2015_01_30 Friday

From Elise's teacher: Today we made 3D and 2d sculptures and shapes with magnetic builders. X  made a 3D tent. X made a 2D fish and a hexagon. X made a cube. Then we worked on rhyming words and reading CVC words. We had extra time to play the bug splat sight word game and take turns on the kindle. Some read short books. We played with playdoh. We discussed the new month coming up. 

Tell me two words that rhyme: 
Elise - think / wink, eat/ Pete 

From Reading club: Hello! On Monday, X and X played the bug splat game with X! He hasn't had a chance to play it yet.  X read 3 Sight Word Stories books with me. Elise read stories on Starfall with long e. X worked on color words and learned sight words on the kindle. On Tuesday, we all worked on rhyming words. X, X and X played Zingo. X wrote a sentence on a sentence strip with me. Elise played Starfall and learned her long vowel sounds.  On Wednesday, we had a bit of a lazy day after our field trip. X and Elise played the bug splat game. X and I worked on beginning sounds for f,g,n, p,c,t and we read a letter Ii story about Ingrid Insect. On Thursday, everyone worked on rhyming words. And we went over flash cards. 

Jonathan got to attend a fancy party today because he met his reading goals. yippee! Then, he had, not one but, two playdates for today! He's going to be happy but exhausted!

2015_01_29 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Hello! Today we talked about opposites related to the sun such as sunrise and sunset. We discussed words dawn/dusk, night/day. Then for art we made beautiful sunsets with watercolors. They had Italian. We made a P for Piano craft. We drew 3 pictures for p-- peas, pizza, paintbrush. We had musictime at the end of the day.

Where would you like to go and watch a sunset or sunrise? Elise- I would like to see the sunset in Pennsylvania

Today was Jonathan's after school club's first meeting. He apparently is the only 2nd grader in the club, but he loves it because he's got a teacher dedicated to him, or so the story goes. In this class, they learned about the Luge and then built one out of Legos.

That night, Dave and I had a nice (dropped $170!!) date night.

2015_01_28 Wednesday

Elise had her first, ever field trip. Her class went to Legoland:

So Fun!!!!

Jonathan, on the other hand, had an insane day. He had "enrichment" (aka tutoring) after school today. His teacher says he doesn't really need it, but I thought it might be beneficial, so we're giving it a try, and if he's not getting anything out of it, then we'll pull out. Jonathan also had wrestling practice in the evening, so there was very little time to do much of anything today!!!

2015_01_27 Tuesday

From Elise's teacher: Our class has a lot of sniffly noses!Stay healthy!  Backwards Day was a blast! Today we worked on rhyming words with 3 letter words. I read No Two Snowflakes a book about how we can describe snow and how people are different like snowflakes. I also read How Do you know what time it is? and we Discussed ancient ways to tell time such as sundials.  They had Spanish. We had music time at the end of the day where we galloped and trotted like a horse.  

Tell me something you learned from the time book about time or clocks: 

Elise- I remember that a long time ago people didn't know what time it was and they used a stick to tell time 

2015_01_27 Tuesday

Well, the blizzard that hit New England set DC back by 2 hours, so I have a tiny bit of free time before work actually starts. I picked up the mail from last night to find a personalized thank you note for my work at our annual conference. Boy, was that a feel good letter...."best Annual Briefing ever...a sensational job...one of the primary highlights of the Annual Briefing..." what a warm fuzzy on this frigid day (up north at least, it's 36 and sunny here).

Well, today ended up on a very sad note for the Hardwick household. Today, we lost our dear Mustafa. I was with him until the end. We think it was hypothyroidism, but there could have been any number of other things -- including age -- that got him. We had 13 wonderful years with the little guy, but the last few months were rough on everyone. RIP, little dude.

2015_01_26 Monday

From Elise's teacher: We all took turns having some technology time today. X played sight word bingo on the kindle and practiced CVC/digraphs words on Starfall. Elise practiced the long E sound on Starfall. X read 2 BOB books to me and went on Starfall. X practiced spelling 3 letter words on the kindle and practiced digraphs on Starfall. We talked about the letter of the week Pp. They each read a page in the book I Like to Play. I read It's Okay to be Different. We talked about how people can be the same or different and how those differences can make us special/unique. They had Mandarin. 

