Weekly Word Sorting

Each week we practice working with given words & sorting the words by common properties (short/long vowels, blends, diphthongs, digraphs, prefixes/suffixes). We use a sorting mat (made from a file folder) to sort our words by common headings. Our classroom philosophy is based on differientiation (looking at each one of us as individual child & making the curriculum fit for each one of us.). On any given week we will have 5 different spelling concepts/skills going (anywhere from short a to r-controlled ar/or). Our individulized concept/skill is based on where we "fell" on the BEAR indivdualized spelling assessment at the beginning of the school year. Our teacher finds that if she meets us "where we are academically," we move along at a smoother pace. So each week there are 5 different word sorts going on in our room at one time. The short video clip is a "peek" into the steps of sorting: (1) read through the cards putting words in two piles: words I know or words I'm unsure of, (2) ask for help with unsure words, (3) sort, (4) read through the sort & check for changes, (5) "justify" my sort to the teacher or a friend (read each word & tell why I put it under each heading.). Our teacher makes our sorts using Word but a great resource for this if you are just beginning is All Sorts Of Sorts: Word Sorts That Reinforce Spelling And Phonetic Patterns by Sheron Brown you can find it on Amazon.com

Gorilla Pride

We are a Great Expectations Model School. Our school holds an all school assembly on the last day of each week. We all meet in our gym at 8:10. The weekly assembly is hosted by a different classroom each week & includes: school wide word of the week (respect, cooperation, etc.), quote of the week, American flag salute, Oklahoma pledge, 8 school Expectations, Greenwood creed, teacher creed, celebration of the week, Gorilla's showing character, school awards (dust pans for each wing & cleanest bathrooms boys vs. girls), weekly birthdays & birthday song, & on occasion special song or speaker. We end our assembly with the song Celebrate Greenwood! One of my student's filmed our multiage family singing and dancing to the song.

We wanted to thank all of our grandparents who took time out of their busy schedules to visit our classroom. We were SO thrilled! We also wanted to send out our thoughts to Kyle & Cody’s grandparents who were not feeling well. We had a record 31 grandparents visit our classroom!

A Peek At Our Week: Sept 14-18

This week we will begin our reading series & introduce spelling concepts. We will continue memorizing our high frequency words & integrate our “Chunky Monkey” (looking for chunks in unknown words) reading strategy. During math this week, we will have daily flash card practice by adding in “doubles plus 1” flash cards, more dice addition skills, count nickels & dimes together, continue leveled clock/time practice (hour, half hour, time to the 5 minutes), write by 2’s to 50/100, & continue timed “Multiage Math Masters.” We will discuss our country’s Constitution on Wednesday while continuing our science study over butterflies throughout the week. We will finish on Friday with a classroom cooking activity. I hope you have a wonderful week!

September 14-18

Mon: 1. Speller’s Choice Activity
2. Read both books in your homework bag
3. Math Flash Cards & Wraps Practice

Tues: 1. Speller’s Choice Activity
2. Read story in your hardback reader
3.Timed “Math Masters” Practice Sheet

Wed: 1. Speller’s Choice Activity
2. Read both books in your homework bag
3. Math Flash Cards & Wraps Practice

Thurs: 1. Speller’s Choice Activity
2. Read story in your hardback reader
3.Timed “Math Masters” Practice Sheet

Fri: Reading & Spelling Tests In Class Today!

Grandparent Butterflies Reported by Exciting Ella & Artistic Arissa

Ella volunteered to be first in using the "Flip video" camera. She decided to shoot a little bit of our Grandparent's Day art project that was going on in our classroom today. She turned the camera on & this is what she came up with. I thought she did a wonderful job of speaking & telling what was going on in the activity. Afterwards, Ella passed the camera to Arissa. In her video, Arissa takes the viewer on a tour of some of the painted butterflies. She really enjoyed using the camera. Look for more "Student Posts" in the near future! Putting video cameras in students hands (in our district) is the "brain child" of Mr. Terry Garrett. I commend him on the supurb idea!!!

A Peek At Our Week: Sept 7-11

This week during literacy we will begin reading from our basil readers, continue labeling nouns, “visualizing” while we read, discuss non-fiction, & introduce the reading strategy “Chunky Monkey” (looking for chunks in unknown words). During math this week, we will have daily flash card practice by adding in +9 flash cards, dice skills, count nickels & dimes, continue counting by 5’s around the clock, write by 2’s to 50/100, & continue timed “Multiage Math Masters.” We will take our Math Masters assessments on Friday. We will label the parts of a butterfly & use our computer microscope to look at a Monarch’s wings. We will finish up the week with a grandparent’s celebration on Friday at 1:15 in the gym. Please RSVP if your child will have a grandparent attending.

