September is Over!

It is so hard to believe we have been in school for 18 days already!  The time is flying by!

We are still working on getting our basic routines figured out.  There are so many of them throughout the day that it takes lots of reminders for them to stick.

We have begun sending home book bags each night.  Students are expected to read 30 minutes at home to get their 2 steps toward our 100 book challenge goals.  They also earn 2 steps at school each day.

September 7, 2013

Welcome back to another school year!  I am so excited to be in KINDERGARTEN this year!  It will mean a change to how this blog is used, but I'm excited to see what is in store for us this year.

Our year together started on Thursday and I have 20 sweet friends in my class.  Our first 2 days were spent learning how our classroom and school will run, reading lots of books together, exploring the different play options around our room as we got to know one another, doing some counting and singing, and enjoying learning about school!

I know my kindergarteners were tired by the end of day two and admittedly, so was their teacher!  Our first full week is next week so I hope everyone is resting up - it will be a long one!

March 25, 2013

Today we came in and did math and reading.  Then we read Rules.  After that we went to IC Skills.  Next we did math practice.  Then we did reading rotations.  Next we did science.  Then we read until recess.  After recess we ate lunch.  Then we did a little math before art.  After recess we did another round of reading rotations and some writing.  Finally we cleaned our desks and went home.

-Briana

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can find the theme of a story.
Math: I can classify angles.

Homework:
Read 30 minutes.

March 22, 2013

First we read then we did the Spelling Bee - Ashton won for the 3rd time!  Then we read Rules.  After that we went to music.  Next we did math rotations.  Then reading rotations, spelling test, and writing.  Then we had recess, lunch, and math.  Next we read Rules some more and went to PE.

-Skylar

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can find THE MEssage in the story.
Math: I can move between improper fractions and mixed numbers.

March 21, 2013

First we do a math and reading sheet.  Next we did PE.  Then we did math rotations.  Then we went to a nature presentation from Mr. Vonnewagon from Lime Creek Nature Center.  After that we did social studies.  Next we had recess and lunch.  Then math and last recess.  Finally we did reading rotations and writing.

-Skylar

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can find THE MEssage in a story.
Math: I can use a number line to add and subtract fractions.
Writing: I can write an expository paper.

Homework:
Read 30 minutes
Study Spelling Words

March 19, 2013

First we do a math and reading sheet.  Next we go to music and do a jig.  Then we did iPads.  After that we did literacy workshop.  Next we have Making Meaning.  Then recess and lunch.  Next math.  After that we went to last recess.  Then we did reading rotations before we did writing and went home.

-Skylar

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can find THE MEssage of the story.
Math: I can add fractions with like denominators.
Writing: I make a plan before writing expository text.

Homework:
Read 30 Minutes
Math Sheet side 12-2

March 18, 2013

First we did a math sheet and a reading sheet.  Next we went to PE.  We played line soccer.  Then we did math for a little bit.  After that we did reading rotations.  Next we were at science.  Then we went to lunch and recess.  Before do last recess we were in math. 

We got out early at 1:55 because of the snow!

-Skylar

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can find THE MEssage of the story.
Math: I can add fractions with like denominators.

Homework:
Read 30 Minutes
Math Sheet side 12-1

Monday, February 25, 2013

My, oh my! The 2nd trimester really got away from us in terms of blogging!  I can't believe that Wednesday is the end of the grading period already!

There has been a lot happening in our room during the last couple months - we haven't been neglecting the blog without good reason! :)

One of the biggest changes has been in our reading instruction.  Instead of a lot of large group lessons and stories followed up with some guided reading, we've flipped our times.  Now we are doing almost all of our reading instruction in small group settings so everyone gets the chance to read books at their own level and have deeper conversations with a smaller group.  It also means that everyone is getting more time with a teacher each week.  Both the students and the teachers have loved this switch!  And, based on our recent DRA scores, the change is paying off in terms of progress too!

Another change we've made in the classroom is to structure our math workshop time differently.  Before, Miss Staudt would lead a math lesson or activity in the morning to either reteach the lesson from the day before or introduce things for the lesson that afternoon.  Now Miss Staudt gets to meet with small groups of students to work on math skills while everyone else works on math facts, does a hands-on center, or practices work at their seats.  It has made our math workshop time much more fun!

We are still going strong with 20 brilliant students and 2 smiling teachers filling up our room.  Coming up in the next few months we'll have Spring Break, Iowa Assessments, the Writing Assessment, introductions to Lincoln for next year, a fabulous field trip, a chance to meet our pen pals, and a research project centered around Women's History Month in March!

