Dental Health

On Friday Brilliant Smiles Family Dentistry came to our school and gave a presentation to the kindergarten class.  The students did a great job listening and learning about dental health.  We learned how important it is to brush our teeth two times a day and floss at least one time a day.  Also, we learned to avoid sugary drinks and foods.  Two students from our class were picked to help our presenter demonstrate how to floss our teeth.  They were vey excited when they were able to keep the gloves and mask.  Brilliant Smiles was very generous with both their time and for providing each student with a care package.

Multiplication Snow Day

     Happy Snow/Cold Day!  I hope everyone is staying warm on this frigid day.  In math we are working on extended multiplication problems, which are multistep problems.  The first step is to know your multiplication facts.  I still have many students who do not have these facts memorized or know a quick strategy to find the answer.  Please continue to work on practicing these facts at home as we will continue to practice them at school.  On this cold day if your child says, "I'm bored," have them play a multiplication game.  There are so many different ways to practice their facts! 

Here are a few ideas:
*Place flash cards around the house and have your child search for a card.  When they find it have them bring it back to you and tell you the answer (they can even get a little movement in).  To make it challenging set a time limit.
*Write the facts on paper and cut the paper out into square pieces and play memory.
*Play multiplication around-the-world with your family.  If there are only a few of you flip the card over and the first person to say the answer gets to keep the card.  The player with the most cards at the end wins. 

     You can be as creative as you would like.  The main thing is that your child is practicing and memorizing their facts.  As a reminder the facts that they have the most challenge with are the 6's, 7's, and 8's. 

     Have a wonderful day and weekend. 

     As always thank you for sharing your child with me!

Happy New Year

     Happy New Years Eve!  I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas break.  It has been nice to catch up with family and friends over this holiday season.  I'm ready to get back in a routine though and see my class again.  I sure do miss their energetic faces!

     The week before break the students enjoyed our Christmas activities.  During our party the students decorated Christmas cookies, created an ornament, played candy cane toss, hot cocoa toss and created a Christmas tree with solo cups.  The catch was they couldn't use their fingers, only a rubber band and string!  This was very challenging and forced students to work together as a team.  Also, they enjoyed singing Christmas carols and wearing their pajamas to school.   It was a great way to kick off the holiday season!

     Enjoy your last few days of break and I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday, January 3rd.  I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing New Years!

Vocabulary Games

     The past couple of weeks we have been playing games with our E.L.A. vocabulary words.  My goal is for the students to be engaged in their learning.  When students are engaged they are more likely to remember the content because it has meaning to them.  With this being said, the past couple of weeks we have introduced new vocabulary games.  Last week we played a game where they have a vocabulary word on their backs and their classmates have to help them figure out their vocabulary word without telling them the word.  This means they have to understand the word in order to describe it properly without saying "the word." Also, it requires the person with the word on their back to have an understanding of the different vocabulary words.
    This week we introduced another vocabulary game where the students have a partner and have to work together to get through all of their vocabulary words.  The partners sit back to back and one person has a vocabulary sheet in front of them.  The partner with the vocabulary sheet in front of them has to describe the word to their partner (without saying the word or parts of the word) and then the partner has to say the vocabulary word they are describing.  The first team to get through all of the words win. 
     We will continue to play these vocabulary games throughout the year.  My hope is by keeping the students engaged they will incorporate these vocabulary words in their daily lives and apply the words while reading and writing😊  .

Sound Waves

We have began our next unit on light and sound.  The students enjoyed creating telephones with plastic cups and string.  While carrying out this experiment they felt the vibration on the string when their partner talked into the cup.  Also, they listened to different sounds that were made when striking the string in different locations.  We will continue to carry out experiments involving sound to better understand how sound travels.

Halloween Parade

Due to weather the Halloween Parade will be indoors.  Parents can watch the parade in the Middle School Gym.  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Party

As a reminder we will be having our Halloween Party next Tuesday, October 31st.  In 4th Grade the students dress up and put on a Wax Museum (this is where they quietly get in a pose and stay in that pose).  The rest of the Elementary School will parade through our classroom/ the Museum.  Parents you are more than welcome to come and watch.  The parade will begin at 1:00pm.