It's beginning to look...

Thought you'd like to see some of our decorations of the season.

Our musical Santas call us to Calendar Time.

I read a book called Snowflake Bentley to the students today about a man who figured out how to photograph magnified snowflakes.  We were amazed at the complexity of these tiny specks that we take for granted.  Mr. Bentley wanted to capture these small works of art that are here but for an instant and then gone forever.

My son and my grandson- it's never too early to start reading. :-)  We had a great week.  We have started working with TRIPLE digit numbers in Math-Wow! We will continue to practice regrouping and borrowing so we don't lose the skills we've worked so hard on.  We took a break from writing about traditions to draw a picture with a caption describing our favorite part of The Nutcracker.  These went home today.  Please ask your child about the ballet.  The class was very well behaved.  We will finish up the tradition writing next week.    Next week the program "Rachael's Challenge" is coming to DeSales on Dec. 6th.   It tells the inspiring story of the first student killed in the Columbine shootings.  Before her death she worked to bring people together with kindness and compassion.  She wrote, "I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go."  Through this program we try to teach our students to reach out to others and show compassion wherever they go.  For adults who would like to hear about Rachael and the program there will be an event at the Palace at 7PM the same night.     

  

 

Just a Few More Photos

I know I've already posted several times this week but we have so much going on that I wanted to share.  If you only log on once a week you may want to scroll down to the previous blogs.  Today we made butter and the students wanted me to put the directions on our blog.  Here they are: Pour about 1 cup heavy cream into a plastic container, seal tightly, shake, shake, shake, and shake!  We went around the whole class about three times before it turned into butter.

We mixed up some corn muffins to go with the butter.  The headbands everyone is wearing are for the play.  The kids wanted to wear them all day but I made them take them off for Mass.

Ready for the oven!

We shared some of our favorite stories.

Two of Miss Agostini's students joined us for a photo with the Friendship snack we sent to the Outreach Center.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you for sending in the ingredients for our Friendship Snack.  The students bagged them up this morning and put a little note on them.  I took them to the Outreach Center this afternoon.  Each year the Center looks forward to receiving the snacks to put with the Thanksgiving dinner packages as a way of sending cheer to those in need.

The students played scientists today as they recorded their observations while experimenting with magnets.  At this station the students found things that were attracted to magnets.

Here we discovered that magnets can be different strengths and it wasn't always the biggest magnet that was the strongest.

This student is making a paper clip stand on end even when the magnet is not touching the clip!  We learned that magnets have a magnetic field.

The students made chains of paper clips at the ends (poles) of a bar magnet to show that magnets are strongest at the poles.

We magnetized a spoon by rubbing it with a strong magnet.

At every station we recorded our observations.

I couldn't take down the Thanksgiving decorations without showing you how they looked.  Here are the ripped paper cornucopias and the leaves and acorns with a blessing on each one.

The turkey you did at home were fabulous and so very unique!  I hope you enjoyed doing them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Not Enough Hours

     I think all of us are already feeling the excitement of the holidays along with the pressure to get everything done.  We have been very busy in class with our curriculum and trying to squeeze holiday activities in when we can.  This week will be a little less rushed because we will not have our regular reading series to worry about.  There will be no spelling or vocabulary words this week and no reading test at the end of the week.                             Thank you to all of the parents who came in for conferences.  I often tell my husband that I enjoy conference days because I like to hear and  talk about my students as much as parents like to hear and talk about their kids.  It's a win/win!                             Last week we finished up our ripped paper cornucopias.  It is a great activity to increase fine motor coordination and the end result has a texture like oil painting.  We also read books about Pilgrim life and made a diorama of a keeping room.  The students loved talking about how the Pilgrims lived.      Also, one of our parents collected pictures we made for veterans and  sent them on to a Veterans Hospital.  I am so thankful I have supportive parents to help with activites like this that may brighten the life of someone else.                                                                             This week we'll be starting off by making the Friendship Snack for the Outreach Center on Monday.  We also have a class set of a chapter book, Miss Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner, we will read together and two Thanksgiving plays we will perform.  On Wednesday we are making corn muffins and butter.  The students always think it is a little magical how the cream turns into butter with just a lot of shaking (I do too!).                                                 We will still be working hard on math so expect to see homework on Monday and Tuesday.                                                                   I am looking forward to our week together in preparation for Thanksgiving.  It is the beginning of a special time of year when we remember to appreciate all that we have been given.  I hope your family will enjoy a holiday full of love,laughter and good cheer.   God bless.

 

Friday Centers

During Center Time the students rotate from station to station in a group of 3 or 4 students.  Here students have fun while practicing their math facts with "Mathmagician".  You can access it from the links on the right of this blog page.

Students use the Smartboard to play "Contraptions".  You build structures to make a ball travel down, around, and through pipes and ramps.  It is a great game to practice problem solving.  Many of the students wondered where to get the game.  I know it is available at Amazon and it's called The Incredible Machine- Contraptions.

We worked hard to make the invitations for our special Generation Celebration Mass on December 12.

At the Listening Center we read When Will It Snow?

This is a math facts game called "Pops".

We are playing a language arts game called "Silent e".  It's like "Old Maid" except you match short vowel words with long vowel words with a silent e.  Ex: hop, hope    Thanks to everyone for sending in the ingredients for the Friendship Snack we will be making for the Outreach Center in a few weeks.

Voting and Indoor Recess

On Election Day we voted for the lunch menu to be served on Nov. 15th.  The choices were: Bacon Cheeseburger, Curly Fries, and Top Your Own Sundae or Nachos, Rice, and Funnel Cake.  The first lunch won.

During a recent indoor recess I took photos so you to see some of the activities we like to do.  Above students are playing "Guess Who?"

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Some students bring in things to play with and share.

They enjoy building a marble chute together.

Some decide to read or draw.

    

 

 

 This week we spent some extra time learning how to carefully rewrite horizontal double digit number problems into vertical ones so that we did not mix up the columns.  We practiced double digit addition and learned double digit subtraction with regrouping.  What's next?  The hundreds!

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy the photos of our Halloween party.  We spread the celebration out over the whole day.  We started with Halloween worksheets for morning work, read a Halloween story about a witch's house which I cut out of orange paper (ask your child what the house turned out to be), "treated" each other, and ended up by eating doughnut holes and cider while we played Halloween Bingo.  A big "Thank you!" to our room parents who came in to run the show.  It was nice to sit back and watch the fun.