Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday break, and is able to shovel out of our latest snow storm!  As the break is coming to a close in a couple days, my mind has begun to think of school and what is ahead.  I am excited to get back into the routine of the school day, and even more excited to see all of the learning that will be occurring in the second part of this school year!

As January starts up we will be starting to study the weather.  This will include talking about how and why weather occurs, types of weather, and measuring weather.  I am also hoping that we will have the opportunity to do some different types of experiments that go along with weather and the states of matter.  Also, in January we will continue to study holidays, with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  

In math we will be continuing to focus on our addition and subtraction facts.  One of our 2nd-3rd trimester goals in math is to know our addition and subtraction facts to 10 fluently.  This means that students will be required to complete a number of facts in a particular amount of time.

In reading we will continue to work through the different reading strategies and comprehension strategies to make us better readers!  By the end of the 2nd trimester students will be required to be at a DRA 14.  Please remember that practicing their reading at home for a bit of time is one of the most important things in solidifying student's reading skills that they have learned during the day.


Thank you again for all of your support this school year!  Below are some important upcoming dates in January!

January 2nd - Back to school
January 6th - First early release day (continues every Monday till March 3rd)
January 20th- Martin Luther King Jr. Day - No school
January 24th - Mid trimester reports come home (may change depending on snow days)

Christmas Around the World

This week we had a chance to experience Christmas Around the world on Learning Ln.  This was a wonderful experience for students to learn about how different people around the world celebrate Christmas in their cultures.  At each country students wrote the name of the country they were visiting, glued the flag into our book, and found that country on the map of the world.  Then they did some type of activity that went along with tradition of that country.  Below is a list of the countries we studied and the activity they did at that country!

Japan - Mrs. Sturk came in and shared about her culture, she also wrote each student's name in Japanese.  Her daughters were kind enough to share with students how to make origami boxes and sumo wrestlers.

Holland - In my room students learned about Holland's traditions.  They then made a paper wooden shoe.  This went along with how children in Holland put out wooden shoes for Santa to put treats in them.

Sweden - In Ms. Johnson's room students learned about Sweden.  In this country to believe in gnomes, and the boys made gnome hats.  The girls made St. Lucia wreaths.  

England - In Mrs. Flanagin class students learned about England.  This is where the Christmas card originated so, students created their own Christmas cards. Also, Mrs. Flanagin was kind enough to make each student Christmas poppers!

Germany - In Mrs. Scorza's room students learned about Germany.  Here they learned about the Christmas tree tradition.  They created Christmas tree ornaments. 

China - In Mrs. Shank's room students learned about China.  Here students learned about the Chinese New Year!  They created New Year's calendars and paper dragons.

Mexico - In Mrs. Shea's room students learned about Mexico.  In this country they had the opportunity to make a pinata.

Count Down to Christmas!

5 Days Till Christmas Break!

This week is full of excitement and fun!  As we count down to break, we will be working on lots of holiday crafts, learning, and activities.  Since Thanksgiving we have been learning about the different holidays celebrated in December.  Here are some of the events that we will be doing this week!

Monday:  Gingerbread baby retell activity. Passport application and making for our Christmas around the world!

Tuesday-Thursday: Gingerbread poem activity and Christmas around the world, starting to visit different countries.

Friday: Christmas celebration - PJ and stuffy day- don't forget to bring them!  We will be having hot chocolate, decorating cookies, and watching the Polar Express.  

Report Card - 1st Trimester

Dear Families,

  Friday report cards came home.  If you have signed up for infinite campus report cards the portal is now open.  However, there were a few problems with the portal.  These issues should be worked out by later this morning.  If you have any questions or concerns about your child's scores please feel free to e-mail me or call the school.  I am very proud of all the work that students have accomplished this trimester.  Also, thank you for the time and effort that you have put into your child's education at home!

                                                      Sincerely,
                                                         Mrs. Saunders

Mr. Jingles the Elf

We have had a visitor in learning lane! One of Santa's elves has come to our hall to check in on us from now until Christmas.  We are having a lot of fun seeing as to where he will show up each day!  The pictures below show us how he first came to learning lane!

Turkey in a trash can!

For Thanksgiving Mr. Dickerson made all the teachers a turkey cooked in a trash can!  Students were able to go outside and see how this works.  Also, they had lots of good questions about how this works, and what need to be done!

Mr. Dickerson answering questions

Quilt Activity

We have been learning about how life was long ago.  One of the fun activities that Mrs. Scorza and I like to do is creating a friendship quilt.  Mrs. Scorza and I bring in some of our quilts from home to talk about how they are created.  Then we share about how long ago they had to have quilting bees to create these beautiful, greatly needed creations.  Then we work on our own piece of the quilt.  Below are some pictures of us working on our friendship quilt.

Arranging our pieces

Friendship Star

Hmm, how should it go?

Our beautiful quilt

Almost Thanksgiving!!

We have been very busy at the end of the trimester approaches and the holidays begin!  Over the last couple weeks we have been working through some end of the trimester assessment, I am very proud of the progress everyone has made this trimester.  Everyone has been working extremely hard at their reading, writing, and math.  First trimester report cards will be going home December 13th!  

Also, the last couple weeks we have been doing our now and long ago unit of study.  As part of this study we have been learning about pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.  To go along with this we will be watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving next week.  

Finally, in celebration of our 2nd filling of our marble jar, we will be having a pajama day on Tuesday, November 26th.  Students can bring in extra clothes to change into if they decide they don't want to wear their pj's the entire day. Also, because of safety, students are not allowed to wear slippers on this day.  We are very excited to end a very wonderful first trimester with a little fun in our pj's!

I hope that everyone has a very special and wonderful Thanksgiving with their families!

