100th Day Fun!

Thanks to Mother Nature, we had to wait... and wait... and wait for it... and FINALLY... the 100th day of school!   Was it worth the wait?  Check out all of our activities below to see for yourself!

The children each brought in 100 pieces of some type of dry treat.  We mixed all the treats together, and enjoyed a cup full of our mix at snack time!

Some of the children enjoyed dumping out their cup of snack mix and sorting out the contents into groups.  Needless to say, snack time was very enjoyable, but also took a bit more time than usual!

Bailey, Aiden and Chloe enjoy their snack.

Do'olo, Owen L., Aubanie, Elijah, Jaden and Ashlynn eat their snack.

Taylor, Brayden and Ryleigh also eat their treat.

William, Bridger, Jacob, Isaac, Clayton, Reece and Owen D.
enjoy snack time as well.

Reece takes two pretzel sticks and makes fangs!

 Next, we made "100" hats to wear for the day!  The kids traced around the number 100, and then decorated them with 100 dots, or lines, or whatever else they chose.  

Here is the class wearing their 100 hat creations!

Our next activity was a math activity.  The children brought 100 small items from home to weigh against pennies in a balance scale.  They then had to count out their objects into groups of 10 and record how many 10's were made.

Taylor, Aubanie and Ryleigh weigh their objects in balance scales.

The Red Group weighs their objects.

Later in the day, the children were given packets with room to record 100 words they knew.  They walked around the room to find words on the walls, in books, and other places and wrote them down.  They were amazed that they were able to write that many words in a pretty short amount of time!

Several students in our class have not been absent from school even one day this year!  These students were awarded a certificate for 100 days of perfect attendance!  Congratulations!

Chloe, Ashlynn, Do'olo, Taylor and Owen D. have been
in school for 100 days!  Wow!

We ended our day with 100 piece puzzle races!  We divided into groups of four kids, and each group did their best to complete their puzzle.  It was neat to hear so many kids complimenting and encouraging each other to do their best!  Unfortunately, we ran out of time in our day before any group completed their puzzles.

Do'olo, Bailey, Aubanie and Taylor were only 6 pieces away from completing their puzzle before time ran out!

Reece, Jacob, Clayton and Isaac work on their Garfield puzzle.

Elijah, Owen D., and Jaden work on their puzzle.

Brayden, William, Aiden and Bridger.

Chloe, Ashlynn and Ryleigh.

That about covers it!  Don't you wish you could celebrate 100 days of learning like the first graders did?  Hopefully they all had a fun, meaningful day of learning the '100' way!

Of course, we had to end the blog entry with 'The Silly One'!

Two More Math Whiz Kids!

We have two more students who have earned their certificates and pencil for Xtra Math Addition facts! Congratulations to Aubanie and Clayton!  They both worked very hard both in class and at home practicing their Xtra Math facts on the computer to earn mastery!

They have now been practicing their subtraction facts on Xtra Math.  

There are FIVE students who have earned this amazing feat so far in our class!  Many more are working to join this elite group!  You can help at home by having your child log on to Xtra Math.  There is even a link right on this blog to help you find it!

Thank you parents, for all your support at home!  It is much appreciated and valuable!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Reece

This is Reece!  He is our student of the week this week!  Reece's favorite color is YELLOW.  He would like to visit Washington D.C. someday and HE IS for Spring Break!  He would also like to see Mount Rushmore someday.  Reece's favorite television program is Full House.  When he grows up, he would like to be a teacher.  Reece used to have two dogs, but they are now in 'doggie heaven'.  His favorite books are Lego City books.  Reece loves to play soccer and he loves to eat hot dogs!  Reece is special because he has a lot of friends, but the VERY BEST thing about Reece is that he is very nice to others!  

Happy Valentine's Day!

