Friday, November 11, 2011

The (short) Week of November 9th

For a short week, we sure crammed a lot of activities into it! The kids had a FABULOUS experience with our Jamestown Outreach visitor! While our class was split into the other presentations, each student came back excited and pumped up about learning! What a great experience for such a small price! Pictures will be forthcoming on our Jamestown "in house" field trip. Be sure to check back early next week!

We also had our first monthly book exchange. The students eyes were wide when they looked at all the choices they had for "new" books. Many were still surprised that these were their books to keep at home. We're really looking forward to the next book exchange, which will be on Tuesday, December 6th.

On Friday, we celebrated the number "11" since the date was 11/11/11. We also celebrated Veteran's Day, and while we did run out of time, we are going to be writing our veterans and soldiers letters of support on Monday. The website, "A Million Thanks," provides an address that you can send letters and pictures to, and they distribute these to the soldiers and veterans around the world. If you know of a soldier you would like us to write, please share their address! Students were surprised at the sacrifice our soldiers make for us and have a new respect for why we celebrate Veteran's Day.

One of our biggest surprises this week came with a special visitor. Our latest Donor's Choose project, "Getting Our Hands a Little Dirty," which will give us much needed science materials, was funded by the Horace Mann Company. The local representative for our area came to our classroom, complete with a "congratulations" balloon to announce we were the weekly winners of a nationwide contest! The students are so excited! It was a great way to make a personal connection to one of our donors! Please check out the link to the right to visit our Donor's Choose site!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Week of October 31st


Wow! A little bit of a crazy week in our room, with Halloween falling on a Monday, but we made it! Students had fun this week learning out Eastern Woodland Indians, and are really looking forward to our Jamestown Outreach on the 11th, where they'll explore more out the Powhatan Indians of Virginia.
Our picture this week is from our Book Character Day on Monday. Students had a great time dressing up and sharing who they were!
While this next week is a short one, with parent conferences and Election Day, we plan on focusing on the number "11" with the historic date of 11/11/11 falling on Friday, as well as start our new unit in Math on number sense. We'll also be exploring our next region of Natives with the Plains, focusing on the Lakota Sioux. Looking forward to a great week! :)