A Quick Update from Room 208...

We have been busy as usual laughing and learning here in Room 208!  First of alll...
Congratulations to us for winning the Golden Keyboard for the week of October 12-15!  We were presented with the Golden Keyboard from Mrs. Jackson at Good Morning Boals on the 15th for working expecially hard in computers.  Hats off to the 'Pokes for another Golden Recognition!

Thanks to Caden's mom for taking pictures at our Safety Town Field Trip.  We had so much fun and Mrs. Bailey-Cantu took some great pictures.

In the classroom:

In Readers' Workshop we are in the midst of an author study.  We have been reading and discussing books by Kevin Henkes like Chrysanthemum, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and Weekend with Wendell.  This is a three week study that will conclude next week.  We've added "This reminds me of..." to our list of readers' responses. 

In Writers' Workshop we continue to use the writing process to write authentic stories.  We have been focusing a lot on the revising part, using peer conferences to add details and make changes to our drafts.

In Math we have been working copiously on Fact Families.  These are a doozy to a six-year-old!  It's a great idea to work on these in a concrete way at home.  For example, pull three forks and two spoons.  Talk about how three forks and two spoons makes five, two spoons and three forks make five, five take away three forks is two, and five take away two spoons is three. 

In Science we have been talking about the contributions of Thomas Edison and expanding our knowledge of light sources. 

REMINDER: When report cards come home, please sign the envelope and return the ENVELOPE ONLY!  The report card is yours to keep. 

Happy Trails!

:o)  Mrs. Chamberlain

Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm

Make your own picture slideshow

So Much Learning!

I so enjoyed meeting all of you for our parent conferences!  Thank you so much for taking the time to be interested and involved in your child's learning process.  Parent involvement is absolutely a necessity for student success!  I truly valued this time with each of you.

Two Huge "Glows":

First of all, our class won the "Golden Music Award" at Good Morning Boals on Friday, October 1st.  The Golden Awards are awarded by each CAMP Trainer (specials teachers) to the class that worked the hardest that week.  Way to go Cowpokes!

Another great "Glow"...we had two friends last month chosen for a "Positive Referral"!  What's a "Positive Referral"?  This is a referral to the office for doing GREAT things!  Here at Boals kids can be sent to the office for doing a great job in class, setting a good example for others, and going above and beyond their peers in character.  Congratulations to WILL & OLIVIA for being compassionate first graders that set good examples for their friends by following the directions the first time, every time, and doing their best in all things.

In the classroom...

These past two weeks have been a blur of activity!  We had great fun going to Safety Town on our first field trip last week.  Thank you to Amy Stamps and Angela Bailey-Cantu for coming with us.  Mrs. Bailey-Cantu took LOTS of pictures and has graciously offered to share them with me, so I will post them to our blog as soon as I can!  Our class was incredibly respectful and well-behaved.

--In Math we have been focusing on working with doubles facts (ie: 2+2=4); reviewing odd & even, discovering place value, and comparing and ordering numbers.

--In Readers'  & Writers' Workshop we have taken a short pause from our usual format so that we could do some fun crafts that coordinate with the books we have read.  We are talking a lot about various genres of literature, including both realistic and fantasy fiction, as well as non-fiction, or expository texts.  Mrs. Jones, our student teacher, conducted a fun lesson on fantasy fiction using the book Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm written by Jerdine Nolen.  After reading we brainstormed our own fantasy fiction farms and created them out of construction paper.  Hopefully these farms will spark our imaginations so we can turn our brainstorming into incredible stories! (I am uploading a slideshow of these pictures!)

--In Science we have had great fun exploring magnets. Students have been introduced to the concept of magnetism through hands-on stations and experiements.

**REMINDER: Your child may have been bugging reminding you that they can bring in a game on Fridays.  Students are allowed to bring in a game (NOT toy or electronic device) for 20 minutes of "Fun Friday" for students that have finished their work for the week.  (If needed, this time is used as "Finish Up Friday" to complete any unfinished work.)  Game suggestions are Monopoly, Jr.; Guess Who; Sorry; Chutes & Ladders, Connect 4, Uno, etc.

Finally, you may have noticed some jars with teachers' pictures on them.  These are for the Teacher Dunk Tank that will be at the Fall Festival on Friday night.  My sad jar is very, very empty.  If you can/desire to, please help me fill it!!  The teacher that raises the most money gets to go first, which means clean water and coveted sunlight!!