  Happy Valentine's Day!  We had a very nice day together at school!  Our party was not until after lunch, but we started a little early with a neat math lesson with a Valentine theme!  Each child was given a box of conversation hearts.  First, they made an estimate of how many hearts they thought would be inside the box. They are becoming pretty good estimators because we have our Student of the Week estimation jar weekly to practice this concept.
  After their estimate was written down, they opened their box and counted to see how close they guessed!  It was fun to hear their comments... "I was SO close!", "Mrs. Ferrell, I guessed exactly right!", "I was only 2 away!"  Next, they sorted their hearts into the different colors on the sorting sheet.  They counted how many of each color.
  Then, they used their recording sheet to create a bar graph of the different colors that were in their box of hearts.  Last, they did some addition problems adding different colors together.  It was a neat way to do math on such a special day!  Of course, after the lesson, the hearts were read and eaten by everyone.  They really enjoyed reading the messages on their hearts as well!

Bailey, Aiden, Chloe and Tristan count their conversation
hearts and record the amounts.

Ryleigh, Brenden, Taylor and Brayden create their
bar graph recording their heart colors.

Elijah, Aubanie, Owen L., Do'olo, Ashlynn and Jaden
also record their results.

Owen D., Reece, Clayton, Isaac, Jacob, Bridger and William
sort and graph their heart colors.

Tristan sorts his hearts and records the amount of
each color on his recording sheet.

Jacob checks to see if his neighbor has the same
colors as he has in his box.

Enjoying reading and eating the hearts after the lesson!

U R Cute, LOL, Call Me, Kiss were some
of the funny messages on the hearts!

All smiles while enjoying the hearts!

Yum, yum, yum!

After recess and lunch, our party activities began.  We started by making a Valentine craft.  The kids enjoyed creating a heart wreath to display from our ceiling hooks.

Red, white and pink hearts were decorated and cut out
and glued on a circular ring.

The kids really enjoy making crafts in class!

Each wreath was decorated a little bit different.

It's fun to talk with your friends while creating a craft!

Once they dried, they were hung from our ceiling hooks to enjoy!

After our craft, it was time to open our Valentine's from our classmates!  They kids grabbed their bags and sat wherever they chose to open their mail!  It was heartwarming to hear all the cute comments and appreciation for the cards and candy received from their classmates!

Tristan, Justin and Jaden check out their Valentine cards.

Reece and Isaac show each other their candy!

Aiden, Bridger, Brayden and Jacob enjoy
looking through their bags.

Ashlynn, Do'olo, Bailey and Elijah sit
in the back of the room to look at their cards.

William and Ryleigh also sit with a big group
in the back of the room!

Taylor and Aubanie join the big group as well.

After our cards, the children capped off the party with a snack (as if they needed more sugar!)  A big thanks to Mrs. TenBrink, who made yummy Valentine cupcakes, Mrs. Jordan, who provided juice boxes for us, and Mrs. Blauwkamp, who sent in Valentine plates and napkins!  Sorry, I forgot to take photos before they were eaten!  We can remember the fun because of the nice red frosting stain in our carpet!  :)  The fun of eating in the classroom!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Do'olo

This is Do'olo!  She is the student of the week this week.  Do'olo's favorite color is PURPLE.  She would love to visit Hawaii someday (please take me along)!  Her favorite television program is Full House.  When she grows up, Do'olo would like to be a hair stylist.  Do'olo has a dog named Woody, and two cats named Boots and Kate.  Her favorite book is Hello Kitty, the Best Christmas Ever!  Do'olo's favorite sport is swimming.  She loves to eat macaroni and cheese.  Do'olo is special because she has a good family, but the VERY BEST thing about her is that she is a good friend!

Math Wizards!

Ryleigh, Jacob and Tristan

Congratulations to Ryleigh, Jacob and Tristan!  They have worked very hard to learn their addition math facts to 10 for Xtra Math!  That means they know 100 addition facts - each within a 3 second time!  That is amazing and cause for celebration!

Each of them earned a certificate and a special math pencil, but the real prize is the pride they feel for working hard and learning those facts!

There are a few others who are getting close, so keep watching the blog for more students!  Parents, you can help your child earn this amazing accomplishment as well!  Just click the link on the right side of this blog for Xtra Math and have your child practice at home like these three kids did!  The more practice, the faster and better the facts are learned!  Remember... first graders are responsible to learn all the facts for addition and subtraction to and from 10 by June!   In second grade, that moves to the facts to and from 18!

Congratulations Ryleigh, Jacob and Tristan!  Keep up the great work!