2015_03_31 Tuesday

Elise's school: Wed, April 1st tomorrow- wear something wacky! 

Spring break is April 6-10! 
Today we talked about kangaroos. We reviewed mammals and habitats. We made a kangaroo puppet with a pouch and added a Joey. We also practiced all of our letter sounds up to W. We wrote in our journals. They had Spanish. I read The Book With No Pictures :)

Show and tell shares: For my show and tell..
Elise- I brought my raccoon. It's a puppet 

2015_03_30 Monday

Elise's school: Tomorrow is show and tell- bring a small stuffed animal or a picture of a favorite animal 
**also if anyone has small toy shovels could be borrow them for the classroom for some games for a couple of weeks?? Thanks!
Today we talked about mammal characteristics. We discussed the difference between warm and cold blooded. We worked on writing lowercase letters and sight words. We played with shaving cream mixed with black paint to make zebra stripes. We talked about how no 2 zebras have the same stripe patterns just like we don't have the same fingerprints. And we also stamped our fingerprints. They had mandarin. 

Tell me the name of a baby mammal :
Elise- a baby kangaroo is a Joey 

2015_03_27 Friday

Elise's school: Today we talked about deserts. We talked about the few plants that grow in deserts. We made a saguaro cactus. We enjoyed the chilly weather outside. We  played Do the Bunny Hop game with CVC words. They hopped their bunny piece along to the egg basket! We also practiced sorting words by their vowel sounds. They also took turns in the kindle. 

Tell me a desert fact: 
Elise- I learned that cacti have spikes and the desert is very hot. 

2015_03_26 Thursday

Elise's class: Show and tell Tuesday ,March 31st!picture of favorite animal or a small stuffed animal  

Wed, April 1st- wear something wacky!  Spring break is April 6-10! 

Today we talked about the layers of the rainforest and animals and plants that are found in each layer. We painted a red poison dart frog. We made a habitat in a box. We painted it and then added twigs and leaves from the playground. We also went on a sight word safari word hunt around the classroom. They enjoyed that. 

A rainforest fact: 

Elise- I know that the forest floor gets no sunlight because the tall trees block the sun from coming down 

Reading Club: On Monday, we played Do the Bunny Hop game with CVC words. They hopped their bunny piece along to the egg basket! On Wednesday, we practiced vowel sounds on worksheets. On Thursday , we started discussing syllables and practiced by putting our hand under our him and counting how many times our chin drops. Then we did a worksheet. We will continue that next week. They also played Do the Bunny hop game again. 

2015_03_25 Wednesday

Elise's class; Whew! Zoo day was fun-filled! We had a blast and it was such a nice day to be out! I'm sure you've heard about all the animals we saw. We didn't get to ride the train sad face! Today we talked about the tundra and cold deserts we talked about the Gobi desert in China. And deserts in Canada and Antartica. We made an iceberg scene with polar bears. We also talked about opinion v. fact. I said some statements and asked whether they were opinion or fact about animals for practice. Then we formed our opinion about rain and colored a happy or sad faced raindrop and graphed our results.They had French.  

Tell me a cold desert fact: 
Elise - I know that penguins in Antartica. 

2015_03_23 Monday

Elise's class: Today we talked about animal habitats. We talked about shells, nests, burrows, and rain forests. We made a big mural of a rainforest and added the animals that would live in this habitat. They had Mandarin. We worked on short vowel sounds. We worked on writing lowercase letters. I read 'Twas the Night Before Zoo Day. 

Tell me a habitat fact: 

Elise- I learned that the queen bee pays one egg in each honey cup I mean honeycomb (or cell) 

2015_03_20 Friday

From Elise's school: Today we talked more about corals and sponge painted a coral/sea scene with fish and dolphins. We talked about baby ocean animals by reading Ocean Babies. I also read a silly book called Count the Monkeys. They also played with playdoh and made letter Vv. X and Elise and I worked on subtraction with the pot of gold math game. We all read the booklet It's Spring! that contained some familiar sight words. Everyone took turns on either the kindle or computer practicing blending words or spelling words or reading stories.