Veteran's Day

Veterans Day

by Cheryl Dyson

On Veterans Day we honor all,
Who answered to a service call.
Soldiers young, and soldiers old,
Fought for freedom, brave and bold.
Some have lived, while others died,
And all of them deserve our pride.
We’re proud of all the soldiers who,
Kept thinking of red, white and blue.
They fought for us and all our rights,
They fought through many days and nights.
And though we may not know each name,
We thank ALL veterans just the same.

This week we have been learning about our nations heroes, veterans.  We are learning about the different branches of the armed forces and the reason behind Veteran's Day.  Also, we learned how to write a friendly letter so that we could send a veteran a thank you letter.  If the student knows a veteran I encouraged them to take them home and mail them to that person.  Please help your child by sending these letters to the veterans they wrote to.  

Thinking and working on our letters

Harvest Celebration

Last Friday we had our Learning Lane harvest celebration.  This was a chance for students to do an activity in a multi age group.  Students were split up into 6 different groups.  They then rotated to three different stations that pertained to fall/harvest themes.  After we were done we wrote about which station was our favorite one and why.  It was an exciting day to learn, grow, and enjoy new friends!  Here are some pictures from some of the different stations that we did!

Q-tip fall leaf painting

More Q-tip art

Geo boards

Weighing different objects

Working together to finish floor puzzles

Making pumpkin-chip cookies

Vegetable print art

Harvest Celebration

In an early post I said we would be having a harvest celebration next Thursday.  As a Learning Lane community we have decided to do a celebration together on Friday.  We will be planning special activities in the afternoon that go around the harvest theme.  It will be similar to our fun Friday time, but it will be extended so that students will visit 3 different classrooms over 3 blocks of time.  We are looking forward to doing this in place of a party alone on Thursday.  I look forward to sharing photos with you!

Fun Friday!

Last Friday we had our first official 'fun Friday'.  This is a 30 minute block in our afternoon every other or every few Friday's.  During this block we offer the students of our community the opportunity to make a choice of what activity they would like to participate in for that block of time.  Each teacher in our community plans an activity or craft.  These crafts are sometimes themed around the season or holiday that we are currently in.  So, most of the themes this past week were around fall.  Fun Friday is an opportunity for students to meet other teachers, mentor and be mentored by peers younger and older then them, and practice listening and direction following skills.  Also, most projects will help increase fine motor skills and creative thinking!  On top of this, fun Friday is a chance for students to simply, have fun!!!  Here are some pictures of some of the activities that students on Learning Lane participated in last Friday.

Working on Pumpkin Watercolor Pictures

Adding eyes to our pumpkins

Leaf Art with Mrs. Roy

Beautiful leaf creations

Mrs. Flanagin giving directions on scarecrow making

Collecting beautiful leaves for our pumpkin pictures

Too many nice ones to choose from!

Mask making with Mrs. Shanks

Spider web painting with Mrs. Scorza

Learning through technology!

Thursday we had the opportunity to use the laptops in our hallway.  We were able to log into our xtramath accounts.  This website is a great tool to help build students addition and subtraction fluency. Students are able to access this account at home for extra practice!  If you need the code resent to you please e-mail or send me a note.  Students were very excited to try and beat the teacher with their fact knowledge.  After practicing our facts students were allowed to go on a great site called starfall.com.  This website has literacy and math games.  It is fun, interactive, and great practice on the skills that 1st graders are working on.  Also, don't forget about RAZ Kids!! Students are accessing this site here at school during literacy centers, but please try to take advantage of this site at home too!  Thank you for sending in earbuds and headsets, it made our whole class computer time a lot quieter.

Working hard on xtramath

Just a little excited about computer time!

Starfall time

October 

Here are some important dates to keep in mind for the month of October!

4th - No School, teacher workshop day

14th - No School, Columbus Day

18th - Progress Reports Come home

28th, 29th, 30th - Parent Teacher Conferences 

*I will be sending sign up sheets for this next week!

31st - Harvest Party

Little Gardeners!

We have talked a lot about plants over the last month.  We have learned the different parts, what a plant needs, and the plant life cycle.  Now, it was time for us to try our hands at growing our own plants.  Each child was giving the choice to grow either a sunflower or bean plant.  They will be responsible for providing their plant with what it needs to grow.  I hope with this beautiful sunny weather we will be able to grow some nice looking plants!

The start of our little garden

Headphone/Earbuds

Starting tomorrow we are going to start to use computers in our classroom.  We will be using Raz kids during DAILY 5 center time and Xtramath.org once a week to help with our addition fluency.

I am very excited to students to use technology in the classroom to enhance their learning opportunity. Many of the sites we use have sounds, and it can get a bit confusing for students to have all of the computers going off at the same time.  So, in order to help with this, please have your child bring in a set of headphones or earbuds to stay in their cubbies at school.  Thank you so much for helping me with this

Also, thank you to all for being so supportive as the school year has started.  I am overwhelmed by your generosity to help in the classroom and support your child in their learning!

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Yesterday we read a book about Johnny Appleseed, and as we did we discovered that the next day was his birthday!  Well, I had been planning to have us make applesauce at some point, but now that I knew with this exciting news I had to push it up to today!  This morning we talked about information writing, and how some stories and writing teach us things.  One type of writing that does that are 'how to' stories.  So, today we worked on a how to make apple sauce piece.  Of course it isn't much fun if you actually don't get to try it out.  So, here are some pictures of us learning about recipes, measurement, and crockpots.  :)  At the end of the day we finally got to enjoy our homemade applesauce, and boy did it smell yummy all day!

Our ingredients

Putting our applesauce together

Hmm, is it time yet? (question of the day)