Read Aloud Book

  

In class, I am reading aloud the book, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  A skill that students have been working on in reading is summarizing.  Ask your child to summarize the book so far. :)

Tennis balls anyone??

Aren't these tennis balls lovely?  Actually, they're much appreciated and more are needed!  Our classroom has a cement floor this year and when the chairs move, well, you can imagine the noise it makes!  We have had almost a hundred donated already, but we still need about 30 more.  I don't want anyone to go out and buy some for us, but maybe you have some old ones in the garage or basement.  If you're not using them, feel free to send them our way.  Thanks!

Class Contract

At the beginning of the school year, students came up with a class contract that they could all agree to.  It reads, "We believe that to do our job we need to be ready to learn, ready for safety, responsible, and respectful.  We agree to do these things.  Signed,...."  Talk to your child about how they are doing with the "4 R's" at school.  When a child can demonstrate these things it creates a positive learning environment for all!

No Overdue Books!!

Congratulations to my class for having NO overdue books in the month of September.  This is an excellent way for students to demonstrate responsibility.  Way to go, class!!  Keep it up!

Rocket Math

What is Rocket Math?  Rocket Math asesses basic facts.  Each test has 40 problems and students get 1 minute to complete.  They start at "A" and progress on to "B", etc.  Each test gets progressively harder.  If a student does not pass all 40 problems, they take the same test again.  This has been very motivating for most students to learn their basic facts.  There are rockets in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  PLEASE make sure your child is practicing their basic facts at home.  We do not spend a lot of time in class learning these, but they still need to know them.  Flash cards can be purchased at Wal-Mart for a fairly inexpensive price (around $1.00).  Ask your child what Rocket (add, sub, mult, div.) they are doing and how they are progressing on it.

Reading Strategies

During Guided Reading and Anthology, we have been talking about specific strategies that students can use before, during, and after reading.  We know that using these strategies will help us better understand and remember what we read... and aren't those two VERY important things?! :)  Here are several that you can ask your child about:
-Build Background
-Make Predictions
-Make Connections
-Monitor Understanding
-Ask Questions
-Summarize

Math Topic 2

Right now in math, students are learning to estimate and find exact answers of addition and subtraction problems up to the hundred thousand place value.  Students should copy/ write problems so that digits are lined up with the correct palce value.  They know that when they add, if their answer is 10 or more, they need to regroup.  Here are some sample problems that you can do with your child:
9,634 + 2,958
15,891 + 527 + 1,086

New Wiki!!

A wiki is a website encyclopedia where anyone can be an editor and everyone works together to collect and organize knowledge.

Every student has been assigned a username and password.  You can go to the following website and view what we are doing!

http://mrsfreiberg.wikispaces.com/

Pandora Radio

This past summer, my sister-in-law, also an educator, told me about a website called Pandora.  It's a personalized radio station that plays only music you like.  I have been using this in classroom during independent work times.  I have a "station" called Disney- Children's.  The students have enjoyed listening to these songs while working (and sometimes guessing which movies the songs are from!).  The music is appropriate for their age, I can pick what I want to play.  If you want to check it out, the website is:

http://www.pandora.com/

Fisher CATS

Are you wondering what expectations we have at Fisher? 

School Song (sung to the tune of Go, Bobcats, Go!):
Go, Fisher Cats, Go
Ready for safety at our school
Learn, Learn, Learn!
Go, Fisher Cats, Go
We're gonna be respectful
It's the Golden Rule!
Let's be well prepared
Responsibility is clear...
Caring, Active, Thinking, Students do...
At Fisher we all remain TRUE!

Fisher's Motto
Caring
Active
Thinking
Students

Pawsitive Paws (4 R's)
Ready to Learn
Ready for Safety
Responsible
Respectful

Science- Human Body

The students recently completed a Science unit on the Human Body.  They learned about 4 systems: Bones, Joints, Muscles, and Coordination.  Ask your child these questions:
What are the 3 functions of the skeleton?
Where can you find a ball and socket joint?
Where can you find a hinge joint?
What is the main job of muscles?
What is an example of a stimulus/ response relationship?
What is the job of tendons?
What is the job of ligaments?
About how many bones are in the body?

The following are skeletons of rodents that the students put together with bones they found in owl pellets!  Fun fun!!  (Ask them to tell you what an owl pellet is.)  And yes, these are REAL bones!!

Specials Schedule

Wondering what days we have Specials?  This should help you!
Day 1- Music
Day 2- Art
Day 3- PE
Day 4- No Specials
Day 5- Music
Day 6- Media
Day 7- PE
Day 8- Art
Day 9- Music
Day 10- Counseling
Day 11- PE
Day 12- Book Checkout

Guided Reading Groups- New Chapter Books!

Every student in the class has recently started a new chapter book in Guided Reading.  Ask your child what book they are reading and check out the author's website for that book!

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Holes by Louis Sachar

Welcome!!

Welcome to my new class website!  The goals that I have for it include:

• Keeping parents and students informed about new units
• Sharing ideas for activities to use at home to support classroom learning
• Posting class-related information such as events

Please feel free to leave comments and feedback.  I am new to this and am hoping to use some new knowledge about blogging (I am taking a graduate class) to enhance communication between myself and parents as well as improve student learning. 

Enjoy!