bag frozen pineapple
• 1 large bag frozen mangos
• 1 large tub of greek yogurt
• Plastic cups
• Straws

Weekly Update Coming

It was a very busy week, which was compounded by me being out ill on Friday.  This has put me behind, but I will be posting a weekly update tomorrow.  I am sorry for this inconvenience.  As always please let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns.


Thanks,

Michael Hagen

Class Party on Friday!! We Need Your Help!

I am sorry for the late notice on this topic, but December has really flown by and we need to have a class party!  I will be bringing in my Vitamix to make some fresh fruit smoothies for the class this Friday.  I will also have some more holiday themed academic centers associated with this party.   What we need for this party:

• 2 large bags of frozen fruit
• 1 bag of oranges
• 3 bunches of bananas
• Large bag of fresh, pre-washed spinach (green smoothies)
• 1 large bag frozen pineapple
• 1 large bag frozen mangos
• 1 large tub of greek yogurt

Please let me know what you would like to send in.  If you would like to volunteer we would love to have you!  I will plan on starting around 1:30pm on Friday afternoon and ending around 3:00pm.  I look forward to hearing from you.  I will post an update on Wednesday letting you all know what we have covered and what we still need.  Thank you and again sorry for the late notice.  

Spelling Words for the Week

Here are our spelling words for the week:

1. sound
2. our
3. think
4. where
5. before
6. new
7. great
8. line

Weekly Wrap-Up

As you know report cards went home last week. If you have any questions about this report card I am always available. This is becoming routine and a bit mundane, but it was another fabulous week here in the classroom. The learning thrilled me. The kindness amazed me. The behavior astounded me. The generosity left me thunderstruck. It was simply a great week. This is a very special group of kids and I could not feel more privileged to be their teacher. Thank you to everyone at home for all the hard work you have put in raising some truly wonderful kids. Enough of the gushing…onto the highlights!



Math:

We had a great week in math. We were able to get to a lot of material and the kids responded to the lessons and concepts with the ease and confidence of seasoned mathematicians. This week saw us tackle data charts, which included graphing our favorite superpower (my dream lesson). We also began work with our doubles facts. Wednesday saw us begin a very important concept concerning addition facts. We talked about how addition facts are two numbers between zero and ten and their sum. We also added and subtracted within 20! I know..big week.



Science:

In science this week we graphed and analyzed our weather data from the month of November. We then used this data to answer several questions in our journals. We also dived more into the motion unit this week. We talked about how we can draw motion and also how we can describe the path of motion. The kids had a lot of fun with this. Next week will have us conducting speed trials. Yep, should be a blast.



Phonics:

In phonics this week we took more time to learn word families. This involved several different activities. We also practiced sorting vowels and consonants. We played a few games involving upper and lower case letters and consonant clusters. The kids really enjoyed this.



Writing:



We took time to write some thank you cards to our fabulous interns, Ms. Areddy and Mr. Mo this week. We also continued our work with the five W’s. In addition to all that we sorted, our writing into finished and not finished. You should have seen several pieces of writing come home this week. Now that report cards are out of the way that allowed me to send some of this work home.

As always this was not everything we did this week, just a few highlights, but until next week.,.all told.  

Spelling Words for the Week

Here are our words for the week. The spelling test will be a week from today.  Please let me know if you have any questions.


made
over
may
after
sentence
things
little
place