Fall Festival

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had soooo much fun today. From 9 to 10 was our pumpkin math activities. The kids LOVED predicting circumference, diameter, weight, and number of seeds. Then... they got to check their predictions! We had some messy hands, but some VERY accurate amounts of seeds! Big thanks to Mr. McCown for his help with cutting the pumpkins!

After our pumpkin math we celebrated Fall with some yummy treats! Thanks so much to Meena Bassan for pulling everything together. And.. thanks to all who contributed - the kids had a blast (not sure if they ate any of their lunch!).

ENJOY THESE PICTURES!

Now for the serious stuff:

LANGUAGE ARTS: We're continuing our Short Story unit with another week of Folktales. We've been talking about character traits - how characters act and why.

MATH: We just took our Unit 2 assessment and will begin Unit 3 - Collections and Travel Stories - on Tuesday. A big focus in this unit will be larger numbers. I'm also focusing on math facts - addition and subtraction. Look for a letter coming home.

SCIENCE: We've been trying to identify unknown solids (white powders). We've added water and observed each powder. Now we'll start adding other things to see if we can observe differences.

WRITING - Putting our writing in order is our focus.

CURSIVE: over curve letters are next - a's and d's will be next week.

Please remember that there is no school on Monday. Tuesday, November 3rd will be the first day of Term 2. Teachers will be spending Monday entering grades on the computer.

As always, thanks for checking backpacks, agendas, take-home folders, and intialing everything! You're great!

Have a great, long weekend and most of all... BE SAFE!

Happy Friday,

I must apologize for no posting last week. During conferences I got some kind of stomach bug and had to take some time to recuperate. Thanks to all of the parents who had to reschedule!

I got to meet with EVERY parent! I can't tell you how much I enjoy talking to you about your child. I apologize if the conference seemed short, I just didn't have a lot of problems to discuss - that's a GREAT thing!

Our Fall Celebration is quickly approaching! Please get in touch with Mrs. Bassan if you haven't done so already. I have two parents helping out with pumpkin math in the morning. If you can come in to help, please let me know. Also, this is not a day to wear any type of costume.

SCIENCE FAIR - Information packets have already gone home, but if you need to know anything else, just ask! It's such a cool way to learn - but, remember, it is optional.

Here's what's going on next week:

LANGUAGE ARTS: We are finishing up Fairy Tales and starting Folk Tales. The kids will be practicing their before reading strategies, their during reading strategies, and their after reading strategies. We'll also be focusing on character traits and how they affect the story.

MATH: We'll be working with probability. Our new vocabulary includes: certain, equally likely, even, impossible, less/least likely, more/most likely, outcome, possible, and probability. Fun, fun, fun!!! We'll also be taking our Unit 2 assessment this week.

SCIENCE: We are starting our Chemical Tests Science Unit. We will be working with five different chemicals that are safe for the students to touch. We'll have so much fun trying to figure out what they are!

WRITING: Bold Beginnings! Mighty Middles! Excellent Endings! This is what your child will be hearing as we begin working on Organization with our writing.

WORD STUDY: We'll be working with /j/ sounds - using g and j.

That's about it for now! Have a wonderful weekend! Try to stay dry!

Mrs. Humerick

Happy Friday!

The class did such great work while I was gone! When I came back on Wednesday, they had covered so much material - I was impressed!

Here's what we've been doing and what we'll be working on:
LANGUAGE ARTS: We've been working with Fables - it's fun to hear what the kids think about the morals to the stories we've read. Next week we'll begin Fairytales. I hope everyone has a great time with the project that was sent home. Remember that it's due October 19th. The bottom part of the directions is due Monday, October 12th.
MATH: We're finishing up with graphs and will begin measurement next week. We have some fun activities planned!
SOCIAL STUDIES: Next week we'll be finishing up with the Geography part of our unit and will start with Science. Chemical Tests! Fun, fun, fun!
WRITING: Next week we will start talking about Organization in our writing. We're getting really good with Ideas with details.
WORD STUDY: There won't be any word study words next week - the schedule is too crazy!

Speaking of schedules: Please remember: Monday is a regular day. Tuesday and Wednesday start 4 hours late. Thursday dismisses 3-1/2 hours early. Friday schools are closed.

PLEASE be sure you have a conference time to meet with me to talk about your child. I can't wait to see everyone!

FIELD TRIP to the ESSL will be Monday, October 19th... I will be able to take parent chaperones, so mark your calendars if you'd like to attend! You must have participated in one of the volunteer trainings, so if you haven't been to one of those yet, make sure to get to one of them in October...there are three volunteer orientations scheduled during the week of conferences!! We will be leaving the school around 9:10 and returning around 11:15.

October 30 - Fall Festival Day!! We will be participating in activities that have to do with pumpkins all day on this early release Friday! I will need at least four adult volunteers that day...but would love to have as many of you as want to come. Each adult will need to bring a medium sized pumpkin and some other supplies. If you are interested, please send me an email and I will get you the specifics. We will also celebrate our Fall Festival party this day. You'll be hearing more about that in the days to come!

Thanks for initialing or signing your child's work after checking over it. It's so helpful for me AND your child!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Humerick

October 2, 2009

It's a sad weekend for my family - after two long months in the ICU at Hopkins, my father-in-law passed away. I won't be at school today, Monday, or Tuesday. Thank goodness we have Ms. Wilde. Since she has been teaching all subjects anyway, the kids probably won't even know I'm gone!! (I hope that's not true!) Speaking of Ms. Wilde, Friday, Oct. 9, will be her last day with our class. She has truly been a huge help and a wonderful teacher!

Now for what we've been doing!
LANGUAGE ARTS: We've been practicing our Before Reading strategies. Next week we begin a Short Stories unit which will allow the class to really put their reading skills to use! We'll be reading fairy tales, folktales, legends, fables, and tall tales. This is such a fun unit! I'm looking forward to some great writing, too!

MATH: We're continuing with graphing. We even accomplished a double-bar graph. We compared data from Mr. Clutz's class to data from our class. Next week we'll be doing more of that and also talking about line graphs and pictographs. If you find any examples of graphs in the newspaper or anywhere else, please send it in with your child to share!

WRITING: The kids are really getting soooo much better with details! They seem to really understand that an idea won't be interesting to write about unless there are good details. YEAH!!!!

SOCIAL STUDIES: We're still working on our brochure and will continue with maps/globes skills.

Look for information about our Fall Festival Celebration - coming soon!
Thanks to everyone for their support with homework, agendas, take-home folders, and just about everything else you do for your kids!

Have a happy weekend!
Faith Humerick