Newsletter 12-22-11

The Green Meadow Gazette

December 22, 2011

Upcoming & Important Events:

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

·        Monday, January 2^nd – No school

Classroom News:

Hannah: Last week was the 5^th time we’ve gone to reading buddies. What we do when we go to reading buddies is we go to Ms. Burns’ room and sit on the rug.  Then we find our reading buddies. Our buddies have a box of books that they pick from, so what books are in the book box are what books we read!

Thomas: Yesterday we learned how to multiply by 8. We did a problem that was really hard.  When we solved that problem we played a game. How you multiply by 8 is, say you have 8 x 4. You could make an array and you make it 8 down and 4 across to get 32.

Graham: Last week in Music we worked on our recorders. I liked it because we got to put our mouths on it. The week before last week I didn’t get to because I didn’t bring mine.

Joseph: This week we made a list in phonics. The list had long i words on it.  We made our list and we all put tons of long i words. We looked for long i words in our books and we looked around the classroom.

Morgan: We read a poem called “We’ll Win Tonight.”  This poem has 3 paragraphs in it.  I liked the poem because it rhymed.

Robbi: Yesterday we used 3 factors to multiply. For example: 3 x 4 x 5 = 60. First you’d multiply 4 x 5 = 20, then 20 x 3 = 60, so 3 x 4 x 5 = 60.  For another example: 8 x 2 x 3 = 48. First, I did 8 x 3 = 24, then 24 + 24 (or 24 x 2) = 48.

Aiden: Last week in Library we read a book.  The book was about a rabbit that turned into a nail. I liked the book because turning into a nail might come in handy.

Kyleigh: Last week in Ms. Little’s class we did Writing Workshop. In Writing Workshop we made draft booklets. First we drew it on a storyboard, then we drew it and wrote the whole story on little draft papers.

Kyle: Sometimes Samantha’s mom, Mrs. Grundstrom, comes in to teach us yoga. Last time she taught us the poses for cat, turtle, mouse, crocodile, donkey, and more.  It is to help us multiply by 4.

Hunter: In Math, we solved multiplication word problems.  For example, Vinny has 1 pet snake and Hunter has twice as many. The way you’d solve it is 1 x 2 = 2 pet snakes.

Dorinda: Yesterday during Reading we worked on reading to a partner.  The teacher gave us coaching sheets and it helped us with reading to our partner because we would know what to do if we didn’t know a word. It also helped us help our partner if they didn’t know a word.

Lindsey: On Monday we had an assembly. We sang a lot of songs. My favorite song was Yuki A Kong Kong. I liked it because it was creative.

Henry: 5 days ago we were writing statements, exclamations, questions, and commands. We were having a contest to see who could make the most of each type of sentence with at least one long a word in each sentence.  I wrote thirty three last time.  We started phonics about a month ago.

Cara: In Writing Workshop we are doing something different. We are writing stories about people we appreciate.  We are writing to people that we will see around the winter break.  It can be a friend or family member. We will have to do it fast because we only have a couple days. I hope we get it down!

Rory: Last week we received postcards from Mississippi and South Australia.  I received the one from South Australia and Kate received the one from Mississippi.  We hadn’t received a postcard from Mississippi yet so we colored it in on our map.

Vinny: Yesterday we went to Gym. We did the set shot and dribbled around cones.  There’s little cones and I did all of them five times and I shot 100 hoops. I lost my ball so I chased it. I got so many hoops that I was proud.

Kate: In Art we worked on our houses. We took sticky notes and wrote what room we wanted it to be.  Some of us are on gluing and some of us are on the wallpaper.

Alonso: Last week we read about the BFG and Sophie.  Sophie told the BFG to mix dreams so he can blow one into the Queen of England’s ear so that she will get rid of the giants.  I think it’s a good book and I hope we read more of it.

David: In Math we learned about multiplying by 7. We played a game called sum of the dice x 7.  Some of us count by 7s with our fingers to figure out the math problem.

Samantha: In Reading we are working on read to someone. That is when you get a partner and read to your partner. You can choose to read to yourself or read to someone. When we read to someone, we sit EEKK, read calmly and quietly, stay in one spot, get started right away, and check for understanding.

Reese: Last week in class we worked on long a words. For example, bait is a long a word. It’s a long a word because in the word you hear the “a.” We all thought of lots of long a words.  Happy holidays!

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 winter break. J