We went to the book fair. It was fun. We picked out the books that we liked, and then we wrote them down on a piece of paper. Some people had to have two pieces of paper because they wanted a lot of books; some people only needed one piece. Now we’re going to take the lists home. Then we’re going to show it to our dads, or moms, or whoever. Then we’ll ask if someone will buy books for us. We can bring the money back to school tomorrow, or Friday, or next Monday, or next Tuesday if we want to buy the book.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
We did science using water and air yesterday. We used water and we could put vials inside of the water and it would make bubbles come up out of the water. The bubbles in the vial were air. When we put the vial in the basin sideways, then it will make make big bubbles, if you force it in. One thing we did was put a paper towel in the bottom of the vial. We put it into the water and tried to keep the paper towel dry. It is easier to block the opening with your hand than to just plunge it in when you’re trying to keep the paper towel dry. We learned that when you put a towel into a vial and you stick the vial upside down in the water, the towel won’t get wet, even if you move the vial around.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Newletter 5
2006-2007…Room 302—Newsletter 5…http://room302.blogspot.com
November 8, 2006
Dear Families,
We have busy times ahead, including conferences, holidays, and our holiday program. It should be lots of fun.
Party
Our Halloween party was great. There were six stations, and the children spent about 10 minutes at each. Without fail, the students were interested and engaged at all times. My thanks to everyone who was able to contribute and help make this another meaningful and worthwhile use of our school day.
conferences
Speaking of meaningful experiences, conference time is upon us. I plan to have the children present. I plan about 20 minutes for us to talk. For some, 20 minutes is plenty of time. For others, it might not be enough. Either way, I ask your help in making sure the conferences start at the appropriate time and do not run long. Our staff has worked to coordinate schedules so that sibling times are back to back, and if we get off schedule, the impact could affect many others. A sheet came home today, Wednesday, with your scheduled conference time. Please send it back to let me know the time works for you. As I said, these have been coordinated throughout our school, so if changes need to happen, we need to know fast. If I don’t see the confirmation slip back, I assume the time works.
In the interest of making the experience meaningful for you, I’m asking that you plan on starting with any specific questions that you have. My hope is that you won’t walk away with concerns or questions unanswered.
Why bring kids?
I want the students at the conferences. The topic of the conference will be them. The point of the conference is to celebrate their work, their progress, their accomplishments. They did all the work—how can we celebrate without them?
If you have an overriding need to speak to me about something that is inappropriate for the child to witness or overhear, perhaps we set up a different time to talk. If there are other conflicts that cannot be helped, so be it. It might not work for everyone.
Our day, each day…..
I thought that having a sense of our day might help before you come in, so here’s a basic layout:
| Read Aloud / word work: I like to start our day with a story. Word Work includes “spelling”. |
| Writers’ Workshop: They usually write in journals. Once a week they do special project. |
| Bathroom/Recess |
| Readers’ Workshop: Students usually choose their own reading material. They each have a book box or bag containing things they want to read. |
| Lunch and recess |
| Math: Each student has a math workbook and a math notebook. |
| Science: we have just started science journals, which may be of interest |
| Jobs / clean up / pack up |
| Shared Writing |
| Chapter Book |
Chapter Book
Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe.
We’re also reading Junie B., First Grader: BOO…and I Mean It! by Barbara Park
Field Trip
We’re signed up to go to the Seattle Children’s Theater to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice by OyamO. We’re going with the other second grade class,. I think we’re about full on the chaperone list, but if you still want to go, I can put you on a waiting list, in case we end up with extra room. Some people have sent permission slips back; many have not. If you’re confirmed chaperone, please make a note of it and include an extra $10.50.
Blog
The main thing I use the web log (blog) for is to relate what happens in our school day, so we try to do it at the end of the day. Lately, our afternoons have been quite full. As a result, we do not always get time to do our daily news. I do think it’s a valuable use of our time, though, so I’ll continue to play with the schedule. I have recently updated the blog with what we’ve done so far, and I’ll try to be more timely about posting in the future. Thanks to those that have been asking about it.
Calendar
| Thursday, November 9—no school | Monday, November 20—conferences, early release, 12:15 |
| Friday, November 10—no school | Tuesday, November 21—conferences, early release, 12:15 |
| Wednesday, November 15—Library | Wednesday, November 22—early release, |
| Thursday, November 16—conferences, early release, 12:15 | Thursday, November 23—no school |
| Friday, November 17—Levi’s last day | Friday, November 24—no school |
| Friday, November 17—conferences, early release, 12:15 | |
Sincerely,
Jeff
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Today we went to an assembly, and we sang. We sang Yankee Doodle and then America . We celebrated Veterans Day. Veterans are people who served in the Coast Guard, Marines, Army, Air Force, and Navy. Lots of people in our class have relatives that were veterans, or who are in the service right now. Mr. Stocker read us a veterans book. It was Veterans Day by Jacqueline S. Cotton. We had fun.
A note on spelling from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs web site FAQ (http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetday_faq.asp):
Q. Which is the correct spelling of Veterans Day? a. "Veterans Day" b. "Veteran's Day" c. "Veterans' Day"
A. Veterans Day (choice a, above). Veterans Day does not include an apostrophe but does include an "s" at the end of "veterans" because it is not a day that "belongs" to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
November 3, 2006
It was Levi’s birthday. He turned seven. Sydney was nice enough to share the cupcakes that her dad made for the Halloween party. The cupcakes were tender, peanut-buttery, and delicious. They had little chopped pieces of Butterfinger in them.
We got a new student six days ago. His name is Chris. He’s one of the coolest kids ever. He’s really funny. He’s really nice. He’s awesome.
