Spelling Words - week of Dec. 14-18

1. song

2. law

3. because

4. soft

5. dawn

6. crawl

7. lost

8. taught

9. long

10. pause

11. frost

12. lawn

13. hawk

14. laundry

15. author

Fruit and Veggie Derby

The Fruit and Veggie Derby was a fun way to end our nutrition unit. The pictures show close-ups of the vehicles that were raced. There was one clear winner (the banana/orange vehicle). The other three tied for second place. Each of the other three went the same distance on the second run. The students did a great job of working together in teams to create and race their vehicle.

Spelling Words - week of Dec. 7-11

1. brother's
2. brothers
3. uncle's
4. uncles
5. sister's
6. sisters
7. sisters'
8. man's
9. men's
10. child's
11. girls
12. girl's
13. girls'
14. mine
15. yours

Making Ice Cream

One of the groups ready to start throwing/shaking the bag.

The finished product topped with whip cream and strawberries.

During last week's nutrition lesson, we talked about the dairy group. Our activity and snack for the week was homemade ice cream. The weather was nice enough to let us take the activity outside. We all enjoyed the final product.

Ice Cream:

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup half and half

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3-1/2 package of instant pudding

1/2 cup rock salt

2 quart size ziploc bags

2 gallon size ziploc bags

ice cubes

1. Fill the large bag half full of ice and add the rock salt.

2. Put milk, half and half, vanilla, sugar, and instant pudding into one of the quart bags. Seal and put it in the other quart bag and seal.

3. Place the bag of ice cream mixture into the gallon bag. Seal the gallon bag and put it into the other gallon bag and seal.

4. Shake or play catch with the bag for about 10-15 minutes. Add more ice/salt to the large bag if it melts quickly.

5. Take out bag of ice cream mixture. Rinse the salt off the bag before opening.

6. Top the ice cream with toppings of your choice.

Spelling Words - Week of Nov. 30-Dec. 4

1. teacher

2. friend

3. dollars

4. homework

5. blackboard

6. proud

7. tickle

8. phone

9. tongue

10. office

11. address

12. classroom

13. lucky

14. unlucky

15. money

Spelling Words - week of Nov. 16-20

1. crown
2. proud
3. however
4. count
5. crowded
6. around
7. south
8. loud
9. house
10. shouted
11. howl
12. growl
13. bounce
14. fountain
15. sound

Tuesday letter highlights

* Our field trip to the Reif Center went well. The students were very well behaved and represented our school nicely.

* Conferences will be held on the evenings of Nov. 12th. (Thursday) and Nov. 17th. (Tuesday). Pink conference slips are in this week's folders. Times were assigned based on the white slips sent back. If you didn't send back a white slip, you were assigned a time. If your scheduled time doesn't work, please give me a call to see if there is a time open that would work better for you.

* Second quarter starts on Nov. 10.

* Remind your child to return their completed October reading logs.

Spelling Words - Week of Nov. 10-13

1. joyful
2. choice
3. voice
4. joint
5. moist
6. spoil
7. royal
8. annoy
9. noise
10. employ
11. soil
12. loyal
13. boiled
14. destroy
15. pointy

Spelling Words - week of Nov. 2-6

1. space

2. stage

3. huge

4. fence

5. price

6. police

7. office

8. engine

9. badge

10. pencil

11. excite

12. force

13. range

14. ginger

15. giraffe

Spelling Words - week of Oct. 26-30

1. shot

2. chance

3. match

4. watch

5. showed

6. shock

7. pushed

8. such

9. crash

10. chew

11. batch

12. hitched

13. sharp

14. mush

15. speech

Spelling Words - week of Oct. 19-23

1. known

2. written

3. laugh

4. sphere

5. wreck

6. writer

7. wrong

8. wrap

9. wrench

10. knocked

11. knot

12. wring

13. enough

14. rough

15. wrinkle

Bike Safety

Last week we had a guest speaker from the Helmet Heroes program. She talked to the students about bike safety, properly fitting your bike, and the importance of wearing a helmet. She demonstrated how a helmet can protect your head by dropping an unprotected egg onto the floor and dropping an egg into a box of styrofoam pieces. The kids definitely decided they didn't want to be the unprotected egg. Each student was given a helmet, and it was fitted properly to their head. I hope they all wear those helmets whenever they ride their bike.

Tuesday Letter highlights

* Book orders are due on Tuesday, Oct. 20th.

* No homework on Wednesday, Oct. 14th.

* Halloween Party will be on Friday, Oct. 30th. Bring costumes to school. We'll put them on in the afternoon. Treats are welcomed. :)

* Mid-quarter reports went home in this week's folder. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Spelling Words - week of Oct. 12-14

1. least

2. fast

3. just

4. burst

5. strip

6. stick

7. strike

8. artist

9. almost

10. student

11. strong

12. start

13. blast

14. step

15. street

Remember, because of the short school week, there will be no pre-test this week, just a post-test on Wednesday.

