November 26th

I am sorry for not posting as often as I should have.  I wanted to catch everyone up with what we are doing this week and in the future.

I first want to thank all of the parents that came and helped last Wednesday with our Fall Party.  I know the kids sure had fun.  Some left that day saying it was the best day of school ever.  If you contributed through donations I would also like to say thank you! 

Secondly, I hope everyone had a restful four day weekend and enjoyed their holiday.  I know it sure was nice to see all of my family together.  I hope everyone got a chance to spend some quality time with their loved ones.  I also realized that this was the first time, in a long time, I had my whole immidiate family together, and for that I am thankful.  I hope everyone got a chance to pause and remember what they are thankful for as well.

Now that school is back into full swing and Christams break is approaching, life is again getting back into gear.  We have a lot to cram in these few weeks.  Today we read a story about kids around the world.  I introduced the idea comaping and contrasting.  I had the kids write a small blurb about something they do and if the kids in other countires do it too.  We will be touching more on comparing and contrasting this week.  We also took some time and made sure everyone was familiar with words that start with S.  I introduced the concept of CCVC words and CCVe words.  Your students can tell you what that means.  In math we began to talk about measuring things.  This week we are going to talk about different things to use as we measure various things.  We will also be touching on our subtraction and addition in our spare time.

I introduced a new story today that had everyone's attention.  I read, "The Elf on the Shelf".  We now have a classroom elf named Steven.  According to our story he leaves school when we do and returns when we do.  He is always watching over us.  At the end of the day he makes a quick get away and lets Santa know who is being naughty and who is being nice.  The studets loved this and we had some great writers today.  I was impressed with some of our entries in our writing journals. 

Veteran's Day!

Today we paused to remember our veteran's who have served our country.  We had a great student led assembly in which we sang songs and reflected on who greatful we are to have such brave men and women protect our freedoms.  The kiddos did an awesome job with the presentation.  The picture above is some artwork done by our 4th and 5th grade students that was on display today.

We also got a visit from the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center.  They came in to educate us on how they help poeple with disabilities.  They taught us that we are all the same altough they may do things different than we do.  We will have a chance to help out our friends at Easter Seals in the near future.  We will be raising money soon and having a hop-a-thon.  There will be more information to come shortly.

Just a reminder that there is no school on Monday the 12th as we take an extra day to remember our vetarn's. 

Thanks and have a good three day weekend!

Another Great Day in Room #6 (11/7/12)

Today was a great day.  We are all mastering the L blend sounds and had fun playing a spelling game.  In reading we are working on reading with feeling and adding actions to our short plays.  We touched on how actors have to read with feeling in order to be entertaining.  Reading with feeling will also help us build our fluency.  In math we are plugging right along and today we discussed doing addition to check out work.  Tomorrow's homework will be about subtraction.  On the worksheet that is being sent home on Thursday there is room for you to show your addition work.  I told everyone if you use addition to check your work then you will never be wrong and that is why math is so awesome.

The big hit of the day was when we reviewed all the parts of speech.  We have talked about nouns and adjectives.  Today I introduced verbs.  Everyone seemed to be mastering the concept of verbs.  I simply said, "Verbs show action; action, action, action!"  We got a chance to listen to some of the classics while we review and do something new.  I had a few requests today to put links to the websites so you can watch the videos at home and review as you please.

Nouns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob2OdD0PMnI

Verbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US8mGU1MzYw

The Verb Rap (This was a big hit!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHyLqPspWR0

November 5th

Today was Monday and it seems that everyone had a great weekend.  I know because we had a case of the chatty Cathies.  Everyone was a little more talkative than usual.  I have been stressing self control more and more.  Some of us are getting a little too friendly. 

With that said we did have a good day of making sure we were proficient with our phonics and grammar.  We reviewed the short U sound and talked about adjectives.  We did an activity where we had to describe ourselves.  We also got to watch oneof my favorite clips.  You can click on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nuxeh4V1ng&safe=active

In math we are slowly mastering fact families.  After the second day of fact families, we are doing fairly well.  Just remember when you are writing your two subtraction facts that the biggest number at the top of the triangle goes first.  The biggest number always goes first in a subtraction problem.  Later in the week we will be talked about using addition to check our work.

Tomorrow we will continue our plays and talking about the setting, character, sequencing of stories and problems.  On Friday the goal is that everyone has read through their lines enough to act out their small skit, in a reader's theater style.  Tomorrow we will also briefly talk about the election and the significance of tomorrow's election.

If you have any questions please email at Robert.Moreland@evsc.k12.in.us.

Family Fun Night

Family Fun Night sure lived up to its name.  I had a great time seeing everyone and helping out.  It was fun to meet some new faces as well.  Congrats to those who won something.  I also want to thank our room mother, Mrs. Parker, as well as everyone who helped put our basket together.  It sure looked great!  I am excited for this next week and what is has to offer!  Thanks to everyone and anyone who made Family Fun Night a huge success!

1st of November

Whew!  It has been extremely busy around Oak Hill preparing for Family Fun Night and getting interventions organized in hopes of kicking them off next week.  We have been looking at each student's needs and have designed a thirty minute block to meet their needs.  We will have vocabulary building, reading comprehension, reading fluency and an excellerated math time.

This week has been working on stories that make you laugh.  The main selection this week, "On My Way to School", we discussed the characters, setting and what happened in the story in depth.  We have also been looking at constant blends with the letter L.  Our phonics skills are starting to be combined.  We are now making words that combine different sounds with short vowels and constant combinations.  The best thing we can do in order to make sure the kiddos are getting what they need is to just have them keep reading.  In class we sound out words and stress different sounds.  At home you can quiz your students to check their progress and see if they can sound out and decode the words.  In math we have been covering subtraction in great detail.  I have given them three options for subtracting.  I have told them if you have memorized the facts that is the ultimate goal, if you can cross things out, or use the number line.  If your student is missing a few questions here and there, don't get discouraged.  We will make it through.  Subtraction is a little more difficult than adding.  We still have a few more things to talk about.  nNext week I am going to show everyone how to check your answers using addition.

Halloween has come and gone.  Yesterday we enjoyed reading some Halloween stories and some Halloween crafts.  I know I have heard stories about trick-or-treating and it sounds like everyone had fun.  This week we have also enjoyed dressing up for spirit week.  I have enjoyed it myself.  Today, I dressed as my favorite book character, Waldo, from Where's Waldo.  We have been dressing up in order for Saturday's Family Fun Night.  Just a reminder that Family Fun Night is Saturday from 4-8pm. If you have any ticket orders please turn them in tomorrow.  I think that about covers it for now!  Check back soon for more updates!