Schumacher's Safari

Leadership Day is almost here!

We are so excited that Leadership Day is coming on Friday!  Please be sure to dress your best and be prepared for lots of hand shaking and talking with adults about our learning.  We will be eating lunch in our classroom that day so be sure to bring your lunch if you returned your form saying that was your plan.  There will be no extras sold that day, so please plan accordingly.

We had a wonderful week of learning last week.  We began a unit on fractions in math.  We have learned all about whole, halves and fourths.  We will continue our unit this week with learning all about sets of objects and how that can relate to fractions.  For example I have four crayons and two are blue and two are red.  I have one half red.  Our phonics last week focused on the sounds of bossy r again.  This time we learned that or makes a unique sound but the er, ir and ur are called the Bossy R triplets!  They all sound the same.  We had some fun learning some new ways to be sure to know which triplet to use when spelling words with the bossy r sound.  In reading we are working hard creating a booklet all about the nonfiction text features.  We have learned about photographs and the table of contents.  We are wrapping up our study of Harriet Tubman this week.  We visited the computer lab on Friday and created a bubble map that listed some of the character traits she had and the Seven Habits she used on her courageous journey.  Our writing last week was wrapping up procedural writing.  We had so much fun writing about How To Blow a Bubble!  We got to chew gum!  In school!!!  We did a fun craftivity with this project and I will post some pics soon. 

Special thanks to Mr. Steer, our Mystery Reader last week.  If you haven't had a chance to come and read to the class, please do!  The children really love it and they get so excited to have their loved ones in their environment! 

Also thanks so much to all the Dads and loved ones who made it out for Donuts with Dad!  I hope you were able to sign up for a WatchDOG day with your child.  I love seeing the students come in with their dads and show them around the room.  They are so proud to have you see what their day is like. Of course, having a donut for breakfast is pretty wonderful too!

 

A message from the Superintendent

Cobb County School District is committed to providing quality education for all students. Each school in the district has developed a school strategic plan to identify specific goals and activities that will address the unique needs of its students.

Feedback from staff, parents and community members is important to the school strategic planning process. Your participation in School Improvement Survey will provide feedback about the quality of educational services and programs in our schools.

Your responses to the survey are anonymous. Results will be provided to the principals later in the school year and will be used, along with other information, to identify priorities for the school.

We invite you to take a few minutes, respond to the survey which can be found at this link:

http://www.cobbk12.org/sisurvey

The survey will be available until February 10, 2012, and should take about 15 - 20 minutes to complete. Your opinions are vital to the future of our schools and through participation in this survey you become active in helping your child's school principal identify critical issues to be addressed.

If you have any questions concerning the survey, please contact the principal at your child's school.

Respectfully,

Michael Hinojosa, Ed.D.
Superintendent

 

WOW! Wasn't science night so much FUN?! There were cool hands-on experiments for everybody to do! Now it’s time to Be Proactive and Begin With the End in Mind as you start brainstorming some ideas for the Science Fair. I am strongly encouraging all of my students to enter Pickett’s Mill Science Fair. Start thinking of a topic and a title this weekend but more information about it will be coming home in your child's red PTA folder. Remember, try to come up with something creative that nobody has done before! Here are some links with great Science Fair ideas. Beware...these links take you outside of CCSD and may contain advertisements. Science Fair Ideas and More Science Fair Ideas

 

Mystery Question!

Noah and Ansley decided to order a pizza!  The pizza was cut into 6 pieces.  How many pieces would each of them get? 

Draw what the pizza would look like if the pizza was cut into four pieces?  What fraction of pizza would Noah get?

 

 

An Amazing Day!

