Colonial Day

What fun we had at Colonial Day!!! We made butter, wrote with quill pens, learned Colonial dances, dipped candles, made cornhusk dolls, played Colonial games, and learned Colonial sayings!!! Whew!!! We were exhausted by the end of the day!!!!

Thanksgiving Pictures

Instead of a play about the Pilgrims and Indians, we made our Thanksgiving play into a play about the time period in which the Pilgrims would have landed in the New World . . . the Colonial Period. It fits in with our curriculum better, and we get to learn all about how life was lived in these days. Here are some pictures of our Colonial Play.

Long time, no post!

We've been so busy that I've failed to post anything for a long time!

Today, we introduced subtraction of double-digit numbers with regrouping. The kids seemed to catch on quickly. We'll do lots more practicing this week, then have a big unit test next week.

We also finished our organisms unit last week and have begun to study Colonial America. You can check out our cool "prezi" at prezi.com. Search for Colonial America by Jennifer Bruno. We learned lots and got to see cool pictures of what life back then looked like.

We've had some great parents working for two days straight on our Colonial Journals. We can't wait to see them and use them. THANKS MOMS!!!!!!!

Organisms Module

Our organisms arrived today! We have millipedes and pill bugs, better known as roly-polys. We looked at them with hand lenses, after building their woodland ecosystem. Tomorrow, we hope to build an aquatic ecosystem. When we were building the terrariums, we used rocks, soil, a woodland plant, and moss.

Thanks to Raya's mom for sending us home with Halloween goody bags!!!!

Very Crazy Week

We've had a very crazy week because of our field trip! Wednesday we headed to Golden Flake and Birmingham Southern's Environmental Center. At Golden Flake we saw assembly lines and ate yummy chips! At Birmingham Southern we learned the importance of recycling. We saw a bar graph that showed the amount of trash that has been thrown out per decade since the 1970s. You wouldn't believe how much our trash has increased in the 21st century. We made eco-art out of old telephone wire. But our favorite part might have been being flushed down the human toilet slide.

Met with Skype Contact

During Fall Break, I had the pleasure of meeting with our SeaWorld Skype contact. I gave her cards, a banner, and a Paine t-shirt from our class. We look forward to working with them again sometime. While we were at SeaWorld a new baby killer whale was born. We were so excited to be in the park the night it was born and to get to see it the next day. It was so much fun! We also got to see the anteater, Cypress, that we met during our Skype!

We've mastered our addition with branching, and we're even going to teach this concept to Mrs. Swann's class a couple of times this week! We've almost mastered subtraction with branching. Next, we'll move on to regrouping, which always presents quite a challenge. We'll work on it for a couple of weeks before we get completely comfortable with it. If you're confused by the branching concept, check out the powerpoints on our class website!

We're looking forward to our field trip Wednesday!!!! We'll post pictures at the end of the week!

Skype with SeaWorld Orlando

What better way to culminate our animals unit than to Skype with one of the most famous parks for animals . . . SeaWorld? We loved our experience seeing animals from the vertebrate and invertebrate groups we've studied during our unit. Thanks to Ms. Geni and Ms. Sandi for making it possible!!!!! Thanks for this special opportunity!!!!

Butterfly Release Day and Visit to Peachtree

We had an eventful day! Our sweet butterflies needed to be released, much to the disappointment of the students. We read them letters that we wrote to them, and then we released them to live their last few days in nature. The entire life cycle of our Painted Lady butterflies only lasts about 4-6 weeks, so they're only adults for a matter of a few days. We didn't want to keep them captive for their entire lives. Letting them go gave the classes mixed feelings.

We also visited Peachtree Assisted Living for the first time tonight. The residents were so excited to see the kids. We read them a poem and sang them a song about butterflies. We also gave them cards we'd made them. We're looking forward to our October visit!!!!

