What's Going On?

 Welcome to Room 200

                                           

September 5th: On Tuesday I did a short introduction lesson with the students to break the ice.  First, I was able to introduce myself and then students were able to as well.  I created a mini powerpoint that had six objects that described myself at the "end of my rainbow". The theme of my lesson was "Taste the Rainbow" and that was why skittles were involved.  The students received a paper bag with a baggie of skittles and a cloud rainbow in the image above inside.  Each student had to answer the question that pretained to the color skittle on the powerpoint.  Once they found their answer, they wrote it down on the specific color on their rainbow, shared their answer with me and also their friends around them.  This was a great activity to get to know each other, share amongst one another what they like the most about themselves, and most importantly get to eat a fun treat!

 

                                        

September 7th: On Thursday Ms. Valentini read First Day Jitters around the carpet square at read aloud to the students.  This was a great story for the students to hear their first week back at school because the plot was being nervous of going back to school.  Ms. Valentini did a nice job trying to get the students to connect text to self during the story.  The students were interactive and wanted to share how they felt on their first day and why they felt nervous, excited, anxious, sad, or upset.  After read aloud the students went over their words of the week.  Each week they have their ten words that they practice and then take their test on friday.  Ms. Valentine allows the students to come up with the words of the week with her assistance, and then the words at the bottom are what they may see later on in the year or bonus on the quiz.

 

                                                 

September 12th: On Tuesday during carpet time we read another Julia Cook book called Soda Pop Head.  This book was had a great story line for students to learn how to control their anger when things in life get hard.  The little boy in the story had trouble controlling his anger, and was known as "soda pop head" because every time he got angry his head would explode from his anger.  During the story Ms. Valentini used the method turn and talk to let the students talk to their friends around them to see what they could come up with for the little boy in the story to control his anger.  Before she kept reading on to find out how he controlled his anger she let the students explain what they came up with for the little boy.  This was a great way to see if the students understood what the story and if they were following along. After the story we created a chart together for our classroom called, "3 Ways To Control Your Fizz at School".  This is a great way for our students to refer to throughout the day to look at when they need to control their anger.  We went through each step together once the students went back to their seats so they knew exactly how to do it.  Controlling your fizz is also a Dojo point that is worth one point when a student can work through that anger.

 

                           

September 14th: On Thursday during read aloud Ms. Valentini kept the theme reading another Julia Cook book to the students.  This time it was a book over what to say to others and what type of actions to choose in situations.  It was called, My Mouth Is A Volcano.  The little boy struggled to bite his tongue on certian situations, and not always give his opinion when he did not need to give it.  This would get him into trouble at times, and also he could be mean to others with the things he would say.  Throughout the book Ms. Valentini was able to ask the students how they would feel if someone would say those things to them, or what if they were the ones saying the things the little boy was saying.  This was a great opportunity to spark conversation about text to self connection.  After the story was over, we made a chart for the classroom that we called "Bucket Filler Actions", and we could either be fillers or dippers.  A filler is positive and a dipper is negative.  This chart is a great representation that the students can refer to throughout the day to remember when they are being dippers and need to turn it around and be filling someones bucket! 

 

                  

September 18th On Tuesday the students began their morning work by working on their words to know.  Ms. Valentine provided them with a work sheet that gave them various ways to write the words and practice them multiple times. Each week there is a new set of words provided and this week the words above is the set of ten that they will be practicing.  They can first write the word, then they build the word where they but boxes over each letter, and then finally they decorate the word that they write.  This morning activity is engaging for the students to stay busy and practice learning their words in a different way.  During morning time if the students need help they can raise their hand where I will come around, or they can ask their table partner next to them.  They have their words to know sheet as a reference in front of them to refer to the words on how to spell them.  During read aloud today Ms Valentini read the story Bully Beans by Julia Cook where the plot was the little girl was bullying the students in her class.  This was a great story because the students were able to use this book and apply it to their own lives. 

 

    

September 21st: On Thursday for read aloud Ms. Valentini read the third book series of Miss Nelson is Back to the students.  The third book today was Miss Nelson Has A Field Day. During the read aloud today she wanted the students to understand the problem in the story and then understand how the characters were able to solve that problem.  One of the techniques that she used was turn and talk during the read aloud.  This is when the students are able to talk to one another about what they think happened in the story and then share it with the class.  This provides great spoken feedback for the students, and it also shows if the students understand the text or if they do not.

 

                                                                                                                                                   

September 25th: On Monday Ms Valentini started off the week reading to the students a nonfiction book about leaves entering the season of fall.  This was a great time for the students to learn about leaves because they will be around them a lot with being outside for recess and outside playing with their friends and family.  The book was about the changing of leaves from summer to fall.  How the change color, how they need live, and why they fall off the trees once fall arrives.  During the story Ms Valentini put together a chart where the students were able to interact and tell what the main idea was for the book and three details about leaves and fall.  After the read aloud the students made their way back to their seats to work as a whole group and with their table partners to put together the sheet above about the main idea!  After lunch we worked on our words for the week to know.  This week we are working on our short 'e' words, and the ten words are listed above on our fun apple chart that the students can refer to during the week while working on their words.