Leadership day was amazing!  I have never been so proud of our great school.  I really hope your child came home and filled you in on the wonderful things that went on.  We began our day by watching LOTS of visitors strolling the halls and registering for the day.  Many stopped to talk with our students and gave our children a chance to practice our handshaking and speaking.  They were entertained by violinists, piano players, singers, chess players and many other talented students in our school.  Each grade level had a presentation on stage to tell about the 7 Habits.  First grade told all about our Feasting on the 7 Habits at Thanksgiving.  Later, our guests visited the classrooms and saw lessons that incorporated the 7 Habits.  Our guests were greeted and shown around the classroom and joined in on our lesson.  We had fun learning about problem and solution.  We incorporated the Habit number 5, Seek First to Understand by using the book, No David.  We discussed how David was a Peacebreaker and not a Peacemaker.  We even had time to make a class book.  The guests had so many nice things to say and the children were beaming!  (not to mention how stinkin' cute they looked in their dress for success!) Here are some pictures of us using many of the Habits on Friday  (like we do everyday!) We even made the front page of the Marietta Daily Journal on Saturday. 

 

 

 

 

 

Even with all the Leadership practices and activities going on throughout the week, we managed to get in a BUNCH of learning!  We finished up fractions in math.  We worked on determining the fraction of a set of objects.  We also continued with our facts to 18 in addition and subtraction.  In phonics, we learned about long a.  We made magic e wands and learned about how he can magically make an a_e word say the /a/ sound.  In reading, we finished up nonfiction text features. We discovered the uses for the index, table of contnets, glossary and how tables and charts help us better understand what we read.  Our Social Studies time was spent on Leadership day activities and wrapping up Harriet Tubman.  In writing, we are learning and writing an informational piece about frogs.  We are learning how to write an opening sentence with facts and details and then a closing.  We will continue on this project to each complete a book about frogs.  Then we will complete an informational book on our own.

On Monday, information will come home about the 100th day Circus.  The actual 100th day was last Friday, but we were a little really busy!  So, we are celebrating the 110th day of school with a circus!  Please look over all the information.  We need volunteers, materials and we want to have fun!  It is scheduled for Friday, February 10th. 

Valentine's Day is coming!  I am sending home some info on Monday for making a Valentine mailbox.  We love to exchange Valentines inour class and we each need something to hold all of them.  Be creative!  The kids have so much fun sharing their boxes or containers.  Also, try to be sensitive to the large number of children with sealants on their teeth.  Many kids cannot have sticky candy or gum.  Perhaps you could send in small trinkets instead of candy.  Thanks!

Please support Pickett's Mill Student Council as they participate in

Random Acts of Kindness

They will be collecting boxes of Valentine cards to donate to students at other Cobb County Schools who otherwise would not be able to "share the love" with their classmates this Valentine's Day!

What: Boxes of Valentine's Day Cards
When: January 25th - February 3rd
Where: Collection Boxes located in the front entry and near the bus port.

 

 

The 2012 Six Flags reading program is about to kick off at PMES! Please look for the Parent Letter and Reading Log on Tues Jan. 24 in the red PTA folders. All Forms should be turned in to the Media Center NO LATER than Friday Feb. 24! Sadly, no late entries will be accepted.

 

Mystery Question!

Noah and Ansley were sharing some candy.  Noah had eight M&M's.  Three were yellow and the rest were blue.  What fraction of yellow did he have?  What fraction of blue were there?

 

 

 

 

I Have A Dream...

I hope you all are enjoying this wonderful holiday off.  We will be learning on Tuesday why we are home with our families on Monday.  My dream is that they can come home and tell you all about Martin Luther King Jr.

We have some fun activities planned to help everyone understand the reason for this holiday. 