September 7-11

Mon: Math Flash Cards & Math Wraps Memorization Practice
(+1, +2, doubles, & +9)
Tues: Timed “Math Masters” Practice (return on Wednesday)
Wed: Math Flash Cards & Math Wraps Memorization Practice
(+1, +2, doubles, & +9)
Thurs: Timed “Math Masters” Practice (return on Friday) &
Word Sorting

Dear Grandparents,
You are essential members of our families and community. For all that you do, Greenwood Elementary would like to invite Grandparents of Greenwood students to attend an assembly to honor you! Our assembly will be on Friday, September 11th at 1:15 p.m. in the Greenwood Gymnasium. We will have cookies in our classroom following the assembly. We look forward to entertaining and visiting with you!!

Teacher/Student Dice Hands On Math Activities Book

Peyton & Ella use the Mead Board "virtual die" for their game.

We are beginning our year using a new way of learning addition using dice. After dialy whole group instruction, students partner up and practice the taught skill. The virtual die is a class favorite.

Skip Counting & Writing

Daily during our Rise & Shine Morning Meeting we practice skip counting & writing on wipe off boards. We have learned to write by 5's & 10's to 100. We are currently working on 2's to 100. Future counting/writing will include: 3's to 30, 4's to 40, 7's to 70, 25's to 200, 100's to 1000.

Math & Literacy Online!

Here is a great website for online educational games! Check it out!
http://www.abcya.com/

Popsicles on a warm day!

Homework Aug 31-Sept 3

Monday: Math Flash Card Practice
Tuesday: Timed Math Fact Practice (return on Wednesday)
Wednesday: Math Flash Card Practice

Peek At Our Week Aug 31-Sept 3

This week we will be finishing up all individual literacy and math assessments. Also, first year students will have their final week of literacy lab. During math this week, we will continue flash card practice by adding in +2 & doubles +1, dice skills, count nickels, introduce dimes, count by 5’s around the clock, & write by 5’s, 10’s, 2’s, & continue timed “Multiage Math Masters.” We will take our Math Masters assessments on Thursday. During Literacy we’ll talk about nouns, “visualizing”, non-fiction, & the reading strategy “Lips The Fish, saying the first few sounds of a word.” We delve deeper into our Butterfly unit. The next two weeks will be four-day week so we’ll begin spelling September 14th. I hope you and your family have a happy & safe Labor Day weekend!

We Are Unique & Special!

Last week we read the book Elmer. He is a unique & special elephant. Each day this week, we discussed why each of us are unique & special!

Student Sparkle

STUDENT SPARKLE
starts the week of August 31st (show & share)

Mondays: Allyson, Arissa, Ashley, Bradley, Brooke
Tuesdays: Cody, Ella, Emily, Erin, Ethan
Wednesdays: Kate, Keaton, Kyle, Maggie, MaKenzie
Thursdays: Dylan, Neida, Peyton, Rudy, Shaw

Homework for August 24-28

Homework begins “phasing in” this week. Your child’s vinyl homework bag is in their backpack. This week it will contain:

Monday: Math Flash Card Practice
Tuesday: Timed Math Fact Practice (return on Wednesday)
Wednesday: Math Flash Card Practice
Thursday: Word Sort &
Timed Math Fact Practice (return on Friday)

The Homework Bag should remain in your child’s backpack when not in use. Any nightly homework your child has will go in their bag. I take up the bags EVERY FRIDAY morning.

A Peek At Our Week August 24-28

We are back to another great week in the Multiage! For the next two weeks our first year students will be attending Literacy Lab from 8:30-9:00. They will review prior “lit lab” skills with the literacy assistants & reading specialist. While they are away, the second year students will take reading comprehension placement & fluency assessments. During math we will begin daily flash card practice: +0, +1, & doubles. In addition we will continue our dice skills & begin our timed “Multiage Math Masters” program. The overall goal is memorizing our math facts without having to add them. During Literacy we will discuss nouns, author’s purpose – “visualizing”, what the term “non-fiction” means, & discuss our first reading strategy: “Lips The Fish, saying the first few sounds of a word.” If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me.

Picture Day!