Tell me a sentence that has lots of letter p words: 

Elise- I play with prickly pans on a piano. 

2015_01_23 Friday

From Reading Club: On Tuesday, X worked on the booklet What can you Find? and the words away, down. X worked on words blue, not. X, X, Elise and I read books. We all went over sight words flash cards together.  On Wednesday, X practiced color words and the word with. X played a phonics game on the kindle to practice letter sounds. He is doing great! X and Elise read the last of the BOB books in the box set individually with me. The girls also made sight words with magnetic letters on a cookie sheet. On Thursday, we played with playdoh and made sight words with it. They took turns on the kindle. We went over flash cards.

From Elise's teacher: Happy Friday! Today we did a lot of center work. X played Starfall on the computer and read CVC words and learned digraphs sh, th. X also did Starfall and learned th and words that end with -en. X read 4 BOB books with me. She also read 3,4,5 letter word cards. Elise and X worked on the magnetic letter words individually. X played a phonics and a spelling game on the kindle. We all read sentences with sight words go, like, the. Read at home for practice. We filled in missing numbers and wrote them in our journals 10-21. They had German. They played a fun counting game. We had indoor recess with X's class. 

What do you like to do on rainy days? 
Elise- I like to splash in puddles on rainy days. 

2015_01_22 Thursday

From Elise's school: This morning we spent time with Ms X's class and did different activities such as Zingo, frozen matching game, kindle, sight words with magnetic letters. We then practiced writing letter Oo. I read Manners in Public and Bailey At the Museum and we discussed manners and safety rules during our field trips. Then we learned how to tell time by using mini clocks. They had Italian. We went over sight words flash cards. 

Why is it important for us to tell time?
Elise- because if your friend doesn't know the time and you know the time you can tell them 

I also went to J's school tonight to help move in the new bee hive! so exciting!!

2015_01_21 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Hello! Today we made squirrel/bird feeders in the shape of a heart with pipe cleaners and Cheerios. Some wanted to leave it at school outside and some chose to bring theirs home. I read X's Star Trek book of opposites that she brought. I also read What If Everyone did that? about what happens if everyone does something that we do like feed the animals at the zoo or litter! We also practiced writing our letter of the week Oo and we talked about words that start with Oo. They had French today.  At the end of the day, X ,X's mom brought in a Hoberman sphere toy and demonstrated opposites. Thank you! They got to roll it and go inside of it. They had a blast! 
Name a word that starts with O and 2 opposites about the ball we played with: 
Elise- ouch, wide/ narrow 

Today, Elise also had her first, real school problem. She hit/punched a classmate and made her cry. Terrific. The exact circumstances differ depending on who you ask, but hitting isn't appropriate anyway. After the teacher took care of it, I did, and so did Dave. I don't think this will be a problem any time soon. I also made her write an apology letter to the hittee.

2015_01_20 Tuesday

While tucking Jonathan in, he promised "sprout's honor". teehee.

From Elise's teacher: Hello! Happy 100th day of school! We had such a fun day celebrating! We made hats and trail mix during snack time. We also drew what we would look like at the age of 100 :) we also counted by 5's and 10's to 100. We did 10 jumping jacks each to 100. We painted 100 gumballs. 

If you had a $100 what would you spend it on: 
Elise- if I had $100 I will buy a phone 

2015_01_19 Monday

Nobody had school, and I was off of work. We had quite an adventurous day in store. We drove past the MLK Center, but it was so insanely full that I bailed.

Instead, we went to the Atlanta History Center, which had entrance fees waved for the day. We wandered in the gardens, goofed around in a living farm, and meandered through a few Civil War and 1996 Olympics exhibits. At least I was able to start a conversation about civil rights and fighting in wars.

Then we happened to time it just right and were able to have lunch with Dave.