We had a very busy SHORT but LONG week last week!  We could not go outside most of the week due to the weather so it made for a very LONG week!  We did manage to learn quite a few new things though:  We began our week with many County Checkpoint tests in Language Arts and Math.  Even though much of the material had not been covered yet, we did great!  Imagine coming back from 18 days of vacation and sitting down and taking a test on material you haven't learned yet!!!!  So, hats off to our students that did their personal best.  In Language Arts, we focused on compound words and the sounds of Bossy R.  We had so much fun learning about Pirate Mark and his ARRRRRR sound!  We made a pirate and we went on a  a treasure hunt for AR words.  This week we will learn all about the sound of OR and the bossy R triplets, er, ir and ur (They all sound the same).  In math we worked on adding and subtracting strategies and how to add three addends.  We had some fun New Year's inspired math tubs this week and speaking of that holiday, we set some goals for the new year.  In Social Studies, we introduced our latest famous American, Harriet Tubman.  We will learn all about her courageous life. 

Our biggest highlight of last week was our new co-teacher, Jessica Vaccarrelli!  She is wonderful and the kids just love her.  We team taught our writing lesson last week and the kids loved it.  We are working on writing "How To" pieces.  Ms. Vaccarrelli tried to teach me how to draw a flower, but we discovered without the proper directions, it is not that easy. 

We have another busy week planned.  Don't forget that some of you signed up for Science Night on Wednesday or Thursday night.  If you made a reservation, your tickets were sent home in your child's folder.  I can't wait, it is going to be so much fun!

Second grade is still collecting coats and clothing for the Must Ministries Leadership project:

January/ February 2nd Grade MUST Ministries Project

2nd Grade is sponsoring the first annual

Janua"WEAR"y and Febru"WEAR"y

Clothing Drive for MUST Ministries.

Please bring gently used or new shirts, pants, pajamas, and sweaters in any sizes.

Clean out those messy closets to help others. Think WIN-WIN!

2nd grade leaders will be standing by the bins at the bus port to collect your donations.

Those Who Lead MUST Help those in Need! 

 

Don't forget that Doughnuts with Dad is scheduled for Friday morning!  Bring your Dad, Grandpa or Uncle for a yummy doughnut before school.  This event is sponsored by our WatchDOGS.  What a great time to sign up to be a WatchDOG for our school!

 

Thanks so much for everyone that sent in some extra supplies for the classroom!  We are beginning to run low on gallon sized ziplock baggies.  If anyone can send in some (just the generic brand), we would really appreciate it! 

One last reminder, it is January!  Please be sure to send in a warm coat each day.  Many days students get into their cars from the garage and run straight into school and don't feel the cold.  We cannot go outside to play if everyone does not have a coat.  Thanks so much for the support.  (when your child is arguing with you about not needing a coat, blame me!)

 

Check out our wonderful Mystery Reader, Charity Fowler, this week!  Thanks so much for sharing such fun stories!

 

Mystery Question

Robbie and Kayla went shopping at the school store.  Kayla had 58 cents and she wanted to buy four notebooks that costs 20 cents each.  Does she have enough money? 

 

Robbie had 75 cents.  He bought a pencil for 25 cents and then he bought two notebooks for 20 cents each.  Does he have enough money? 

 

Bonus:  if he does have enough money, what will his change be?

Draw and explain your thinking!

 

 

 

 

Welcome Back to a New Year!

2012- I just like typing it, saying it and writing it!  I cannot believe the New Year is here!  With the new year brings lots of  new learning!  This quarter has a lot of stuff to cover in it, so hang on to your hats!  We need to be fluent readers, writers and in our math facts.  I know you are tired  frustrated worn out of me saying this but First in Math is a great way to practice.  Parents, you only need to be sure your child logs in correctly (which most can do independently).  Everyone knows how to play.  From my data, students who play on First in Math twice or more a week, have higher math scores than those who don't.  Just sayin...So what's the hold up?  If you don't want to do flashcards, let them get on the facts practice for FIMath and go to town. 

I know the holidays are over but you have to see the cute pictures from our great last week.  First we had Brown Bag Book Club.  We read lots of Laura Numeroff books (If You Give A _____).  We wrote about our favorite books and shared with small groups while eating popcorn.  Do you know what happens when you give a first grader a book?  They will want some popcorn to go with it, and then they will want to sit with a group of friends and discuss it!!!!  It was great.

