Field Day

We had a blast at field day this week.  The weather turned out to be pretty nice by the end of the afternoon. We are counting down the days till the end of the year.  I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by.  I have enjoyed this group so much and I am hoping our last couple weeks are full of even more fun memories.

Please enjoy some of pictures below of your athletes!!!

Fri. May 15^th: Dental parade, please wear your ilead t-shirts
Mon., May 25^th: No School

Tues., May 26^th: Movie at the Met: Big Hero 6 in the morning, pizza party for lunch, Rock Run visit in the afternoon.

Wed., May 27th:Walk to the Library in the morning

Fri., May 29th:3:10 they are officially 3rd graders, watch out Rock Run!!!!! 

Hip, Hip, Hooray for Leadership Day!

Wow!!!! These kids did a fantastic job showing off all their talents and hard work.  Every child in our classroom was able to talk with some of our guests and share some of their learning and leadership roles and skills.  I was one proud teacher sitting back and listening to your students.  Thank you to all of you who helped out by practicing with your child, sending props with your child, getting them in their ilead shirt and to school, stopping in during a practice to help us get some real practice in, allowing kids to stay late a couple days, etc. you are all very much appreciated.  It definitely takes a village at times.  I wasn't able to snag very many pictures since we were a little busy, but here is one picture of us enjoying our popsicles outside as a little payment for our busy day!

Can you believe we are at the end of April already!  Below you will find some upcoming dates we have, please be aware that as we begin our final month of school there are often disruptions to our typical day.  If you know in advance that your child is going to be absent please let us know as soon as possible.  We are working hard to do our best to reach our end of the year goals in all areas.  Please offer reminders to your kiddos that we need to do our best until the very end and work hard!!!!!

Reading: Continuing to work on our reading theme: Amazing Animals!

Social Studies with Mrs. Kulow: Continuing their Economics unit and discussing taxes.

Science with Mr. Bridgewater: Learning about the life cycle of plants.

Writing with Mr. Johnson: Focusing on having a beginning, middle, and end in all writing pieces.

Health with Mrs. Sheahan: Discussing gardens and the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables.

Comprehension Toolkit with Ms. Light: Finishing up informative research posters.

·       Tues., Apr. 28^th: Pineview Spring Concert – 7:30 pm at the High School (Students need to meet at the front stair case in the high school at 7:15 pm)

·       Fri. May 1^st: Muffins for Moms – 7:45 a.m.

·       Mon., May 4^th : Go the Distance Day – Be sure to wear tennis shoes.
·       May6th -12^th: Houghton Mifflin and Fast Reading tests.

·       Thu. May 7^th: Happy Birthday Lydia!

·       Fri. May 8^th: Donuts for Dads – 7:45 a.m. and PTO Carnival at 5:30 p.m. at the high school.

·       Tues., May 12^th: Field Day – Be sure to wear tennis shoes
·      Mon. May 25^th: No School
·       Tue. May 26^th: Visit Rock Run from 1:30-3:00

Spring has Sprung

We have been busy with a few new projects.  A highlight for the students this month has definitely been the use of the lap tops.  We are so fortunate to have so much technology at our finger tips.  One of the most fun things students have been exploring with has been a program in which they learn the beginning steps for writing computer codes.  This program is a wonderful tool that adjust to meet each child and challenges them as they pass levels.  Students are working on a variety of problem solving skills and higher order thinking.  They are hooked in right away with the technology component and the fact that the characters they use start out as angry birds, and gradually move up to eventually some of the frozen characters I believe.  We had the opportunity to see how this program works not only when you do it as an individual, but also with other students, where one student is in the driver seat and the other is the navigator.  In the short time the kids worked together we enjoyed seeing tons of universal skills being put in to place.  We have worked a lot this month on the "P" word, perseverance. For many students this program tests their patience.  Here are a few images of the kids working with their first grade buddies to use the CODE program.

Another big project we have had this past week has been planting some of the starter plants for the Pineview garden.  In the past the garden has been primarily a 1st grade exploration.  This year we are focusing on synergizing and making it more of a school wide project.  This is a little scary considering this teacher has a black thumb..... Good thing the kids are in charge of the plants.  They planted them and have started to see their sprouts.  Some will have to get cut back to only one or two per pellet.  

Lettuce and Spinach

radishes

peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes

Herbs

Upcoming Dates

April 3-6 Easter break
April 9th- Go to the High School to watch the musical
April 10th- Grand-friends' Day
April 23rd- Leadership Day
April 28th- Spring Concert
May 1st- Muffins for Mom's
May 8th- Donuts for Dad's

End of 2nd Trimester

I can't believe how quickly this year is going by!  We have already come to the end of the second trimester (our third one is definitely growing in length with all these snow days... Come On Spring!!!)  Your student will be bringing home their report card on Wednesday, March 4th.  Please review this with them and feel free to contact me with questions about them as well.  If you would also sign and return their envelope that would be great.  I hope you have all enjoyed a little extra time with your kiddo during these cold snowy days.

We had a blast last week with our P.J. party equipped with a movie and Valentine's games.  I need to be better about taking pictures during those times, but things get a little crazy.  Here are a few pictures from a chance we had to work with some Kindergarten students playing a math game.  Enjoy them!

Latest Learning
Reading: Finished our the story, Chinatown.  Beginning to work on A Trip to the Fire Station.  Working on drawing conclusions in our reading, sequencing a story, and identifying basic structure of a story.  Kids have also been enjoying working on building fluency, making connections, asking and answering questions about books at their level in their book clubs.

Math: This week we finished Unit 6 and took our test.  The kids enjoyed the multiplication in this unit.  We are just beginning unit 7, Patterns and Counting.

Writing: Finishing writing traits of sentence fluency, working on identifying naming and telling parts of more complex sentences. 

Science: Investigating traits of a liquid.

Social Studies: Continuing to work on continents and oceans.

Nutrition: Talking about the food groups and portion size.

Comprehension Tool-kit: Using pictures in books to make inferences.

Upcoming Dates

March 3- Happy Birthday Jesus
March 4- Report cards come home
March 6- February Book-It is due back
March 12th- 1 hr early dismissal for parent/teacher conferences
March 17th- 1 hr early dismissal for parent/teacher conferences