We closed out the day at the Yellow River Game Ranch, which is a big petting/feeding zoo mostly of woodland and farm creatures. That was $1/person entrance + bags of feed. We got to see alpacas, a black bear, deer, peacocks/hens, goats, sheep, bunnies, pigs, red/gray foxes, a coyote, lots of chickens/ducks, donkey/burros. The free ranging peacocks were on full display, even shivering their feathers for the very uninterested peahens. We even got to see some goats butting heads and talked about that term. Because the fees were so low, there had been a lot of visitors before us, so the animals really were not very hungry for our goodies (peanuts). But we sure did have fun exploring.

Everyone was exhausted by dinner time!

2015_01_18 Sunday

What a fun family day! Dave took us all trampoline jumping! Although it was only 1.5 hrs, it was exhausting. The kids had a blast too. They jumped high and long; they played dodge ball; they did front flips. So fun.

2015_01_16 Friday

From reading club: Hello! We have a new student for reading club. Her name is X! Welcome!  She is in Ms X's class. This email will be sent every Friday. On Monday, X worked on the word need and then he read Curious George phonics books. X and Elise worked on the word jump. I assessed X to see where she is at. She also worked on the color words robot sheet. X and I worked on Peter sounds. Some played with playdoh and Legos for 5 minutes at the end. X and I read 2 BOB books. On Tuesday, we all took turns reading BOB or the curious George books with me. X , X , Elise worked on word find. X and I worked together on sounds and writing our numbers. X worked on sight words like, and. On Wednesday, they played splat the bug. The girls worked on word down. The girls got to read sight word flash card while a friend found it on a bug on squashed it with a fly swatter :)  X worked on reading CVC words. X worked on phonics letter sounds on the Kindle. On Thursday, X and Elise worked on the booklet What can you find? Elise played on the kindle practicing 1st grade words. X played addition Zingo. They both played splat the  sight words bugs game together. X and I worked on 2 beginning and ending sounds worksheets. X also played on the kindle. 

From Elise's teacher: Hello, We had calendar time in the morning. We made sweet & sour concoctions to taste today during snack. We shaped the letter Nn with playdoh. We went over sight words flash cards. They all took turns on the kindle. We all worked on Number Patterns. X and X made the book In the Snow, I See... and also played with popcorn sight words. I read the books More,fewer,less and Who Lives in the Snow?   They had German today. We enjoyed the nice weather for recess! 

What was your favorite part of the day?

Elise- my favorite part about school was playing with playdoh. 

Next Tuesday is our 100th day of school! :) 

2015_01_15 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked more about MLK. I read Happy Birthday Martin Luther. For art we made a circle of hands of different colors around a heart. We went over sight words flash cards. We discussed some opposites during snack and lunch time. I read Demi's Opposites and Is it Dark? Is it Light? They had Italian today. 

Tell me something you learned about MLK: 
Elise- I know that he did nice things for people

2015_01_14 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Hello, Today we talked about who Martin Luther King jr was. I read a nat geo kids book on MLK. We talked about how there is a holiday to remember him (No school on Monday). We talked about what a Nobel Peace Prize is and why he received it. X asked what a speech was as we were discussing. We learned the words violence and protest as well. We talked about his famous speech. They drew a picture of people showing love and care toward each other. We also discussed day/night for science. I read the book What Makes Day and Night and I used a globe and a flashlight to show what happens and when we get sunlight. They had French. 

Show and tell shares: 
Elise- for my show and tell, I brought a soft blanket and a hard playmobile trophy toy. 

2015_01_13 Tuesday

From Elise's teacher: Hello, We had calendar time in the morning and reviewed our 100s chart. Today we talked about bedtime opposites such as open (eyes)/closed, asleep/awake. I read the books Daytime Nighttime, Exactly the Opposite, Hiding Hippos counting from 1-10. We spent some time for recess inside and outside. X , X and X had some time on the kindle. X and Elise played addition Zingo. 

What are you looking forward to this month? 
Elise - I am looking forward to backwards day. 

Jonathan had a really rough late morning (he was up and dressed and ate mostly fine); I'm guessing he didn't get enough sleep last night, but I'm not sure because all I got from him was grunts and monosyllables. Teacher said he did great, so maybe it was bad mojo in the house. He also dropped the F-word, quite accurately I might add, over breakfast, so we had to un-do that. ;o\

2015_01_12 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about feelings. We came up with opposite feelings such as sad/happy, nice/rude. I read a book Feelings: Jealous. We talked a lot about this emotion and what we should do if someone is jealous or if we feel jealous. We talked about how we should try to make the person feel better if they are jealous or angry. We then made 3 emotion masks using paper plates. I wrote the emotion they told me on the plates. They had Mandarin. We worked on the letter of the week Nn. We came up with words for that letter.