Next we had GRINCH day!  What fun to read the Grinch and wear green.  We had some fun Grinch like activities and even got to see the movie at the end of the day.  We even squeezed in the Science lab that day and had so much fun learning all about sound.  Special thanks to Ms. Benson's parents who volunteered to run the stations. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the HOLIDAY PARTY!!!!!  What better way to kick off the season than a fabulous party.  Special thanks to all the parents who helped with all the activities and the cake (I need a picture of that cake!!!!!!)  Charity Fowler created the most wonderful cake sensation with her fabulous talent.  That girl can make some yummy stuff.  The Frosty cake pops were a big hit too! 

  Check out our cute scarves!  We had a fun book exchange and had fun when we heard from the North Pole!  How did Frosty know all those things about us?

 

 

Thursday was spent doing a bunch of review and catching up for the new year.  We cleaned and got everything ready so when we come back, our supplies are restocked and everything is sparkly clean! 

Here are a few reminders for the week:  don't forget to bring a snack.  Remember, snack time is a "working" snack.  I do not stop teaching to get snacks for students.  Pack a healthy, mess free snack that can be eaten quickly while working. 

We are testing this week for the County (formative assessments)  Please arrive to school on time.  

Did you sign up for Science night on January 18 or 19th?  I hope so!  It will be a fun time for learing some new science concepts. 

Exciting News!  Monday will be the first day for our student teacher, Ms. Jessica Vaccarelli.  We are looking forward to having her as a co-teacher in our classroom!  Welcome!

Let's have a great week!!!!!

We are almost there!

We think we can, we think we can, we think we can...make it through the next few days until the holiday break!  I am a bit grinch green with envy of the other districts that are out celebrating with their families this week, but we can do it! We have decided to have some fun this week and squeeze some learning in there along the way.

Monday we will be learning all about circle stories by Laura Numeroff (If You Give A Mouse a Cookie).  We will have a fun brown bag book club meeting in which we will be sharing our favorite stories.  We are even planning on writing our own circle stories.

Tuesday is GRINCH day!  Wear green and bring a Santa hat if you have one!  We will have so much fun reading the story of the Grinch.  We also get to visit the Science Lab that day and finish up our sound unit.

 

Wednesday is our holiday party at 12:00.  We will be having some fun Frosty the Snowman lessons in the morning! 

 

Thursday is a wrap up day to finish all our work and prepare for the new year!  Mrs. S gets to pack up all the holiday stuff for another year and go home and REST!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

So that is our week in a nutshell (or should I say nuthouse!) 

I am looking for anyone who sews???  I am in need of a table skirt for one of our classroom rectagle tables that will hide all my stuff  help us stay organized.  If you are crafty in that way, I will provide the materials and owe you my gratitude!  Just let me know. 

Here is a wish list of classroom supplies we would love to have for the new year:  white cardstock, baby wipes, small cap erasers for pencils, white paper plates (large), geoboards, packs of yellow highlighters, and thin Crayola markers.

Special Thanks to all our great volunteers that helped us with a craft day on Friday! 

We really enjoyed our Mystery Reader, Frank Kline.

He had us laughing at the Bad Kitty book he brought in.  We really loved the candy canes! 

 

Also...NO HOMEWORK ALL WEEK!  Have a wonderful holiday and I will see you NEXT year!

 

 

 

 

Mystery Question!!!

Robbie and Greyson are decorating the Christmas tree!  Robbie put up nine green balls and Greyson put up some red ones.  There were 20 balls in all on the tree.  How many did Greyson put on?  Draw your thinking and show the number sentence!

The Countdown has started!

