It's been FOREVER!

I have such an incredibly long list of what I want to add to the blog today, that I'm just going to jump right in.  Maybe I'll work backward.

This morning we enjoyed a wonderful presentation from Ballet in a Box.  They came to put on a show for all of the SK-4th grade children.  It was wonderfully entertaining and kept the children interested and engaged.  Their message: "The arts are a powerful force!"  The kids were talking about the "movie" and "play" long after they returned to the room :)

Monday we celebrated 100 Day!  The children did lots of special, fun activities including to see how many times they could write their names, clap, jump, and how far they could count by 5's in 100 seconds!  We wore our funny glasses and enjoyed our special brew concocted with many hundreds of sweet items.  It was a very fun day all around.

In January, we studied magnets and spent much of our science time up in the lab.  You can see some pictures of our magnet experiments in the album to the top left of the page.  We have flown to Ghana and begun to track the weather there.  Today and yesterday it was 88 degrees in Accra, Ghana!  We will continue to learn about Ghana throughout the next several weeks.

In reading, we have read On the Way to the Pond (fiction), Friends Forever (non-fiction), The Fox and the Stork (fable), and A Bed Full of Cats (realistic fiction).  We have our CAFE menu up in the room and are tracking all of the wonderful reading strategies we've been working on this year.  Each child is working on individual strategies/goals during our Daily 5 rounds.  This continues to be a huge part of our day and something the children do very well.  During math, we completed Unit 5, took the test, and have begun Unit 6.  You can peruse the skills from unit 6 to the right.  We also completed an end of the Trimester Test which assessed only the skills expected to be secure from math units 3, 4, and 5.

A few little tid-bits.  Important dates to the top left have been updated.  Please make sure your child has boots, snow-pants, mittens, and a hat here each day of school.  I have one extra pair of boots and snow-pants in the room, and there is almost more than one child in the room each day who needs to borrow something.  Also a little uniform reminder about belts.  If your child is wearing pants with belt loops, he/she must be wearing a uniform belt.

Our Reading Adventure ends next week.  The children have until Tuesday, February 19, to turn in their reading coupons.  I have 6 children who have met the goal already, 7 people who are close, and 3 people who barely have more than a handful of stickers on the chart.  The expectation is that 24 coupons would be turned in by February 19, and we gave far more than 24 days to complete the 15 minutes of reading each day.  We will celebrate everyone meeting the goal in early March when we celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday with a special movie and snack.

Tomorrow, we will be going outside for our winter walk.  We will take pictures to add to our Season's movie, which we have begun working on.  In addition to our winter walk, we would LOVE to take advantage of this snowy weather and go sledding!!!  HOWEVER, each child must bring a helmet to wear, or he/she will not be allowed to go sledding with the class.  PLEASE remember to pack a helmet in your child's schoolbag for FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8.

Thanks much and take care!