If I ran the zoo, I would....(dr Suess book from other day) 

Elise- get a dancing zebra with no eyes. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

2015_03_19 Thursday

At Jonathan's school, I helped the resident beekeeper check in on the hive. I saw the queen and lots of healthy babies! Photos of the kids with the honeycomb! http://tendingourcommonground.com/2015/03/17/honeybee-update/

From Elise's school: Today the Reptile Wrangler came to visit us and brought along some animal creatures! We saw a 9 foot long Python, a tortoise, and Bruno the toad! He talked about what each animal eats and some other facts about each reptile. They all touched each animal and were very brave! We drew coral reefs and a fish scene and then painted watercolor over it for the water. I read the book Coral Reefs. They had Italian. 

What was your favorite animal we saw or something you learned? 

Elise- I liked Peaches because she looks like peaches 

Today I also proposed that Elise get to visit the Kindergarten class, even for a few hours, as a way to challenge her and to have her experience a bit more frustration and challenge than she has until now. Teachers seem on board!

In Reading Club: Hello, On Monday X and I worked on -ap and -ake families. X also worked on -ake word family. X  practiced sight words on the kindle and practiced reading on Starfall and a worksheet with -ing words. X also had time on Starfall to practice the th sound. On Tuesday, X worked on words that rhyme with -ing. X worked on the book It's Spring! He also worked on Starfall. X practiced reading CVC cards with pictures. X and I worked on -ap word family and we did the worksheet together. On Wednesday, the girls played a round of Pot of Gold addition bingo game and then X joined them while X read stories on Starfall. X and X and I took turns working on sounds and practicing sounds on the kindle. X also played a pot of gold number game with me. On Thursday, X and I did the -at word family booklet he did great. X worked on oa and ai words on Starfall and read the stories along with those. Elise read Starry Safari to me and we did the -ing worksheet and some of those words were in the story. And we checked for comprehension! 

2015_03_18 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Zoo field trip next Tuesday! We had a great day! We talked about manta rays and stingrays. We made manta rays with plates and pipe cleaners. They also played a Pot of Gold addition game in groups of 3. They all did a great job playing. X and X will play it tomorrow. They also counted out pieces of gold(rocks) on pots with numbers on them from 1-10 individually. They had French. We drew 3 letter V pictures in our letter folders.  I read If I Ran the Zoo a dr Suess book. 

Tell me a manta ray fact: 
Elise- I learned that manta rays like to be alone and they swim slowly. 

2015_03_17 Tuesday

From Elise's teacher: Hello! We had a great day!  Today we talked about eels. We learned that they are fish and carnivores and can live in freshwater or saltwater. We painted shamrock prints with peppers. We made a St. Patrick's day card. They had Spanish. I read St Patrick's Day and St. Patrick's Day In the Morning. We talked about the history of st Patrick. We had ice pops outside for X's birthday! 

Tell me an eel fact: 
Elise- I learned that they have to come up to breathe at the surface of the water 

2015_03_08 Thursday

From Reading Club: Hello! On Monday, some of them continued to read Harold and the purple crayon. We also worked on a booklet called Winter Birds. On Tuesday, X and Elise had time on the computer with Starfall reading short stories. X and X read Harold with me. X practiced sight words with a matching game on the kindle. We all worked on a Winter Birds worksheet that went along with yesterday's book and we learned our color words. On Wednesday, we read the Sight Word Stories about animals. We also did our flash cards. Some friends took turns on Starfall. On Thursday, X worked on Starfall. Elise and I worked on ch,sh,th, and some other digraph. X also worked on Starfall. And the girls and I read our sight word stories books. We all finished Harold on the
purple crayon (whew) and we found a CD in the back so we listened to the audio tape of it.

From her teacher: Today we talked about salamanders. We talked about their habitat and how they spend their time under rocks. We looked at many pictures of salamanders and other amphibians in some books and on the computer. We drew a salamander under a rock. We made a graph of reptiles and amphibians and counted how many of each we had. We worked on writing the letter Tt. They had Italian today. We finally put on our Peter and The Wolf play from last week. They were amazing and had a lot of fun! Thanks for bringing in the props! 

Tell me a fact about salamanders:

Elise - I know that salamanders like to stay under rocks 

2015_03_16 Monday

I have been knee deep in both work and PTO stuff for the past few weeks, so I'm spending some time today catching up on life, to include posting here.

From Elise's teacher: This week we will talk about mammals and ocean animals. Today we talked about whales and how they are mammals not fish. We drew different whales with oil pastels and then they sprayed watercolor around out of the blowhole with straws. We watched a whale breaching video. We read I Am a Whale. We talked about the letter of the week Vv. They had Mandarin. 

Tell me a whale fact: 

Elise- I learned that the blue whale is bigger than the humpback whale. 