We are getting closer to the winter holiday break but I still have a lot to teach!  Please remind your student about coming to school on time, prepared with snack, homework, backpack and a coat each day!  Most of all tell them to pack their listening skills!  Wow we were oh so talkative last week!  I know how excited they are, (7 hours a day with them!) but we have much to focus on this week.  We will be taking our checkpoint testing in Language Arts and Math on Tuesday and Wednesday.  These are important end of the nine weeks tests as well as cumulative assessments to see how much we have learned.  Please keep to the routine as much as possible these last few days.  Also, please remember that Wednesday nights homework is to get on First in Math.  It is homework and I do print out who gets on and your child gets a reward in class for their participation.  I do not allow my own children on the computer or TV during the week, but for the 15 minutes for First in Math, it is allowed since it it an assignment.  Please help support this assignment.  We are assessing this week on our facts to 12.  I have seen big gains in the children who visit the site regularly. 

We had a great week working on learning all about plane and 3D shapes in math.  We are still working on trading bills to $20.00.  We worked on ed, ing and s endings in phonics.  Our reading skills focused on comparing books of the The Gingerbread Man.  We enjoyed many versions, kept a gingerbread journal and recorded the different endings of each book.  We began a unit on sound and we visited the science lab last week for magnet centers.  We will be visiting the lab again the week before the break to enjoy some sound centers.  We finished up our last personal narrative that will be assessed on our favorite holiday memory.  Another skill we worked on this week was our listening and speaking standard.  We followed directions to create an elf for our wall.  We also did our sight word challenge differently.  The students had to listen to the correct places in a row of trees to place their spelling words.  The directions were only read once!  It was interesting to see who could really focus.   So as you can see...we were busy little firsties last week.

We want to thank Ainsleigh's Nanny for being our Mystery Reader!

Please don't forget to return the information that Corey Strapp sent home last week.  We need that info to make our holiday party fun!  Don't forget our holiday party is Wednesday, December 21st at 12:00.  Hope to see you there! 

 

Here are a few pictures of us at magnet centers.  Sorry about the quality, all I had was my phone that day!!!

Using our mystery bottles and magnets to attract objects!

 

 

 

 

 

We were synergizing to share materials and information!

 

 

 

 

 

What will a magnet pull through?  We made a  hypothesis and recorded our results.

 

 

What will stick to a magnet sorting activity.

 

 

 

I appologize for not getting this out last week but here is our wonderful Voyage of Discovery day.  this was so much fun.  Thanks again to all the parents who helped pull it off.  Special thanks to Corey Strapp for organizing all the help! 

 

 

Create your own photo album

Leadership Day!

 

Pickett’s Mill Elementary will be hosting its

First Annual Leadership Day on January 27^th.

In preparation for this fabulous event, we would

like to take a moment to let you know a little

more about Leadership Day 2012.

• There will be over 100 visitors attending to see The 7 Habits in action.
• Unfortunately, with such a large influx of visitors, we will be unable to accommodate parent visitors on this special day. We will definitely document the occasion with tons of pictures and videos that we will share!
• All students will participate in a leadership role for this day. Some will be leaders who prepare materials, hall displays, or information for our visitors. Others will be leaders who have a speaking role, a performance role, or serve as greeters and guides for guests. Every classroom will have a guest visitor on Leadership Day and therefore all students will be sharing as leaders within their classrooms as well.
• Next year, we are sure our students and staff will come up with even more opportunities to showcase student leadership on this special day.
• We are asking all students to “Dress for Success” this day.

December is here!

Where did November go?  Seems like I just got all the fall decorations out and the turkeys and pumpkins strategically placed throughout my house and it is now time to put all that away!  Do you have your tree up yet?  I am a firm believer of finish one holiday before you start another.  This weekend will give way to snowmen, Santa, gingerbread and all things Christmas at my house.  I really look forward to the decorating and getting into the spirit of the holidays.  Someone special showed up last week in our classroom.  Did you child tell you about Krinkle, our elf?  He arrived on December 1st and the class could not be more excited.  He is watching our great behavior and helping us to stay focused.  I will try to get a picture of him.  I saw one of our students talking to him and telling him their wants for the holidays!  Too cute!