Read for the Record

Today our class participated in Read for the Record, which is described as a "worldwide campaign to celebrate the joy of reading with children". All around the world, children were reading or being read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Our class participated by choral reading the book with our Minnesota Reading teacher, Jeanette Brown. They did a terrific job! We also celebrated by watching a video about Eric Carle, the author and illustrator of the book. If you want to learn more about Read for the Record, check out their website -

www.readfortherecord.org

Spelling Words - week of Oct. 5-9

All of our words this week have the long i and long o sounds.
1. tight
2. while
3. show
4. stone
5. bright
6. whole
7. window
8. time
9. follow
10. close
11. flight
12. tide
13. grow
14. broke
15. below

Fall Art Projects

Personality Portraits

Fall Writing and Drawing

Who am I? Riddles

Painted Leaves

Hopes and Dreams Drawings/Goals

Spelling Words - week of Sept. 28

This week's spelling words are all long-a and long-e words.

1. easy

2. grade

3. meet

4. late

5. seat

6. saved

7. pail

8. these

9. reach

10. name

11. raise

12. leave

13. gain

14. theme

15. scream

Tuesday Letter highlights

* Picture Day - Sept. 23 rd.

* Homework - The students are doing a great job of completing and returning homework. Keep it up!

* We've enjoyed seeing the items in the students' homework lunchbags. We've also written "Who am I?" riddles to learn more about each other.

* Everyone has taken the STAR reading test and knows their AR reading level.

* Book orders are due on Tuesday, Sept. 29 th.

* Grades can be accessed on the school's gradebook website. Contact Mr. Baker to get a password/user i.d. if you don't already have one.

* Cursive writing starts soon!

Spelling Words - Week of Sept. 21

This week's spelling words all have the short i, short o, or short u sounds.
1. slip
2. fish
3. pick
4. rocks
5. lunch
6. gift
7. thing
8. inch
9. truck
10. pond
11. from
12. jump
13. socks
14. dish
15. thump

Math games/Bus Safety

The students created bus safety posters to help them remember the rules.

Playing "Race to the Stars" - a math addition game.

Spelling Words - week of Sept. 14

This week's spelling words are:
1. sat
2. felt
3. last
4. send
5. next
6. best
7. went
8. hand
9. stand
10. past
11. grand
12. stamp
13. belt
14. lend
15. checked

Our spelling pretests will be on Tuesdays (or the second day of the week on a short week) and our posttests will be on Fridays (or the last day of the week on a short week).

A Busy Short Week

The first three days of school went very well. The students seem to be settling into a routine already. I will be sending home our daily schedule with the first Tuesday letter.

Our first homework assignments have started to come back to school. We will start sharing them this week.

This is our Hopes and Dreams board. We've been reading stories all week about having dreams, setting goals, and working towards those goals. The students have also been thinking about what they would like to get better at this year. This week the students will write and draw about their goals. The drawings will be posted on our Hopes and Dreams board.

These are our "About Me" books. All they need is a first day of school photograph for the cover. Hopefully, the photos will arrive in the mail soon.

As you can see, we've already been busy learning and getting to know each other better.

Check back to this site often to read more about what we've been doing.

The First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. Fourteen new smiles came through the door this morning. It was fun to see their reactions to being back in school. Some came in slowly, some practically bounded in the door. I love that back-to-school excitement. We had a busy day - summer pictures were drawn, books were read, first day photos were taken, and classroom routines were started. We also had fun doing a "getting to know you" scavenger hunt. The day ended with a few minutes of extra recess on the new playground equipment - a great ending to a really great day.

One week ....

School starts one week from today. On Tuesday, Sept. 8th., students will come to school for their back-t0-school conferences. They'll have a chance to drop off their new supplies, find their locker, and see the classroom (if they didn't see it on Open House night). One week and counting down!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to school letters went out in today's mail. The letter has a list of items that would be helpful for you to buy before the first day of school. Here's a sneak peek of what you need.

* 3-4 single subject notebooks

* 3-4 pocket folders

* lots of pencils

* an inexpensive, basic calculator

* crayons, markers, colored pencils

* scissors

* glue or gluesticks

* a large box of kleenex

* a small pencil sharpener with a lid

* a ruler - not a "bendy" one

* a cheery smile and positive attitude!

I look forward to meeting all of you!

Thinking Ahead

This blog is being created to keep parents and students informed about things going on in the classroom. 

The new school year seems far away, but it will be here before we know it. 

Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer. :)