Congrats!

Madison Power and Marley Leventis tied for 2nd place in the Written-in-Stone writing contest! The topic was "Beauty is...." . These essays will be displayed outside Mrs. Buto's door on the first floor. Stop by to read them.

WOW !!

I have 2 things to brag about....Hazel did A LOT of RazKids this week; and Isabella remembered the word circumference when I asked "What is the measurement around our pumpkin called?"

Today, we cut our pumpkin and looked at the inside and the seeds. The lunch ladies were nice enough to roast them for us. Lots of students tried our roasted pumpkin seeds today! Many of them asked for second helpings!

Math

We have been studying addition and subtraction. When we subtract, we sometimes use a number line to help us. For example, if the problem says 6-2, we begin at the 6 and jump back 2 spaces. We land on the 4, which is the answer!

We are also studying how to read graphs and organize information on a graph. We will start learning about using tally marks to count objects, later this week.

On Thurs., we will measure the circumference of a large pumpkin. Be sure to ask your child what circumference means!

Reading

Joseph, Van, Gabriel, Alden, Allison, William, Jalen, J'Kias, Hazel and Lander all received popsicles for reading and recording 20 books on their reading log!

I enjoyed reading individually with many students today! Students are doinbg a great job reading independently.

Hazel's mom has been in several times to read stories to us. We loved those Halloween stories.

Madison's mom came in to work with a literature circle, which several students enjoyed.

Participation on Raz kids has slowed down a bit. I hope you will get back to it when you can. You may have noticed that there are new names on the class list. We do not have new students in our class, but I had extra spaces allowed, so I included some friends.

We are not doing a new story in our reading book tis week. We are reading the health text instead , because it is red ribbon week.

Science

We have been fortunate to have a lot of great science experiences. We had 3 weeks of science rotations with our district science kits. Then we went to the children's museum and learned about friction and other science concepts. Today we are participating in National Chemistry Day with students and teachers from Clemson University and Furman University ! Ask your child about the cool experiments they did at school!

Do you know what cleans dirty pennies best? water, milk, vinegar or ketchup? Ask your child.
Which kind of bouncy ball will bounce higher? a warm bouncy ball or a cold bouncy ball? Ask your child.
Will a wooden car move quickly or slowly over wax paper? sandpaper? smooth wood? bubble wrap? Ask your child.

Raz Kids report

Alden, Allison, Connor, Hazel, Jack T, Joseph, Madison and William worked on Raz Kids this week! Great job! Happy reading!

more crazy bugs!

CRAZY BUGS!

Science Day

Can you imagine playing in the mud with 100 first graders? That's what I did today! Thanks to Mrs. Ehnis for helping me! Today we made small bricks. We combined red clay, dark soil, grass and water to form mud balls. Then we flattened them inside a small container and set them out to dry. They will become dry and hard. This is how bricks are made of earth materials. We learned a lot!

Lost Tooth

Gabriel just lost his first tooth! Thanks , Miss Pam (nurse) for pulling it!

Next week

Next week is a short week for students. Thurs. and Fri. are professional development days for teachers. Wed is our field trip to the Children's Museum. We will walk to the museum and back, so make sure your child wears good walking shoes.

Raz Kids

Alden, Gabriel, Joseph and Madison did a good job on Raz Kids this week! Keep up the good work.

Pajama Day

Everyone had a great time on pajama day! Even Ms. Thomas and Ms. Field wore their pajamas to join in the fun! We had bagels and cream cheese in the morning, which Michael's mom sent. Shanita's mom baked a cake for us, which we ate with our lunch. Then we watched Magic Schoolbus videos and ate popcorn, which Hazel's mom sent! With all this going on, I am sorry to say that I forgot to take a picture for the blog!

Fall for Stone

I really enjoyed the Fall for Stone party tonight. It was great to visit with friends and get to know people better. Thanks PTA.

Writing

Students are now using their dictionaries during writing workshop. When they don't know how to spell a word, I will write it in their dictionary. They will copy it in their story and then that word will be there for future use. They are doing a fabulous job with the dictionaries and this helps their writing improve. :)

twins ?

How cute is this? Hazel and Shanita dressed just alike for picture day!

Picture Day

Did you know that Mrs. Buckless has written a book called Class Picture Day ? She read it to our class today and talked about being a writer. It is a very cute and funny book, that we all enjoyed! She gave me an autographed copy for us to read in our classroom! SHe has written other books, too. It was exciting to see her published book.

Compliment Chain

The compliment chain hit the floor today!! Judd counted the links and said there are 49 links on the chain! The children voted to have a pajama day AND a Magic School Bus video as their reward. This will be on Friday. Please praise your child for working together as a team to earn 49 compliments!

