Too Much Stuff!

Now that I am feeling well enough to sit in front of the computer again, I find that I have a ton of pictures to share with you! We have been doing some really fun things that your student might not have told you about.

Here is SM, LT, CT and WG holding their pen pal letters. We worked really hard on writing our first official letters to our pen pals at McKay. We made sure to include the date, a greeting, information about ourselves, questions for our pen pals to answer and a closing. I can't wait until they get them!

Here DS is holding our entire stack of letters right before we sent them off.

On Fridays that we don't quick checks, we focus on problem solving and reviewing skills through games. Here JJ is reviewing the names of coins on the Smart Board.

WG and NH are counting and comparing different amounts.

DS, BA, RT and LR are all playing a game called "Race You to 50c". It is a great partner game that teaches counting of money and trading in for bigger coins.

I have had two Star of the Week's since I last posted. My first was BK and her poster was very special! She put not only her own hand print on there - she added her foot as well!

Here's BK at one of her favorite birthday parties.

GB was our other Star of the Week and he had some great pictures that showed some really fun things he has done recently - like going to the Seattle Mariners game! He told us all about it and it sounded like a special time for he and his family!

We had our first official day of "Store" when the children could use their money that they've earned through good behaviour to buy things. The prices ranged from .05 cents on up to .25 cents and the students had a great time buying their treasures.

We earned our first classroom party that rewards whole class behavior and it was a popcorn party. I brought in the old popcorn maker and the children loved it!

I really hope that thing never breaks because it is so much fun to watch them watch the popcorn being popped. While they were eating their popcorn I told them they could quietly have choice time but most of them simply chose to keep watching the popcorn being made.

Last but not least, we had a awesome group of young adults come to our school and perform "The 6 Pillar Traits of Character" for us. This is a group that comes each year and while it is a different group of performers each time, I am always impressed with what a good job they do.
Our attention is on them the whole time.

They are funny. They talk about real issues. They make having good character a cool thing.

They sing and dance and make sure the children understand what each character trait means.

They also talk about how school is a Tease-Free Zone.

They change their outfits a lot...

and they even included a couple of kinders in their presentation.
We loved it!

I will try not to get the flu again so that I won't get so far behind! Stay tuned for more happenings in Room 12!

Math and Mrs. Roberts

We have been working hard this week on math. While we have been reviewing things like single-digit addition, counting by 5's to 100 and the months of the year, we have also been studying some new things like rounding and fact families. Today we did a partner game with dice that had us practicing our fact family knowledge. Partner games are great because we can help each other out.

Mrs. Roberts, our school counselor, came by today for her first classroom lesson. She does guidance lessons every other Wednesday in our room and we love having her come in. Today she explained her role at Sherwood and she told the students a little about herself and her family. It turns out that her son Cooper is in our Pen Pal's class so we will be getting to know him more throughout the year!

Mrs. Roberts reviewed the school rules: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Safe.

Thank you Mrs. Roberts! Stay tuned for more happenings in Room 12!

On Thursday, the students had their first experience with "Bank". The students earn pennies each day for good behavior and every other week, we do "Bank" which is where they get to trade in their pennies for larger coins. I always have a student helper or two be the "Bankers" and they are in charge of helping the other students count and exchange their money. My first "Banker" was CT and he did a great job!

We shared our baby pictures with each other and told stories about the times when we were babies (or at least little). The stories were so cute and I wrote down the different things the students said so that it could go into our class book.

Thursday afternoon, we had our first assembly and it was a fairly short one. Look at how good we are sitting and paying attention!

Mrs. Roberts, our school counselor, and her leadership team got us grooving with some music to kick-off the assembly.

Before too long, the Round-Up and Happy Canyon Court came to visit us and introduce themselves as well as answer a few questions about themselves. The students were very interested!

Here are the covers of our first class books. We make these throughout the year and I will start to allow the students to take them home in January. That way we will have made close to enough for each student to bring one home to share.

Some excerpts from the baby book:

And here are some excerpts from the "When I Grow Up I Want To Be..." Book:

I have been having so much fun getting to know your children better! They are all so sweet and

funny - truly, teaching is the best job in the world!

Cowboys and Cowgirls

We have been doing a lot of things important like making our birthday train pictures:

and being lunch helpers in the cafeteria:

and learning about the Pendleton Round-Up and our community that we live in. On Friday we get to do art and I whipped out the paints and we got busy making some cowboys and cowgirls. First we drew them in pencil and then we traced our pencil lines with a black marker. Then came the fun part - the painting!

By today, the paint was all dry and we could begin to cut our cowpeople out and glue them onto our background piece that we also painted on Friday.

Once they were cut out we glued them onto our background piece and viola! They were done!
Look at these cowgirls and cowboys!

They turned out so good that we decided to hang them in the hallway for everyone to enjoy.

Last Friday we also drew our first "golden ticket" winners. Students can earn golden tickets throughout the day from all teachers and workers at the school as they display good behavior. They then turn them into a basket in the classroom and we draw for prizes on Fridays. Our first winners were SH, RT and JH.

Our first Star of the Week brought his poster back today to share with us and it looked awesome! All of the students wanted to touch it and read through it so once AL was done sharing, we hung it up so that everyone could enjoy it some more. Good job AL (and family!)!

Today we also did some journal writing about rodeos and what we know about them. The students have to do the writing first and then they may draw a picture. Here are a few examples:

After everyone had a chance to write and draw, I chose 5 names out of a cup and those people got to come up and share what they had done. We put their journals underneath the document camera and project it up onto the board so that everyone can see easily. RT went first.

AC went next and everyone pays careful attention to the author.

I hope everyone had a great 3-day weekend and I am so excited to see everyone's baby pictures tomorrow! I will let you know what we are doing with them after I get some good pictures of our activity!

Stay tuned for more happenings in Room 12!