Week 36: Grow Garden Grow

This week we got to observe our garden growth. Students are now measuring by the foot and we observed one tomato plant was 1ft. and 3". I can't wait to see how much it grew after all the rain. 

Please know, if you want to continue taking care of our garden over the summer you are more than welcome to help yourself to the cucumbers, watermelon, beans, tomatoes, and sunflowers.

Weeks 34 & 35

The past few weeks have been full of rich conversation and writing about how to save the Earth. A huge thank you to Mr. Wirth, Scooter's dad, for installing supportive structures for our summer garden. We also had a visit from Mr. Reduce from Planet Go Green, as well as Mr. Erick, who shared his musical instruments from all over the world.

Week 33: Symmetry Hunters

We started and ended the week with special treats from Mrs. Silverman. A huge thank you to Mrs. Silverman for making the most delicious fruit pops for both classes. That was the perfect treat at the beach! Again, thank you to Mrs. Silverman for making the most delicious kale chips. Also, many thanks to Mrs. Price for helping us walk to and from the beach. I always appreciate the extra hands on deck.

We had a busy week of learning and building. As we continue to do our research on habitats I was thinking about turning one of our garden beds into a butterfly garden. If anyone is willing to donate milkweed or any other type of plant it would be greatly appreciated.

Week 32: Harvesting our garden

We got to harvest our garden this week, and what a surprise it was digging up our carrots. Yikes! A special thanks to Mrs. Silverman for volunteering to make Kale Chips for our class.

Week 31: Tree Hill!

The highlight of this week was Tree Hill. What an incredible experience this was and who knew this was in our back yard.

Week 30: Our first play!

I'm sure all the parents are as impressed with last Friday's performance as I am. The students did an absolutely amazing job. All their hard work and studying paid off.

Week 29:Watch out Broadway

This week we continued to prepare for our big show, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was incredibly impressed to see the students have memorized their lines. We further explored shapes and habitats in Math and Science, and we have continued to talk about nouns and verbs in English.

Week 28: Time, Geometry and Habitat

We had an action packed week and were able to keep ourselves out of the rain. Thanks to Mrs. Morrisseau we now have 2 students successfully knitting independently.  Indoor PE was all about obstacle courses.

Week 27: Boat Launch

This week was our boat launch! The weather was  not ideal, but we were able to walk to the beach and back and launch our boats without getting rained on (too much).

A huge thank you is in order to Mrs. Morrisseau, Mr. and Mrs. Price and Mrs. Harris. Our room is now thoroughly cleaned and our air purifier is on! Thank you all for the purifier contribution and the pillows.

Week 26: Love is in the air

This week we learned the story of St. Valentine, parents came in to help us with Valentine's Cards, we made clocks, and we began our boat construction.

On Monday I had 8 students out sick- that's more than half the class. Please be vigilant about washing hands at home, keeping hands away from the face, and getting rest. If your child is sick, please, please, please, wait 24 hours before returning to school. It was very unfortunate so many students had to miss our Valentine's Celebration.

Week 25: Stuart Little

This week really started off with a bang! We had the amazing opportunity to see Stuart Little at FSCJ (thank you Mr. Flaherty for all your help). The students were totally mesmerized. After the play students made some boats and set them sailing in the large pond.

Week 24: Year of the Horse

Happy New Year everyone, and thanks to all the parents who were able to make it out to our first parent picnic. Due to a stomach bug, and now a cough, I was out for several days. Regardless, I was able to get some great photos while I was at school.

I have been talking to the students about the importance of covering their mouths when they cough. Please, please, please reinforce this at home.

Things to work on this week: We jumped into telling time this week, and will continue with this for several more weeks. Try working on counting by fives at home (Ex. I'll count to 100 by 5s while you count your teeth). Also, always great to work on basic addition and subtraction equations in the car.

Week 23: Zumba, Knitting and Japanese New Year

Week 23: January 20

Although this week was short it was full of amazing highlights. Mrs. Pierce did her first Zumba class with the first grade and it was a huge success. We studied Japanese New Year and the story of the Rice Cake that Got Away. Students learned about Ojizousama, and the power of being a kind person. We also learned how to play the game Fukiwarai. We are extremely fortunate to have had the help of Mrs. Morisseau and Mrs. Bienvenue for knitting. I am certain that each week we will become more and more skilled. Perhaps the biggest lesson of all this week in knitting is that patience is a blessing!

Week 22: Crystals, Monarch Rescue, and Puppets

Week 22:

We were very fortunate to share a magical moment with Mrs. Pierce's class this week. Mrs. Pierce rescued a monarch during our brief cold spell. She helped the monarch to grow, and we released the beautiful butterfly together. Before it made it's journey down south it took a quick nap on Finn and gathered strength. 

We are learning about Crystals in Science and are conducting  a very exciting salt experiment in the classroom. The students are hard at work practicing for a puppet show they want to surprise the parents with when we have our parent student picnic. 

Week 21:
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a relaxing and restful vacation. It was just incredible to see the students again this week. I couldn't believe how much taller everyone looked. I'd like to say I am extremely impressed with how well the students fell back into the rhythm of the class, and how little they forgot. I was planning on doing more review this week, but was pleasantly surprised I didn't need to.

I'm very eager to start my next round of art classes after school with the students. This session we will be covering the world of making artist books- one of my favorite things to do.

Thanks to those who have been selling the magnets. Please remember to bring in your photos for the pen pals in Indian.

Things to work on:
We've been talking about tenses in English. We covered future continuous and simple and are moving into the present, and past in the weeks to come. We'll be studying rocks and minerals in science and after a little more review  this week we'll be jumping into telling time next week.