Hopefully we can still keep up the blog a little better amidst all of that - there are so many great moments to share!

Thanks for being forgiving of our absence...
Miss Staudt

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Today we started our day out with PE and when that was doen we were in the classroom doing math games.  A little while later Miss Staudt was reading aloud to us.  Next it was time to do our science rotation and that is really really fun!  If you can ever do a science class, take it!  Just like yesterday, 10 minutes after science it was recess time.  Right after recess it is time for lunch and after lunch we come to the classroom and we do some math and about an hour later it is time for recess time again.  Then it is time for reading and the end of the day.

-Sebastian

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can give evidence of character traits.
Math: I can multiply by a 1-digit number using the standard algorithm.

Homework:
Read 20 minutes
Theme 2 Week 3 words 3 times each

Monday, December 3, 2012

This morning we had an assembly and all of us got a PBIS ticket! (MISS STAUDT IS SO PROUD!)  After the assembly we went to IC Skills and it was pretty fun.  Now we are in the classroom doing math games - chutes and ladders.  After that we are doing read aloud.  Miss Staudt is reading to us.  Now that we are done with thatit is time for group rotations.  Soon later it is time for science.  Ten minutes after science is over it is recess time.  Right after recess, we walk from recess to lunch.  We go to it and today we had chicken nuggets.  After that we go to the classroom and we start math.  After we did a timed test it we went to art.  Art is 45 minutes long and when that is done it is time for recess.  Awhile after that we go tot he classroom and it is time for our reading and writing rotations.  Now it is time to go home and Miss Staudt dismisses us to leave.

-Sebastian

(Wow, Sebastian!  Great use of sequencing and transition words!  You kept the whole day in order! - Miss Staudt)

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can give evidence of a character's traits.

Homework:

• Read 20 minutes
• Write the spelling words from weeks 1 and 2 of this theme 3 times each (the -ar and -or words!)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Whew!  We are back from Thanksgiving break and have hit the ground running!  We have made some changes to our schedule to allow more guided reading time and everyone (kids included!) are loving the new routine!  I'm hoping to get one of my students back to blogging regularly next week, but with a two-day week last week, the end of the trimester, and then trying to get started back from a long weekend my little scholars have had just as much on their plate here at school as they had on Thanksgiving day!

Homework:
Read 20 Minutes
Vocabulary Sheet (due Friday!)

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

We arrived, did read to self, and listened to announcements. (Cole & Katelyn are doing a wonderful job this week!)  Then we did writing.  Next we went to music.  Then we had iPad time before Making Meaning.  Then we did some more read to self.  Later we had recess and lunch.  We did two math lessons today - 5-3 and 5-4.  It was kind of different.  At the end of the day we did a vocabulary test and then we went home.

-Michaela

Learning Targets
Reading: I can put story events in order.  I recognize causes and effects.
Math: I can use breaking apart and compensation when I am solving multiplication problems mentally.

Homework
Read 20 Minutes
Math Sheet side 5-3

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

First we arrived at school and then we did read to self.  Next we went to PE and played rainbow tag and trasher.  Next we did poetry and practiced for our poetry slam.  Next we worked on multiplying by 10 and 100.  Next we did some reading before science.  After that we had recess and lunch.  Next we did math lesson 5-2.  The target was "I can multiply by multiples of 10 and 100."  We watched the video that we always watch for math. After the video we did our independent work and groups.  After recess we did literacy workshop and went home.

-Michaela

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can put story events in order. I recognize causes and effects.
Math: I can multiply by multiples of 10 and 100.

Homework:
Read 20 Minutes
Math sheet side 5-2

Monday, November 12, 2012

We got to school and glued our spelling words into our planners.  We did our graph sheets and our reflection sheet before watching Auto Be Good.  It was about self-control.  After Auto Be Good we had time to finish our graphs and reflection sheets.  I was done so I did some reading.  I am reading Captain Underpants - it is a great book so far!  In IC Skills we learned about technology and then we did a math review.  Next we worked on poetry.  Our poem this week is called Filling Up On Thanksgiving.  We read it together and then we could color it while Miss Staudt did read aloud.  Miss Staudt told us that we are going to have a poetry slam on Friday and we have to read a poem out loud.  Oh no! 

For reading, some people went with Ms. Beatty and some stayed with Miss Staudt.  I got to stay with Miss Staudt.  We were talking about sequencing things and that means putting the story events in order.  She read us a story and we did a paper about the events.  Next we went to science and did an experiment.  Then we went to recess and lunch.  When we came back in we did our review and practice things for math in our notebooks before art.  We finished the day doing more math.