 

                                                                                                                                              

September 26th: The next day Ms Valentini continued the theme of fall and leaves with reading a book called There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves.  This was a fiction story that was a great book for the students to understand the sequence of a storyline.  It was a cute story for the students to remember what the old lady was swallowing to come up with mental images in their brain of what that would look like.  The chart above is a picture of what we did as a class after we read the story to put in sequential order of what happened. The students loved looking back on this chart while working at their desks with their table partner on their own sequential cutting and pasting sheet.  The picture of the read aloud at the carpet was Ms Valentini picking the students to come up and put the images in the chart in their correct order of how the story went.

 

                                                    

                                                        

October 2nd: On Monday, Ms Valentini introduced a new topic to the students about apples.  Since we are entering into Autumn and during this time of year apples are in season. Before reading the story it is important the students understand what they are learning for that day.  Ms Valentini has them gather around the table to learn the purpose statement for that day.  The purpose statement summarizes the specific goals or topic of what the children are needed to learn, and it is written on the white board.  After reading the story we did a KWL chart from the book we read by Gail Gibbons.  The students came up with facts about apples of what they already knew, and then what they want to know before reading the book.  After reading the book, Ms Valentini asked the students what they learned to see if they were able to comprehed what the author was telling them.  After read aloud we go over words of the week together, and this week we are covering the short 'i' sound words! The students worked together to come up with these words!

 

 

October 3rd: On Tuesday Ms Valentini read the students a poem to work on their short 'i' sounds to help them with their spelling words.  The poem that was read to the students was Itty Bitty Apples.  The poem also correlates with the theme that the teacher is reading to the students this week about apples. During the poem the students had to underline or highlight the short 'i' words and write them on the page next to the poem.  Throughout the day we work hard as students, but sometimes it is nice to celebrate with our friends when someone has a birthday! Happy birthday, Dylan! :)  

 

           

                          

October 10th: On Tuesday the students gathered around on the carpet to listen to a story called The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to learn a lesson where it is better to give than to receive.  The students worked on the carpet with clipboards on their assessments to write about the beginning, middle, and end of how the tree was feeling during the story. This was a great story for the students to listen to and connect how they can feel in life like the tree felt.  During the afternoon the students began learning their math for the day.  The students came around the carpet where the instructions were set up on the construction paper.  Ms Valentini set this up for the students to have a different way of learning, rather than just sitting in their seats with pencil and paper.  They learned about fact triangles today of adding and subtracting through word problems and creating their own two-digit problems as well. In order for the students to understand what they are reading, we teach them to underline the important information and circle the question!

 

          

October 12th: On Thursday the story for the day was about a lizard that was a hard worker that was planning a party and wanted all of her friends to help her set it up.  Her friends did not help her set up and once the party came that was when Mañana, Iguana wanted to teach her friends a lesson. The lesson of the story for the students to learn was working hard leads to rewards.  During the story Ms Valentini and the students worked together to figure out the beginning, middle, and end sequence of how the main character was feeling, and how the lesson interwined during the story.  After the story the students sat on the clipboard and we did the assessment together of what happened during the story and what the lesson was.  They even were able to create their own illustration from the story. After the read aloud, the students worked on the write it, build it, and decorate it worksheets to work on their words of the week.  The words of the week is the short 'o' sound.

 

                     

 

October 16th: In the morning Ms Valentini started off by going over the short 'u' words with the students on the carpet.  Every Monday the students receive new vocabulary words for that week.  After spelling was over, the students participated in a read aloud on the carpet about bats.  Today the teacher read Bats by Gail Gibbons, a nonfiction story all about the background of bats.  To go along with it the students participated in a graphic organizer that dealt with the main idea and picking out key details from the text!  Some students even drew illustrations above those specific details from the story. We had a great time learning about bats!  

 

                                                    

October 17th: Today was the start to lesson week and the students sat around on the carpet for a read aloud.  I read to the students But It Wasn't My Fault! by Julia Cook and afterwards we did a graphic organizer together where they had their own papers on clipboards while I used the chart paper to help them write. We learned about how we can take responsiblity for our own actions at home and at school in the classroom! 

 

                                

October 18th: The next day we covered what living vs. nonliving things were and to start the lesson out as an introduction I brought in our new class pet, Goldie! We compared how he was a living thing to a goldfish cracker as a nonliving thing.  Later on in the day we were able to dive deeper into what real life things we come in contact with that are living vs. nonliving and how living things need to survive.  The students love Goldie, and enjoy having him in the classroom! :)

 

              

October 23rd: In the morning our students are working hard and on task by either being plased on the iPad's to work on a reading/math program called iStation or they are working at their seats on morning work.  Here is a picture of some of our students working together to help each other on our morning math work.  The students were solving one digit equations that were color coordinated.  Each answer had a color that it matched. It is nice to see our students working hard and together!