RazKids Report

This week Alden, Hazel, Jack B, Connor, Gabriel, Lander and Madison earned points on RazKids! Hazel and Jack B earned tons of points! WOW. Great job everyone!

Reading logs

Hazel, Lander, Michael and Alden earned a popsicle treat for adding 20 more books to their reading logs! All this practice makes us better readers.

Science Rotation Day

Students draw, color and describe the characteristics of rocks.

Science Rotation Day

These geologists are recording the characteristics of their rocks.

PTA memberships

50% of our class has become a member of PTA. If we get 100% membership, the class will be treated to an ice cream party! The first class to reach 100% will also receive a pizza party. Join today!

RAZ KIDS

Congratulations students! There were 11 active students in razkids this week! WOW! Gabriel, Alden, Allison, Conn or, Jack B, Jack T, Joseph, Judd, Lander, Madison and Marley all read stories this week. I am so proud of you guys! Gabriel and Madison read a ton of stories and took tests on them. AWESOME work!

Promethean Board

I am starting my Promethean board training on Mon!!

Reading logs

Allison, Hazel, Madison, William, connor, Gabriel, Joseph, Van and Jack B received a treat for reading 20 books and recording them on their reading logs. Great job !

Play Time

Today we had indoor recess. The boys and Allison made this community, and they wanted you to see it :)

WOW!

Everyone stayed on GREEN cards today! Our compliment chain is almost touching the floor!

Book Buddies

We compared ourselves to our book buddies and made venn diagrams!

Another Venn diagram

Today we made venn diagrams with hula hoops. Here we show animals that fly and animals that swim. We think that a duck and flamingo can do both. (even if the flamingo can't fly much).

http://www.raz-kids.com/

Here is a link to our at home reading program. There are so many books in this computer library. Have fun and read a lot!

Open House

We had 13 families represented at Open house last night. Thanks to all the parents who came. The children LOVED reading the notes you wrote in their journals!

Venn Diagram

Look how Shanita and I are alike and different! It is hard to read but the differences are white/black, big/little;glasses/no glasses;brown hair/black hair; no missing teeth/missing teeth; teacher/student;adult/child. Here is how we are the same; girls, American, have families, mammals, happy, like to read.

Tomorrow, we will compare and contrast ourselves and our book buddies.

Da Bomb!

Last week, Mrs Rohrer brought my class back from PE and said that we needed to improve our listening and following directions skills. Yesterday, she brought them back from class and said we are "Da Bomb"! I am very proud of this! We are collecting compliments so that we can earn a SPECIAL reward! Our compliment chain is getting long!

Sheraine

Today was Sheraine's last day at Stone, because her family is moving. Ms. Field, Shanita's mom, baked a cake, to make her last day special. We all enjoyed the cake. We asked Sheraine to write to us and we will write back to her. We hope to be pen pals! Maybe Sheraine will even watch our blog to see what we are doing and to keep up with her friends!

Look at these cute babies!!!

Johanna made this cute poster for us with the baby pictures that were brought in. It is on display in the hall beside our room. The photos are adorable and it is fun to guess who's who! There is an answer sheet posted next to the poster so you can check your guesses. This will be on display during Open House for you to ennjoy. Then I will take the photos off and return them. Thanks for sharing them with us! We had fun guessing in class today!

Sheraine

We will be losing Sheraine at the end of this week. Her family is moving to New York. We will make cards for her tomorrow and we will certainly miss her.

Open House

Open House is Mon. Sept 14 at 6:30. There will be a general meeting iin the cafeteria. Mr Holliday will introduce the faculty there, and then everyone will be able to go visit the classrooms. This is not time for conferences. It is a time to see the classroom, some of your child's work and hear about our class activities. There will be a sign up sheet for individual conferences. Hope to see you there.

Keep on reading!

Congratulations to 9 students who received an ice cream treat for filling up their reading logs. Way to go Jack B, Alden, Lander, Marley, Jack T, Sheraine, Jalen Isabella, and Shanita!

Book Buddies

Today we meet a special new friend. Each student has a 5th grade book buddy. They read to each other every Wed. It was fun to meet these new friends today. THanks to Mrs McClain and Miss Grimsley for being our buddies!

Our loft

our classroom

We are learning to be organized.

ME bags

Today we shared our ME bags. Students did a great job choosing what to put in the bag that would tell about them. They also did a good job sharing. Here is what we found out.....
(See if your child can read these sentnences.)

