Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Parker


This is Parker, our new Student of the Week!  Parker loves to eat fish.  His favorite sport is soccer.  Parker likes to read "How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?"   He has no pets at home, but if he could choose any pet he wanted, he would choose a rabbit and a dog.  When Parker grows up, he would like to be a professional soccer player or a police officer.  He likes to watch Transformers on television.  Parker would like to visit Disney World someday soon.  His favorite color is BLUE.   Parker is special because he is the only student in our whole class and school that has cochlear implants, but the VERY BEST THING about Parker is the fact that he is a good friend!

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Layla


Here is Layla!  She is this week's Student of the Week.  Layla loves any shade of the color PINK.   She would like to visit Hawaii someday.  Layla likes to watch Teen Titans Go on television.  When she grows up, Layla would like to be a veterinarian.  She has two pets; a dog named Cricket and a cat named Fluffy.  Her favorite book to read is Captain Underpants.  Layla's favorite sport is gymnastics.  She loves to eat chicken cordon bleu.  Layla is special because she gives great hugs (tested by me and agreed) but the VERY BEST THING about her is the fact that she is SO sweet!

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had another exciting day today!  The kids had to wait until the last hour of our day for our party, but we did do a few Valentine type activities throughout the day...

For math today, each child had a small box of conversation hearts and a packet to complete before eating them!  First, they made a guess as to how many hearts they thought would be inside their mini box (we always guess with the color RED).  Then, we opened the box and sorted the colors on a sorting sheet and recorded how many of each color the box contained.  Of course, they counted the total number of hearts and recorded it next to our guess (with a BLUE crayon).  Many were excited to guess very close to the actual amount.  

Next, the kids created a bar graph using their recording sheet.  Then, there were some 2-digit and 3-digit addition problems to complete as well.  Finally, the kids ate their hearts!

We also took a few moments this morning to make our Valentine Bingo cards for our party in the afternoon.

Zavier, Ashtyn and Brendan make their Valentine Bingo cards.

Carson, Lexi, Hayden and Traycen make Valentine Bingo cards.

Jace, Lilly, Layla, Parker and Grace make Valentine Bingo cards.

Cambri, Ayden, Rylie, Taber, Kylie and Adam make Valentine Bingo cards.

Candy Heart math for the Butterfly group.
Candy heart math for the Froggy group.  Sorry... the other two group pictures were fuzzy.

Finally, it was time for our party!  We began with some special treats!  Zavier's mom provided yummy cupcakes for the class again!





Mrs. Lugten came in with large heart shaped sugar cookies!  She also brought in frosting and sprinkles and helped each child frost and decorate their own cookie!  Yum, yum!

Mrs. Lugten, Madison, Zavier, Kailynn, Ashtyn, Laz and Brendan decorate cookies.

Hayden, Lexi, Carson, Ella and Traycen

Mrs. Lugten, Hayden, Lilly, Carson, Jace, Parker and Grace

Mrs. Lugten, Rylie, Cambri, Taber, Ayden, Kylie and Adam
Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell provided plates, napkins and juice as well for our party.  The kids were certainly enjoying many sweets!

After our treats, it was time to open our Valentine cards from each other!  The kids were so very excited to finally have this opportunity after seeing the bags on the counter for more than a week!

Taber enjoys his cards.

Kylie and Ashtyn

Ellie, Layla and Kailynn

Carson and Hayden

Parker and Jace

Brendan

Miss Eding and Tomi

Tomi, Lilly and Lexi

Madison and Mrs. Lugten

Cambri

Finding our friends to thank them for the Valentine cards given!


Lexi's special Valentines were mini bubble gum/M&M machines!  She made them from glass Christmas ornaments filled with candy and placed on cups!  SO CUTE!  Handed out at the end of the day to ensure they got home safely (hopefully)!?!

Our final portion of the day included playing a few rounds of Valentine Bingo and we ended our day with a couple of Valentine stories! 






We had a very enjoyable time today!  Hopefully nobody came home with a tummy ache from too much candy!  Believe me, I tried my best to encourage them to save some of their candy for later, but I think that candy was irresistible to most of them.   Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  And a special thank you to Mrs. Schlipp and Mrs. Lugten for their yummy contributions today!

Thursday, February 9, 2017

100th Day of School!

What a fun day we had today!  We spent a majority of our day 'the 100 way!'  We began our day by combining our treats brought from home into a yummy mixture to eat at snack time!


Three students from our class earned themselves certificates for 100 days of perfect attendance!  That is an amazing accomplishment - especially with the many sick children (and teacher) that we have had the past few weeks!  Congratulations to Lexi, Jace and Taber!


A few of the kids came to school wearing 100 things!  This was an optional, but fun way to celebrate!