INIDIVIDUAL student pictures will be taken on Tuesday, August 25th. The pictures will go into the school yearbook!

Ice Cream Thursdays

The cafeteria will begin selling Blue Bell ICE CREAM treats every Thursday! The treats sell for 30 cents each.

Welcome families to another great year! We have 11 returning Multiagers and 9 new fantastic students! We spent the first three days of school getting to know each other and learning/reviewing new classroom procedures. We discussed our first comprehension strategy "visualizing." We also began odd and even numbers & practiced using bar graphs. We learned how to use our new MEAD board. It is a wonderful new learning tool for our classroom. Be sure to stop by and check it out. This week I will be assessing each student in phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, sight word recognition, & math skills. This will give me greater insight into each student's strengths & areas of need. We will begin our first poetry lesson, begin handwriting practice, start on leveled addition using dice, & begin our look at butterflies. Thank you for looking in your child's BEE notebook and signing it nightly. We were 100% for the first 3 days of school! YEA!! Our school wide Gorilla Pride assembly has moved from Monday's to Friday mornings at 8:00. Also making news last week was Tahlequah's API score from the State Department of Education. Greenwood scored a perfect 1500!!! Our faculty was so excited about the news! Have a great week! If you have any questions feel free to contact me. My scheduled planning time is 2:10-3:00 pm daily. :)

Yea 4 Our New MEAD Board!

Learning about bar graphs. Mackenzie is graphing her hair color. Boys & Girls Bar Graph - Dylan is graphing another one for the boys.
The results are in...12 girls & 8 boys! 20 students total!!

Last week we learned how to use our MEAD board. Using the pen takes a little work but we adjusted quickly. We put one of our new math vocabulary words (bar graph) into action by graphing on the MEAD board. We also practiced reading our high frequency words, & even watched a 4 minute video on hot air balloons (Balloon Fest). It is a wonderful addition to our classroom. We would like to thank Terry & Robert for installing our MEAD & projector. We plan on using it daily!!

Last Week Of Summer!

Hello everyone! It is the last week of summer for all the Gorillas. I hope everyone is ready for a new school year. I sure am!! I look forward to meeting our new family members and catching up with second year students during the Summer Social on Monday, August 10th from 4:30-6:30 pm. Our room is ready with some new changes! I will be sending out classroom information packets via the US mail beginning Aug. 3rd. Please take time to fill out the papers included in the packet & bring them with you to the Summer Social. You may also bring your supplies with you & put them in your cubby. We will unpack them on the first day of school. See you all next week! Love, Mrs. J

School Supply List

It's that time again...school supplies!

Here is the 2009-2010 Supply List!

1 box - 64 Crayola Crayons

1 box - Crayola Colored Pencils

1 box - 8 Crayola Markers

1 box - Crayola Watercolor Paints

1 pkg - pencil topper erasers

1 - plastic school box

2 - wide ruled spirl notebooks

1 - pair metal edged scissors

12 - glue sticks

2 - boxes of facial tissues

1 pkg - 12 count wooden pencils

1 - BACK PACK without rollers

1 - Germ-X hand sanitizer

1 - Clorox Wipe or Baby Wipes

Buddy Bear Visits Hawaii

Buddy Bear recently traveled to Hawaii with Colossal Brain Cole & his family. He had a wonderful time while enjoying the scenery, even meeting a new friend! He is going to miss the Mabry's who are moving out of state. Thank you Mabry's for showing Buddy such a GREAT time!! Aloha!

"Hanging Loose" Buddy & his girlfriend

Buddy on the Black Sand Beach
Colossal Brain Cole & Buddy feeling the heat from the steam vents of Kilauea Volcano

Pearl Harbor - in front of USS Arizona Memorial

Mrs J Visits Disney World!

Mrs. J & her family had a fabulous time visiting Mickey & Minnie Mouse at Disney World! They traveled to all four parks. They spent 8 days there and had a BLAST!

Summer Update!

During the first week of summer break...I ran into Admirable Alexa, Beaming Brooke, & Spectacular Sophia at their dance recital rehersal. They looked adorable and their dancing was amazing!!!

Schools out for summer break! I wanted to wish our Multiagers who are going on to 3rd grade the best of luck!! Alexa, Andy, Briar, Cole G, Cole M, Colton, Danna, & Sophia we will MISS you all!! Boys & girls I would love to hear from each you this summer! Be safe! I love you all!!! Mrs. J

It's Greenwood Olympics!