Busy, Busy Week

What a busy week we've had. We've done research for our big animal project, and we've learned a new way to add two digit numbers. We use a Singapore Math strategy called branching, and it really helps the kids understand addition. I'm so impressed with the work the kids are doing!!!

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Today we made a hands-on life cycle of a butterfly. This helped to reinforce that we know the four stages of its life cycle are egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysallis), and adult (butterfly). I'm so proud of how much the boys and girls are learning.

Our caterpillars are nearing the third stage in their lives. Each is preparing to form its chrysallis, and then we'll move them into a different container to emerge.

Be sure to have your kids sing the butterfly song they learned today.

Hope to see everyone at Parent Chat Night in about an hour!!!! : )

THE CATERPILLARS ARE HERE!

We've begun the study of the butterfly life cycle by being introduced to our new bouncing, baby caterpillars. (Hee! Hee!) We made them birth certificates, named them, and took pictures! The kids had a great time!!! I'm including a couple of pictures, but visit my website for all the children's pix!

Have a great Labor Day weekend! We're looking forward to seeing how much our caterpillars have grown in the few short days we're gone!

Not at School Today

I'm at a meeting at the board today. We're designing work for our school.

I set up the camera to run all day on uStream, but I checked it a moment ago and it's not working. I apologize. I did try! I'm disappointed because I was even going to check the stream today, too. It was going to be fun sitting on the other side of the computer and seeing what you guys see. Sorry!

Up and Running

I sent an email yesterday that uStream in now password-protected. If you need entry into the site and have lost that password, please email me. We're back up and running. We'll have live streaming most of the day.

This week has gone great. The kids are learning the parts of a plant and the function of each. We're also discussing why plants are important to us. Next week, we'll bring in pictures of plants we eat and categorize which part of the plant each is.

Math is going well, also. We'll re-take our "doubles/doubles + 1" timed test, as well as study for our "make 10" test. We're also learning some cool math games.

No UStream video today

Just wanted to let you know that I'm not streaming live today. I'll try to start back up late in the morning (10ish). Thanks!

A New School Year

I'm so excited about a new school year. This year, Mrs. Johnson and I will be team teaching. I can't wait to see how it goes. We're closing out our first week of swapping classes, and it's been a joy so far. I love teaching math, science,and social studies. She's an excellent language arts teacher, so I think this is going to be a great experience.

This week in math we've explored picture talks, reviewed number bonds, and learned a couple of addition strategies to help us answer math facts more efficiently. In science, we've investigated what makes something living or nonliving. We'll be turning our focus towards plants today.

I'll be posting to the blog every couple of days. When the students get comfortable with what's going on in class, they'll begin blogging, as well. Look for new pictures and updates soon!

I'm also very excited to announce that my lessons can be viewed via a live webcast daily at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jennifer-bruno. This will greatly benefit children who are absent. They can simply tune in and hear the exact same lesson they'd hear if they were at school. I'll also video archive some of the most important lessons so that parents can go back and see the lessons if there are questions at home. I really hope this helps children be less anxious upon returning to school. I'd love feedback throughout the year to assist me in making this more efficient and more user-friendly for parents. Thanks!

Famous American Living Museum

by: Reagan P.
Today we did our American speeches. It seems like we did it 99,000 times. But it was fun. And after our speech we got to go to lunch after lunch get to play Wii for the rest of the day! Our teacher is the best! The American who I was is Laura Ingals Wilder. Tomarow is spring pictures don't forget! Oh and we got to drees up in things that our American looked liked.

Busy Week

by: Ethan
Next week we are doing famous americains.
Last night we did coffee house.

MRS. BRUNO'S NOTES: My little beatnik students had a poetry reading last night. They were absolutely adorable. Check out our website to see even more pix! We're working on biographies of famous Americans, and we'll have a living museum next week. We're working hard to fit everything in before Spring Break. The kids are doing a great job! We've been studying geometry and fractions the last few weeks, and I've never seen them do so well in math! It's amazing!