Kathleen's Blog

Dear Parents,

I hope that you have enjoyed a good Thanksgiving week-end with family and friends. We have three weeks to come back to before our Winter break. Having finished the theme on Nature Stories in our Houghton Mifflin readers, we will spend the better part of these next few weeks reading and acting out Aesope’s Fables. We will be making masks to go with the characters we are playing. It is usually one of the children’s favorite units and keeps everyone focused in an otherwise exciting time.

Our next math unit, Stickers, Strings, and Story Problems, is also just beginning. The mathematical focus of this unit is on using what we know to make problems easier to solve, developing and refining strategies for solving a variety of addition and subtraction problems, and counting by groups. I am sending home a parent letter from the curriculum that will provide additional information.

You will also find the workbook from the second unit of math in todayʼs envelope. It can be a bit challenging for us to tear out the pages and send them home as we are working our way through the book during the unit. Typically it will come home at the end of the unit once we are finished.

As part of our poetry unit, the children wrote ‘haiku’s’ about fall. They are displayed on the bulletin board in the hall just outside our classroom. Please check them out if you get a chance! We have been singing many seasonal songs in class and will start with the recorders in January.

Best wishes,

Kathleen

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November 7, 2011
Dear Parents,

It was wonderful to meet with you and talk about your child’s progress. I am including a list of spelling words and a math page. While it is not a lot of homework, I am hoping that your child is reading 20 minutes a day and practicing their math facts with you. It would also be helpful if they could practice counting money. Some of the children are still having trouble recognizing coins and their value.

A big thank-you to parents who have been able to come in and help in the library and classroom. In reading, we have started a new theme about nature walks. In Math, we are studying geometry and most recently: area. This is a good introduction to multiplication tables, as they can visually see what a 3 by 4 rectangle looks like as they create it with 1 inch square tiles. We have also been counting by two’s, three’s, and four’s as we move rhythmically in our class circle.

We start the day by singing seasonal songs, saying goodbye to summer and welcoming the changes we see in nature bringing us fall and rain. We are lucky to have the beautiful oak trees outside our window changing color before our eyes! I am glad to see that the children are wearing their warmer clothes now!

Our science unit on ‘organisms’ is coming to an end. We lost many of the fish due to the cold temperatures in the building on week-ends, when the heat is turned off. However, as of Friday, there were still two guppies left and many water snails. I have to pack up the kit and will be giving away the guppies and snails that are left. If you and your child would like to continue to care for them at home, please come to the classroom on Thursday afternoon to pick them up. I will be putting them in little plastic cups with lids.

On October 17, there will be re-takes should your child have missed the first photo shoot or should you wish the photo be re-taken.
I believe the procedure is to send in the original picture if you want a second picture taken.

Friday is veterans day. There is no school. Please send in the homework envelopes on Thursday. Thanks for your help in keeping these going back and forth!

I have had my blog re-connected to my staff picture for easy access. I will start using it for posting my newsletters as well as sharing pictures of the children in action. It can also be accessed at: blogs@4j.lane.edu/rockwell/. Check it out. I have some math links there, as well as the site we are using for keyboarding: ‘dancemat typing’.

Best wishes, Kathleen

Dear Parents,
I found my old blog and would like to start using it again. It is a good place to upload some pictures of activities that are happening in our class. The children are excited about the terrariums and aquariums to which we are adding plants and animals. I will try and get some pictures in the near future!

Dear Parents and Children of this coming school year,

Welcome to this site where I will keep you posted on the things that are happening in our classroom. I hope that you are having a good summer. One more month to go! I am already anticipating what we will do and have attended a most delightful course titled ‘Coastal Biology’ in preparation for our marine science unit.

Best wishes,

Kathleen