Peek at the Week of November 28 - December 2

Parent-Teacher conferences will be held this week.  Tuesday through Friday will be Early Dismissal days for students.

Please sign and return the white report card envelope.  You may keep the actual report card.

A two-sided memo will be in your child's backpack today explaining our two classroom holiday celebrations.  The Cookie Exchange party will be on Thursday, December 15th (no homework the night before!).  The class breakfast & grab bag will be on Wednesday, December 21st.  The memo has all the information.  Please keep the memo for future reference.



Homework
Monday 11/28
1.  Read for at least 10 mintues
2.  Fall Word Work

Tuesday 11/29
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Sentence Scramble

Wednesday 11/30
1. Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Fall for a Good Book Report

Thursday 12/1
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Review for tomorrow's spelling test

Have a great week!

Peek at the Week of November 21-25

This will be a very short week of school.  Full days on Monday and Tuesday and a 1:30 Early Dismissal on Wednesday.  There is no school on Thurday and Friday. 

There will not be any Words Their Way lists or assessments this week.

We will celebrate Thanksgiving in our classroom with a Pie Party on Tuesday 11/22.  Thank you to the families for sending in the apple and pumpkin pies.

Thank you for sending in the Maritime Center money...our class is all set!

Progress Reports (aka 'Report Cards') will be coming home with your child this Wednesday.  If your child won't be in school on Wednesday, please email me and I'll try to send it home soorner.

No written homework this week, however, reading each evening should still be happening.

Have a wonderful & safe Thanksgiving Weekend!

Cranberry & Pumpkin Tasting

This past Friday we had a special class party.  Some of our moms brought in cranberry juice, Craisins, cranberry sauce, pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin pie.  We watched a short video clip that showed how cranberries are harvested.  It is an interesting process!

Darien Historical Society Trip

We had a great time at the Darien Historical Society.  We learned what life was like for the children and adults who lived in Darien during the "olden days".  

Apple Tasting Day

Back in September we had an apple tasting party.  We tried apple cider, apple juice, apple sauce, apple chips, apple pie and apple bread.  Yum!

Autumn Mystery Readers

We had some terrific Mystery Readers visit our classroom this fall.  Do you recognize any of the people in these photos?

Highlights of the Week November 18

• This afternoon we will have a cranberry and pumpkin tasting party.  (AM)
• We will try cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and pumpkin seeds and cranberry juice and pumpkin bread. (AP & MF)
• We saw an author in the library.  She is a friend of Mrs. Fiordelisi from TLC.  They met in yoga class.  Her book is called "The Magic Within".  (EC)
• Today is BB's birthday.  He is sick.  (BS)
• It is Mr. Bartold's birthday.  (EC)
• MK was the captain this week.  (MF)
• In Writing Workshop we drafted Realistic Fiction stories.  (CH)
• We practiced writing our upper and lower case letters.  We are going to try our best to make our work nice and neat.  Miss Dineen says, "If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing it well."  (Miss D.)
• In Reading Workshop we learned about what characters do.  This is called character's actions.  We can learn about a character by how they act.  (KN)
• We got new book shopping lists.  Everyone is going to try to read harder books and series.  (KB)
• In gym we played Castle.  (JN)
• In art we finished our pictures of our bedrooms.  (SS)
• One day ago we had art.  It was the last time to finish our art project.  (MF)
• Two days ago we played 4-Corners in our room.  I won the last round.  ED won the first round.  ES won the second round.  (MF)
• We will take a spelling test in a minute.  (RH)
• Soon in writing workshop we are going to publish 1 story.  (KN)

Scholastic Book Orders

If you are interested in ordering from this month's Scholastic Book Order, please place all orders online (or send in the order slip & check) by this Friday, November 18th.  I will submit the order over the weekend.

Peek at the Week of November 14-18

This week will be a regular 5-day week!  It's been a while since we've had this because of field trips, Election Day, storm delays, etc.  I hope they are ready to work!

This Friday we will have a Pumpkin and Cranberry Tasting.  Thank you to the families who are supplying us with these food and drink items.

We had a great time at last week's Historical Society trip.  We were able to see what an 'old fashioned' house looked like, make some butter, play wooden games, use a hornbook, and even got to make a clothespin doll.  We were able to compare our modern-day lives with the lives of colonial children.

Maritime Field Trip:  Please send in your check for $16 if you have not already done so.  This trip is in December.

Math:  We are ready to begin Unit 4 this week.  This week's topics are:  Representing Teen Numbers; Reading and Writing Teen Numbers; Comparing Teen Numbers; Ordering Numbers; Describing and Extending Patterns

Reading Workshop:  We will be doing a unit on Characters.  We will study characters a few times throughout the year.  At this point in the year, the goal is for the students to be able to identify the main vs. supporting characters and to learn more about the characters by looking and thinking about what the character says and does (thoughts/actions is another way to see it). 

