Congratulations to Callie Hart for coming in 37th place in the South East Tennessee Sumdog Math Contest! Also, congrats to Alyssia Giles-Davis for being the Responsibility winner for October!

We have had a couple of busy weeks since returning from fall break.  We had the sock hop, fire prevention day, fall centers, and the Tennessee Aquarium field trip! Wow, and before we know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us.  Check out pictures from all of our events!

Fire Prevention day

Sock hop!

Fall Centers with how to carve a pumpkin

                

 Tennessee Aquarium Field Trip

I hope everyone had a great fall break! Mine was quite busy as I am sure most of you heard about a death in my family, my brother's wife. Additionally, as if that wasn't stressful enough, my mother was admitted to the hospital  for a few days. Therefore, I spent the majority of my week traveling and attending a funeral out of state and taking care of my mom, who is slowly getting better. Yet, however stressful the last couple of weeks have been, I wanted to thank everyone so much for your words of kindness and for all the people that volunteered their time to help my class out, I truly appreciate it!

Also, I wanted to share some photos from a couple of weeks ago when the students got to eat vegetable soup and then wrote adjectives to describe it. They truly had a blast with this activity!  Thank you Tabitha McCary and  Tracey Rose for preparing and serving such delicious soup!

 

                                Classroom News

Last week was a very busy week of learning! Students are gradually building up their reading stamina to 20 minutes per day, and learning how to work independently in reading/literacy centers. Each week in reading centers, students will have 8-9 assignments that they will turn in by Friday. These assignments consist of practice activities with their spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and writing. I require them to turn a certain amount in each day so that by Friday they are not behind (usually 1 on Mon. and 2 each for Tues. thru Fri.)   Therefore, if a student does not get the required amount done each day they have to go to study hall to complete these assignments.  If the student still does not get the assignments complete, I will send them home with a note as to why they did not get them completed.  If you have any questions about centers or incomplete assignments, feel free to contact me, or you are welcome to come observe centers which are completed during the morning hours.

 

 This week

This week we’ll begin by exploring the question “What are animal homes like?”  We’ll read an informational text called Animals Building Homes that tells about different types of animal homes around the world.  For math, we will continue to work on word problems and how making friendly numbers can help us solve problems quicker. 

Reminders 

Please join PTA! It is only $5! Our class will get a pizza party if we have 100% participation

Coupon book sale ends Sept. 19

Scholastic book orders due by Sept. 19

Scholastic Book Fair Sept. 29 -Oct. 3 

 

 

 

This week we will explore a special kind of neighborhood—the classroom! We’ll consider the question “How is a school like a community? We’ll begin with Teacher’s Pets, a realistic fiction story about Miss Fry’s classroom.  It’s a lively place for students and animals alike! 

The phonics/spelling pattern for this week is Phonics Skills:

Consonant blends with r, l, and s, such as spin, clap, stage

Also, some students may be bringing extra work home that was not finished in class. Please have them complete and return as soon as possible!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day holiday! This week we will be exploring a story about a spider's family, friends, school, and favorite places to play in Diary of a Spider.  We will also continue our writing focus on small moments. Please continue to have your child study the math facts. The tests were much better this past week! Students practiced on Xtramath.com in class; this is a website they can use at home with the passwords I sent out on open house night. Also in math this week, students will make place value houses and there will be  test over place value this Wednesday. 

Tomorrow is spirit day at Snow Hill! Students wear your Snow Hill shirts or you can wear blue and gold. Also, tomorrow is the last day to send in box tops for the contest.

After watching our Snow Hill leaders take on the ALS challenge, I thought to myself, I am not sure I could do this. But never the less, after returning home from work today, I got a message from one of my former students asking me to accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Well, because this was one of my most courageous students Ive ever had, having fought and won the battle with cancer, I just could not shy away from a challenge that supports such a great cause. But honestly, I have to say, I was a bit nervous!  Check out some of the pictures.

The Challenger, Jett Marshall!

Wow, that is cold!

Yay, I did it!

Our principal and vice principal accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge today! What amazing and brave leaders we have at Snow Hill Elementary!

Check out these great pictures!

We had a great week of learning last week! The students worked really hard and did an excellent job working together with their new partners in reading and writing workshop. They also enjoyed picking out some independent reading books from my classroom library, and they will be doing lots of independent reading this week. 

Last Friday we joined Mrs. Hitchcock's class for a fun lesson about using kind words.  We demonstrated for the students how mean words can hurt by doing a little skit about name calling.  Then Mrs. Hitchcock began showing how saying bad things is a lot like squirting out toothpaste, words come out, but you can't take them back!   Then, the students got to see how to make ELEPHANT toothpaste! This was a fun way to explore how important it is to never use unkind words. Ask your child about it, and if you want, below are the ingredients of how to make it.

Ingredients:  20% Hydrogen peroxide, yeast, water, Dawn detergent, and food coloring.  

Check out the pictures:

 
 
 

 

      We had a great 2nd day of school this past Friday! We reviewed our classroom rules and took a couple of pretests for spelling and math. Also, the students learned about place value using snap cubes, and they finished a writing activity about themselves, which is hanging out in our hallway (see photo below!). This writing activity will be used over the next couple of weeks to help students form narrative paragraphs. We also began our science unit about plants, so Friday afternoon we went outside and collected various types of leaves to inspect with magnifying glasses. The students also made a rubbing of the leaves they collected and when they return on  Monday we will discuss what happened to the leaves after sitting all weekend with no water. Finally, we celebrated Dalton's birthday! Check out the pictures under the class photo section.