Jonathan did not have school today due to teacher in-service, so he had a sleepover last night with a bud who then came over to hang together.

2015_03_12 Thursday

From reading club: On Monday, we read articles in a nat geo magazine about the rain forest and we talked about the layers of the forest. They made a sentence on a sentence strip about animals. So also took turns on the
kindle. We all made a booklet called Rainbow.  On Tuesday, X, and Elise and I read BOB books. X and
X had turns on Starfall. Elise practiced harder sight words on a new kindle game. They also played matching games and animal bingo. On Wednesday, I practiced letter sounds with X and X . X and I read BOB books. (They will be with us on Wednesdays) X and X worked together on animal groupings based on if they have fur, feathers or scales. X did this sorting game as well. X also practiced sight words flash cards. X and I read books. I also did a Concept of Print (COW) assessment on each student to see if they understand what a 'word' is when reading and tracking. This is usually done before a child starts learning sight words (to see if the child is ready to learn to read) and reading so most did well since they know how to read. On Thursday, X and I worked on CVC words on the computer and letter sounds and blends. Elise practiced r-controlled words and vowels on Starfall. X spelled words on the kindle and worked on CVC words.

From her teacher: Field trip was very nice! The artwork from it was sent home today or in cubby. They drew a bird and another abstract piece. Thank you very much X for helping out! Today we talked about hummingbirds. We talked about their characteristics and their habitat. We also talked about animal adaptations. We drew a hummingbird with oil pastels and then painted over it with watercolor. We learned how to draw a bird yesterday. We worked on the letter of the week Uu. We read Aliens Love Underpants and Helping Habitats. We also took time to talk about teasing and hurting each other's feelings. We talked about positive ways we should act and how we should take turns and not interrupt. We also talked about talking nicely to each other if you have something to say/share. 

Show and tell shares: 
Elise- for my show and tell I brought a game called Uno and my umbrella. 

2015_03_10 Tuesday

From Elise's teacher: Show and Tell will be this Thursday- something that starts with the letter U.

Today we talked about peacocks. We painted a peacock. We also painted a rainbow for st Patrick's day. We read books and looked at pictures of peafowls. We read parts of X's bird book. 

Peacock fact:

Elise - I know that the boy peacocks get the girls to look at them with their pretty feathers 

2015_03_09 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Show and Tell will be this Thursday- something that starts with the letter U. This week we will talk about birds. Today we talked about the characteristics of birds and owls. We made a snowy owl for art. We read books about owls. They had Mandarin. We talked about the letter of the week Uu. We saw a bird with an orange belly at recess and X told us it was a robin and they enjoyed chasing it around! 
Tell me something about owls:
Elise - I know that the mommy owl keeps her owlets warm and safe with her feathers 

2015_03_06 Friday

From Elise's teacher: Today we reviewed reptiles and amphibians from the week. We had calendar time in the morning. X completed a Dr Suess floor puzzle. X worked on Winter Birds booklet to learn color words. Everyone had turns on either Starfall or the Kindle.We completed a rhyming words dr suess sheet. We went outside and we listened and danced to music at the end of the day. 

Tell me a fact about anacondas or turtles from our books:

Elise- I know that leatherback turtles have soft shells because they spend most of their time in water 

2015_03_04 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about Komodo dragons and I read a book called Komodo! We also looked at a fact book all about reptiles that Sabrina brought in. We painted a dragon mask and then we had a parade with them. They had French today. I also read if i had a Dragon. We worked in our letter folders for letter Tt. We had a dragon parade with our dragon masks.

If I had a dragon...
Elise- I would fly a kite with the dragon.

2015_03_03 Tuesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about lizards and snakes. We made a chart of lizard facts. We talked about different types of lizards and snakes. We made a lizard and added 5 spots of 3 colors on our lizard and we counted by 5 to see how many spots we painted total. We made a lizard with playdoh. We made a Dr Suess craft and read some more books.

Tell me a lizard or snake fact:
Elise- I know that snakes swallow their food whole.

2015_03_02 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Hello! We will be talking about reptiles and amphibians this week. And letter of the week is Tt. We made a paper plate snake. We learned the characteristics of reptiles and amphibians and some types of each. We made a chart to compare the 2 groups. They had Mandarin.  I read Cat in the Hat, The Foot Book, Go Dog Go! They all took turns reading some pages to the class! 

Name a type of reptile or a type of amphibian: 
Elise- a type of amphibian is a salamander.