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Thansgiving!

This week and last we have been working on several Thanksgiving projects. Here is a picture of our family turkey where they students decorated their feathers at home. We shared them here at school and then made one BIG turkey!


The students had a chance to finish up their group projects of a First Thanksgiving scene and they did a really great job! They are in the hallway for everyone to see.

The students had a homework assignment where they had to interview a family member about their Thanksgiving traditions. Some questions were about where the family eats and some questions were about the food itself. We took those interviews and used the answers to make several different graphs like bar graphs and pie graphs. My camera battery died while we were doing this so I only was able to take one picture!

One of the most fun things we did was create a book about the first Thanksgiving and I took a small video while the students read their pages. Push play and listen!

Room 12's SWAT Team!

Officer Golter stopped by yesterday to show us his gear that he uses when working on the SWAT team. Some of it is similiar to what he uses when he is patrolling and some of it is completely different.

He has to wear a special suit that has all kinds of neat loops and belts so that he can attach stuff to himself. Along with a hard hat, bullet-proof vest and radio, he also has to carry special glasses that help him see in the dark, a gas mask for his face and zipties that can be used for all sorts of things.

Once he was done talking, we were allowed to try on some of his gear.

These two look pretty tough don't they!

While CK was wearing the vest, Officer Golter had him show the class the back of the vest and how to carry out a member of the team if they are injured. Once CK had a turn to be "drug out of danger" the rest of the kids quickly wanted to be injured as well.

It was a great visit and we all had a lot of fun looking at the different things Officer Golter brought in and we learned a lot too! Thank you Officer Golter!!

Working Together

Last Thursday we started a group project as a Thanksgiving art piece. The students were divided into groups and given their supplies. The directions were to create a background on white paper and then cut, color and paste in characters. The students chose different jobs and quickly got started.

SY and HS work together to create the background scenery.

CK and WH spread out on the floor.

These groups are working well together.

Some groups divided up the work so that some worked on the scenery while others worked on the characters at the same time. Here CG is cutting out a pilgrim character.

TT is coloring some characters.

These 3 passed their level 1 math facts test and earned an award and an extra .25 cents to spend in our classroom store.


Friday was SF last day here at Sherwood. We were very sad to see him go but we wish him luck at his new school. We all gave him high-5's or hugs on our way out the door.

Canned Food Drive

Beware! If you are missing some canned food from your cupboards in the next few days, it is probably because our annual canned food drive will be starting next week. The class that brings in the most canned food will receive 15.oo to spend as they wish.

The 5th grade leadership team is in charge of collecting the cans from classrooms each day and recording how many cans were brought in. Here is a member of the leadership team explaining to the class what goes on during the canned food drive.

This week we were able to give out the awards for exceptional attendance. The students who missed fewer than 3 days during the first quarter of school received an award. Look at how many students we had! That is really good attendance!

CG was our Star of the Week and she brought in her poster filled with wonderful pictures of herself and her family. The students asked her questions and I even learned a few new things about her!

Presidents, Measurements, and Store!

Even though Halloween was over we read one more Halloween story. Our pen pals at McKay Creek Elementary had done a play with this story and we wanted to read the book before we watched their performance. So we read...

Then we watched the performance on their blog ...

Then we gave them a big Sherwood clap because they did such a great job! Way to go pen pals!

Election Day was very exciting. All of the students voted in the cafeteria and in the classroom we talked about what exactly the president does. Then we created a class book called "If I was the president ... " The students had some great ideas. Here SF and CK are busy writing their ideas down.

BZ and AC would make very different presidents. BZ said that she would help people in need by giving them food and AC said that he would be rich for his family so he could buy things that they like. All the ideas were great and you will see them in our class book after the Christmas Break.

CK was our Star of the Week and he brought in 3 very special necklaces to share with us on his poster. One necklace was from his great-grandpa, another from a visit to Silverwood and yet another from a trip to the coast.

CK also finished his math level 1. What a great week for him! He earned a special award as well as a quarter to spend at store.Way to go C!

On Friday we had store. The students take their money they have earned for good behavior and they get to buy things. This is a big day for them because it only happens once a month. They count their money daily in anticipation.

The student helper of the day gets to help people "check out" at store. BZ was a great clerk as well as salesman. She not only encouraged people to choose things in their budget but to select things they could really use! I see great things in her future!

We started measuring with rulers this week. We also have started talking about the difference between inches, feet and yards and how to select the appropriate measuring tool. We measured all kinds of things.

Can't Be Missed!

Now that November is here, Sherwood has started their I Love to Read program again. Each student receives a reading log like this one and students are asked to record the minutes that they spend reading at home. At the end of the month students bring back their reading log and they earn books for their charm necklaces. The class that brings back the most reading logs also wins a prize. Keep up that reading!! If your child has lost this paper send me a note and I can send another one home.

Last week was so busy that I didn't get a chance to post all of our fun pictures. You have to see these! These are from crazy hair day and they are some of my favorites. We had spiky hair...

Colored hair...

Crazy hair... well it might have looked ok from the front but when they turned around...

It definitely wasn't normal!

Something to brag about is that CZ passed all of his math facts for level 1. That's 18 tests were he was timed and had to complete a certain amount of addition problems. He got an award and 25 cents to spend in the classroom store! Way to go!

Halloween!!!

Halloween was a fun day for everyone. We came to school dressed in orange and black for Red Ribbon Week and then in the afternoon we changed into our costumes.

We had all kinds of costumes. These two were twins for the day.

CK was a really scary zombie.

After we changed we sat down and got ready for the Costume Parade to begin. Once people walked through our classroom we joined the parade and walked through all the classrooms until we got back to our own room.

Once the parade had ended we got busy playing some games and eating some treats. Wonder Woman (aka BZ) taught KW how to play checkers.

RH coached a group of boys on how to play UNO. She was the only girl brave enough to tell them all what to do. That's our girl!

CG and IH played several games of checkers.

I got several pictures of students with food in their mouths. Here BG just ate a huge bite of cupcake. NH and TT saw me coming and got their smiles ready.

Bad in Black!

Darth Vader (WH) took a break to rest on one of the beanbags.

That's quite the Jack-o-Lantern!

All in all it was a great afternoon and I hope all the kids had a great time that night as well!