Ashtyn (100 safety pins), Cambri (100 stickers), Lilly (100 craft sticks fashioned into a sash), Kylie (100 pieces of cereal made into a necklace), Jace (100 shapes drawn on his shirt with marker), Lexi and Traycen (100 pieces of cereal made into a necklace)
 

Our next activity was creating Dixie Cup sculptures!  Each group was given 100 cups.  Using teamwork, they used all 100 cups to make a sculpture!  We had a few towers fall down, but we took that opportunity to show persistence and recreate them!

Lilly, Layla, Cambri and Lexi

Kailynn, Grace, Kylie and Rylie

Adam, Traycen, Hayden, Zavier and Parker

Taber, Carson, Jaydon and Jace

Ayden, Brendan (Lazarus and Braedyn not pictured)

Next it was time to enjoy our yummy mixture before recess!  Each child had one cup full of marshmallow, cereal, goldfish crackers, many types of candy, animal cookies and more!  They enjoyed pouring it out on a napkin and sorting them while enjoying their treats!

Jace, Lilly, Jaydon, Layla, Parker and Grace

Cambri, Ayden, Rylie, Taber, Kylie and Adam

Carson, Lexi, Hayden and Traycen

Zavier, Brendan and Kailynn


After recess, we rotated through three different 100 activities in small groups.  One activity was making a 100 hat.  The second activity was working on two fun papers describing what they would buy if they had $100 and what they would look like and be doing at 100 years of age.  The final activity was to use their 100 items from home for a math activity.  Using balance scales, the kids placed their 100 objects on one side, and small tiles on the other.  They had to balance out the scale, and then count how many tiles it took to balance.  Then, they divided their 100 objects into groups of ten.  They found out that 100 makes ten groups of 10 and when they count the groups by 10's, they reach 100!

Hayden, Layla and Grace using the scales

Carson working on his papers as Lexi and Zavier make their 100 hats.

Cambri, Ayden, Rylie, Taber, Kylie and Adam working on papers and hats.

Jace using the the balance scale to weigh his spiral macaroni.

Ashtyn using the balance scale.

Carson and Lilly weighing their objects.

Parker and his balance scale.

Rylie works hard with her scale and recording sheet.

Cambri starts to weigh her little animal toys in the balance scale.

Zavier, Lexi, Hayden and Traycen working on papers and hats.

Ashtyn, Brendan and Kailynn working on papers and hats.

Grace and Jace working on their hats.

Layla and Jaydon make their hats.

Kylie, Traycen and Brendan work with the scales and recording sheets.

Brendan brought some extra items to weigh for friends who forgot... Zavier is thankful to borrow the marbles.  Kailynn works with her scale to weigh spiral macaroni she borrowed from a friend.

Adam is figuring out how many tiles it takes to balance his buttons.

Lexi uses the balance scale to measure her 100 dimes.

Jace, Lilly, Layla, Parker and Grace work on papers and hats.

Brendan and Kailynn working hard.

Zavier had to use a lot tiles to balance 100 marbles!

Here is a class photo of everyone wearing their cool 100 hats!


We had time for a couple of 100 stories, and then it was lunch time!  After lunch and recess, we spent some more time enjoying 100 stories, and then a big calendar day!  There were a few important changes in our calendar, because we have been keeping track of our days of school using a number line, adding a straw to our pocket chart each day (bundling each 10 and moving them from the Ones to the Tens place) and today we had to bundle our ten 10's into a Hundred bundle and move it to the Hundreds place in our pocket chart!  We also keep track of our days with tally marks and add the groups of 10's and 1's each day.  Today we circled our 10 sets of 10 tallies into a large 100 group for easier adding.  Finally, we added a penny to a chart each day we were in school.  We exchanged pennies for nickels, two nickels for a dime, two dimes and a nickel for a quarter, two quarters for a half-dollar, and two half-dollars for a golden dollar coin and/or paper dollar bill!  This process took us 100 days, and we count our money each day during calendar!  It was an exciting day for calendar.

We took a break to attend P.E. class, and when we returned we read a Scholastic Newspaper that incorporated the number 100!  We hard a couple more 100 stories, and then ended our day with 100 piece puzzle time.  I will say that this was not easy for them.  they had 45 minutes and teams of three and only one group was able to complete a puzzle.  I would highly suggest this activity at home!  Puzzles are a skill that many of these children struggle with.  So put away the ipads and video games and pull out those puzzles!  It's a great family activity and so much fun!







Congratulations to Kylie, Cambri and Lilly for being the only team to complete their 100 piece puzzle!







A fun day was had by everyone!  Hopefully it was a day to remember for each of your kids!  It was a nice change of pace and the kids seemed to have tons of fun working together on our 100th day!

And now for the funny picture...  I always promise them that if they smile nice for a group picture, I will let them make a funny face picture too!  This one's a keeper!  :)