Today we had an assembly that was called Mad Science. They did funny jokes. The guy put a flash paper on his hand and burned it. The paper burned, but his hand did not. It burned really fast. They held up a roll of toilet paper on a plunger stick. They used a leaf blower to make it all blow off the roll. It went onto a student and onto Mr. Stocker. The made scientist had a garbage can. It had a big rubber piece on one end, and a hole in the other end. He filled it with smoke. Then when he hit the rubber side, we could see the air and smoke come out the other side. It was so cool and really neat!
November 2, 2006
A Fun Day at Halloween We went to the bathrooms and put on our costumes. We came back to the carpet and counted off by sixes. That made six groups. Each group started at a different table. We ate lots of stuff. We painted pumpkins. We made our own cupcakes. We made Halloween mobiles. We made wind socks. We also played Hangman. We had a Halloween party. Happy Halloween!
Monday, October 23, 2006
We had science today; we worked with partners. We could use these tracks that are long, white, shaped like an arch or a semi-circle, and made out of foam. You can bend them and they won’t break. You could make a loop. You take a sphere (we used small marbles) and send it down the tube and it will roll. You can use tape on the end to make the marble stop. We could make the marble loop-de-loop, or twist, or slide. We could put the track against the table and send the marble down. You could even roll the marble up the track.
Newsletter 4
2006-2007…Room 302—Newsletter 4…http://room302.blogspot.com
October 19, 2006
Dear Families,
The year seems to be going by so very quickly. We’re already planning the Halloween celebration, and I’m already thinking about that first round of report cards. I hope the school days are going well for your child. Here is the latest:
Substitute
I missed some work time the week before last, and I didn’t like it. I enjoy being here teaching your children. Judy was out of town, so I was a full time dad, and a part time teacher. Luckily, we were able to get two fantastic people to fill in.
I have started to do Developmental Reading Assessments with the students. This is where I sit down with the students, one at a time, and really try to figure out just what skills and strategies they use when they read. Knowing what they already do helps me figure out the next thing I can teach them. The other good thing about this is that it requires the rest of the class to read quietly by themselves, which is another useful skill.
Writing
During writing, we split into groups. The groups sit at a different table every day, and one day a week they do guided writing--we call it “special project”. Our first special project was making birthday cards for people. This was a chance to talk about purpose for writing, audience for the writing, and all the things that should happen when writing a card, including greeting, message, closing, decorations, and overall personalization of the card. I’d expect that you’d see some evidence of this when the children are making cards (birthday, thank-you, etc.) for people at home.
Math
Sometimes our afternoons are so full, that we move right into science. We usually do math first, so does that mean we skip math on those days? You can perhaps guess where I’m going with this: I’m concerned that students will think that we’re doing math only during “math” time and nowhere else. I used part of our time together the other day to point out all the ways we use math when we’re doing science. Math is simply a form of communication (like writing) that we use to communicate understanding about the world. When we want to be precise, we use numbers to quantify; but we can do math without numbers: He is heavier, she is taller, mine is longer, yours is higher are all examples of math without numbers. Any sort of pattern is math without numbers. Numbers could be used to quantify all these examples if they were real, but often we don’t need the numbers. I think it’s helpful for students to look beyond numbers when thinking about math. I think it can provide a different filter for their thinking, and I think it could help them avoid the perspective of “I’m not good in math.” If you think of it (next time you hear “I want more.” or “Can I stay up later?” or something similar) you could point out the many ways they use math every day.
Science
We began this science unit with the “balance” in Balance and Motion. Now we’re experimenting with motion. We’ve done a lot of work with spinning. Ask your child about the tops, zoomers, twirlers, wheels and axels they made.
Halloween Party
We’ll have an afternoon celebration on October 31, starting about
Chapter Book
We finished My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet. Actually, the sub finished it while I was gone. L If your child is interested, there are two more books in that series: Elmer and the Dragon, and Dragons of Blueland. Our latest one is Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe.
Field Trip
We’re signed up to go to the Seattle Children’s Theater to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice by OyamO. We’re going with the other second grade class, leaving right away in the morning and returning to school about
Class Video
From time to time I video tape things that are happening at school. Then the students take turns taking the tape home to share. The tape should return to school the next day so the next person gets a chance; please help your child remember.
Email List
I’m hearing every now and then that people aren’t seeing this newsletter—the hard copy is not always making it home. If you’re one of those people, then you aren’t reading this. If you do happen to see the newsletter sometimes, and would like to get every copy via email, please make sure I have your email address. I currently have 12 families on the list.
Volunteers
We’re quite fortunate to have a number of parents helping out in the classroom this year. I know that not everyone can (I wish I could for my boys) but if you can and want to, there is still plenty of opportunity. Please let me know. We’d love to have you.
Calendar
| Friday, October 27—early release, | Tuesday, October 31—Halloween party, 1:30 |
| Friday, November 3—Science Fair, | |
Sincerely,
Jeff
Friday, November 03, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
In library today we learned about leaves. The leaves go on a tree. The tree sends the sap to the leaves so they can grow. If it’s cold the sap goes slower and slower. And then the leaves change colors, and then they fall off.
We also learned that people make syrup out of Sugar Maple tree sap. They drill a hole in the tree, and they put a thing like a faucet in there. They leave it there for awhile. They put a big bucket under it and turn the handle. The sap comes out of the faucet and into the bucket. Then they give the sap to a company and the company makes syrup. Then they sell it in stores.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
In science, we made Twirly Birds. The Twirly Birds can spin in the air when you throw, or toss, or drop them. The Twirly Birds were made out of paper—they weren’t real birds. We folded the paper on the dotted lines and cut on the solid lines. Some people colored them paper to make designs. Taylor T. made a design that hypnotized us. Instead of using straws for weights like on the spinners, we used paper clips. It was really fun and exciting.
In math, the first graders tried to make 12 for their Daily Equation.