Writing Workshop:  We have brainstormed many possible story ideas and have done some pre-writing planning.  Now comes the actual writing of our Realistic Fiction stories.


Homework
Monday 11/14
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Fall Word Work

Tuesday a11/15
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Math:  Busy Shopping Day (helpful tip:  write a 1, 5 or 10 on each coin; use tally marks to add the coins)

Wednesday 11/16
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Thanksgiving Words

Thursday 11./17
1.  Read for at least 10 mintues
2.  Review for tomorrow's spelling test

Have a great week!

Computer Zone

This Primary Games site has TONS of math games for us to try today.

Highlights of the Week November 11

• We went to the Historical Society.  (RM)
• There was a short-cut to get out of the house in case pirates attack.  The closet had a secret door.  (MF)
• We made dolls out of cloth and clothespins.  (AM)
• They taught us some of the olden day games.  (MK)
• We made butter by shaking cream and milk.  (EC)
• We found a short-cut back to the kitchen.  (ED)
• They had to pop up a table when the kids eat.  (KN)
• There were fireplaces in almost every room.  (ES)
• The grown-ups and older boys got to use silverware.  Everyone else ate with their hands.  (SS & AP)
• At the Historical Society they told us that little kids would hold their hands up to the opening in the fireplace to check if it was hot enough. (RH)
• They had fake food on the table to show us the kinds of food the colonists ate.  (MF)
• Sugar was in a big block and they had a tool to chip away at the sugar.  (AP & BB)
• When the moms were making food, they put the little kids in a wooden crate called a 'babysitter' so that the kids wouldn't mess up the dinner and they would stay away from the fire.  (MF)
• ES's grandpa shared pictures of when he was in the Navy.  (BS)
• We saw the picture on the Smartboard.  They were really big.  (AP)
• We went outside to wave our flags and sing Patriotic songs in honor of Veterans' Day.  (JN)
• We saw a short video about Election Day.  (ES)
• Americans vote for who they want to be in charge.  (AM)
• Many years ago girls and women and people with dark skin were not allowed to vote.  (MF)
• Now everyone who is 18 or older can vote.  (MK)
• In art everyone is drawing their room using oil pastels.   (TP)
• In art we pretended to be 5th graders.  (MF)

Peek at the Week of November 7-11

There is no school this Tuesday, November 8th (Election Day) for students. 

The Henry and Mudge field trip was great!  The actors and actresses really made the books come alive. 

This week we will go on our second trip of the year to the Darien Historical Society.  Our class will be going with Mrs. McGettigan's class on Wednesday morning.  We will be back to school in time for lunch.  Thank you in advance to Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Hughes, and Mrs. Batson for chaperoning.

On Friday morning we will join the rest of the Ox Ridge School at the flagpole in front of the building for a brief Veterans' Day program.  We'll sing some patriotic songs and recite the pledge.

I have received some checks for the December Maritime Center trip.  If you have not sent it in, please do so soon.

Photo orders are due this Friday, November 11th.

Your child will be checked on his/her sight words this week.  I will be sending home a new set of stickers with most children.  The stickers will be the same 1x4 labels you received at Open House.  These stickers can be put onto flash cards and kept at home to practice.  I think it is good to keep the "old" cards in the rotation with the new cards.  If your child mastered the 3rd grade list there will not be a list sent home. 

Homework
Monday 11/7
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2. Fall Word Work

Tuesday 11/8
No School

Wednesday 11/9
1. Read for at least 10 minutes 
2. Field Trip Write Up (learned/notice/wondering)

Thursday 11/10
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Review your words for tomorrow's test

Have a great week!

Highlights of the Week November 4

• We had a 90-minute delay on Monday because of the storm damages. (Miss D.)
•  We have Mystery Reader today in 1 hour.  (KD)
• We went on a field trip.  It was about Henry and Mudge.  (MK)
• I liked going to school late at 10:15.  (ED)
• We learned about Realistic Fiction.  That is stories that are make-believe, but they could really happen in real life.  (RM)
• In art we made pictures of our room.  (JN)
• We had gym outside this week.  We ran 8 laps. (KN)
• We played 1 on 1 football in gym.  (SS)
• In math we used coins to see how much money things cost.  (BB)
• CH will be the captain next week.  (MF)
• We changed our seats for the new month of November.  (KN)
• To change seats, we "bump" a person out of their seat.  Then it becomes your seat.  (KD)
• Today AP picked AM to take Hootie home with her.  (MF)

Computer Zone

Next Tuesday is Election Day.  Check out this video about voting.