HAPPY SPRING

HAPPY SPRING

Thursday, December 18, 2014

A Wonderful Idea to begin this year!

MEMORY JAR

We keep this vintage pale blue canning jar on the kitchen counter with a stack of colorful paper and a marker. Every few days, one of us will jot down something that made our family laugh or smile. On New Year’s Eve, we’ll be emptying out the jar, unfolding each paper and reading them one by one.
Next year, a new jar to begin again — and the best part is we can bring out past jars anytime to remember the little things that shaped our lives.
A memory jar is more fun than a journal – as anyone in the family can contribute to it. The best is when one of us secretly writes memory and quietly slips it into the jar. I can’t wait to read some of the notes my kids have written all year long.
Inside the jar, we also keep little silver trinkets and charms. Sometimes one of us will have a bad day, need a little extra reminder for compassion or a good luck charm on a spelling test. These are little enough to put into your pocket to serve as a extra oomph of support for the day. We used to have a small heart too – I carried around the small silver heart one day and ended up giving it to a stranger I came across, who needed a little love

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Wishes for The New Year!

I saw this star ornament and thought it might be a wonderful family project. Each family member could make a star and add a wish for the New Year !

Here is the link to the directions:
http://www.mamamiss.com/2014/12/01/elmer-ornament/

Hockey Stations With Mr. Mac

 In PE, the children have been working on hockey skills. This week, they rotated through centers that included scooter hockey.






Elementary Band and Chorus Concert

On Monday morning, we enjoyed the annual band and chorus concert presented by Mr. Fecke and Mrs. Clark.  The student performers are 4th and 5th graders from the 3 elementary schools.  The children loved sing, clapping and moving along to the many traditional and new holiday tunes.




Writers' Workshop- Bookmaking

The students have been very busy writing and illustrating a wide variety of books. We have been studying illustration techniques and discussing our decisions as authors and illustrators. We have been exploring motion, color, perspective and end paper designs. This month, we have been focusing on the work of Jan Brett. She has a fabulous website with many activities, interactive games and videos.
Here is the link: http://www.janbrett.com/index.html

The children are working on the following titles:

Abigail- My Fairy Book
Abi-Family and Friends
Alex-What Would Win? (animal vs animal)
Amaya-Mr. Putter Spins The Yarn ( a retelling)
Amelie- A Fairy Book
Ava-My Friends Book
Ben-Boxing
Caden-Football Play Book
Ceci-The Christmas Book
Gavin-Land Ahoy!
Ian-Who Would Win? (featuring Mario Party 9 characters)
Isabelle-The Magic Tree
Joans- I Spy Holiday Book
Jonathan-I Spy
Megan-Peter Pan ( a retelling)
Penelope- The Three Sisters
Reece-Cool Things I Like



Tuesday, December 16, 2014

CUTLER MUSEUM FEATURES OUR "CALDER INSPIRED" WORK

 The children's recycled material sculptures are on display on the shelves near the library.  I hope you have a chance to stop by and enjoy their work.

FUNDATIONS

In Fundations, we are focusing on glued or welded sounds-all as in ball, an as in fan and am as in ham. We continue to review the digraphs..sh, th, wh,ck and bonus letters, f.l and s.  In the New Year, we will begin with plurals and adding the suffix s. This week, we worked with a partner to make a list of words with welded sounds.




Sunday, December 14, 2014

Chimes with Grammie

Isabella's Grammie came in on Wednesday morning and helped us play the chimes.  We played wonderful renditions of Jingle Bells and Up On The Rooftop followed by a few other holiday favorites.







STEAM Cart- Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math

We had a fabulous time taking on the marshmallow challenge. The STEAM cart is a part of our year long Big Rad focus on problem solving and engineering.




Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Change Is Simple

Our thanks to the Friends Of Cutler Cultural Enrichment Committee for bringing the Change Is Simple program to school. In our session, the children discussed Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  After, they participated in a relay race and memory game to reinforce the concepts discussed. After, we thought about how the program connected to The Big Read choice, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.




Computer Lab Time

 The children are working in the Tech Lab on Monday and Thursday afternoons.  We work on the IXL and RazKids programs.  Both of these programs may be accessed for home practice. Please let me know if you need help accessing either of these programs at home.

Let It Snow!

 The children were so excited to see the first snowflakes fall. We bundled up and headed out for some fun.



Making Our Own math Manipulatives

This week, we continue to focus on place value.  We have been  practicing how to add 1 ten and some ones to make a teen number. On Monday, we made our own place value bead sticks.  Then, we compared them to our tens and ones blocks.