This Week:

Reminders for the week:

*We are going on a fieldtrip to the library tomorrow to hear Matthew Faulkner read.  We leave at 9 and return by 12.

*Tuesday is “zero waste” lunch day.  Please use disposable containers or recycled materials.  Also, pack a fruit break that can be easily taken with us on our field trip.

*On Friday, we will have our “thinga-ma-jigger” parade at 10:30.  It should only last 15 minutes or so, but all are welcome. 

*Portfolios come home today and should be brought back with you to the conference on Thursday.  Remember, no school Thursday due to conferences.

Also this week and next.....

Just a reminder that we will be going to Cycle Systems on Thursday and we are leaving right around 9.  Please bring in a bag of cans if you have any so that we can turn them in to be recycled and get paid for the aluminum.  

We are also beginning work on our thing-a-ma-jig.  We need all sorts of recyclables.  We will be incorporating these into a big contraption during our science time.  We will also be reading the Lorax and beginning our seeds inside for our small garden.  Due to construction, we may be gardening in a large container and only planting things that will mature before end of school.

We will read "Eyes Wide Shut", "If I Ran the Zoo", "Oh the Places You'll Go" and the The Sleep Book this week.  We will all wear sunglasses on Monday for Eyes Wide Shut.  We decorated these last week.
Feel free to dress up as your favorite zoo animal on Tuesday and on Friday, wear your pajamas to school. If anyone wants to come in and read to us on Friday, they are welcome.  We will also have a few teachers come in to guest read as well.

Next week, we read the Lorax on Tuesday and it will be "zero waste lunch day".  School will be closed on Thursday for conferences.  Portfolios will come home on Monday.  On Friday the 30th, we will have our parade of Thing-a-ma-jiggers.  Feel free to come and watch.  

Don't forget to sign up for Baking Day this Friday.  The sign up sheet can be accessed via our school web-site.

Eggs and more eggs! And other odds and ends...

We are short on paper towels and glue sticks.  If you could each send in a pack of paper towels and glue sticks, we will have enough to make it through the rest of the year.  We could also use some erasers.  We keep eating ours.  (really!)  The pencils erasers keep disappearing and the erasers that we put on them keep getting torn apart.  If anyone has more “junk” that we can use next week for planting and building out thing-a-ma-jigger please send it in.  This may be a great time to clean out that closet or go through the recycle bin.  We will begin building on Monday. 

The egg drop experiment was a huge success.  We all did a great job!  There were many successful drops and many learning experiences as well.  We also enjoyed our naked eggs and the disappearing egg trick.  These are experiments that your child can replicate at home with some help.  Ask them about them. 

Today we ate “green eggs and ham”.  We also had some fried hash browns and a green cookie to celebrate St. Patricks Day.  All in all, it was a magnificent day!!!!!! 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

March, In like a lion........

Okay, get ready, get set, GO!  March is taking off and we have so much planned that I have my running shoes on just to keep up.  With the celebration of Dr. Seuss, we have all sorts of fun days planned.  A calendar was sent home yesterday which lists the stories that we will be reading and the fun days that we have planned.  Be sure to look at it so that you don't miss out on crazy sock day or sleep day.  

We will also be having Green Eggs and Ham on the 16th.  I can not wait for that and for the Egg Drop which will follow.  If anyone has an extra dozen or so eggs that they would like to send in, we can use them.  We are also doing "eggsperiments" that week.  It should be "eggspecially" fun!

We will heading to Cycle Systems to learn about recycling on the 22nd.  Please save all cans and send them in that week.  We will take them in and turn them in for money when we go to Cycle Systems.

The kids should be filling out their reading logs.  We will record these weekly on Fridays.  So make sure that they come back each Friday.  

We are saving items that we might be able to use to build our "thing-a-ma-jig".  If you have items around your house, do not throw them away, send them in.  We will start building the week of the 19th.  These items can be packing peanuts, cardboard, plastics, anything that might be useful.  

Thanks!!!!!!

Oh, and today we read Bartholomew and the ooblek.  Check their backpacks if they have not already brought out their ziploc bag of goo.  We had a lot of fun with Tulie and Beth's class today when we mixed up cornstarch and water with some food coloring.  What a strange mixture it makes!  

Enjoy!!!!!!

Odds and Ends......

Hopefully you are enjoying the sunny days!  We have one last day of February left and we will be going to the nursing home to sing.  We leave at 1:30 and will get back at 3:10.    The next day brings us to March, which starts our celebration of Dr. Seuss and all of his books.  Please read with your child daily for at least 10 minutes and record it onto the log that was sent home yesterday.  We are charting as a school all of the time that we have read.  We have special activities scheduled for each week, these can be found in Quick Notes.

We will be visiting Cycle Systems on March 22nd in the AM.  On the 27th of March we will visit the Roanoke library for an Author's reading.  More details on that later.

We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction facts and are incorporating word problems into the mix.  We are writing a narrative about ourselves and reading daily.  We just finished up habitats in Science and will begin learning about plants and gardening.  We will use our money made at the bake sale to buy seeds and plants.  

Let me know if you have any questions about what we are doing in class.....

Hope to see all at the spaghetti dinner on Thursday!

Rooster Day

In a galaxy, far, far away at Community School there was a rooster named Flynn visiting.  It was fun, especially when he crowed, which was often.  It was yucky when he pooped, which was not so often.  It was chaos when he made lots of noise.  It was cool when he flew.  Keri put him in the cage with the bunnies.  The bunnies did not like it!  Flynn was very cute and very pretty.  He was very funny!  He liked us!  We loved having him visit!  The rooster gets to go home with James to live at his house.  He will like his chicken and his chicken shed.

by Keri's Class

February - Beary nice!!!!!!

We are working hard on habitats!  Together with Emily's class, we are building habitats for our bears.  We have divided up and are studying polar bears, pandas and grizzly bears.  We have found out some interesting facts about our bears.

We are also busy using our touch points to subtract and have been counting down from 50.  Some of the second years are also learning about regrouping and subtracting 2 digit numbers.

We have been reading about bears during our reading time.  Polar Bears Past Bedtime, a Magic Tree House book and some shorter books as well.  We have been reading many versions of the Three Bears and have retold Goldilocks and the Three Bears story in our own writing.

Thank you very much for the soup!  We donated several bags of soup to the seniors via LOA and they were very excited to get our donation.  We have also made Valentines to give to some of the adults who live at Hollin's Manor with our buddies from RuthAnn's room.  We also gave them cards at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The adults were very excited to receive these cards.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and we are getting ready by decorating our envelopes.  We also are doing several activities today and tomorrow and are very excited to be celebrating with our friends.  It is also the 100th day tomorrow.  Can you believe that we have been in school 100 days?  I can't!

Remember to read with your child and encourage them to read for 5-10 minutes daily.  We have begun word study and they should be bringing home a copy of their sort on Monday or Tuesday so you will know what words we are working on.  Right now, they are short vowel words with a digraph, sh, ch or wh beginning.