Did you have fun in the snow & ice? I have some great pictures of the school covered in snow! If you have snow pictures you would like me to add, send them to Mrs. Jones' jonesd@tahlequah.k12.ok.us and I will post them. 
All was quiet at Greenwood!
Last week was a one day week. With that said we will continue where we left off. We will continue with last weeks spelling and reading. We’ll discuss Groundhog Day & begin a science unit about shadows. The groundhog mound in my backyard is silent! They are hibernating, I am guessing they will not be coming out any time soon. They definately would see their shadows!! We will continue working on subtraction & adding sums of money. We'll finally celebrate the 100th day of school by incorporating several educational activities.
Mon: Read both books in your reading bag & log one.
Last Friday our Mystery Reader was Mrs. Mabry (Colossal Brain Cole's mom). She brought a great non-fiction story: The Man Who Walked Between The Towers by Mordicia Gerstein. It's a Caldecot Award winner. The story was about Phillippe Petit, a highwire artist, who walked high in the air between the Twin Towers. It was a great read!! The students bragged on Mrs. Mabry's inflection! Afterwards she laid a long rope on the floor. She asked the students to imagine that they were high up in the air, looking down at the people below. The students soon realized that it was a lot harder than it looked. After she left they talked about how hard it was & they didn't know how Phillippe was able to accomplish walking on a steel cable so high in the air. It was an exercise they will never forget!
We have a new favorite game, addition war. It is played with a deck of cards. Each card is worth it's face value with exception of the ace-worth 1, queen-worth 0, king & jack-worth 10. Directions: (1)The students cut the deck into 2 piles. (2)The students both say, "1,2,3 touch" and they touch their half of the deck. (3) They then say, "1,2,3 turn" & they turn over one card. (4)The students add the sum of the two cards. (5) The first student to orally say the correct sum wins the 2 cards. The students play until their deck runs out. They are loving this game!
Mon: Read both books in your reading bag & log one.
This is the last full week of January.. Time is flying! This week will continue our author study over Jan Brett. We’ll also begin research reports over American Patriotic Symbols. We will continue working on subtraction & adding sums of money. Our big focus this week will be on the number 100! We will celebrate the 100th Day of School with several educational activities. We will finish off the week with another Mystery Reader!
Our classroom believes in brain based learning. Our classroom uses very little florescent lighting. We have four lamps. We also have a plant "Ivy" & small fish tank in the middle of our classroom. In addition we love music playing in our classroom. We gear the genera around our thematic units. Currently we are studying presidents & Black History, so our teacher created a station around Etta James (revolutionary 60's singer). She created the station on www.pandora.com . It is a FREE Internet radio station. Other generas we created: Christmas music around the World, Native American music, jazz, & instrumental. Check out the site and create your own. It makes wonderful background for the classroom while engaging minds!
Today Exciting Ella's mom was our Mystery Reader! She read "If Only I Had a Green Nose." The student's loved the story. The moral of the story was about being yourself & being proud of it. Mrs. Scearce also brought along many types of chocolate!!! The student really enjoyed the book and hopes she visits again real soon.
It was SOOOOO COLD!
The students entered the room ahead of me. As I walked through the classroom door I quickly snapped this picture of my little ones warming their frozen hands in front of our fire place video. i never laughed so hard!! Each student took the black piece of paper that they used outside to write about their experience. Then they illustrated their writing with snowflakes that they saw. They were very detailed. I was so impressed! What a learning experience! By 3:10 the flurries had vanished but our pictures live on.
O-si-o! We will kick off our week by hosting Gorilla Pride today! We went over the agenda on Thursday. The students were ready with only one run through! We incorporate the Great Expectations philosophy daily into EVERYTHING we do, so the students new exactly what we would be doing during the assembly. In class this week, we will continue our social studies unit over the US Presidents. The students picked & wrote (small group) reports over a past president. They turned out great with the students learning a lot! During math we will continue with leveled subtraction. We will begin our unit on winter; time did not allow it last week. We will finish off the week with another Mystery Reader. It is going to be another great week in the Multiage!
