Colors, Ice Cream and a Farewell

I am sad to say that on Friday of last week, while we got to celebrate an ice cream party for having the most PTO memberships (Woohoo! Thanks for joining the PTO, parents!), we also had to say farewell to Tyler. He moved out of state this weekend. We got a nice class photo on his last day at the playground:

And another of our class with the ice cream truck! How exciting!

For the letter S, we talked about squirrels and seahorses, graphed and patterned with Skittles, and read lots of stories full of silly subjects! Check out some of our work:

For the color red, we read a book about Clifford, the big RED dog and made a mask. If you forgot to put your child in the appropriate color clothing, don't feel alone. I was driving to school on Thursday wondering what I had forgotten when I looked down at my YELLOW shirt and sweater and it dawned on me: "Of course, today is RED day!" I didn't have enough time to turn around so I'll count Monday of Red Ribbon Week (next week) as my chance to make up for that one.. ;) Look at how CUTE these masks turned out!

The activity we do for the color orange is based on the story The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater. It's from 1977(!) but is the cutest story and the children love it! It's about a man, Mr. Plumbean, who lives on a street where all the houses are the exact same... until a bird flying overhead drops a can of orange paint and leaves an alarming orange splot on Mr. Plumbean's home. His neighbors get very annoyed by it and ask him to paint it back. Instead of painting it to match all the other houses, Mr. Plumbean paints an extravagant house with animals, designs, palm trees, etc. and says that his house shows all of his dreams. I won't ruin the end of the story for you, but after we read it in class, the kiddos get a plain house with an orange splot on it. They have the opportunity to change it into a house that represents their dreams. At the end of the day, we voted on the one we liked best. The following three pictures tied for first place:

Payton made her and her brother king and queen of this house! I love that she included family and even shows us inside the bedrooms.

Jada turned her home into a castle and herself into a fairy. She included a swimming pool because she loves to swim. Check out that detail on the drawbridge door!

Alaina made her house into an owl! (A child after my own heart?)

In addition to the first place drawings, here are two honorable mentions by Marco and Yahaya:

I'd like to thank everyone who met me for conferences! I understand that some of you couldn't get off of work but please know that I am available to meet with you any time you'd like to discuss your child's progress. Just send me a note or an e-mail with a time preference to meet. Alternatively, we could have a phone conference. I like to touch base with each family so we are on the same page at home and school about what we can do to guarantee success. Your child's growth and learning is a team effort!

As the week begins, we are moving on to the letter M in language arts. Official reading groups will begin with your child grouped based on his/her needs as shown by PALs scores. I will have both skill groups and reading groups -- if your child is struggling with letter recognition, rhyming, or beginning sounds, they will see me in as many skill groups as necessary. Most of us will be working on concept of word , or the idea that each spoken word matches a written word in the text. You can help strengthen this skill at home by pointing to each word as you read and encouraging your child to do the same!

In math, we will continue work on patterns and graphing but will also spend a good chunk of time on numeral recognition and corresponding number words. I will be pulling small math groups to work on counting with one-to-one correspondence if that is something your child needs help with. Please keep reviewing the coins at home! We have discussed the penny, nickel and dime in school. I haven't introduced the quarter yet.

In science, we're making our way through each of the colors a day at a time. Don't forget to wear yellow in the morning! I'll leave you with a funny moment from our red day. On the playground, students often come up and say "so-and-so didn't wait their turn for the slide" or "she bumped into me and didn't say sorry!" Well, on a day that the playground was literally a sea of children in red shirts, a little girl in Mrs. Smith's class walked over and said "She hit me!" When Mrs. Smith said "Do you know who she is?" The little girl replied "No, but she was in a red shirt!"

Enjoy your evening! Owl be teaching you more tomorrow!