Another way that I get into the spirit each year is to attend Impact Dance production of the Toymaker's Christmas.  It is a beautiful production to help welcome in the holidays.  I was so excited to see it this year because our very own Taitum C was in it!  What a wonderful job she did dancing as a marshmallow doll.  I was so proud and I whispered to everyone around me, "She is in my class!"  Great job, Taitum!

We had a great week of learning in our room.  We are working on counting forwards and backwards on a number line.  We used a hundereds board to skip count by twos, fives and tens.  We also worked on patterns with numbers such as odd and even.  We had so much fun discovering blends in phonics.  We played games with creating words with tr, br and gr.  In reading, we reviewed our reading strategies and worked to sort and identify what type of strategy will help us in different situations.  We had a great Tasty Tuesday from Kayla and we did some fun descriptive writing.  We are working on finishing a personal narrative about our favorite holiday memory.  We are using our editing and revising skills.  The highlight of our week was Friday.  I hope your child came home excited about our Voyage of Discovery.  The first grade classes began our day taking on the role of the Corps of Discovery.  We met with Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark to receive our directions.  We followed the route to the Pacific Ocean.  Along the way we met Sacagawea, saw some prarie dogs, traded horses, learned about the value of plants and animals, climed mountains and saw bears met with a medicine woman and finally reached the Pacific.  We even had a chance to be the returning heroes to Ms. Fountain's Kindergarten class.  I hope your child shared their rucksac full of goodies that they collected along the way.

Special thanks to all the hard working volunteers from our class that helped make this a very special learning experience for our class!  Everyone had so much fun and learned so much!  I will post some pictures soon!

We also had a great time with Ms. Stewart, our Mystery Reader!  Thanks!

Please note that the weather has been quite unpredictable lately.  Please send a coat EVERYDAY with your child.  We will NOT go outside unless everyone has a coat.  We have also had many students forget their snack each day.  I do not provide extra snack.  Help your child create a routine of packing a healthy snack each night before they go to bed. 

 

Have you heard about Ginger?  Ginger, the gingerbread man is coming home each night with a student!  Please enjoy him but be sure to send him back to school the next day.  Please do not feel you have to provide photographs of your adventures, with the stress of the holidays, hand drawn pictures are great!  Have fun!

Please mark your calendars:  our class party is scheduled for Wednesday, December 21st at 12:00.   Watch for an email from our room mom, Corey Strapp, for items needed.  I hope to see you all there for some Frosty Fun!

 

Mystery Question!

Melaina and Tatum F. are training to be Elves!  They wrapped many presents!  They gave each package two bows.  They wrapped 9 packages.  How many bows did they use? 

 

Lots to be Thankful for...

I hope everyone is having a wonderful break and enjoying their time off!  I know I love NOT setting my alarm clock each morning! We really enjoyed our Feasting on the 7 Habits feast last week.  Thanks so much for all the donations.  Everyone looked so good all dressed up and it was amazing to see all the first graders lined up in the hallway enjoying good food and fellowship.  Special thanks to Ms. Strapp, Ms. Wyman, Ms. Moore and Ms. Fowler for all their help.  Check out the smiles and first grade cuteness in these pics!

Our students traveled around the first grade rooms and in each room they were given a traditional Thanksgiving food item.  We used our best manners, even when it was something we did not care for.  Our fifth grade leaders spoke with us in each room about what habits we may be using during the holidays.  It was so much fun seeing everyone so excited about trying something new or filling their plate with a
favorite fo od.

We also had another great moment on Thursday!  Our classmate, Zef earned a silver medal in wrestling.  Way to go Zef!  We are so proud of you!

 

 

 

We had a very busy week in first grade!  We learned all about the digraphs wh and th.  We covered positional words and reading a plot map.  We also focused on learning our doubles facts in addition (2+2, 4+4...) We began a unit on thomas Jefferson in Social Studies.  Our reading has been working on reading comprehension strategies and how they help us become better readers.  In writing, our class worked on a First Thanksgiving book.  Our goal was to be able to write complete sentences using capital letters and punctuation.  It was a great week for learning in our room. 

