Week 17

Students holding up their rockets

STudent preparing to launch rocket

Student opening my Christmas present to the class

Students preparing to enjoy the class party

  . . .I've got more pictures from this week coming as soon as I get a cord to hook our new class camera in the computer.  

With Christmas approaching, this week was a bundle of fun and craziness!

Special Activities: High-schoolers came and gave each child a book, followed by spending time to read with them.  Elementary kids think that high-schoolers walk on water, and it was a great Christmas present for those kids.

After working hard at rocket math and speedy words, the class earned a rocket party.  Each child made a rocket (including writing a math problem on the side).  Then we launched them off.  They absolutely loved it!  I hope it motivates them to work hard at learning their math facts and sight words in order to earn another rocket party this spring.

We also had both a class Christmas party, and a school Christmas party.  The kids are very excited about Christmas.  They were so excited to open their class Christmas stockings, which were full of little items that each child brought this month to stuff them with.  Their animosity and excitement about Christmas is so contagious!

We also had a short field trip this week to attend a Christmas play in Mountain View called, “Santa’s Stuck in the Fifties.”  The students really enjoyed it.

Funny Stuff From Kids: While looking at a poster made by our Star of The Week student, the class noticed a picture of him sitting on Santa’s lap.  Because Santa was wearing glasses in the picture, quite a debate ensued about whether or not Santa really wears glasses.  I got quite a kick out of their perspectives.  They seemed to think that the glasses were the key to whether he was the real Santa or just one of his helpers.

One girl this week saw the kindergarteners making gingerbread houses and said, “Oh look.  Those little kindergarteners are so cute!” She said it as if she were a young adult speaking about a toddler.  I find that hilarious because there is only one year between kindergarten and first grade!  In a decade or so, they’ll all be high school pals hanging out anyway.

Homework: Make sure the students keep up on their homework.  I will send next week’s home after Christmas break.

Social Studies: We had fun learning about weather around the globe using a program called Earth Browser.  A 3D image of the globe was on the smartboard, and the students could choose a location around the globe to view the current weather, webcam photos, etc. 

Math: We finished our unit on adding strategies, but after looking at the test results we’ll need to spend some more time with it.  Mostly the students are not understanding how to figure out a math fact that they haven’t already memorized.  (I think we start memorizing math facts a little too early, but I have no control over that.)  They’ll get there with a little more practice. 

Project Read/Spelling: This week we reviewed all of our previous spelling patterns and words.  We played a lot of fun review games.  We also had some tests to see if they are understanding blends in reading or not.

Speedy Words and Rocket Math: Students earned the rocket party!  They all loved it.  Lately there have been a few issues with students not progressing in rocket math, but I will visit with parents to solve those issues as needed.

AR: Most students have reached their goal of 20 books for this quarter, and the rest are progressing.   Great job!

Writing: This week for writing, Deagle the elf left a note on my desk.  It spoke of how he has been watching our class, and it requested them to write to his team of elves.  They each wrote letters, and the elves responded by putting letters in their stockings. 

Science: For science this week, we had our rocket party, as mentioned above.  We also spent some time using a QX3 microscope that hooks up to the smartboard, so the whole class can see it.  Activities like this are so important to find time for, so that students retain their curiosity and passion for learning.