Newsletter 12-15-11

The Green Meadow Gazette

December 15, 2011

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Friday, December 16^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Friday, December 23^rd – Winter Break begins at the end of the day

Classroom News:

Joseph: Once our class did this thing when you write sentences with periods, question marks, and exclamation points.  So what we did was make sentences for each type. For example, “Are you blind?” is a question. “Wow, that’s cool!” is an exclamation. “I have a bruise.” is a statement.

Robbi: Yesterday we made a multiply by 8 book.  The first page was 8x2=16, then 8x3=24, 8x4=32, and 8x5=40. That’s what we have in our booklets so far. We broke the x8 facts into 4s. For example 8x2 would be 4x2 + 4x2 = 8 + 8 = 16. We broke apart the 8s for each page.

Graham: Two days ago we made story mountains in writing workshop.  Story mountains are the order you want your story to go in.  I liked it because I like mountains.  You make a story mountain by drawing a mountain in your notebook and writing the problem, the ways the character tries to solve the problem, and the way the story ends.  My story was about a boy named Walter.

Aiden: This week in Art we made a house out of a book.  First we picked out what color book we wanted for what color house we want. Then we picked out rooms in our houses.

Dorinda: Last week we received postcards from Montana, Alabama, and Delaware. The people that received a postcard read it for the class to hear.  I liked the one from Montana the most because of the picture on it.

Hannah: Lately in Reading, a few weeks ago we have started phonics. This week we learned about long o antonyms and synonyms. When we started working we had a choice: to list long o antonyms or long o synonyms.  When I started I chose to list antonyms.  I already had a long list of long o words so I had a bunch of ideas for antonyms. So did everyone else!

Kate: Last week in Library we got to play on a new program called Brain Pop Jr. On Brain Pop Jr. we watched a movie and then either wrote about it or drew about it. It was about how characters memorized their lines. The setting was a farm but it was supposed to be a planet because there were aliens. Then we got to write or draw about another movie.

Henry: Last Friday we had Spelling. Spelling is when you partner up with someone. You give your partner their spelling words first. Last time I had six spelling words. I didn’t get many words because they were words I got wrong from writing workshop. This week I have eight spelling words. The hardest one is motivation. If we get a spelling word wrong, Ms. Little puts it on your next spelling sheet. You can tell if she adds it because it is in pen. This week I do not have any extra words.

Alonso: Yesterday in writing workshop we worked on storyboards. A storyboard is a picture version of a story mountain.  We worked hard on them. My opinion is that we did a really good job.

Brianna: The past week we read a story called Big Al. It’s about a big, ugly fish who wants to make a friend.  He tried all kinds of things but they didn’t work. One day all of the fish he was trying to be friends with got caught in a net except Big Al. So Big Al saved all the fish and then all the fish were Big Al’s friends.

Vinny: Yesterday we learned how to multiply by 6 in Math.  If you have 6x3 it would be 18. I counted by 3s six times. We played a dice game to practice x 6.

Morgan: We went to watch Mr. Mehigan’s play last week.  It was about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. Mackenzie was the narrator. I liked the play because it was educational.

David: We played our recorders in Music. We practiced notes. One song was called Rizzeldy Razzeldy. I called it Rizzeldy Razzeldy Do because it was weird.

Samantha: Last week we read a play in groups of 4 or 5.  The play was called Herbie and Annabelle. My group had 4 people in it. There were 5 parts: Mr. Hodgekiss, Herbie, Annabelle, the SFX (sound) person, and the narrator.  It was about how Herbie had to deliver get well cards to Annabelle because she was sick.

Reese: In class this week we have been working on long a words. Mrs. Adamson came in to help us with long a words. We read our books and then if we found long a words, we would write them on a sticky note. I had lots of fun.

Kyle: We wrote long o stories last week. This is an example of one: Joe went to Toe’s house. He played with Toe. The both played the adventures of Toe and Joe. They wrote a long o story.

Rory: Last week in writing workshop we made a story mountain for Big Al. Big Al was a story about a very nice but very scary fish. So at the bottom of the story mountain we wrote Big Al’s problem, and then we put the 4 ways he tried to solve that problem.  Then at the top of the story mountain we wrote how he solved his problem. Then we wrote how the story ends.

Thomas: Yesterday we had Gym and we played Stinky Rotten Fish Tag. People run with a fish and tag someone. You can’t tag the same person because then it wouldn’t be fair.

Cara: In Reading we did Read to Someone. We had to sit EEKK.  We had to keep our voice level down. We had to ask the questions, “Who did you just read about?” and “What happened?”  Or if you want, the person that was listening would say, “I just heard you read about…” It was fun.

Kyleigh: Last week Ms. Little’s class was doing writing workshop and working on the struggles and wants of their characters. We drew a line in the middle of our paper and wrote struggles on one side and wants on the other.  Struggles means what your character is having a hard time with and wants is what your character wants to happen.

Lindsey: Yesterday we looked at each other’s December calendars. We didn’t look at all of them. We did it so we can learn more about each other.  I liked the way the calendars were decorated.

Ms. Little:  Thank you for contributing so many useful items to our classroom supply at the beginning of the year. We are running low on disinfecting wipes and extra snacks (goldfish, pretzels, etc.).  Any donations would be greatly appreciated! Enjoy the weekend. J