Tell me about one time you were jealous and what you did to stop being jealous:
Ah somehow forgot to get Elise's response! Sorry! She did understand the book really well and helped interpret the pictures in it. 

2015_01_09 Friday

From Elise's teacher: Hello, We had calendar time in the morning. Today we did free art with markers while listening to loud/ soft music and they had to color fast/slow. X and X worked on Popsicle sticks sight words. X  and X worked on beginning sounds and CVC words with heart halves picture cards. X and X worked on beginning sounds. X also worked on numbers 1-10. Elise and I read 4 short books about animals. We had music time at the end. We listened to Shake with Shaker Eggs and used the shaker eggs. We had indoor recess. We played matching games. They had German. 

What did you like doing today?
Elise- my fav part about school was doing indoor recess. 

From Reading Club: Hello! Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays! On Tuesday, X , X , and Elise completed the booklet What Can We Draw?, they completed a new yrs color by number worksheet. They each made up and wrote a sentence about winter on a sentence strip. They tried to spell the words themselves as best they could.  On Wednesday, X worked on word in. And we worked on the happy new year sheet together. X , X and Elise played picture Zingo as well as number Zingo games. We all read Dinosaur and Dragon Are friends and Otter Helps Beaver. Short books that teach specific sight words. They also completed booklet On the Big Bed. On Thursday, X and Elise took turns on the kindle. We all went over flash cards. X and Elise worked on the word need. X worked on word see. We all played number Zingo. Elise played with popcorn sight words. X and I read BOB books. 

2015_01_08 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Today we had a busy day indoors. We had calendar time. We are going over the months of the year now. I read the book Good News, Bad News about a rabbit and rat going on a picnic and good and bad things happen to them. I also read Small, Medium, Large a book about sizes. We talked about different vocabulary words to mean small or big. They then drew an object in 3 different sizes and told me their words for each size from the book. Mr. Travis came to do a music demo and they got to sing and dance and meet his puppet friends! We went over sight words flash cards. We also worked in our journals on handwriting for letter Mm. We had indoor recess with ms Ann's class. 

Show and tell shares: 
Elise- I didn't bring my show and tell but I know sight words that start with m--make, me, my. 

2015_01_07 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Hello, Today we talked about opposites with our sense of touch such as soft/hard. We tried to think of different words to describe something that's hard or soft such as fluffy or rough. Each student then chose 2 objects that were opposites to glue on their paper. And then they came up with their 2 opposite words and wrote them down. We also talked about position words. They had to follow directions on a worksheet that I called out such as color the animals above the dog yellow. We drew 3 Mm pictures in our folder - mom, muffin, monkey. They had French today. I read Dinosaur Opposites. We sang and danced as I read If it's snowy and you know it, Clap Your Paws. 
What are 2 opposites that relate to texture? 
Elise- 2 opposites are spiky and bumpy 

2015_01_06 Tuesday

First day back to school -- yippeee!!

From Elise's teacher: Hello and welcome back everyone!! Hope everyone had a great holiday season! The students shared their adventures from the last 2 weeks. We had calendar time in the morning where we discussed the new year and new month. This month is about Opposites. We talked about some examples of opposites. Each student said a pair of opposites. Then I and X stood next to each other and the other students said things that were opposite about us such as tall/short, boy/girl. We talked about all the fun things we have to look forward to this month! Our letter of the week is Mm. We discussed words that start with m. We talked about New Years resolutions and I told them that that was another word for goal and that's something we can accomplish. Then we all set a goal for ourselves for the rest of the school year before we go to Kindergarten! We cut and sequenced New Yrs hats and fireworks from biggest to smallest and from smallest to biggest for math. They had Spanish today. We went outside for a little bit. We played with playdoh at the end of the day. 

What is your New Year's resolution or goal for school? 

Elise- My goal is to cut better.