-Michaela

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can put story events in order.  I recognize causes and effects.
Math: I can multiply by 10 and 100.

Homework
Read 20 Minutes
Vocabulary Sheet

Photo Rewind #5

We've missed a couple of weeks but I wanted to share a few pictures!  We've been having such fun learning about the election process, nonfiction texts, and how to be good citizens!

 



We worked in groups to read nonfiction texts and practice asking lots of great questions while we are reading.

After we wrote great questions we created our own board games about the books we had read - our games were really creative and we had fun playing them!

PowerTower is a favorite math game in our room.  Here our future engineers combined the Power Tower cups from all three of our games into one huge tower!

We've been loving digging in to lots of great nonfiction books!

During Red Ribbon Week we were "Shading" out drugs and got to where our sunglasses one day!  Looks like there was plenty of sass in our room that day!

We've been focused hard on nonfiction text features and how they help us better understand nonfiction books.  One day we did a scavenger hunt to find lots of text features.  We used the iPads and took pictures of the examples we found!  The next day we glued these examples in our nonfiction text features booklet to use as references.

On Halloween we had a little bit of spooky fun talking about different genres of books.  We put the genres onto a spider web and made some thumbprint spiders along the edges.  The students have been talking about fingerprints in science, so this was a fun way to connect our learning!

One day in Social Studies we spent time learning about our rights as citizens by going on a hunt for our rights hidden around the room.

We put our rights as citizens into action on Tuesday, October 30 by voting in a nation-wide mock election.  The fouth graders got to be election officials and help make sure everyone got to vote.  According to the students, Barack Obama will be winning the election!

 

Monday, November 5, 2012

We worked on graphing some tests we took last week before going to the PBIS assembly.  State Representative Sharon Steckman was our special guest.  She encouraged us to keep being responsible and respectful!  After that we had P.E. and we played rainbow tag and guard the pin.  Later we made a video for Veteran's Day next week, read our story for this week, and went to science.  This afternoon Mr. Vonnewagon was here to talk more about wolves - we got to touch a real wolf hide!

-Cassie

Learning Targets:
Reading: I can put story events in order.
Math: I can fluently and and subtract whole numbers.

Homework:

• Read 20 Minutes
• Vocabulary Sheet

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Today was an early dismissal at 12:10 for parent teacher conferences this afternoon.  Our day started out in the computer lab typing up our personal narratives and practicing our spelling words.  The time in our classroom continued after IC Skills with math workshop.  We practiced estimating sums and differences by rounding, continuing our math lesson from Wednesday.  Next we did our spelling test.  Each word this week had 'or' within it.  We also got a glimpse at our story for next week in the form of a video made by Miss Staudt and Ms. Beatty (Mr. Feight did the filming).  Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nzJsd0i8Nw  The day ended with a kickoff of our new at-home reading challenge.  Miss Staudt introduced us to our new class pets, three small donkeys.  We got to name them (Chip, Chip 2, and Holla).  Chip 2 and Holla will be going on lots of adventures to each student's home over the next few months to make sure everyone is reading at home.  Chip will stay in our room and hang out with us :)

-Miss Staudt's Class

Homework:
None!  Enjoy the weekend!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Today we cam in the classroom and read.  Then we went to PE.  Then we read some more.  Next we did some math.  Next we had social studies.  Then we went out to recess and had lunch.  Then we had math.  Later we voted.  Harding voted for Barack Obama-237 over Mitt Romney-97.

-Briana

Learning Targets:
Reading: I recognize and use nonfiction text features.
Math:  I can add and subtract whole numbers mentally. (4-1)

Homework:
Read 20 Minutes
Math Sheet (Side 4-1)
Social Studies iSymbols iPad (just those who haven't completed this)

Monday, October 29, 2012

We watched an Auto Be Good video this morning.  Then we read to self.  Then we went to computer lab and IC check out.  Then our reading buddies came.  When we watched an election video.  Next we went out to recess and had lunch.  Then we read.  Next we did a math pretest.  Then we had recess.  After we did our rotations.  Next we had guidance.

-Briana

Monday, October 22, 2012

Red Ribbon Week!  This week the Student Leaders do the special announcements for it.  Some of this week's themese are: wearing hats to "Shade Out Drugs," wear red.  Those are just 2 of them though.  There's one for each day of the week except Monday.  This morning we had P.E.  We did line tag and hockey.  Something else we're doing today is social studies.  We just had our North-East region test, so I wonder if we'll keep working on it or start a new region?  I'll have to wait and find out!

-Ashton