Recent News

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the Meeting of the Eagles tomorrow. The students have been practicing so hard and it's obvious. They are going to be FANTASTIC!

Reading
Last week we read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. It is a wonderful story that tells about the life cycle of a flower. Our comprehension skill was finding facts. We learned that facts are true pieces of information about something. Using The Tiny Seed, as well as the books we read in our small reading groups, we practiced finding facts. We even put the facts we found on flowers that are now growing.. I mean hanging, outside our classroom. Since Eric Carle is such a great author and illustrator, we spent the week reading as many of his books as we could.

Grammar
Last week we worked on distinguishing proper nouns from common nouns. We know that proper nouns are specific/special names for people, places, or things. We also worked on applying commas to our writing when we are listing something. For example: The colors of the flag are red, white, and blue. We did a fun activity using macaronis to make commas in our sentences. The macaroni sentences are hanging in our room and they look GREAT! Additionally, this week we began to talk about plural nouns. Plural nouns usually end in "s" or "es" but there are some exceptions. Be sure to ask your child about the spelling of plural nouns!

Math
We took our Unit 3 Math Exam last Friday and finished it yesterday. I graded the tests and they should have gone home with your child today. Please review, sign, and return these tests as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your cooperation! In problem solving, we have started a new strategy: Make a Table. It is a difficult concept to grasp at first, but is a great strategy for students to apply to their problem solving.

Social Studies
We learned about Louis Braille, our second leader and achiever in our Biography Unit, during Social Studies yesterday. Students even got to create their own name in braille after we learned about Louis. Please ask them why they think he is a leader and achiever!

Thanksgiving
Today we performed "Arthur's Thanksgiving" in class. For only having two days to practice, they did a great job! See pictures below of their perfect performances. I feel SO lucky to have such kind, fun, and hard-working students. Thank you for sharing them with me! Happy Thanksgiving!! :o)

Pictures of my Super Students...

Pico Ferme Nada

We played a great game at Morning Meeting that you can play at home. It's called "Pico, Ferme, Nada." One player thinks of a three digit number (although you can play with as many digits as you'd like). The other player(s) try to guess what the number is. The player who chooses the number tells the guessers if they are right using the words pico, ferme, nada.

Pico means that the digit is in the number and it's in the right place.
Ferme means that the digit is in the number, but it's in a different place (therefore having a different value).
Nada means that the digit is not in the number at all.

For example, the person thinking of the number comes up with 784. They don't tell the other players. The other players start guessing. Perhaps they guess 743.

7 is pico because it's in the right place.
4 is ferme because it's in the number, but in the wrong place.
3 is nada because it's not in the number at all.

The players then use their reasoning skills to make a new guess.

I know this sounds a little complicated, but the kids know how to play. Let them teach you! It's lots of fun. :o)

Tony Chestnut

As you know, the super students of Room 16 will be performing at Meeting of the Eagles next Wednesday (hope you can make it!). Below is a link to the youtube video of the song, "Tony Chestnut." You need to fast forward to 1:09 on the video in order to get to the song. It would be GREAT if the students could practice at home in addition to in school. Thanks so much!

Tony Chestnut Song

Scholastic Book Orders

Scholastic Book orders are officially online!! I will be sending home three catalogues on Wednesday. If you would like to place a book order please sign up at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page register by clicking "Don't have a user name or password?" link. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code. The Activation Code is HPPZN. This code ensures that your order is sent to me. Select the books you'd like to order and send your order to me online by Friday, November 18. Your child's books will be delivered directly to our classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Monday News

Last week was another fun week.

It was a review week for reading, so in addition to taking our Unit 1 Test, we also performed plays in the classroom! Students were split into 3 groups. They only had two days to practice before their big performance and they did GREAT! Plays are a great way of practicing expression and fluency. I loved watching your children play the role of their character.

In math, we began Unit 3. Last week we talked about place value. We used base-ten blocks to teach us about the ones, tens, and hundreds place. This week we will be discuss telling time.

We also did a special activity last week. We planned to do it on Halloween, but since we didn't have school, we did it later in the week. Together with Mrs. Marzilli's class we used spinners that had a different type of candy on each portion of the spinner. We then tallied our results and graphed them. I did not have my camera for the activity but Mrs. Marzilli did. Please check out her blog (you can find it on the teacher website page) to see pictures of the children hard at work!

October Reading/Math Logs

Since we did not have school yesterday I was not able to remind students that reading/math logs were due today. I will accept them tomorrow. Thanks!