Do you have any old coats that your child has out grown?  Check out what our Second grade leaders are doing:

2^nd Grade is sponsoring the first annual

NOVEMBRRRRR AND DECEMBRRRR

outer wear collection for

MUST Ministries.

Please bring gently used or new hats, coats, scarves, gloves, mittens, throws,

and blankets until winter break.

2^nd grade leaders will be standing by the bins at the bus port to collect your donations.

BE PROACTIVE!

Help others stay warm during the cold winter season!

Those Who Lead MUST Help Those in Need!

Have a wonderful week off and don't forget to read some good books!  We have about three and a half weeks of learning before the December break.  Come back ready to work hard as we finish up the second nine weeks. 

 

One More Week!

It is so hard to believe that in one week, Thanksgiving will be here!  I am sure your child is as excited as me for the much deserved break.  We had such a wonderful weekend!  I ran the Treasure Trot for the Pickett's Mill Foundation.  For those of you that may not  know, I have rheumatoid arthritis.  Running has not been a top priority for me lately.  I am so excited that I was able to run this race because I really thought I would never be able to run again!  (Of course, I am so sore right now as I type, but it's a good sore because I set a goal and I accomplished it!)  I am super proud of our classmate, Davis Windham for placing FIRST in his age group.  He earned a beautiful blue medal.  Way to go Davis!  (Allatoona track team needs to keep an eye out for him!) 

We were able to squeeze in a bunch of learning last week in our classroom despite having a day off.  Here is a glimpsse of our week:

Math:  Expanded notation and place value to numbers 50-100.  We worked on writing our the value of numbers such as 48= 40+8 or 4 tens and 8 ones.

Phonics:  Discovereing the digraphs of sh and ch.  Ask your child about Shopping Shirley and Chomping Charlie!

 Reading:  We had fun learning about visualizing.  This is what good readers do to create a mental picture in their head when they read.  We had fun visualizing several silly poems!

Science:  Exploring magnets.  We learned the parts, what they are attracted to and how to create one.

Writing:  Adjectives!  We had so much fun wrapping up our adjectives unit. We had a "popping" good time by popping popcorn and using our senses to list and identify words to describe.  Our writing is already starting to show good use of describing words!

Don't forget our Seven Habits Feast is scheduled for Thursday at 10:00.  Please wear your Sunday best and bring tennis shoes for PE.  If you have a food item to bring in, please send that in on Thursday.  All other items need to be brought in by Monday.  Thanks so much for the support.

Special Thanks to our Mystery Reader last week, Monika Sykes.  She shared a story from her homeland, Sweden.  She also brought us gingerbread cookies!  (We loved the snack!!!) 

First in Math!  Our goal is to reach 15,000 stickers by the end of November!  Can we do it?  We need your help.  If you are like me, I don't let my own children get on the computer during the school week.  However, I will set a timer for First in Math.  Ten minutes of practice each day will help your child improve their math skills and it will help our class reach their goal.  Please help our class by allowing your child the extra ten minutes on the computer.  Don't forget to also take advantage of the website, Reading Eggs.  I sent home your child's password and log in a few weeks ago.  This website is great for reading comprehension skills.  Thanks for the support!

There is so much to be thankful for in my life.  I hope you all take the time next week to reflect on your blessings and all we have in our lives.  Thanks for all your support this year, our class is wonderful and everyone is such an important part of our unique group.  Have a wonderful week off and get some rest.  The December holidays will be here before we know it!  Happy thanksgiving!

Mystery Question!

Sofia and Taitum C had Thanksgiving dinner.  They set the table with a fork, spoon and knife for each person.  There were four people in all.  How many forks, spoons and knives in all did they have?  Show your thinking!