Jack B likes chess.
Marley likes to color.
Michael likes to swim.
William likes his lovie ( a stuffed manatee)
Joseph likes his reading award.
Hazel likes the waterpark.
Lander likes gymnastics.
Allison likes magic.
Jack T. likes his walkie talkies.
Madison likes rocks.
Connor likes model airplanes.
Isabella likes ballet.
Judd likes football.
Gabriel likes to cook.
Alden likes to paint.
Sheraine likes her family.

Special Guest

Today we had a special visitor. Kory Kraft, who supervises first graders at the Frazee Center, came to our class. He met the students and watched our morning activities. He observed us as we had our big book lesson. We saw us do our calendar work, handwriting work, patterns, and he even participated in our concentration game! I am so thankful to have his support because he continues what I teach, in the afternoons at the Frazee Center. He will be back to visit frequently:)

website

http://www.starfall.com
Please visit this website with your child. There are great interactive games for phonics and beginning reading. The children really enjoy this site. It is good fun practice for them. You may want to bookmark it for frequent use!

WOW Great job, parents!

You have done a great job reading the books that I sent home and recording them on the reading log! I am so happy to see this because it starts a great habit for reading every day and it reinforces what I have done in the classroom. Students are beginning to feel like READERS! I am also happy to see that you are checking the behavior sheet and signing it daily. This shows me that we can communicate with a quick message about students's daily behavior. When you discuss it at home it helps to reinforce positive behavior and if necessary, to reinforce the importance of our school rules. Thanks for all of your help in starting school. Your support really shows in the classroom:)

Second day of school

We had another good day! We earned a compliment from Mrs. Ackerman yesterday and one from Mr Benjamin today. Therefore, we have 2 links on our compliment chain. When the chain hits the floor, we will get a class reward!

Today, we started our calendar activities and had our first estimating game. I had a clear jar of cotton balls. Each student made a guess about how many he/she thought was inside. Madison had the closest guess. She only missed the actual count by 1! The estimating jar is a fun way to practice and sharpen our number sense skills.

Today, we discussed the " tools" that students need to do their work. We use our bodies to learn (through movement, through our senses, through manipulating objects, etc). We use our voices to learn (through reading, discussing, asking questions, etc). We use concentration skills (to help us focus, listen to directions, and tune out distractions). We use our cooperation skills (through working together as a group, with partners, working with teachers). Our class rules reflect this concept. We are learning to make strong choices involving our bodies, voices, concentration skills, and cooperation skills.

Tomorrow we will have a fire drill. I will practice the fire drill procedure with the class before it happens, but if your child gets nervous about these things, please prepare them.

Remember to turn in permission to photograph forms, if you allow me to post photos of your child. Then I can post some cute photos of children doing "their thing" in first grade!

We read some really good books this week. We read Wimberley Worries, David Goes to School, Appelamando's Dreams and Chrysanthemum. Ask your child to tell you about the books or tell which one was his/her favorite.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow :)

First Day of School

WOW.... we had a very good first day! None of the children got upset when their parents left.Everything went smoothly. We spent the day getting to know everyone, reading good books and learning the rules and procedures that will help everything run efficiently for the year.

Remember to turn in those forms that came home in the large envelope. The information sheet helps me get to know the children. The other forms are important for the lunch room, health room, office and internet usage.

The beginning of first grade is very tiring for the children, because they don't have the naptime they had in kindergarten. Several children got very tired after lunch. Please help us make this transition, by getting children to bed early. A good night's sleep will help them perform better at school and get used to the long day.

Tomorrow is Michael's birthday! We look forward to wishing him a special day :)

Meet the Teacher

I enjoyed meeting everyone tonight. I am so lucky to have such a good class. I look forward to getting to know everyone better and spending the year together.

Hello

This blog used to be a stamping blog where I shared my cards with others. Now, I am changing this blog to a classroom blog. For now, I have left some of my favorite cards for you to see, so you can get to know a little about me. When school starts, I will begin to post pictures, student work and notes about our classroom activities. Parents, I will need for you to sign and return a permission form that allows me to publish your child's photo, if you wish to let me use them. I will only use first names and appropriate photos of school content. However, you do not have to agree to have your child's photo included on this blog. You can still follow the blog to see what we are doing. I hope that everyone finds it fun and informational. If you ask your child what he/she did in school today, and they say "nothing", then this will give you insight on things to talk about with your child. I hope that it will soon be fun to visit with your child and something that you want to share with extended family. Granparents, aunts and uncles can see what your child is doing and learning. This blog is for you, too. You may post comments for the students and/or me. We love positive feedback and praise!! Join us frequently and you will be a part of our school community!

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