 

    

October 24th: On Tuesday Ms Valentini had something planned out for our read aloud that was all about pumpkins and the students were going to be doing group collaboration on the carpet and at their seats.  The teacher read a book called The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons and it was all about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  After reading the book and finishing a graphic organizer together on the carpet about the story, we did a picture chart on the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Later the students applied their knowledge by cutting a pasting on their own what they remember from the book. It was a full day of pumpkins! :)

 

  

October 26th: On Thursday we did a fun writing activity in our new journals together as a class about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  This is the first writing activity that the students have done this year and from what I have seen they love it! They even got to illustrate along with their writing. 

 

  

October 30th: On Monday we started a new series on owls and today Ms Valentini read a story called Owls by Gail Gibbons.  The students did a great job making connections to our story about Bats.  They were able to compare and contrast the two of them.  Before reading about owls we started by writing what we Know about owls, then what we Wonder about owls, and later after the story we completed on the carpet with our clipboards what we learned about owls.  This was a great activity! After lunch we came up with our long 'o' words as a class for our words to know for the week. It was a great Monday for the day before Halloween!

 

 

  

November 6th: On Monday we began a new topic about dinosaurs! The students were very excited about the story and did a new nice job collaborating on the carpet during the story and for our picture chart activity.  Before reading the story we created a KWL chart of what we knew about dinosaurs, what we wondered, and then after the story we put together what we learned. Later on in the afternoon we ended up going over our words to know for the week and the students are able to write their words to know as well. 

 

  

November 7th: On Tuesday we read about snowy owls.  Ms Valentini did something a little different with the students where she gave each student a reading packet and let them sit at their seats.  We focused on the glossary with the students and finding important details in the text about snowy owls.  The definitions helped the students learn things that they never knew about before and they used a graphic organizer to write it down and illustrate it!

 

  

November 21st: The day before Thanksgiving break, Ms Valentini had something special planned for the students that was all about Turkey's.  For morning work the students worked on a math sheet that color coded the sheet into a turkey.  The students loved watching their paper form into the turkey when they solved their problems!  For the read aloud, we read a story called Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano.  Next to it the students were able to collaborate on the carpet by putting together a sequence chart of how the order went in the book.  This was a great way for the students to remember the sequence of events and gain interest in the story!

 

    

November 27th: Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The students love when the room is decorated with decorations that remind them its getting close to Christmas time.  Today was a start to a new week so the students had to learn a new set of words to know.  This week we are learning our words with a long 'e' at the end of the word.  Before writing those words the students all had a chance to pronounce on of the words how it would sound without an 'e' on the end of it.  Ms Valentini wanted to show them how important that 'e' is for each of the words.  For morning work each of the students did a fun activity to start off the day by working through different math problems.  They even got to solve a riddle at the end! 

 

 

    

December 4th: On Monday the students were learning all about matter! The students learned about three different phases of matter which are, solid, liquid, and gas.  During this time I performed an experiment where we added baking soda into a bottle, then distilled vinegar through a funnel, and once the solid met the liquid it blew the balloon up creating a gas called carbon dioxide.  The students loved being apart of such an amazing experiment, and they were able to be their own little scientists as well.  After we collaborated as a group to make this picture chart in the middle where we categorized which pictures would go under which state of matter. 

December 5th: On Tuesday the students continued learning about states of matter, but instead we began observing our very own class snowman! Our experiment is going to leave the snowman in the classroom overnight and see what happens to it. The students were able to identify which state of matter it fell under for that day, how it felt, and what it looked like by writing it all down in their snowman journal experiment packets! They used they picture chart to help them identify the observations for our snowman. 

 

          
 

                          

December 6th: It is now Wednesday and the students were able to identify that the snowman has melted and turned into a liquid.  We have now moved into our next portion of our journal packets and writing down our second observations! For our Writer's Workshop in Language Arts the students are writing about their Christmas traditions with their families! They are so excited to finally write down their own thoughts and learn about the writing process.  On the carpet I made these anchor charts to help the students remember expectations for Writer's Workshop and the writing process for each day.  Yesterday was our rough draft stage where the students used their brainstorming ideas to write their first rough draft. Today the students are now going to begin making their edits and revision on their rough drafts :)

     

December 7th: On Thursday the students observed that the snowman had fully disappeared.  We learned about the state of matter change from a liquid into a gas.  The students really enjoyed learning about the states of matter changing and how they could watch it right in front of them.  As a class we learned that the water evaporated into the air as a gas called water vapor.  The students made their last observations and wrote down in their science packets.  

December 8th: On Friday we went over our class rough draft on the carpet to see how we can take our edited and revised copy and make it into our published copy.  The students enjoyed doing this together on the carpet, so they knew what to do at their seats with their own writing! The students are anxious to see their final copies of their Christmas traditions with their families.  Next week we are going to be able to share what each of us wrote to the class! :)