100 Day Hooray!

     On Thursday we celebrated the 100th Day of School!  With all of the snow days, the date had to be pushed back several times but we finally got there.

Each group of students were given 100 items and 8 minutes to build something with them.  It was wonderful practice at working together in a group and problem solving!  This group had 100 Legos.

This group used 100 unifix cubes.

Here they are using 100 mixed items: blocks, dominoes, etc.

This group had fun using 100 pattern blocks.

This shows about half of the list we made of 100 things we've learned so far in school. We could have gone on, and on, and on....

 

Locker Art:  the next photos show the pennants we made that say we are 100 days smarter!  We also made rainbow pots of gold for St. Patrick's Day.  (Ask your child what ROY G BIV means :-) Each child wrote something that they would buy for someone else with their pot of gold.

With all of the white stuff outside, it's nice to see color on the walls!

We shared some of the adventures that we had with Flat Stanley over the vacation.  He visited Florida, went to jail, went to farms, had a pool party with friends, went to a basketball game, and many, many more things.  We had such fun listening to each classmate read some of his/her journal.  I am always thrilled by the excitement this project generates.  The bulletin board pictured above is ready for the Flat Stanleys that are being sent back to us.  We will mark all of the places they have been.  I've been told that Stanley has even done some international travel!  I will keep you posted.

Remember our evaporation experiment?  All of the water had evaporated by the time we returned from Winter Break.

Each Friday Mrs. B comes in to talk to us about conflict resolution, being our best, and talking about our feelings.  It is a wonderful way to end our week. 

 Other lessons:
Math: We finished triple digit addition and now we are moving on to triple digit subtraction.  Some of the students are even getting excited about that Mental Math that frustrates some parents so!  We also had fun with Miss Agostini's class when we got together for Math Club.
SS: This month we learned about some famous African Americans
ELA: This week we read descriptions in our reading text and tried to write our own.  We also worked on irregular past tense verbs and  read books and reader's theater for the 100th day.

Important Dates:
Monday, 3/2- PARP kick off- wear PJ's to school!
Thursday, 3/5- Family Reading Night- I will running some activities there along with other teachers and parents.   I hope to see everyone!  Author Cynthia Cotten will be visiting us that day to talk to the children. Check out her link to learn more about her: http://cynthiacotten.com/
 

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Another day off due to weather.  I know the students are excited but it makes it difficult to get things done!  Save those valentines!  We will have our party on the Monday we get back- the 23rd.  Be sure to send Flat Stanley back as well with the journal partially filled out. 
We will not make up the reading test that was missed on Friday. See the vocab/spelling pages for the new words for the week we get back.
This week's skills and concepts:
Reading: cause and effect and helping verbs; we also started a new Flat Stanley book and read books by the author who will be visiting DeSales in March, Cynthia Cotten.  Click on this link to find more about her: cotten
Math : the students are doing great with mental math and adding three digit numbers.  It's all starting to fit together!
Religion: We concentrated on Baptism this week.  The children read aloud their Baptism interviews.  We talked about the celebrations that welcomed them into their churches.
 Science: we learned about Arctic animals and set up an evaporation experiment, see below.

In less than a week about 1/2 cup evaporated!

 We also used the scientific process to learn whether mittens are warm.
Everyone hypothesized that mittens are warm but the experiment showed us that it is not the mitten, but the hand inside the mitten that generates heat.

Enjoy the Winter Break!

Important Dates:
2/23- Flat Stanley, journal, stamps, and address due  back to school
and Valentine party
2/25- Mass 9:40 
3/5- Family Reading Night at DeSales

Flat Stanley!

 

We have had a fun week reading about Flat Stanley's adventures and answering comprehension questions.  Each student made his/her own Stanley which we will be mailing to a friend or relative.  I will be reading another Flat Stanley adventure this week and at the end of the week Stanley will come home with a journal.  Your child can write in the journal about adventures that he/she has with Flat Stanley during the winter break.  Please be sure to send both the journal and Stanley back to school so we can mail them out.  
    

     This week we used the ipads to write a digital story about a snow adventure.  Everyone who was in school on Friday was able to record the story and I emailed your child's story to you.  If you did not receive it please let me know.  If your child absent on Friday we will record the story next week.

    In Math we once again worked with mental math.   I know it is difficult to get through but it really does make sense.  As with anything new, it takes a lot of practice.  The third grade teachers assure me that an introduction to mental math in second grade makes it a little easier when they have to use it in third grade.  I do know the students think it's great to add 100 or 10 to a number without having to write it down!
      In Science we continue to learn about weather and the water cycle.  In SS we learned more about using a map and started discussing Presidents Lincoln and Washington.
    In Religion we are learning about the 7 sacraments.  A Baptism interview sheet was sent home.  Please have it completed and sent back in by Monday.

 We have been getting a lot of great questions to our answer; "Under the bed".  Examples: Where does my dog hide?, Where do I put my smelly socks?  If you have not sent your questions back yet, please do.  We enjoy listening to the questions and calling out the answer- Under the bed!

One of my students brought in her first sewing project that she made on her sewing machine.  I thought she did a great job and wanted to share it. :-)

     Special Dates:
2/11- Mass at 9:40
2/12- stamps and address for Flat Stanley due
2/13- Last Mass with Fr. Vatter, Valentine party 
Note: Due to the cold I was only able to take the students out for one day in the last few weeks.  They SO enjoyed it!  If the temperature and wind chill are above 20 degrees we do go out.  Please make sure your child is prepared with snow pants, boots, mittens, and a hat.  Thanks!